We have always wanted to take the kids on vacation to the beach, but either we have never had the money or Adam hasn't been able to take the time off work. Finally we have just spent 4 nights in Mexico Beach, just down the coast of Florida from Destin.
We left early on Sunday morning, so as it was 4th of July the kids and Adam lit fireworks with our neighbor Kenli the night before to get the excitement started.
I was finishing packing and arrived just too late to see most of the fireworks but they all had fun.
We set off at 7:30am and the trip went pretty quickly for a 7 hour drive! With hindsight it was a bit far for Nicolas and Adison, but very much worth it.
This is Nicolas' 'super smiley' face, a face only a Mother could love! Adison is wearing her new birthday dress from Auntie Shelley which she had as an early birthday present as I couldn't be bothered taking all her presents with us - bad Mommy that I am.
She loved the little lovie that Lianne sent her and it was great for in the car as it was so small.
Because the kids are so used to long car journies, we only stopped once.
It was a bit overcast when we got there but we hit the beach straight away. We didn't know if Nicolas would like it as he'd only spent about 10 minutes on a beach before, but he loved it.
Adison on the otherhand hated it from the start! We worked out she just hated the feeling of the sand but loved the sea and all she wanted was to go out in the deep water and the waves with Adam.
After a couple of hours on the beach we went to the hotel pool, it was great to have the pool as well as the beach so we could get the sand off the kids when we had enough of the beach.
We were pretty tired from out trip but as all the kids were in the room with us there wasn't much sleeping going on! The kids went to bed about 10pm but then Nicolas and Adison were both awake at 6am. They are always in bed by 7pm, so the lack of sleep began to take it's toll by the end of the week. I was dreading all of us being in the room together, but it was actually fun.
It rained several times but we still had lots of time on the beach and if it hadn't been for the rain, it would probably have been too hot.
Nicolas decided that he wanted to wear my dress. He would have made a cute little girl. I just hope it isn't the start of a cross dressing future!!
Jaden's friend Blake was there with his parents, so it was great for the kids to have someone else to play with.
Jaden and Nicolas wait for the rain to stop so they can go back into the pool.
The beach in the rain.
By the end of each day Nicolas was exhausted and if he fell asleep before dinner, he was almost impossible to wake up.
We took all our food with us and one night Adam BBQd to give me a break from cooking. He makes the best burgers!
It was really windy so Adam got the kite out while we were waiting for the food to cook. Nicolas and I loved the kite but Jaden and Kirsten weren't too impressed.
Adam got a 'surfing' injury from having his face ground into the sand by a wave. Unfortunately he wasn't actually surfing, just body surfing. It looked so sore.
One night Nicolas decided to try to show everyone by the pool his little bottom! He kept trying to pull his shorts down! We soon put a stop to that.
By about 9pm the kids were exhausted and done for the day. Their treat was a blue frozen drink, but unfortunately for Nicolas, he was normally cold by this point anyway, so the frozen drink would almost cause him to convuse with coldness!!
On Tuesday it was raining with no sign of stopping so we decided to drive to Destin (1 1/2 hours away!) so Jaden and Kirsten could go to their favorite restaurant. They have alligators you can feed and they go there a lot with their Mom.
Poor Adam spent a hour or so each day dealing with work calls, even though he was on vacation, so he got a lot of calls made on the trip to Destin.
Adison took a nap and then played with the cube that used to be Nicole and William's. All kids just love it and it's one of the best things my brother and sister-in-law passed on to us.
Nicolas also took a nap
But Jaden and Kirsten just enjoyed the ride and talking to us.
Jaden had his DS but as our CD player doesn't work and we don't have a DVD player, the kids are forced to talk to us, sing songs or sometimes I'll read to them all. I don't mind too much as it's a good chance to catch up with the kids and have some fun, but after a few hours, it doesn get a bit boring.
At the restaurant the kids all got balloon animals and then we had some great sea food.
We left early on Sunday morning, so as it was 4th of July the kids and Adam lit fireworks with our neighbor Kenli the night before to get the excitement started.
I was finishing packing and arrived just too late to see most of the fireworks but they all had fun.
We set off at 7:30am and the trip went pretty quickly for a 7 hour drive! With hindsight it was a bit far for Nicolas and Adison, but very much worth it.
This is Nicolas' 'super smiley' face, a face only a Mother could love! Adison is wearing her new birthday dress from Auntie Shelley which she had as an early birthday present as I couldn't be bothered taking all her presents with us - bad Mommy that I am.
She loved the little lovie that Lianne sent her and it was great for in the car as it was so small.
Because the kids are so used to long car journies, we only stopped once.
It was a bit overcast when we got there but we hit the beach straight away. We didn't know if Nicolas would like it as he'd only spent about 10 minutes on a beach before, but he loved it.
Adison on the otherhand hated it from the start! We worked out she just hated the feeling of the sand but loved the sea and all she wanted was to go out in the deep water and the waves with Adam.
After a couple of hours on the beach we went to the hotel pool, it was great to have the pool as well as the beach so we could get the sand off the kids when we had enough of the beach.
We were pretty tired from out trip but as all the kids were in the room with us there wasn't much sleeping going on! The kids went to bed about 10pm but then Nicolas and Adison were both awake at 6am. They are always in bed by 7pm, so the lack of sleep began to take it's toll by the end of the week. I was dreading all of us being in the room together, but it was actually fun.
It rained several times but we still had lots of time on the beach and if it hadn't been for the rain, it would probably have been too hot.
Nicolas decided that he wanted to wear my dress. He would have made a cute little girl. I just hope it isn't the start of a cross dressing future!!
