More Pictures from the Beach and the Lotion

Every summer when I was a kid, mother would load up the Volkswagon Beetle and take all three of us to Mobile to see grandmother and all our aunts, uncles, and cousins that lived in South Alabama. The trip down took 10 or 12 hours because there was no I-65 to bypass all the little towns along the way (anybody else remember those days?). For the entire drive down, my sister, my brother, and I would talk about our favorite part of the vacation. It was always the trip to Dauphin Island for a day at the beach. It seemed like that day lasted a week (maybe it was a week?), with all the fun that we had. Well, if it's possible that God put some of me into Lily Grace, she too was given a fondness for the beach. Every morning she is eager to get to the beach to play in the sand and swim in the "lotion." She is so excited by it that she finds it difficult to waste any time eating. We're probably going to have to double up on her food intake after the vacation just to get her back on track.




Austin really enjoys the beach too. His favorite thing is building sand stadiums - we've already built AT&T Park (SF Giants baseball stadium), Turner Field (Atlanta Braves), Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox), and the New England Patriots home stadium. He also likes to check out the local golf courses - he played Shalimar Pointe and Indian Bayou this week. Oh yeah, as Austin was telling Connie about Indian Bayou, every time he would say Bayou, Lily Grace chimed in "No Austin, Boo-ya!" [Boo-ya means no in Chinese]. It was hilarious!



Some other things that Lily really enjoys include swimming in the swimming pool, chasing sea gulls, and watching people. Connie always says I stare too much and Lily Grace apparently has that trait as well. She'll stop on the beach to watch whatever someone is doing, occassionally turning to one of us to say "What's doing?" She likes picking up shells and covering herself with sand. She really enjoys pouring water on mommy to cool her off. "Skin red mommy!" We thought about getting one of those canopies before coming down, but decided to wait. Turns out it would have been a waste - Lily wouldn't be under it more than 5 minutes a day! She loves going out to dinner each night (remember, we spent all that money at Publix, but have no food for dinner!). Tonight, she told mommy to "get her party dress for dinner - it's my birthday." She has met and played with some older kids of friends of ours while here in Ft Walton Beach, even allowing them to take her swimming or to the playground without mommy, daddy, or Austin!


As for Connie and I, we have really enjoyed watching the kids have a great time on the beach. We've also enjoyed the dinners (Hog's Breath, Fudpuckers, Pompano Joe's, and Anglers). We got to visit with some our very favorite friends who live here in Niceville. We hadn't seen Chris and Debbie and their girls Nikki and Becca in a long time. Austin enjoyed spending time talking with the girls while we caught up on old times.

Tomorrow, we'll take a short Dolphin cruise and visit the Gulfarium so Austin can teach Lily Grace about sea life. Can't wait to see what she thinks about the dolphins and sea lions. Anyway, here's some more pictures from the beach and the "lotion."




Love,
Green, Party of Four