Ann's Graduation Party

Tonight was Ann's graduation party. They had great food and even a dj! We all had a bunch of fun visiting with friends and family. Congratulations, Ann!

Harper, Cate, and Delaney

Cousin Jack, Delaney, and Harper

The girls dancing together

Honey and Aunt Kathy dancing with the girls.

Delaney loves dancing in "twirly" dresses.

I love this picture of Cate jumping.

Grandpa Ed took care of Delaney's bow when she didn't want to wear it.

Cute picture of Harper and Cate dancing. I love that both of them have their pacis in!

Ann was getting down to Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel".

Ann, Delaney, Jen, Harper

Florida Day 6

First of all, let me apologize for taking so long to post about our vacation. I know you've all been on the edge of your seats :) Secondly, I know these will show up in reverse order, so scroll down to Day 1 if you want to read them in chronological order.


Today was the last day of our trip and I think it was the best! We took an early morning family kayak trip, our neighbors let us borrow their jet skis, and we just spent the day enjoying the house. In fact, I didn't get out of my swimsuit until I took a shower at 10 pm!

A gross picture, but one of the highlights of Delaney's trip was getting to go potty in the grass or in the ocean anytime she wanted!

The look on her face sums up how she felt about having to be in a big, bulky lifevest.

We saw a crab climb out of it's old shell. This is what it left behind.

Krista, Tyler, and Lucas enjoying the pool.

A highlight for me was getting to take the jet skis out and ride just 15 feet from so many dolphins! This picture is of Krista, me, and Delaney on a dolphin hunt.

Early morning kayak ride. Harper lasted all of 5 minutes, so Allan and Delaney ended up going alone for most of it.

Jen, Allan, and Delaney on the jet ski. Delaney loved it and thought she was driving it the whole time.

Faster Daddy!

Finally, on the very last day, Allan got to take the nap he was longing for.

Florida Day 5

On Thursday morning, we took the kids to the Butterfly House and park at the base of the Navarre Bridge. Once again, it was SO hot but the view was gorgeous!

Mommy and Harper

The kids each got to release their own butterflies. Pretty cool!

Back at the house, Tyler and Delaney chilled out and played magnets on our bed.

For dinner, we went to Logan's Roadhouse with my family. It was so nice to get to see everyone at once.

Grandma and Grandpa Duke

Aunt Bette, Lauren, Uncle Mark

Harper devouring some mashed potatoes

Silly Uncle Tom and Lynn

Uncle Richard and Lauren, the recent highschool grad

Harper bonding with Lauren

Uncle Richard and Cathy

Florida Day 4

Day 4 was our busiest day. We packed up and headed to the big beach at about 9:30 am. Too bad for us, it was a yellow flag day and there was a good amount of algae in the water. The kids were not loving the waves or sand, so we only stayed for about an hour. Allan swears that we won't waste our time at the main beach again until Harper is 5.

This picture perfectly depicts how Harper feels about sand.

I love this picture.

Ahhh, back to the pool. Much better.

Lucas, Tyler, and Delaney hang out on the infinity edge.

Practicing her kicking.

The two sitters, Sydney and McKenzie, were great! My girls loved them!!

After naps, we all got cleaned up to get family pictures taken on the beach. It was SO hot!! I was literally dripping with sweat!

Then we went to Harry T's in Destin for a beautiful outdoor dinner.

What an awesome view!

Florida Day 3

After a delicious breakfast (Brian actually did a lot of the cooking on this trip), we went to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Duke.

The adults went back to Destin to eat some really terrific nachos at Cheeseburger in Paradise and finish up our shopping while the babysitters fed the kids lunch and put them down for nap.

After the kids were awake, we went down to our little beach. One of our neighbors had build this cool crab sand castle.

The Dads took the big kids out on a kayak ride and got a super cool air show! Two Chinook helicopters were doing manuevers right across the sound from us! One of the men jumping out of the helicopter even waved at them.

The Mommies and kids left behind on the dock got an equally cool dolphin show! At least 8 dolphins swam back and forth in front of us for 20 minutes or so. I've never seen dolphins in the wild that close! Unfortunately, we think that so many of them were around because they had come into the Sound to avoid oil in the Gulf.