Florida 2014

The last week in June we packed up the van and drove down to Pensacola Beach Island to spend a week with my family having fun at the beach. It worked out well because we were able to give Porter and Sariah a ride down to visit their grandparents in Pensacola. They were sure fun to have along on our long car rides.

 Our second day there we went to check out The National Naval Aviation Museum. It was a SUpER hot day, so a good day to spend in the AC.

 USS Enterprise Model

 The boys just loved it! I thought they might have been too young to enjoy it and would just be wild.

 but they were super good, and we all had a fun time learning about the different planes.

 They loved hearing Matt teach them about the different engine types.  Ask Heath how a turbine engine works sometime.

 I was amazed at how many planes they had packed into that hanger.  They had planes in every possible inch of that place.

It was also neat to see planes similar to the ones both of my Grandpas, Duane and John flew during WWII.

 Heath & Houston got to try out lots of pilot seats.  They loved it. Heath said he wants to be a pilot when he grows up.

 Hannah was her super baby self and slept almost the whole time we were there. 

 Matt decided he wouldn't have made a very good pilot or gunner, he didn't fit very well into or on anything we saw.

 I tortured our family and asked them to wear clothes to the beach for some nice pictures.

 Thanks for snapping these mom.

 I have decided the beach is the best vacation spot for a family with little kids.  It's a giant sand box, who could ask for more when you're 4. The boys just played all day long, and if they got hot they would splash around in the shallow water and let the waves push them around.  There were so many things to discover and try to catch and build and bury. Seriously a wonderful vacation!  In the afternoon when it was super hot and sunny they were so tired they were perfectly happy to go up to the hotel and take a little nap, so yeah, it was pretty great!

Hannah is 3 months old. She was wonderful and traveled so well.  She still slept all night just fine. She would go to sleep around 9, get up about 4 and eat really quick then go back to sleep till 8-9ish in the morning. The boys also slept really really well. Playing all day is hard work.

 We think she's super cute too.

 I love these pictures.

 Sterling and Dallin are so fun for the boys.  We're so lucky to have such great Uncles.

 Beach burrito

 Heath found a pod of empty Shark or Stingray eggs floating in the water.  He was super excited when I told him what they were. WHat?! REally Mom?

 Hannah spent most of the time hanging in the shade. (and we were successful in keeping her from getting burnt or pink... that was my main concern with taking her to the beach.)  She was pretty happy to nap or watch the happenings from her little hammock.

 One evening we walked to the pier and had pizza. It was delicious! and we got to watch them making it.

 Grandma brought a little George Foreman grill to make pancakes and bacon and eggs for breakfast each morning on the patio.  While we were all busy one morning, Houston  helped himself... he couldn't understand what was wrong....

 Heath and Houston had so much fun hanging with Daddy.  It was so nice to have a set aside time to just have fun together with him.  This last year of school was good, but it was hard, especially right after Hannah was born and finals came. We were so grateful for this time.

 We saw SO much wildlife this year.  Every morning we watched dolphins from the balcony. (while grandma made bacon)

We saw sting rays, lots of fish, and some little crabs. 

This was an alligator gar that came about 4 feet from shore one morning. Matt followed it down shore for quite a while.  He said it was about 6 feet long.

 Sterling's pick up line hat.

 more of the aviation museum... these are out of order....

 This was the favorite. The boys both thought it was soo cool to have a shark face on the plane.

 We went to McGuires Irish restaurant one night. People staple dollar bills to the ceiling all throughout this HUGE restaurant.  They said there are over a million dollar bills up there. Cant beat their 83 cent bean soup. It was super tasty!

 Our last day the water was SO clear!

 Heading out to catch hermit crabs.

 We found so many of these little guys that last day. It was pretty fun to play with them.

 Poor tired Houston.

 Heath the gingerbread man.

 The McGee family, some of my parent's friends who have kids Sterling and Dallin's ages, were also there so we met up a lot.  The last night we had a weenie roast on the foreman grill.  This is the whole motley crew.

