Florida

We took a family vacation at the beginning of June to Seagrove, Florida. We went with my parents and my brother, Craig, and his wife, Jacqueline. It was fabulous. Much smoother than our last family vacation! Craig and Jax don’t have kids yet so one of the best parts of the trip was that Ben and I instantly had 4 extra helpers for our 3 kiddos.

The trip did get off to just a little bit of a rough start because it was storming in Dallas the morning that we left. It wasn’t raining at the time of our take off but because of the storms earlier in the day, the runway was completely backed up. We boarded the plane on time but ended up sitting on the runway for 2 hours!  Aubrey slept most of that time and then she was ready for a bottle when we finally took off. It ended up being okay. Except for Ava and Macy asking EVERY 5 SECONDS when we were going to take off.

Relaxing at the airport

Watching the planes

This was actually on our way back home. Watching a movie while waiting to board the plane.

It was also rainy in Florida on the day that we arrived but the rain stopped long enough for us to go down to the beach and put our toes in the water. We didn’t even put on bathing suits because we knew the break in the storm wouldn’t last long. The girls had never seen the beach before. Here they are taking it all in for the first time.














To say Ava and Macy loved the beach would be an understatement. As soon as we woke up every morning, they would start in on “When can we go to the ocean?” They swam and swam and swam some more in the ocean. Their favorite thing to do was catch sea creatures and put them in their buckets. There were tons of little tiny fish swimming in the shallow part of the water so the girls would get their nets and catch them and keep them as their “pets.” I can’t tell you how many poor little fish lost their life in Ava and Macy’s buckets over the week we were there.













 

 

Looking for crabs on the beach at night.

Playing with their "pets."

Uncle Craig caught a real fish!
 

Aubrey didn’t love the beach as much as her sisters. She was okay with it in small doses. She wasn’t crazy about the sand and hated the ocean water. Too cold!  She napped a little under the umbrellas and hung out in her Bumbo. We put the Bumbo in a kiddie pool so she could splash around a little.

Checking out the waves with Gigi.

Here is a picture of the house we stayed in while we were there. So awesome to be in a house so close to the beach!

All we had to do was walk down this bridge and down some stairs and we were on the beach!

Craig, Jax, and my Dad made some awesome dinners for everyone. We had delicious, fresh seafood 2 nights and grilled out hamburgers another night.

Cooking dinner

We also went out to eat!

 

Craig, Jax, Ben, and I met up with Jax’s sister and her husband (also Craig) who were staying nearby and had an adult only dinner. We went to Caliza which was super swanky and delicious and a special treat for all of us!






We also went to the amphitheater in Seaside to see the play, James and the Giant Peach. The kids loved it and after the play they were able to run around and burn some energy which is always good.

With some of the characters after the play.

Double piggy back ride.

Ben and Aubrey. Ben is Jacqueline's nephew. He is a month younger than Aubrey and such a cutie!!

One day we took the girls on a Pirate Cruise! They love pirates (remember their Halloween costumes) so mom found this and thought it would be fun. It took them a little bit to warm up to the idea of being on a boat with “pirates” but they ended up having a lot of fun. They had water gun fights, sword fights, face painting, a real cannon, and of course a treasure map with a treasure chest that the kids helped pull out of the ocean. Pretty cool!

We had some family pictures made too. This is a sneak peek. I’ll post some more when we get the CD with all of the pictures.

 

Our next door neighbors in Frisco were staying about 30 minutes away from us so they came to hang out on the beach with us one day. They also have 3 girls so this was a special treat for Ava and Macy to get to play with their friends on the beach.




