When 2 vacation styles marry

 ...you wake up and see this.  We are looking out the door of our tent into the wilderness of Florida....just a few steps away from this:

 oh so beautiful Grayton Beach.  (And my kids are cute too).

 Jackson could fill and refill his bucket for hours.

 Katie tried to surf on her kickboard!  Collin tried to snorkle and look out for sharks.

 Matt - sweet daddy he is - let the kids bury him in the sand.  I stood by and laughed and took pictures.

 Jackson filling bucket #100.

 Katie made a beach angel.

 The buried daddy, Katie, Collin and the I refuse to be in one more picture Jackson

I just love this photo!
The one above.  The below photo I said get a picture of me and the kids with the ocean behind us.

He does an excellent job taking pictures of buildings and inanimate objects.

Blogger is shifting my photo to the left.  Pardon the mess.  This was a wonderful day despite the lousy sleep in the tent.  Don't get me wrong.  In front of my kids, sleeping in the tent was the most fun!  And Matt would surely want you to know that when he slept in tents as a child, the tent was not a few feet away from the car.  You hiked 19 miles, then pitched the tent and then were grateful you had it.  :)  I'm learning babe.  We packed up this tent and made our way to our next campsite 3 scenic beach drive hours away.

Friday, July 13, 2012  Day 3  Santa Rosa Beach, FL to St. Joseph Peninsula, Florida

Vicksburg Military National Park

 Oh yes we did!  And I'm sure it doesn't surprise you to know that we stopped at historical sites along the way.

 The pictures appeared on my blog out of order but here we are at lunch AFTER Vicksburg but still in Mississippi.

 Again, we picnicked.  Again, it was nice and fun to see what other town playgrounds are like.

 Everyone got to run around before heading on to our destination for the day.

 We arrived at Vicksburg Military National Park just after it opened at 8 that morning.  It was kinda a rainy morning, but we still managed to mostly get out and see every stop along the driving tour.

 Everytime we visit a national park, we have our older kids participate in the junior rangers program.

 Some parks have a scavenger hunt, some have workbooks to complete.  All are fun!

 Lunch/playground photo has appeared!

 This boat was sunk before the civil war with a torpedo (the first torpedo before they were called torpedos) and everyone made it safely off the boat!

 The boat has been recovered from the river and put back together here at the National Park.

 Jackson was napping in the van with Matt on guard, while Collin and Katie and I explored the ship.

 Beautiful hills of Mississippi.

 The house above was a family's home that provided shelter to soldiers during the war.

 This is the memorial made by the state of Illinois for their men that fought and died during the civil war.

 The kids were supposed to count how many steps led up to the memorial and write down what the memorial said on the outside roof area.

 This is the entrance to the driving portion of the park.  Such a pretty driving tour and I highly recommend it!

 I should note that Collin woke up with a fever this morning but was afraid to tell us he was feeling sick because he thought he couldn't go to Disney World.  He had a fever all day long with us rotating tylenol and motrin.  Our plan was to call pediatrician back in Oklahoma the next morning to ask what to do.  He was a trooper!  And you wouldn't have known that he was sick, except for the fact that he was quiet!  And Collin is usually not quiet!

Thursday, July 12, 2012  Day 2  Vicksburg, Mississippi to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida

"Cars didn't drive on it to make great time, they drove on it to have a great time." - Sally from Cars

We were so excited to take a vacation this year!  The first (non-work-related) vacation in 6 years!  And I did lots of deep breathing, praying and planning about how to deal with food allergies along the way.  Friends, we packed more food than clothing.

6:00am departed from home

6:05am returned to home because of forgotten EPIPEN!!

6:10am departed home 2nd time

6:20am picked up donuts

6:30am dropped off overdue library books

6:40am returned home for forgotten cell phone!

6:45am departed home 3rd time

At this point we are all still loving each other too!

Once we turned on the Indian Turnpike to head south, Jackson was no longer feeling the vacation euphoria.

 We made it to Paris, Texas for our first scheduled stop.  Isn't everything bigger and better in Texas??  Okay, not this time.  But I do love the cowboy hat touch, don't you?

 I love planning vacations.  And I do like to stop and smell the roses along the way. 

 I don't want to miss one single thing because I might not be back that same route.

 I love Sally's line in the movie Cars, hence the title of this post.  I kept repeating it to myself when the road seemed long.

 My parents taught me to vacation that way.  They stopped and had us learn something and see something new on every trip.  And I have modeled my way of vacationing after them.

 One change in our way of vacationing was eating.  Normally we would stop at a restaurant off the highway.  Not this time.  Severe food allergies caused us to choose a different plan.  And I loved it!

 When it was lunchish time, we punched in "find park" in our GPS and drove to the nearest city park.  It was a great picnic lunch and our kids got to get out of the car and play.  We didn't worry about being too loud or making our kids stay seated in the chairs.  We didn't worry about Jackson not having food to eat or eating something we assumed was ok but wasn't.  What a relief and blessing.  Loved it!  We did plan on eating out one meal a day, dinner.  This day we ate at a Wendy's (gag me).  But I agreed and went along with the majority because we were on vacation and everyone was still happy.  Let's just say the hair in my salad was enough for me to boycott Wendy's again.

 The older 2 kids loved seeing what other playgrounds were like.

 I loved that everyone was happy!

 Remember those hot, tall, metal slides of our youth?  We don't see those much anymore.  But we all took a hiney-burning turn down the slide.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012  Day 1  Edmond, Oklahoma to Vicksburg, Mississippi

4th of July Parade

 Our neighborhood had a scooter/bike/stroller parade for all the kiddos.  Jackson wasn't thrilled about being the lone stroller rider.

 This is Jackson's response when Matt asked, "Jackson, tell us how much you love America."  I'm thinking the heat was getting to him.

 Kate-Kate was fortunate enough to be chosen to lead the parade.

 A bounce house, snow cones and fun with friends capped off the evening.

We feel very blessed to live where we live.  And I hear the president of the HOA is pretty hot too.  :)