Florida

 Giddy-up! We started our long drive on Friday. We drove 7 hours the first day and stayed in a hotel in Mississippi. But, just 30 minutes before arriving at the hotel Ryan says, 'I feel sick!' and immediately starts vomiting. Gross! Luckily Marcela was armed with supplies. Why did I forget this kid used to get car sick? He changed into his swim clothes since they were handy. I had the good pleasure of cleaning up the mess once we got settled at the hotel. After a month of nursing Macey, this was not a good start to our vacation!

 But eventually we did arrive at the condo and the beach. Hoorah! It was so fun to take this vacation with the DeLucias. They are a fun bunch always good for a laugh or two.

 Alex getting buried and kissed.

 Ryan is such a character everywhere we go.

 Nico had to be both Alex and Ryan's friend during this trip. It did get tricky at times, but for the most part everyone had a great time with each other.

 This is why you shouldn't sleep with Ryan. Ever. Even if you have a king bed and 1 adult with 2 kids. He should always sleep alone or on the floor. Always.

 We were at the beach for 6 days. The beach by our house was like swimming in a salad with all the algae and seaweed. We did it without complaints for 2 days, but on day 3 we went looking for different waters.

 Sand castle fun. Mine.

 John's.

 Marcela's. This was made to be Macey's birthday cake.

 I thought I better do something if I was going to have proof I went on this vacation. This is the view from our condo.

 Always an adventure when we travel with the D's. We went to Harbor Village.

 Ryan wanted to zipline. (Well, he wanted to rock climb, zipline, laser-maze, 4-d Movie ride, etc.) Nico went with him.

 They start at this medium sized tower.

 And go over to this tall tower. Then return from the top of this tower. It was a long (20 sec) awesome trip.

 There really isn't anything better than taking 3 boys to the beach. They boogie boarded, played in the sand, jumped the waves, looked for water life, and had just plain fun. BTW, once we got to a new, clean and clear beach, there was no more swimming in a salad for us!

 The three kids. We sure missed having our Macey girl. However, it was probably easier on the sisters to not have to share Macey.

 John's mermaid.

 Boogie boarding.

 Crab night. John and Marcela spent 45 min shelling all of their food!

 Well, I signed up Ryan for surfing lessons. It was really just renting a board for 3 hours and having someone help push him onto the waves.

 But it was totally worth it!

 He got up and rode on his very first try. He surfed all the way to the shore. He couldn't get going on his own. And he was wore out after an hour. But he kept at it.

 Alex and Nico did their usual beach fun while we waited for Ryan to finish.

 Santa, please send Ryan a surf board and another trip to the beach for Christmas!

 Family pics by the shore.

 One more piece of evidence that I went on this trip.

 So, we went to the beach in the evening we found these small globs on the shore. All over the shore. Once we picked them up and investigated them we discovered Sooty Sea Hare's. A sea slug. The eeks out purple toxins. Remember that sea salad we were swimming in. Yeah, those things were in there too.

 Peace. Wonderful peace. I did relax and have a very soothing trip. Until my back went out. Awesome. So I was free of stress, but full of pain. Ugh, I'm still recovering.

 Brothers.

 Alex did no daredevil activities. He wanted to eat breakfast at IHOP. Cheap and easy to please!

 These are my happy peoples smiling on me.

 Selfie.

 Going home.

12 hours drive, all in one day. The next day was Macey's bday. We had to get back! School started in 2 days. We had to get back! We loved our vacation. See you next summer Destin!