Fort Walton

We arrived in Fort Walton on July 18th. David, Shelby and Matt, got there July 21st. Julia was waiting in the parking garage when they pulled in. She came to life when Shelby showed up.

We all took pictures on Thursday. Some of us didn't wear the beach picture uniform - khaki and white. It was a painless process of families taking pictures and then forming other groups. Angela posted one of the siblings, minus Robbie, on her facebook. This one above was all of our children, minus Lars. He was working and was the only one who didn't join us on this vacation.

There will be more family times, just nobody agrees on the next setting. Sue and I would return to the beach for every getaway, but we should branch out a little. Katie was suggesting the Northeastern seaports for a change - namely, Seattle. That might be our next destination. Start saving up, Ferraras.

Believe Seattle would be considered northwestern. :)

Northeastern would be New England. Been there. It's gorgeous but not so much in the summer. Suspect the northwestern areas are gorgeous also but not so much in the summer.

I'm not a beach person so you can always count me out of those but I don't think we'll be in a holiday position for a while so don't count on us.

Yeah, yeah, Seattle is over there - west, but Katie also put forth some Eastern locations as well; Virginia, Myrtle Beach, and other destinations besides beaches.

I'll just go to Florida by myself, really.

Michael is not a beach person either. He indulged me. I tried to leave him home; he wasn't having it. I threatened him to make one negative comment and I'd brain him. He was very good. If anyone was crabby, it was me - the days leading up to our leaving were intense. I fretted about leaving home for 7 days. Plus, I worked a lot of hours before our vacation - leaving me little time to supervise packing at home. I made lists and trusted the people to follow them.

Our friend, Calvin, took good care of our two dogs, two cats, two birds. The fish died days before we left. I put one of those vacation feeders in the bowl. It claimed it wouldn't make the water cloudy. It killed Julia's Beta fish within a day. I took the food blob out of there after just a few hours. That water was very cloudy. One less pet for Calvin to take care of. :(

I'll go back to the beach with you, Janine! I love the beach because I find the water relaxing. I just like looking at it and listening to it mostly. Occasionally, I'll get in, but I can enjoy it even when I don't. Being around my whole family and their families for an entire week was a treat for me. I thoroughly enjoyed my vacation!

We had some excitement on the way home. My passenger window exploded while I was driving 70 mph on I285 about 40 miles from home. We heard a crack and assumed a rock hit the windshield, but it must have hit the passenger window. Around 5 minutes or so down the road, the window exploded and broke into a million little pieces. As I drove frantically across 4 lanes of highway, the pieces were breaking off into the car.

I pulled into a bank parking lot. Scott got the tall waste basket by the door of the bank and we started picking out the glass from the window and the car. I borrowed the broom from the gas station next door and swept up the parking lot ground. Scott vacuumed the car to get the shards out of the carpet and my seat.

It is a miracle I did not have a heart attack. Brianne and I both screamed very loudly when it exploded. It was pretty scary. I wonder how much it's going to cost to get that fixed!

Oh my goodness, that had to be scary. I don't know what a window costs. That's too bad. Sorry that happened to you. I told Michael about it and he had one question... How long did it take you to get home?

I've been fantasizing about getting back ever since. My friend, Diane, has a key to a place on Pensacola's beach. She's going there today and I worked it out in my head of how I could go, but that's not going to happen. Aaron needs my car tomorrow and Julia needs my help with the babies today. We missed Ruby (2) and Cooper (4 mos.) while we were gone. Missed them in a good way. There was no end of babies to hold and love on at the beach. That was a lot of fun to be with the extended family.

What fun. Angela....please post your photos here so those of us w/o a facebook page can view them.