Dance Family: Florida!

For the week of Thanksgiving we went to Destin, Florida. Michelle knew several people who love to vacation there and the pictures of it look amazing so we decided to go. It was about a 12 hour drive. We broke it up into 2 days. We left Friday afternoon and drove to Houston to see my Aunt Sue and her 3 kids and their families. It was fun to see them. It had been several years since I'd last seen them. We ate dinner with them and then drove a couple more hours to Lake Charles, Louisiana. Doug and I realized that Louisiana was the first state we'd been to together that neither of us had been to before. We also drove through Mississippi and Alabama, which neither of us had been to before either. We saw lots of swamps and trees on our drive. And a memorable sign that said "Baton Rouge has more murders than Chicago." Really makes people want to go there I'm sure. :) Florida was much colder than we had expected. I think it was in the 40s one day. and probably in the 50s most days. We still had a great time though!

Doug driving. Our first time in Louisiana :)

Louisiana swamp.

I took a picture of a sign to help me know where we were when I took it. But it doesn't help at all. :) Doug laughed at me when I took it and asked if I'd really remember.

Coleman.

We found a lizard in the kitchen.

Michelle and Kenna tried to catch it.

Michelle caught it. It escaped after this and ran under the oven.

On Sunday after church we went to the beach. The sand is really weird there. It's really fine and has a different texture than other sand I've touched. And it squeaked when we'd walk in it.

This was one of the warmer, sunnier days we had there.

Kenzie.

Kenna, Michelle, Richard, Nati. The water was really blue and calm that day.

Kenna asked Michelle if she could go in the water a little bit and not sit down. They said yes so she walked in until she was at her waist. They decided Kenna wouldn't go to the beach without her swim suit anymore. :)

Coleman burying his feet.

Doug and Coleman standing in the water a little bit.

Kenna running through the water. The water was kind of warm for it not being that warm outside. Kenna started getting in the water because she would get so cold out of the water.

Colie burying his feet again.

Jordan burying the stick. He loved playing in the sand and did most of the time we were at the beach the whole week.

Coleman helping.

Me and Doug. I wanted to secretly capture Doug just being on his phone while at the beach in beautiful Destin :)

Coleman and Nati.

Colie, me, Kenz, Jordan.

Doug

Pretending he's a model :)

A few days before we left for Texas we were having dinner at my parents' house and Ashlee's family was there too. They went on a cruise the week before Thanksgiving and got off the ship on the Sunday we were in Destin. They were just going to be hanging out in Miami until the flew back home on Wednesday. We were talking about how all of us sisters were going to be in Florida at the same time and I said they should just drive up to Destin to see us. They decided that they would and that it would be a surprise for the Kenyons. It was a really hard secret to keep the month we were there, but Doug and I did it. We didn't tell the kids, because they wouldn't have kept it a secret. All day Sunday they drove to Destin, which was about 9 hours of driving time plus stops. They got there around 9 or 10 at night. They knocked on the door. Michelle looked really surprised to hear the door (I forgot to mention in my week 1 post that Michelle's neighbor's friends who were at a party at the neighbor's house rang the door bell and pounded on the door 3 times from about 10:00-12:30 at night and would run away before we caught them. On the last one Richard ran out the door so fast with his baseball bat and followed the guy to the house and threw the bat at him. Richard called the cops and they came and told him he should throw bats at people anymore :) The cops hung around for awhile and the guys never came back. It's funny to think about now, but at the time it wasn't at all funny. Luckily none of the kids woke up from all the noise.) So anyways, we were a little cautious about people knocking on the door late at night. Richard got up to answer the door and I did my best to look surprised that someone was knocking at the door. When Richard opened the door he saw a baby on the door step. Ashlee said he looked around and was pretty confused at first (we all wish she would have had her camera) He said "a baby" Michelle jumped up and saw who it was and said "Camryn Crabtree?" and ran outside. She was so excited and happy. :) The Crabtree girls went and got Kenna up and she was so excited. It was such a fun surprise :)

We only had Monday to hang out with them because they needed to drive back on Tuesday because their plane left Wednesday. We went to a shopping/activity center called the Village.

Sam, Jordan, and Jack played the Wii before we left. Kimber's on the couch. Colie's on the other couch.

Konrad, Sam, Jack, Kenna, Alli.

Crazy kids.

Jordan still being silly.

Cute Camryn.

All the cousins except Kenzie.

Kenzie joined in this picture.

