We had such a good time celebrating Auntie Em's birthday over fall break. We spent several days at St. Andrew's Park in Panama City, Florida. It had been a really long time since all of us were together for her birthday...more than 10 years! We enjoyed the wonderful weather and all the good memories.
Everyone got to help set up camp. All the kids got to help put up the tent. I'm glad Emily knew what she was doing :)
We gathered firewood, sticks, pine cones, etc. to get the fire going.
Benjamin got to help Daddy start the fire. It made his day. He has now decided (on top of all the other professions he plans to have) that he will be a Scout leader. He loved being outdoors.
We cooked most of our meals over the camp fire. They were all delicious!
Beautiful sunsets and sunrises
The ocean was so calm and crystal clear. It was pretty cool to see the fish swim between your feet. It was all good until Katherine noticed them. She flipped out on me. Benjamin and Regan were the opposite. They wanted a snorkel to see them better. Lauren preferred hunting for seashells.
Getting some Auntie Em time
Papaw and Lauren were the seashell master finders. They found some pretty ones and even found a couple sand dollars.
We saw many different kinds of wildlife...dolphins, crabs, stingrays, sea turtles, deer, frogs, pelicans, seagulls, cranes, squirrels, and much more.
I picked Katherine up and she thought she was going to fall into the water. I love the picture though.
Building in the sand
We were on our way out to eat for Emily's birthday dinner and stopped by to take some snapshots by the beach. They all turned out so good. Regan 9 yrs
Lauren 4 yrs
Katherine 6 yrs
Benjamin 8 yrs
Emily opening her presents in the tent
On our way home, we drove through Tallahassee to see a good friend of mine from Knoxville. This is her youngest son. It was so much fun for many reasons, but I loved that I could talk to him (he doesn't speak English). Her older son does speak English and was so surprised to hear us speak his language.
So this is my friend Meimei with my Meimei.
We finally arrived back to Knoxville and it was COLD! The inside of our house read 55 degrees. We woke up the next morning and the kids were so excited to see frost on the ground. They just knew that it had snowed. It didn't matter though. They have never seen it before and thought it was the neatest thing. Benjamin would pick a leaf, run inside with it, watch the frost melt, and run back outside to see if it would freeze again. Katherine decided that is was really cold and ran into the kitchen and put the oven mitts on her hands to keep them warm. Oh, kids are so much fun! :)
