Highlights from Destin

This spring we decided to take the kids to Destin, Florida for a fun beach vacation. We convinced the rest of Jeff's family to meet us there so that we could have a super-fun family reunion. We weren't quite sure what to expect but were pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the beaches were. The sand was gorgeous white powder-fine sand and the weather was perfect. We stayed at the Sandestin Beach resort and the rest of his family rented a fabulous house just a block away from the beach. We laughed and ate and laughed and ate and laughed and ate..........well, you get the picture. Here are a few of the highlights from the trip.

Addy and I had more fun jumping the waves than should be legal. We could've stayed out there for hours except that we kept getting stung by these nasty little buggers.


Da' Boys! I just couldn't resist this picture.

...or this one. This will probably rank as one of my all-time favs. I love this little butterball.


It was nice to have everything practically right out your window. When you got tired of the salt, sand and previously mentioned jellyfish you could walk 50 feet and dive into the fresh pools. What can I say, I like variety.


This is a fun shot with grandma and grandpa Clausen with every single grandchild. How cute are they? I am so glad that my kids were able to get to know their cousins a lot better. Since we do not live close by any of them they don't get to see them very often and this was such a great chance for them to become friends and make some fun memories with them.

Kaylee learned how to boogie board. It's now one of her favorite activities at the beach. I was actually really surprised how quickly all three of the kids took to 'ridin the waves'.

One afternoon we were taking a break in the hotel room and Drew got a little too rowdy and was sent to the, "corner of shame". I guess we can safely assume that he was just a little bit tired.

One of my favorite pastimes is laying on the beach, listening to the waves, breathing in the salty air and watching my kids playing in the sand together. Of course in my dreams this usually doesn't include sand dumped down pants, "you're a 'poopyhead'" name calling and three broken shovels

This is how KC spent most of his time at the beach. People would walk past him on the beach and just gawk at how cute he looked all cuddled up on the sand--fast asleep.

I think the highlight of Drews trip was the day that he had his face painted like Spiderman. If any of you know my little firecracker, you know that he is going a mile-a-minute most of his waking hours. The girls who did the face painting were aware of this having spent a few hours with him. They were amazed that as soon as he sat down to get his face painted he was as calm as the dead. He didn't move a muscle. Proof Positive--He can do it--when he wants to.


This was a REALLY great trip. Honestly it was nice for once to take a trip where we weren't in a hurry to get somewhere. All we had to do was enjoy each other.

Ahhhhh!

Life is Good!

FRUSTRATION

I have to admit, a little bit of frustration has set in. Last night Jeff and I sat down to, yet again, look online to see if we could find a house. I swear we have looked at every single house in and around Moscow that might even remotely work for us for the last 3 years. There wasn't even anything to look at. NOTHING! It's hard to finally be free and clear of restricting entanglements, with a wad of cash in your pocket and have absolutely nothing to get excited about.-----The one place we have gotten excited about recently turned out to be a little too....much! (Sigh!)
I keep telling myself to be patient, something will turn up--and I'm sure that eventually it will. It's just that it took so long to sell the other place and now we have nothing to show for it--nothing to look forward to. Oh well, it could be worse. At least we like the rental we are in. I guess I'm just ready to be settled or maybe I'm just scared that we won't ever find that perfect place for us (in our price range) and we'll have to settle. --------now don't get me wrong, I'm not talking perfect as in gorgeous and showcase worthy either---just perfect for our family, meaning that all of our needs and a few of our wants boxes are checked. We have found a few houses that "would do". but let's face it, I just want this next house to be something special, we'll probably be in it for a long time! I just don't want to settle for something mediocre and then find the perfect house two weeks after we close.

Camping IN

This Memorial Day we decided that instead of camping out like we usually do, we were going to camp IN instead. Rain was predicted for a good part of the weekend and camping in the rain didn't sound too appealling. Besides--my room makes a very comfortable tent. We weren't quite sure if we were going to be able to make it out of the tent at all this weekend. Dan and Amanda came down to join us so that gave us a little motivation.

During one of the rain delays we played a little forest golf--which we modified into "park golf". The tennis balls worked a little better than the smaller nerf golf balls that we've used before--speaking at least for the kids and myself. The trick here was keeping Maya from stealing all of the balls and not putting divots in the park grass--good thing we used tennis balls.

Notice the handicap I had to play with! I might have complained except that I think I might have played better with one hand than I usually do with two. That can't be a good sign.
No campout is complete without the wiener roast and smores so we built our fire and braved the wrath of the neighbors and park goers who eyed us suspiciously and cooked some pretty tasty chili dogs and all the marshmallows the kids could handle.