Joseph, Sarah Kathryn, Allie, Haley and Emily (Rachel is not pictured)

This past Summer in August I had the fun chance to spend the week with Bent and his family in Fort Walton beach at a beautiful Condo enjoying the ocean.  We woke every morning and had a wonderful breakfast to fuel our morning at the beach.  Every morning Laura and I would pack up the six (grand) children and hike it down to the water front with what seemed to be half a household.  It was really only two umbrellas, a couple of small coolers, a couple of diaper bags, a couple of babies on our hips and a few stray towels.  I think that was all.  It really seemed like much more.  The children drug most of the sand buckets and beach toys.  We stayed on the beach all morning and it in the water until the children grew too hungry to stay any longer.  Rachel did not like the feeling of the sand on her body so she insisted on staying in the water so the sand would not touch her.  Even sitting on a towel did not keep her from stressing out.  We brought snacks and drinks for us and the children and Laura and I but at some point one just has to have real food to endure the heat and hunger of the day.  We would then pack up all the stuff and make our way back up to the hotel where Brent was attending his Judges conference and then would rinse all the children, all our flip flops and things off, change diapers on the two little ones, put t-shirts on everyone and eat our lunch at the conference center area.  After lunch we would slather up the children with sun screen and spend the rest of the day in the hotel pool and hot tub.  It was a trick to keep up with six children in a pool filled with several people for several hours but we managed.  There were others there that we knew with their children and/or grandchildren and we all helped to keep up with each others family so it was a joint effort and that was a great help.
We went putt putt, we had dippin' dots, Haley and Allie were buried in the sand, Haley fished we hunted shells and sand dollars, we made sand castles, we took walks down the beach, we dolphin watched, we did all sort's of things everyday until we were purely exhausted.  Inside the condo we watched movies, cooked delicious meals, had wonderful snacks, played games, drew beautiful pictures, took fun and beautiful photographs and videos, and slept like rocks because we were just plain tired!  It was a wonderfully fun filled week.  Thank heavens for families.