Ryan and Chase

Lucky Ryan to have one of his best friends from Washington come for a visit. Chase has been saving long and hard for two years to buy a plane ticket to Georgia. Ryan was so excited to see him he could hardly stand it. When they first saw each other at the airport they ran and hugged and I think I got emotional. It was so cute. But other than that you'd never have known they hadn't seen each other in two years. Minutes later they were laughing and joking around, pulling their DS' out and connecting to play games together... and I got to listen to video game language the whole way home.

Chase just fit right into our normal summer routine... swimming at the pool, a ward party, scouts, a primary activity, off to the hospital with Ryan to get 11 year old shots, tons of movies, riding bikes around the block, a picnic at the park in the 90 degree Georgia humidity, Ice Age in the movie theaters, dinner at Atlanta Bread and Sam's Club, battling Lego creations, playing with space mud, jumping on the trampoline, staying up late, and HOURS of non-stop Wii and DS playing since all gaming restrictions had been lifted.

As a special treat Chase turned 11 on his second day here. How fun for us to celebrate with a gigantic cookie cake and a trip to the video game store to pick out new 'used' DS games.

I heard them several times say to each other "wouldn't it be cool if we were brothers?" Chase, with three younger sisters and no brothers and Ryan with brothers a decade younger... It's a good thing they have each other. So much alike they are practically the same kid. Thanks for coming Chase!!!

Dusk

I had always planned to go take pictures on the beach at dusk but on this night it kind of happened by accident. After a girls afternoon of shopping at the outlets and then a fabulous Mexican dinner Chris and I decided to take the scenic drive home along Old Hwy 98. It was gorgeous lighting and I muttered something like "I just want to take pictures!" Who can resist the beach at dusk! Within a couple seconds Chris had pulled off the road and said, "Let's do it." I just love that about him. He loves making me happy and if taking pictures at dusk makes me happy, well then take pictures it is. Unfortunately the sun was sinking faster than I could snap and it was dark before we knew it. Guess we'll have to go back. Does anyone want to come?

Snorkel Dolphin Tour

One day we rushed over to Panama City for our Snorkel Dolphin Tour. We boarded the catamaran and set sail for our 'three hour tour' as Gilligan's Island music played in the background. It was a beautiful day. Sunny and HOT.



First stop... snorkeling. I helped get my first crew get outfitted with flippers and masks and ready to go. This is Ryan and Katie's second snorkeling adventure... (their first was in Hawaii), but it was Emily's first and she was excited!




Nikole, John, Tyler, Spencer and Kayla

Megan and Dad
Ashlyn

Haylee and Lindsey
Katie swimming
Tyler and Aunt Nikole
Lindsey
Anybody who found cool underwater marine life could bring it aboard the boat for others to see. It was fun to check out the bucket of what was discovered.

Katie checking out a starfish.
Megan and Emily helped a fellow snorkeler empty his bag of sand dollars into the bucket. 'Here's a dollar for you, and one for you... Here's two bucks for you... oh, here's a small one... there's a quarter for you'. They had so much fun. All the sand dollars were alive and had to be thrown back except this one and Megan got to keep it. Too bad it got smashed in the suitcase on the way home.

Haylee wasn't too excited about seeing the starfish up close and personal... especially when her Dad wanted her to touch it.

Uncle Kyle and baby Derek
Rob, Lindsey and Haylee
Spencer
After snorkeling we sailed around trying to find dolphins. We saw a few jumping in front of a ship a ways away but that's all we saw. We even tried heading out of the bay but nope, no dolphins. Instead we got seasick from all the big waves.
Once back inside the bay they had a conch shell blowing contest. Everyone on the boat, including my kids, gave it a try. The four finalists had a 'blow off' in front of everyone on the deck. Rob and I competed. In the first go around Rob was louder than I was so I think he just wanted to let me win. The two finalists... me and some other guy. To break the tie we had to blow the conch the loudest and longest while hula hooping. Ya, don't you wish you could see a picture of that. Well, somehow I managed to win. I guess playing the trumpet in my 7th grade school band paid off!

One afternoon we headed to the Crab Trap for a late lunch... a highly recommended seafood restaurant right on the beach. The view from our table was beautiful. We ate crab of course! Chris ordered Snow Crab and I had crab cakes. They were delicious.





While some were finishing up with their time consuming crab leg cracking, I took the kids down to the beach to walk around. What is it about that Megan girl that makes her pose her sassy little leg before looking up to smile. What a character... and of course Luke is much too anxious to get to the water.


And despite Katie's best efforts...
he got wet
and was thrilled about it. And why shouldn't he be? It's the beach.
Katie with her new birthday scarf from Aunt Lindsey.

At the pool

The pool within the community of vacation homes was perfect! We spent a lot of time there this week! Even after the beach we liked stopping by the pool to shower the sand off and then get in and relax. So nice and refreshing.

Kayla, Luke, and Haylee all tried swimming with floaties for the first time and did great! It was fun to watch them bobbing up and down in the pool. Kayla instinctually knew how to swim around in circles.
What a relief to have them in floaties now... it's so much easier! And Luke thinks it's so much fun!
All the cousins up on the wall ready to jump in.
Ready, set, go! Tyler made it to the water first.
The little kids wanted a little more attention before they jumped in.
Uncle Rob and Haylee
Megan has been doing great this summer in swimming lessons but this week in the pool she made some great strides. Just look at that mermaid with her eyes wide open!
All the kids loved it when Daddy would get in the water and throw them around. Katie went really high! Ryan barely had time to stop laughing before he went under.