Ball boys

The Sharks got a treat tonight--

we were invited to be the ball boys

at the Lee's Summit North soccer game!

We met with Coach Kelly

and got some words of wisdom

And we got to meet the players

and get some advice from them too

Then we waited patiently for the game to start

and sprung into action!

I chased down and threw in 3 balls...

that was pretty cool.

Maybe in 8 years I'll be out there...

Day 7...things to remember us by

The day we have been dreading

is here.

The drive home begins.

We had breakfast with the Keims

and then headed our separate ways.

But we did make one more stop

for souvenirs--

bracelets to match Kaitlyn, Cohen, and Kylie

and stickers for our suitcases. 

We got t-shirts too...

but we seem to have misplaced them.

They'll turn up,

right?

Ok, Keims.

Where to next year???

Day 6...in the air and at the shore

In our travels around Destin,

we passed this awesome dinosaur-themed

amusement park.

We begged to try it out...

There were battle boats

Tons of arcade games

Some virtual reality movies

And even a 4-D theater

Rockin' the 3D glasses

Tucker and his new best friend Chip

did some hanging out

and we explored the grounds

looking at all the dinosaurs

But the highlight of the afternoon,

the thing we waited around for 3 hours to open,

was the ropes course

Jack and I were big enough to do

the huge 3 story course

Can you see me?

Waaaaay up there on that platform?

Beckett was bummed to stay on the ground.

Maybe you'll be tall enough next time.

After a homemade crab leg and shrimp dinner,

we headed back to the beach

for one final hurrah.

It was the perfect light for some pictures

Cheese!

There's something about the beach.

We didn't plan ahead with matching outfits,

but we still take a pretty good picture.

Oh, Destin.

It has been fun.

Day 5...a little down time

Whew.

This week has been so fun.

And a bit exhausting.

We needed a little break today.

We had some more fun

with arts and crafts.

The Reeds decorated Halloween shirts

and the Keims decorated Halloween bags

We did a little swimming

Well, a lot of swimming

It was a nice morning

Gotta love this pool

After the Littles took a nap,

we headed back to the beach

We had more sand castles to build

And if you looked really closely,

there were shells in the surf today

I was busy

hauling sand.

I needed to move it

from here

to there.

Tuck had a good time!

We played with the gulls for a while too.

They could catch Cheetos

we threw in the air

in their mouths!

We had a pool dance contest

after dinner,

complete with glow sticks for

an added touch.

Chris won with her crazy hand jive.

It's going to be hard to go back to work

after all this fun!

Day 4...on the pontoon

Today we rented a boat

to tootle around and explore

and swim wherever we wanted

Captain Chip

had it covered

It was a gorgeous day

with gorgeous people!

Just relaxing with our friends

Where's our first stop?

We found a beach

not far from the harbor 

where we picked up the boat

Let's do some digging!

Hey, Dad!

Bury us!

Cohen and I sat really still

and got really stuck!

A moment of peace for Mom and Dad

After a while,

we hopped back in the boat

(in the bigger boat)

to see what else we could see

A quick family picture 

Our next stop was Crab Island.

I'm not sure why they call it Crab Island--

we didn't see many crabs.

It was basically a huge sand bar

that people gathered and parked

and walked around

There was even a "food boat"

(behind us)

Dad had fun snorkeling,

picking up hermit crabs

and snails

See?

Cool.

This is fun,

but now where are we off to?

It was a long day in the sun.

Some of us took a nap.

Our last but DEFINITELY not least stop

was another beachy place

We parked the boat,

waded ashore,

and scurried to the top of the hill

Some were more enthusiastic than others

We did some sledding with our paddle boat

Did a lot of running up and down the hill

and dug some caves into the side

But the coolest thing about this beach

was all the sea life...

look at the hermit crabs!

They were EVERYWHERE!

We must have collected 50 of them.

And a grumpy crab that kept trying to escape

Dad caught a tang fish

and an even bigger, grumpier crab

We thought we'd have a crab race 

to set them all free.

But after 2 minutes, none of them had moved very far,

so we helped them all back into the water

Did I mention we forgot our lunch cooler

on the kitchen counter?

We survived on snacks and drinks.

Just as the day was ending and we were headed back in,

Chris commented that it was such a bummer

we hadn't seen any dolphins today.

And guess what?

A whole bunch of them suddenly appeared!

There were 3 or 4 pods,

each one with 4-5 dolphins.

And there were even a few babies!!!

It was incredible.

They were surfacing all around us.

Some even swam right beside the boat!!!

AMAZING!!!

We topped it off with dinner on the harbor

and hanging around on the boardwalk.

THAT was an incredible day!