October 25, 2012-Destin, Florida

Visit to Seaside!

(click here for today's pictures)

• It was such a restful night, until Anderson, Graham and Campbell all bounced into our room.  They probably had to open every door in this place to find out what room we were sleeping in and they also had discussed that Grannymom and Grandpa weren't in the house.  (They were out walking).  The kids were all awake and ready to start the day.  Robby reached over to look at the clock and it said "6:00" so those 3 were sent right back to their bed.  
• Of course, sending them back to bed went nowhere and by 6:30 we were all awake and out of bed.  By all, I do mean everyone but Robby.  He laid around like he was on vacation for another hour.  The kids are definitely not on vacation mode because they were ready to go to the beach.
• We were the first people on the beach this morning and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  The sun was warming but it was still pleasant.  Now the water was still cold but after awhile in the sun, you were able to get a bit wet without freezing.  
• The kids spent most of their time digging in the sand and collecting sea shells.  Campbell worked and worked on whatever she was doing-filling this bucket, then filling that.  Anderson and Graham made a few holes and ditches.  Reagan did a bit of everything but was the resident shell picker upper.
• Early in the morning, Keaton didn't want anything to do with the water but after watching Reagan, Anderson and Graham stand in the waves, she was headed out there to join them.  Watching her walk in the sand is a hoot and after a bit of time in the waves, she finally realized that she would be better off just crawling.  Grannymom mentioned that if she had been the first child we probably just wouldn't have plopped her down in the sand and let the waves wash over her-a few times knocking her backwards a few feet.  No, the first child would have had a hat, been slathered in sunscreen, under an umbrella and playing with sanitized buckets and shovels.  Oh and she did love it when she was knocked around by the waves-would always sit up and start grinning and clapping.
• After about two hours at the beach (around 10), we all headed in for showers.  When Robby finished with the kids and himself, he headed out to the store to pick up a few things.  While we waited we started a load of clothes and most of the kids and I hung out on the back porch.  We all waved when Robby arrived back with our sandwich making stuff and headed in.
• After unloading the van, I started on sandwiches and Grannymom opened the laundry room door and that is when the excitement began....the washer had flooded.  The laundry room had filled with 3 to 4 inches of water-the Dennie crew immediately started to work.  Grannymom would sop up as much as she could with a towel, hand it off to be squeezed by Robby or Grandpa and then start over.  The towels were squeezed into an ice chest and then emptied into the tub.  Seriously, if you ever have a leak in your house, you might should call this crew.  What did I do?  Oh, well I made lunch!  Actually, I was on kid patrol-when 4 little kids see a laundry room full of water they don't see this as a crisis they see it as excitement and possible an opportunity to have a slip and slide.  My job was to keep them happy (with lunch) and keep them outside until everything was cleaned.  
• We never really figured out what happened to the washer but since we were all dependent on that washing machine (us Dennies don't pack a lot of clothes for our trips)-so we just started another load.  Now during this load, we just about took turns standing in the doorway of the laundry room watching to make sure this flooding even didn't happen again.  After everyone had eaten lunch, Robby took the kids on a walk and I folded the clothes and fed Keaton.  She had fell asleep in the stroller, during an earlier walk and missed all of the excitement.
• Soon we all loaded up and headed to the outlet mall.  The stores of interest to us where the Harry and David store-kids were thrilled with a sample, the Disney store-really, those were outlet prices, and then a shoe store-again, I thought outlet prices should be cheaper than what I can get at home.  Anyway, I was a bit disappointed for the kids-they all wanted to buy something but there was nothing to be had.  Even the boys didn't see anything in the Disney store that they had to have (not that we were going to buy anything anyway) nor did they find anything to put on their Christmas list.  At the shoe store, we found one pair of shoes at a good deal (buy one get one half off) but Anderson's foot was too big in that size.  And again they were all so disappointed.  The mood did turn up when Grandpa bought the kids something-a coke!
• Back at the house for a few minutes, Graham walked into Grannymom's room while she was ironing.  Graham looked at her, looked at the ironing board and then said "What in the world?  Did you bring that all they way down here?"  The child has never seen me iron so he probably couldn't understand why Grannymom felt the need to bring her ironing board 10 hours away from home (and it wasn't really her ironing board).
• We made the kids lay down for a bit (Keaton did get a reprieve since she had already had a nap).  Anderson did end up falling asleep and Campbell did too after I rubbed her back for awhile.  Robby though wouldn't let Graham fall asleep since he often doesn't wake in the most pleasant of moods. 
• Though on our way to Seaside, Graham did fall asleep but did wake up in a decent mood.  Seaside was beautiful and we arrived just in time to see the sunset.  I just love the little town and the kids loved the green space and enjoyed running around while we waited on our food from the food trucks.  The kids had grilled cheese, I had grilled pimento cheese, the Dennies had grilled ham, cheese and meatloaf and Robby had bbq nachos.  The original plan was to buy snowcones at our favorite stop but they were closing just as we arrived.  That was fine because we all had a bit more key lime pie before bed.  
• When we unloaded the van, Campbell was one of the last one's off. She looked around and shouted "Where's Grandpa, where's Grandpa Dennie.  Did we lose him?"  That child is a nut-truly just her own little person.  After that pie, the kid were all sent to bed and before we knew it, we heard a "shhh" coming from their room directed towards us.  They are all sound asleep now and we are not too far behind them!  Tomorrow's plan is the beach, the Navy museum in Pensacola and lasagna for supper.