 Dolphin from the balcony.

 Sting ray

 Amy, Mom and I took a walk on the pier the last night with Hannah. Had a little girls night out I suppose.

 There were so many people fishing. They were getting a good haul it looked like. They had lines with about 6 -10 hooks on them. As quickly as they could get that line unloaded and back into the water it was full again. Pretty impressive.

 Hannah seriously was SO awesome!

 On our way back home we stopped at the USS Alabama Battleship. We had seen it last year but just didn't have enough time to check it out, so we did it this year.

 That bell was SO loud.  Houston was a bit scared of it.

 The prop for the ship.

The battleship was HUGE!  I had a lot of different emotions as we walked through the tour.  I was humbled by so much power and strength. Grateful for the everyday men who gave their time and lives to man this ship. I was saddened to think that this whole ship was dedicated to destruction and devastation. Sad to think of all the damage that was caused by this ship, all the lives that were lost in it's wake, but also sad to think of the things that came about to cause something like this to need to be built. Grateful to be out of that time right now, hopeful that the future won't have something like this in store for my children.

 The tour was laid out really well.  They had colored numbers on the walls pointing you through so that you didn't miss anything or get turned around below deck... which would have been really easy. They had given us a little print out that had a write up for each stop.

 HUGE anchor chains!

Those Turrets were SO huge! There were so many things that went into shooting one of them. The shells are kept way down in the very bottom of the ship and roll on a track all the way around to be loaded into the turret. It was so amazing to see just how much went into shooting one off. The engineers who designed these ships sure had a big job. So many little and big things to squeeze onto a ship. 

 Climbing up into the turret. It was a tight squeeze for him.

 The mixer in the kitchen.... So huge!

 There were signs like this throughout the ship, Save a loaf a week help win the war, Buy war bonds help win the war.

 There was so much space dedicated to food. Those sailors needed to eat well.

 Most of the eating areas were built along hallways or around corners with only 3-7 seats at each one.  no big mess halls like you see on movies on this ship.

I think it would have been so hard to sleep in these conditions. I laid down on a bed and my head touched the top and my feet were hanging off the end and Im 5'10''.  Matt would have been miserable. So many men squeezed into a small space.

 The barber shop.

From my perception, it looked like the food and laundry took up most of the space on the ship.  They said all the laundry equipment on the ship was state of the art for the time and super efficient.

 The bathrooms were alright.

 I can't imagine how this area smelled.  The stalls are over a long trough.  : (

 The higher in ranks you went the "nicer" the sleeping arrangements were. All except for the captain. His bed was right up next to where he worked with a "yell pipe" right next to his head if they needed him quickly.  They said on average during a cruise he would sleep 3 or less hours every 24 hours.  That's way worse than having a new baby.  I don't know how he functioned.  I'll count my blessings. That poor man.

 They also had a sub next to the battleship called the USS Drum that we toured.  It was super awesome, but my camera died before we got to it.  Anyways the reason I bring it up.

These are freezers that were always full of ice cream for the sailors to eat at any time.   On the USS Drum, where space was SO limited and the shower/sink/toilet in one was about 1square foot, they had a little ice cream maker for the sailors so they could make and eat ice cream any time they had a hankering. I guess they knew what keeps people happy! 

 Captain Heath

 Captain Houston

I was had never really realized what all needed to be aboard one of these ships.  They had a surgeon, dentist, optometrist, doctors, an xray room, blacksmiths, cobblers, maps men, photographers, a darkroom, a jail, freezers, a butcher, accountants, communications rooms, magazine filling rooms, all kinds of clerks to keep track of everything on the ship, seamstresses, water maintenance (taking the salt out of the water) men, navigators, post office, a shop with cigarets, booze, soap, razors, shoes, etc.  There were so many things needed to keep the ship going.  So many of those positions slept right above their working area. That would have made for a long cruise I think.  It took us about 3 hours to get through the whole ship. It was really neat to see what life would have been like for those sailors.