Jaden's friend Blake was there with his parents, so it was great for the kids to have someone else to play with.
Jaden and Nicolas wait for the rain to stop so they can go back into the pool.
The beach in the rain.
By the end of each day Nicolas was exhausted and if he fell asleep before dinner, he was almost impossible to wake up.
We took all our food with us and one night Adam BBQd to give me a break from cooking. He makes the best burgers!
It was really windy so Adam got the kite out while we were waiting for the food to cook. Nicolas and I loved the kite but Jaden and Kirsten weren't too impressed.
Adam got a 'surfing' injury from having his face ground into the sand by a wave. Unfortunately he wasn't actually surfing, just body surfing. It looked so sore. 
One night Nicolas decided to try to show everyone by the pool his little bottom! He kept trying to pull his shorts down! We soon put a stop to that.
By about 9pm the kids were exhausted and done for the day. Their treat was a blue frozen drink, but unfortunately for Nicolas, he was normally cold by this point anyway, so the frozen drink would almost cause him to convuse with coldness!!
On Tuesday it was raining with no sign of stopping so we decided to drive to Destin (1 1/2 hours away!) so Jaden and Kirsten could go to their favorite restaurant. They have alligators you can feed and they go there a lot with their Mom.
Poor Adam spent a hour or so each day dealing with work calls, even though he was on vacation, so he got a lot of calls made on the trip to Destin.
Adison took a nap and then played with the cube that used to be Nicole and William's. All kids just love it and it's one of the best things my brother and sister-in-law passed on to us.
Nicolas also took a nap
But Jaden and Kirsten just enjoyed the ride and talking to us.
Jaden had his DS but as our CD player doesn't work and we don't have a DVD player, the kids are forced to talk to us, sing songs or sometimes I'll read to them all. I don't mind too much as it's a good chance to catch up with the kids and have some fun, but after a few hours, it doesn get a bit boring.
At the restaurant the kids all got balloon animals and then we had some great sea food.
Adison loved her balloon butterfly.
After lunch we tried to feed the alligators, but as Adam pointed out there was food lying all around them, so they obviously weren't hungry.
Jaden regressed and wanted to ride on the baby motorcycle, but we all had fun and then it was time to drive all the way back to Mexico Beach. Adam is so wondeful that he'll drive all that way just to make Jaden and Kirsten happy.
I love summer when I get to see my babies little legs. Adison is wearing Adam's 1st girlfriend's, baby's swimsuit! She looks so cute in a swim suit and I love the fact that she is growing up, but she still has baby pudge.
Adam braved the waves again this time on a body board
while the kids and I played on the beach.
Jaden has a strange way of making new friends - by splashing them! 
After a hard day's play on the beach there is nothing better than a hot bubble bath to get rid of all the sand and to warm you up!! It also gave me a chance to clean up in the room and wash up after dinner. The kids did a great job of not getting sand everywhere and using the laundry bag I set up for all the wet and sandy clothes.
Wednesday was Adison's actual birthday and she celebrated with bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Then she went onto the balcony and fed the seagulls with the kids.
As the week went on Adam's scrape got scabbier but his hair got curlier and softer from the sea water. I LOVE Adam's hair, to the point where it drives him crazy that I always want to touch it, it's just so thick and curly and soft. 
My gran used to make sand snakes with me when I was little, so I wanted to make one for Nicolas to carry on the tradition. Of course he wasn't bothered but Kirsten was eager to help and made my basic snake look much better with lines down the side and black sand for eyes.
I'm always the photographer so sometimes I worry the kids will grow up and wonder where I was on all our trips to places because there are rarely any pictures of me!!
In the end we started to take Adison to the beach in her stroller as she just hated the sand. That way I didn't have to hold her all the time. She loved watching what was going on and liked being in the water and in between she would sit in the stroller.
We loved this place and the fact the beach was just outside the hotel was perfect. We will definately save up to go back next year.
We spent our last night playing on the beach and Adam demonstrated his awesome sand castle building skills to the kids. Even I was impressed!
I did something I thought I'd never do - I gave my baby the nastiest colored drink ever! Adam had got some stuff called crystal light for the kids and him to drink and it dyed the counter pink when I made it for them! I had to add twice as much water as it said to as it was so strong. I hated that Jaden and Kirsten were drinking something with so much coloring in it, but then I forgot to take milk to the beach for Adison so I had to give her some. She didn't seem to mind but I felt like the worst parent as Nicolas didn't have anything artificially colored until recently. Having grown up in England where you don't give kids anything with artificial color, I find it so hard to feed them anything that has the ability to dye a counter red!!
Nicolas has started to do his scary face and it's one of his favorite faces to pull. He always wants to see a picture of it afterwards. I think he looks so wierd, but it makes him laugh.
The last day was the most perfect weather wise and as we got a late checkout Adam got to fish in the morning and we played on the beach.
By this time Adison had perfected her 'bum in the air' crawl so that her knees wouldn't hurt on the sand or the concrete next to the pool. It looked so cute!
She had also got used to the sand as well.
After digging one final huge hole and Adison's nap, we set off home at about 3pm. Nicolas and I both had colds and Adison was starting one, so we felt pretty miserable.
I can honestly say it was one of our worst journeys as as I had to sit in the back to keep the babies entertained, but they still cried on and off for the last 3 hours of the 7 hour trip. 
We were so happy to be back in our house. We had a great vacation, but there is no place like home!!!
i love all the "holiday" photos! too fun. and that picture of nicolas sleeping is funny with you guys standing around. did he not nap and that is why he was so tired you could barely wake him? if only i could sleep that hard!
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