Coleman loves "Tenna"

You can pay to steer boats with this steering wheels. Konrad tried, but it didn't work. The kids are just playing.

Ashlee was really hungry.

The kids really wanted some ice cream. Even though it was so cold.

Sam shaking Santa's hand.

Alli.

Aren't Kenzie and Nati so cute?

All the older kids (all but Jordan, Nati, Kenzie, Colie, and Camryn) went on a big ropes course. Doug had to go with Jack because he wasn't quite tall enough to do it on his own.

Kimber with Alli, Sam, and Kenna behind her.

Alli.

Doug and Jack.

Jack, Alli, Kenna.

Doug walked across the balance beam without holding any ropes :)

Kenzie and Coleman.

She hates wearing jackets. Until she decides she really is really cold.

Ash, Michelle, Camryn

All the kids, except Kenna I think, got a little nervous at this point. It is pretty high up. I think this is Kimber, Alli, and Kenna.

Doug and Jackson.

Doug ringing the bell. That was kind of the goal of this course. Jackson didn't want to though. He didn't really want to walk out on the board either. But he was brave and did it :)

The little kids did a little ropes course.

Kimber helped out.

And so did Sam.

Kenzie concentrating on balancing. She didn't like the balance beam parts and tried to avoid them as much as she could.

She doesn't want to go on the balance beam :)

At the end they zip lined down to the bottom instead of walking down the stairs.

Next the kids did the rock wall. This is

This was Jack's first time climbing a rock wall.

It was Jordan's first time too.

I think their favorite part was falling down when there were done climbing.

Richard and Konrad look huge doing it after the kids :)

All the cousins. Sam was really excited in the picture :)

I love how Cam and Jordan are looking at each other in this picture.

Afterwards the kids got candy from the candy store and the moms got hot chocolate.

Kenzie trying a peanut butter pretzel.

She loved her sucker.

Me, Shell, Ash

The Crabtrees left Tuesday around noon, and the Doug's brother Brian and his family arrived that night. We hadn't seen them in more than 3 years so it was fun to see them and catch up. They live in Atlanta so when we knew were going to Destin for Thanksgiving we invited them to come. We were so happy they came!

Alyssa, Ashton, Jackson, and Carinn playing Guess Who. It's always amazing to me that cousins who don't see each other very often are such good friends right away. There was not really any shyness.

Doug playing Blokus with Brian, Jordan and Coleman. Colie loves that game :) Michelle and Kenna watching Teen Beach Movie.

We went to the beach Wednesday morning. We didn't stay very long because it was so cold. Michelle wrapped Nati up in a warm blanket.

Cold Jordan.

Alyssa, Ashton, Kenna, Carinn.

Mackenzie.

Doug trying to warm up Jackson. We all had to wear our shoes because the sand was freezing. It was really weird to me to touch such cold sand.

Tina, Brian, Carinn, Ashton, Alyssa

Kenna flying a kite.

Colie playing in the sand. Kenna flying the kite.

Brian helping Alyssa fly the kite.

Coleman helped Michelle cook.

Ashton, Carinn, Alyssa Thanksgiving morning.

Mackenzie loved hiding in the cupboard. She also loved hiding things in there.

Some of the turkey dripping spilled into the oven and made the house pretty smokey and set off the fire alarms. So the firemen came to check the everything was okay.

That's all the pictures I have of Thanksgiving. We had a great dinner that we all worked hard to make happen :) I think we went in the hot tub that night too. One of the reasons we picked the condo we stayed in was because it had a pool. It was supposed to be a heated pool, but it turns out they only heat it in March and then let the sun keep it warm all summer. It was pretty cold. The kids jumped in a few times and then ran immediately to the hot tub. We went hot tubbing several times. It was so nice and warm :)

On Friday we finally got some nice weather. It was in the 60s and sunny. We spend most of the day at the beach.

Alyssa, Carinn, Kenna, Jackson.

Jackson, Carinn, Kenna, Alyssa, Ashton

Kenzie and Nati in each others' swimsuits.

They're just too cute :)

There was a playground on the beach. Kenzie loved running over and playing over there.

Colie loved it too.

Carinn.

Kenna had her face down in her towel and I kept saying "Nati" but she never looked up. The Shell told me it was Kenna :)

Douglas

Alyssa and Jackson

Richard brought his fishing stuff, but the only way he could fish was if he was helping kids since he doesn't have a license. Alyssa was happy to fish with him. They were out there for a little while, but didn't catch anything.