My Florida Trip 2010

Finally I got my pictures uploaded. Blogger was being a pain in the butt for a couple of days. I hopped on a plane and flew to Pensacola, FL from June 8th through June 13th to visit by friend-since-birth Dianna and her family. The last time I traveled by myself anywhere I was 18 years old and was flying to the same place. I was a little nervous and a whole lot excited. Honestly, the hard part was being away from my family.....I had never been away from them for that long and I knew I'd miss my boys like crazy, especially when I knew how much fun they had had down there 2 years ago when we drove down.

I tried to limit my pictures in this post but it is still pretty long so bear with me. On Wednesday we found a new park down by the water. The playground was so nice and had a covering on it to give it shade which was really nice. The breeze coming off of the water was great too. We had just finished up at Krispy Kreme (yum!) and headed to the park for while. This picture below was taken on the walk along the water. It was so beautiful down there.

We drove around in the historic part of Pensacola next and I had to get out of the car to get a picture of this little guy. We saw herons everywhere and I got such a kick out of them and how they walked. They were so cute and were ok with you getting up close to them.

This is our first trip to the beach. We went late afternoon and the weather was perfect and there weren't hardly any people there. With the oil approaching, I had a feeling that tourism was down and that made me sad. We always hit Pensacola Beach when we are down there and that is always one of my favorite places.

Me and Delaney were being goofy with our shadows.

We had Dianna take our picture together. Isn't it cute how Delaney just fits in the palm of my hand? :)

I loved this picture of Delaney taking a picture of Mallory. Those two girls are so precious and I sooo enjoyed my girly time with them. Doing their hair, playing Polly Pockets, Barbies, dancing with the wii, girly clothes. It was so fun.

Me and my best girlfriend!

My self portrait. I was being a little goofy. Must be the salty air.

An abandoned sand castle. Delaney claimed it as her own by writing her name in the sand by it and then her and Mallory put seashells on it and added some nice touches.

Some old tar balls. I was so fortunate that the water was still swimmable and gorgeous but these were reminders of what was yet to come.

On Friday we took their boat out onto the water and took a long ride up to Sand Island for the day. It was one of those perfect and relaxing days. I got to see one of my heron friends again as we put the boat in by the dock. So cute.

I just loved these colorful houses along the side of the beach. Probably a little hard to see in this picture taken from the boat but they were every color of the rainbow.

This beach was so neat as there were sand bars everywhere and you could walk forever without the water getting above your knees. The kids had a blast in it. We saw TONS of hermit crabs, it was just crazy. We thought maybe it was mating season as a lot of them were paired up in twos. ;)

There is the boat and tent set up in the background. We just hung out for the day and ate, swam, relaxed. Dianna's nephew Charlie came along too and the 3 kids were so fun to watch in the water.

Preston found 3 different little crabs and this guy was the smallest. See how he compares to a quarter?

I love this picture. You can see the Pensacola Lighthouse in the background. It is thought to be haunted and was investigated by Ghost Hunters which is one of my favorite shows! Some of our little birdie friends hanging out. You can see the yellow boom already placed here with only a small area left open for boats to get by. We heard they closed it off completely later that night. It was wierd seeing all of the booms and coast guard and other workers out. It was a constant reminder of what was to come. I was very thankful to have plenty of time to enjoy the water before the worst hit but it makes me sick to my stomach to think of all that is happening down there and wondering when Dianna and her family will get to see clean beaches and water again.

The three kiddos eating their lunch...with a great view.

Dianna took this picture of me playing with Mallory. Ignore my saggy and flabby bod, must work on it.......

and focus on this sweet little face running towards me. That huge smile was all for me and I loved every bit of it. She's the same age as Aiden so in a way and Delaney is right in between Noah and Drew so they helped keep me from getting homesick. Love these girls. I love this picture too because although I think Mallory looks a lot like her daddy in the face, in this picture, she looks just like her mama did as a little girl.

That night we went to a fish fry at Dianna's parents' house. Growing up next door to them in Hazelwood Ct meant spending lots of time together. Even though I hadn't seen them in awhile, I felt right at home in their house and loved seeing the whole family and spending the evening with them. It just felt right and I miss them all already. I so regret not having my camera out that night but at the same time, sometimes it's nice to live in the moment and not behind the camera. I have so many more pictures but also so many more I wished I had taken. But I have so many wonderful memories from my trip that I won't forget, pictures or not. Shopping, eating out, hanging out with the girls, Preston's yummy grilled chicken salad, the girls' making their own storybooks and us making up funny stories with them, the dancing wii game that made me feel like a dork. I'll never be able to listen to Hot n Cold by Katy Perry again without doing the dance. Salt water, various salt water creatures, how warm the water was, finding sea shells, getting to sleep all night without being woken up, the breeze off of the water, hugs and kisses from the girls, hitting thrift shops with Dianna and some of our favorite crafting stores and more.