Monday, March 21, 2022

Spring Break and Birthday Week In Destin!

This past week we had the pleasure of being invited by our friends the Larsen's to join them at their parents beach house in Destin, Florida. I was a little hesitant at first because of the amount of people and the chaos, but it really ended up being a wonderful week. We went with the Larsen, Wharton, Brown, and Hatch families. They are great families and they each have some of my kids best friends in them. 

The drive to Destin went pretty well. We left Saturday morning. We had some traffic but overall it went well. Ella even drove an hour and a half of the way there and back and did a really good job. 
We got there in time for a perfect sunset.
The house was right on the beach and was perfect. 
We did a nice sacrament meeting together on Sunday morning and then relaxed and played games. Monday was a nice beach day. The weather was still a little chilly, but sunny and beautiful.

Family beach photo!
Cavin found a way to still play soccer on the beach with his friend Audrey.
Ella and Katelyn were best buds all week!
The first few days Jennie's friend Helen joined us. It was nice to meet her and she was sweet. 
I love the boys relationship. They love to be together. 
The sound of the waves and the sunsets almost make it worth the sandy mess ;)
The kids played cross net and in the pool.
We built a lot of sandcastles.
Channing had a sweet set of girls to hang out with all week. 
I had some pretty awesome women as well!
This was Sharlene, Nikki, Jennie, me, and Rachael.
Deacon was so excited to find tickle crabs. 
The first day we made the bat mobile. 
The kids really enjoyed boogie boarding in the waves. 
Tuesday was raining so they played games and hung out all together. Wednesday was my 39th birthday!
Ragnar got 5 dozen donuts to celebrate. We went on an early morning run together. 
We spent the day at the beach and then the adults went to dinner. We tried in traffic to get to a restaurant and then it took an hour and the wait was 2 more so we ended up at a Greek restaurant but that was fine cause they had a nice burger!
We came back and my friends Jennie and Shane sang a cute song they made for me and then the kids all did karaoke. 
The last beach day on Thursday was perfect. It warmed up enough to really swim and it was a great day out. 
On the last beach day we spent hours making this Destin sign. So many people came to take pictures with it, so that was fun. 
The boys!
The girls!
Here were the couples, minus Jordan who couldn't come. 
Ella's friend Cayden made a "sandman" Olaf with her. 
Our whole group!
We went to Alvin's to get matching shirts/sweatshirts. 
They had smores and made sugar cookies. 
On the last day we got to go to the Rainforest black light mini golf place and meet up with my friend Candice Waters. 
It was so good to see her!
Tyler and Cavin used to be the best buddies!
They live in Florida now and I have missed her so much! She is the best. 
We drove home Saturday and made good time. It really was a great trip with so many fun memories. We had great company, food, weather, and fun games every day! We loved Destin and were so glad we got to go. 

School Activities

Spring is always filled with lots of fun things. Ella and Cavin have been doing a lot of UIL orchestra performances and I love watching them perform. 

Ella's Lyrica group got all 1's in the competition which is the highest. 
I liked her songs that were chosen a lot more than her past concert. 
Cavin also had his performance and his group also got 1's.
I am glad Ella and Cavin have their love of cello. I enjoy listening to them play. 
Channing had her 5th grade Manner's banquet. She was so excited to dress up and have a fun, special day. 
These are her close friends Maely and Meg.
This is her "partner" for the day, Keaton.
They got to eat fancy food and had a cute slideshow to finish off their years in Elementary School.
I got to set up and be a waitress for the event. It was fun to be with her. 
Finally, Cavin began Track season. He wasn't planning on doing Track, but his coach convinced him to do it as cross training for Soccer season and I am so glad. He is running the 2400m and has improved each meet. It is a race no one likes to do, cause it's a lot of laps and kinda boring, but it was always been my favorite. 
My budding runner and me! I just love Track meets and proud of him for trying new things and doing his best. 

I am glad my kids are involved in many things and are working hard and thriving.