Dolphin Watching Cruise!

We went on a dolphin watching cruise out of Panama City Beach one day on our vacation and had a great time! It was a 3 1/2 hour event and we spent one hour of that at Shell Island playing in the waves and collecting seashells. We did see a lot of dolphins jumping in and out of the water and that was really fun to see! The girls, especially Lucy, really enjoyed that. We even full-on tourist mode and spend $10 to buy the photo they took of us as we boarded the boat. :) If you watch carefully you can see a few dolphins jumping in this video. 

The Vulcan

We made a little stop in Birmingham, Alabama on our way to Florida to see a giant statue called The Vulcan. Our neighbors told us about it and since it wasn't out of our way we decided to stop and see it. The Vulcan is "the largest cast iron statue in the world, and is the city symbol of Birmingham, Alabama, reflecting its roots in the iron and steel industry. The 56-foot (17 m) tall statue depicts the Roman god Vulcan, god of the fire and forge with ironworker equipments. It was created as Birmingham's entry for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904 World's Fair) in St. Louis, Missouri. While it is the world's largest made of iron-ore, it is also among the nation's tallest statues of any kind."

It was fun to see and a nice little break on our trip!  

Father's Day!

We had a nice Father's Day this year! We went to church, had breakfast at home like usual, then went to my brother-in-law's brother's house to hang out for the afternoon. My parents were there and all of the kids went swimming. We came home, had a good steak dinner, then talked to Ross' parents via facetime. 

Ross is such a good dad! He's always kind and fair to the girls and always does whatever needs to be done without complaining. The picture below is a great example of that. Last week at the beach we quickly learned that we should set out our beach chairs and umbrellas early in the morning to stake our spot for the day. Ross did this for us without complaining even though it meant he got a little hot, sweaty, and sandy before we were really ready for that each day! He is so good to take care of us and is always patient to wait on three girls......... :) He is such a great daddy and we love him very much! He reminds me of my dad. 

Landscaping

We did some landscaping work a few weeks ago and had the girls help us. And let me tell you, the girls loved every minute of helping us! They did a good job for what they could go. Ross bought some landscaping rocks and we put them around our new tree and around the flower bed in the front yard. A few weeks earlier we had taken out some dead bushes on the side of our house, so we put mulch down there and made a border with the rocks around it. We will eventually plant something there to make it look a little better. It's nice to have everything looking nice! 

Beach Pictures!

I brought my camera tripod on our vacation and took some photos on the beach one night. I think the pictures turned out really good! 

Florida Vacation!

We took a beach vacation to Florida! We stayed in the Seagrove Beach area, which is between Destin and Panama City, off of the 30A Highway. It was a great time! The drive overall is about 12-13 hours and we broke it up into two days driving down, but drove home in one day coming home. The first night we stayed near Birmingham, Alabama, and as always, the girls loved staying in a hotel! 

We stayed at a condo that had private access to the beach and all we had to do was walk out our door and there was the beach! It was a nice place and the girls loved the bunk beds it had! They also enjoyed sleeping in the pull-out couch a couple of nights and sitting at the bar to eat meals! We had perfect weather all week with only a few pop-up storms during times we hadn't even planned to be at the beach. The surf and waves were a little rough towards the end of the week, but we had a great time playing in the sand and water!