As you can see, we had a great time. We relaxed on the beach, ate some great food, and went some cool places. However, you know that no Wyatt family vacation is complete without some drama and a Macy story. So here goes… It was our last day. All 9 of us were out on the beach. Ben was in the water with the girls, Dad and Craig were fishing out at about waist high water, and Mom, Jax, and I were laying on the beach. Mom had her sun hat over her face and Jax and I were reading.  Ava had to go to the bathroom so Ben took her up. All week long Ben or my Dad had been in the water with the girls. Ben was all about playing in the water with them so I had relaxed a little bit on watching them while they were in the ocean. I’m not sure how long Ava and Ben were gone when Mom (with her hat over her face) said, “Are you watching Macy?”  NO. I wasn’t. And when I looked up she was gone. GONE. Like no where in sight. We all immediately jumped up. We looked all around where we were. Up and down the beach. Behind us. Out in the water. And she was no where. I can not even explain the panic that started to set in. I took off running up to the house to see if she had followed Ben and Ava. Jax went one way down the beach and my mom started yelling to Craig and Dad and then went the other way down the beach. When I got up to the house, Ben was standing right by the door waiting on Ava to finish (she was having some tummy issues and taking forever to go to the bathroom). I told him we couldn’t find Macy and started yelling her name as loud as I could thinking she might be somewhere in the house. Ben said she wasn’t there and told me to stay with Ava so he could go look. Mom told me later that when they all saw Ben come running down the stairs to the beach, reality set in that she wasn’t at the house and that she was really missing. I was pacing back and forth at the house still yelling her name and looking all over in case she was being silly and hiding from us and then I just started praying, “Please let her be okay. Please let her be okay.” Ava was still taking forever and I kept thinking maybe they have found her by now (it had only been a few minutes since Ben had left the house) so I left Ava in the bathroom and ran to where I could see over the edge onto the beach (not far from the house). When I looked down, all I could see were people walking up and down the beach looking for her. The people laying around us had gotten up and started helping look for her. Ben was swimming out in the ocean. That is the point when I reached full out, might have a nervous breakdown, panic. I couldn’t really see straight and all I could think was that she drowned and it was all my fault. I should have been watching her. Ben and I talked about it later and we both thought deep down that she had drowned. Earlier in the week the ocean was really rough because of the storms and a few people in areas around ours had drowned. Even though the ocean was much calmer on this day, it still was in the back of my head. I knew that if she had just wandered off we would have found her by now. I knew that surely we would be able to walk down the beach a little way, especially with all of those people helping, and find her. I knew that if we hadn’t found her yet, she was somewhere in the ocean. I realize that sounds overly dramatic but these are the thoughts going on in my head at the time. I had left Ava in the bathroom so once I saw that they were still looking for her, I ran back to the house. Not that I cared at the time, but just to give you a visual, I am doing all this running around in nothing buy my BATHING SUIT! I don’t even have flip flops on! Our neighbors in the house next to us noticed that I was running around like a crazy person and came out to see if I was okay. I told them that we couldn’t find our little girl. We had spent the whole week in the house next to them so they immediately asked, “One of the twins?” They asked what her name is and what she was wearing. There were about four of them so they scattered around the area that we were staying to look for her. They checked the pool and around some of the other houses. I went back and finally told Ava that we couldn’t find Macy and she needed to just be done in the bathroom and come help us look. I didn’t want to worry her but OMG she was taking forever in the bathroom!! As Ava and I are heading back to the beach someone stopped me (Didn’t even know the person. Word spread quickly) and said, “Oh you found her!” and I said “No. This is the other one. But she looks like this! Same swim suit and everything! Keep looking!” Mark that down as an advantage to having twins. You have a real life replica if one is ever missing! As Ava and I stepped back onto the beach, I am thinking in my head, “I don’t know what to do. I just want to cry, or scream, or throw up but none of that seems appropriate right now. What do we do? What if we can’t find her? What do we do next?” About that time, someone (I think it was one of our neighbors) ran up to me and told me they found her. I took off running (again!) to her. Mom had already gotten to her and we hugged her and held her so tight. I have never been so happy to see that girl in my life. Apparently when she came out of the ocean, she couldn’t find us. There were several set ups of blue chairs and umbrelllas exactly like ours lining the water. She got confused and just started wandering down the beach. She got pretty far (we think about 300 yards) when finally two ladies stopped her and asked if she was lost. She said yes and told them her name and her parent’s names. They walked her back in our direction and when they got closer Macy spotted mom and told the ladies “That’s my grandma!” The whole ordeal lasted around 10 minutes but it seemed like it went on for hours! I have never felt so scared and helpless in my life! And I felt totally guilty! I just kept thinking that I should have been watching her and no one would ever forgive me and I would for sure never forgive myself! It made me think about the stories of missing children that you hear on the news. I cannot imagine feeling what I felt but then it not ending. Never having the relief of finding your child alive and well. How awful! I can’t even imagine. Needless to say, we did not let her out of our sight for the rest of the trip. It is all kind of comical now and a good story to tell but it was AWFUL at the time.

Here we are though, together again, one happy family, not missing any children, on our last day before we left for the airport. Thanks mom and dad for a wonderful and (mostly) relaxing vacation! It was great!!