“In all of living, have much fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured.” Hinckley: May 2015

The last weekend in May Matt drove us to Springfield and left us for 3 weeks vacation. Poor Matt had to work while we all went and played.

Friday morning My parents, Sterling Dallin and us all piled into Matt's parents awesome Nissan NV van and drove down to Biloxi MS. It was such a comfortable drive!

The kids did pretty well for the most part. Heath got carsick on the windy roads in Arkansas and threw up (the first time any of our children ever had thrown up) He did a really good job and kept it all contained really well. The van did smell funny for the rest of the day though....

In Memphis we stopped at the new Bass Pro Pyramid. It was a great pit stop to get some wiggles out.

Grandma

Hannah and Sterling

Houston wanted to play hide and seek with Sterling over and over again. He always hid in the same place?!

We got to Biloxi that night and went out to eat at "Slap ya Mama's Barbeque." Despite the weird name, it was delicious. (I love Sterling's face)

We got a little lost on the way home, but we found an affle hous.

The next morning we woke up to the sound of engines revving. Outside our balcony there were a bunch of racing boats prepping. The boys loved it!

After a while they all started gathering off to our left out in the water. Then a bunch of helicopters come overhead and they all took off!

These got out of order... this was a little break on the drive. She was so happy to get out for a bit!

Grandpa the chauffeur.

anyways, the boats all took off! It was SO loud and very exciting!

Grandpa and Sterling had gone down to look at the boats and talk to the owners before they all took off. This boat is called a black diamond. The guy who Dad talked to said there are only 3 in the world, and 2 of them were there that day. It was the fastest. It waited till everyone was gone, then took off and passed them all. Pretty impressive.

After all the excitement was over, we got ready and went out to the sand!

The water in Biloxi was a lot darker than Pensacola, but it was super shallow. We could walk way out and still have the water only come to our knees.

Hannah is such a little wanderer.

Sterling helped Heath learn how to serf. He did really well and could actually stay up for a while.

Houston spend a good portion of the day running about 100 feet from the water, turning around then racing as fast as he could into the ocean and falling into the water. He loved it!

Houston

Hannah & Dallin

My original little boys. : ) Sterling and Dallin

We got pizza and ate it on the beach. The seagulls loved the pizza bones.

and the boys loved the seagulls.

Hannah loved finding treasures and carrying them around with her. She had quite a collection.

The next morning we packed the van, went to church in Biloxi, then drove over to Pensacola Beach. We got there as the sun was setting. It was sure beautiful! you can see more pictures of that night here

Monday it was back out to the beach for us. My parent's friends, The McGee family also vacationed there at the same time. We had a lot of fun with them. This is Hannah Jane, with Hannah Jane.

The boys loved the pool.

Monday night we had Family Home Evening out on the beach. It was really beautiful. We sang songs. Michael gave us a good lesson about living the gospel unashamed. We read scriptures. Prayed. Talked. Laughed. Then played some games.

Hannah sure loves Amy.

This was by far the favorite game!

The next day was a bit stormy, but we did get some beach time in. They buried the giant ball and everyone had a blast jumping off of it.

That is until it popped. : ( Jordan.

Then Houston talked everyone into burying him.

Then we buried Heath.

Hannah really loved the surf board. She was hanging around it a lot.

Heath did a lot of buggy boarding.

When it would start to storm we would go inside and have a cup of hot chocolate. Usually by the time we finished the pop up had passed.

Sleeping beauty.

We saw several dolphins throughout our time there. They would come so close to shore. It was really neat.

Sterling and Hannah

Houston coming to life!

Another cocoa break. This time there was a tornado we could see down the shore line. Grandpa got a video of it because they stayed out there. I was happy to take the kids inside once we spotted it....

more dolphins.

That night we roasted hot dogs on the George foreman grill by the pool and had watermelon. It was a great night.

On Wednesdays the Blue Angels do a practice fly through of their air show. It's free to see the practice.

It was pretty amazing to see what they could do. Slightly insane looking, but really amazing.

Heath watching.

Rather than going right down on the runway with Grandpa and the older boys, we parked just outside the museum. It was a good thing, because we only lasted about 5 minutes. A jet flew RIGHT over us and was SO loud. Houston just lost it. He was terrified after that, so we all went into the museum and waited for the rest of the group to join us.

Hannah's spot for the air show. : )

Houston liked it inside a lot better. We could still hear the jets when they got close, and he would get a bit nervous at times. But there were a lot of really cool distractions.

I love this picture of Houston and Hannah : )

Houston kept trying to find pictures of Great Uncle Rex who flew planes during WWII. He was shot down over Belgium in 1944 near the German boarder. Both of our boys really look up to Rex. They talk about him often. He is one of their heroes. He was my Grandpa Forsyth's oldest brother.

These are excerpts from Grandpa Neil's journal.
"Mar 19, 1943 – Rex graduated and received his wings as a navigator. On April 13^th he sailed for England. The crossing was rough, the weather was terrible and their convoy was attacked by two U-boats. One ship in their convoy was sunk, with 37 RCAF officers drowned, of the 53 aboard.

May 12 1943 - "It was not until August that Rex was transferred to an advance flying unit. Whenever he could get leave he enjoyed travel in England, and visited the places Dad had been on his mission and in the first war. He spent some time with Mrs. Roe and her family, they always treated him royally.

Sept, 1943 – Rex was assigned to a crew of 7, and they trained together as a unit, still not seeing any war duty. [In 1943 the Shooting Star was the first US fighter plane to fly more than 500 mph and Jacques Cousteau introduced the Aqua Lung to the French Navy. It was the first successful underwater breathing apparatus.]

Jan, 1944 – Rex and his crew were assigned to No. 1664 heavy conversion bombing unit.

Mar 13, Rex was assigned to an 8 member crew, with approx 30 crews in his unit. April 18, was their first night bombing raid on the outskirts of Paris. April 20^th, they were again over enemy territory in northern France. April 24^th this attack was over Germany, with Canadian and British squadrons. This was a long tiring flight—600 miles round trip.

April 26 – With a force of almost 500 aircraft, Rex’s unit bombed the Ruhr valley, with great success. April 27^th they were called out again to strike the enemies communication system. Their target was 400 miles each way, located in eastern Belgium close to the German border. All bombers hit their targets but 15 aircraft failed to return and Rex’s was one of them. Rex gave his life on a distant battlefield, fighting for his country and all the things in which he believed."

There weren't any pictures of Rex, but Houston found several guys he thought were Rex and wouldn't be persuaded otherwise. We were able to see uniforms and flight gear that he would have worn.

After the show the blue angels came inside and we got to meet them and get their autographs.

I told the boys to each think of a question for them. Heath asked what would happen if they moved the joystick in a circle. The pilot said it would make the plane go crazy like that.

Houston asked if he could fly one of their planes. They told him he could if he did well in school and worked hard.

I asked them how long it took them to get to be a blue angel. I was so surprised. They were all 40 years old or older. (they did not look close to that old to me) They said after basic training, it took at least 18 years to become a blue angel. Pretty impressive!