Florida

For memorial day weekend my parents and I decided to go visit my cousin and his family in Florida. Greg's oldest daughter was getting baptised, so we thought it would be a good excuse to go and visit. It was a very long drive. Thirteen hours. The first day we were there we went to Destin. At first it was raining like crazy when we got there so we went and saw the Battle of the Smithsonian's. It was really funny. By the end of the movie the weather cleared up so we headed to the beach. It was beautiful. Gorgeous white beaches and relatively warm water. Here is dad and greg at the beach.

Ryan was excited about throwing a football on the beach. He said it was his first time. I thought that was pretty cool. Isn't he soooo cute. 
here is mandi and nathan. This was my first time meeting nathan. He is mandi and greg's fourth child and only grandson out of 11 grandkids. He always gravitated toward the men. He love love loves his grandpas. Can you blame him; being around so many girls. 
Mandi's mom Michelle was there to. It was so wonderful seeing her again. She was my young women president when I was in high school and I loved her. I will always be grateful for the lessons she taught me. She helped shape me into what I am now. In this picture she is with Jill's (not mine, mandi's sisters) twins. 

I had to throw this picture of Nathan pulling the boogie board. It was just too cute. 

Emily's baptism was so beautiful. I am so glad we were able to be there for it. One great idea, that I haven't seen before at a baptism, was greg made a slide show of Emily growing up for us to watch as she was changing. It was very touching. After the baptism we went back to greg's house for lunch. After lunch my aunt Laurie gave Emily her baptism present. It was a quilt she had made that represented her and Chris' testimony. Some of the things on the quilt were the temple, scriptures, CTR, a picture of Christ, and many more things. So clever and you can see how much Emily loved it. 
Just to back track a little. Saturday night the boys let all us girls go out for a night on the town while they watched all seven kids. It was fun. We went shopping, went to a great seafood restaurant down in Destin and then we took a walk on the beach before coming home. It was so much fun. Here is a picture of Jill and her husband. 

Before we left on Sunday, my mom gave laurie a haircut. Well, once all the kids saw this they all wanted to their hair cut. Five haircuts in total. My mom was happy. She loves to do this. 

Here is a picture of all the grandkids. Four are greg and mandi's and the other three girls were Jill's. 

All in all it was a very crowded house. seventeen people in total. We had so much fun in Florida. I am so glad we went. It was totally worth the drive. On the way home we decided to stop at the Chattanooga Aquarium. Here is a picture of my dad and mom on the brick couch outside of the aquarium.