OUR GROWING FAMILY: My water babies!

The last week of June we were able to take a much needed week and a half vacation down to south florida where Jeremy grew up (aka "the mother land") and we had a wonderfully relaxing time. Jeremy's mom and husband have moved back there about a month ago so we were able to stay with them and the kids got lots of time with Nana and Papa Rich and it allowed Jeremy and I to get out a bit sans kids and visit with lots of his buddies. We also have some friend from here that actually live down there for the summer so we got to hang out with some of the boys favorite girls, Nally and Fay-Fay! Our days were filled with swimming at pools, going to the beach, eating yummy food (either from Nana's kitchen, with friends or local seafood), and visiting with lots of friends and family.
It took us about 11 1/2 hours to drive there so we left around lunch time both ways and we were pleasantly surprised at how will the kids did. We've never had a tv in the car and they've always done fine but with such a long trip I was kind of nervous but it went pretty smoothly. Going down through south Alabama you pass what seems like hundreds of farms and we heard "Look mommy, cows, horsies, etc" at least that many times. Gracie sounds like the baby in those Chick-fil-A commercials just yelling "COW!" over and over and over again :) Everybody would take a nap at the start of the trip then wake up and I would start sending back the snacks, goldfish, pretzels, waters, etc. That would get us about 6 hours in to the trip then we would push it another hour (that was when they would get a little antsy) and then stop for dinner somewhere where they could run around and play around 7pm. Then then get back in the van and finish the trip while they pretty quickly fell asleep for the night. I'm so thankful it went so well. Jeremy LOVES going back home but flying isn't really an option right now with so many little ones so if the drive hadn't gone smoothly it would have been hard to talk ourselves in to doing it again. Praying this baby does as well in the car as his brothers and sisters. I've found that we can pretty much handle anything that comes our way if we have enough snacks to make it through :) We're Allens :)
After our long drive we woke up ready to have fun on Thursday morning and the first thing we did was head straight to my favorite pizza place (The Faull Inn) for a yummy BLT pizza. I crave this pizza all the time when we're at home and there is no place here that is as good as this place. It's just a little local place but I so wish they would franchise here :) That night we got to go a minor league baseball game (the Stone Crabs) and Jeremy got to catch up with a bunch of old friends. Because we have a friend that works with the Rays the kids were able to run out on the field after the game - they LOVED it!
Friday was filled with swimming with our friends. We didn't bring any life jackets or any floaties for the boys because vacation is always when Jeremy is able to work with them on swimming as much as possible. As usual, they had no fear and both boys jumped right in and started swimming across the pool from side to side. Both Jeremy and I were water babies so it really doesn't surprise me how much our kids love the water but it does make me so happy. Both boys learned how to go under water and pick up toys on the bottom of the pool but John-Mark was the water rock star when he mastered diving off the side of the pool and going in about 5 feet of water and grabbing things off the bottom! He's so proud of himself. He asks to see the video's all the time and we all clap for him. James is a super fast swimmer but he doesn't like to come up for air so he's limited on how far he can swim :) This was our first year to really see how Gracie would do in the water. A couple of weeks ago I went on a frantic search for something called a "puddle jumper" which is a type of life jacket/flotation device for little ones that I had heard lots of great things about. This thing was wonderful! After using it about 3 times she was little miss independent and able to "swim" all over the pool by herself. We definitely have a house full of water babies :)
Saturday we got to spend the day with some old friends we hadn't seen in a while and enjoy some amazing smoked ribs and a day in the pool.
Sunday was beach day with our friends the DeMent's. We opted to leave Gracie home for this beach trip since we knew we were going to be there for several hours and in the middle of her nap. The boys had so much fun riding the waves in their floats. Once again, no fear! Oh how these boys keep me on my toes! At one point there was a man down the beach from us that caught a little 2 foot shark off the shore which the boys had to go check out!! That kept me out of the water for a bit :) We made it back to the beach one night after dinner and took Gracie with us. She had a blast! She loved the sand and the boys had fun searching for shells.
The rest of our trip was spent spending time with friends and family and swimming as much as possible. Most days the kids were worn out! So much so that if we swam in the mornings, when we got home John-Mark would literally walk in the door and crawl straight in to his bed for a nap without any prompting from us!
We're so thankful to be able to enjoy such a great time with family and friends and can't wait to get back down there! :)
Here's some pics from our trip: