We vacated!

The original plan was for us to go to my family's place in Santa Rosa for a week- a MUCH needed vacation and our first as a family of six! But at the last minute, we decided to go visit family in Amelia Island. It worked out rather well :)

(Although, I would imagine Aunt Angie and Uncle Dave rested quite a bit after we left!)

The nice weather was a little late to the party, but we had an amazing time regardless. Nathan declared it "the best vacation ever".
"Really? We went to Alaska! And Disney!"
"Yeah, those were AWESOME, but we didn't have everybody." and nodded at Anna Gray with a look of confusion that said How do they even compare?

The kids did GREAT on the drive down (11 hours) and the baby never made a sound. The beach wasn't really an option the first couple of days, but the kids did get to spend a lot of time playing with their almost-cousins and bonded quickly!

On Saturday, Uncle Dave took everyone crabbing just like he took all of us 20 years ago :)  Cale and Layla (umm... and Nathan) LOVED it.

AND WE SAW MANATEES! I've never seen them in the wild, so I was just thrilled to pieces.  The sky finally cleared up and we were able to hit the beach for just a little while that afternoon. Anna Gray's first time!!

 That night- low country boil with our catches from earlier in the day.

Brynn was so funny. She would start cracking pieces off and say, "Do I eat this?". Occasionally, we would say no and she had already put it in her mouth. Crunchy.

Sunday- SUNSHINE!

Finally. Happy Wests!

We weren't sure how AG would react to sand/ocean but she is definitely a beach baby! Happy as a clam!

These kids played and played and played. It was Nathan's last day, so we wanted to soak in every minute we could.

I drove Nath to the airport at 4am Monday morning and he was able to go strait to work.

The kids and I spent one last day on the beach and then got in a visit with Ashley's horses, Spring and Summer :)

Natalie is crying because Gigi put her in the water. Anna Gray is crying because I took her out of the water. And apparently, this is a popular swimsuit this year ;)

Tuesday morning, we headed home! I really do enjoy these solo road trips with my littles.  We'll ask them their opinion later, but personally- they are some of my favorite memories. Next one in three weeks!!