Satellite Beach

Today was such a fun day! Brett and Rachel live in a fairy tale land. It is amazing. Rachel loves it, although it is making her sad. Brett is deploying to Kuwait in October. Rachel doesn't know what to do. He will be gone for six months. She might move back to Idaho, but then she'll lose this amazing house. She wants to do whatever is best for the girls, she is just having a hard time figuring out what would be best for them. The girls don't know yet, but I have a high confidence that they don't read this blog. Rachel said that this house and place are amazing, but it would feel so empty without Brett. Too bad they are most likely going to only be here for two years and Brett will be gone for 1/4 of that. Seriously, this place is amazing. Their house is awesome. The weather is unbelievable (but still quite humid), and the people are so nice. We have met many kind people today. Much different than living close to D.C.

I combed Mina's hair today. She hates combing it. She reminds me of combing Maysen's hair when she was little. Her hair looked so pretty when it was done. I took a picture so she could see it.

Mina's hair

 Brett and Rachel live a 15 minute WALK to the beach. Here we are checking it out for the first time.

Eve & Marie, Brett, Grace and Mina

 Rachel & Eve, Brett, Grace & Mina

This beach was so beautiful and so much fun! It reminded me of the beach right out of the place we stayed in Hawaii. This place has a Hawaii feel, but Brett and Rachel could drive home if they wanted. Not to mention all the amusement parks that are nearby. It would be so fun to go to the beach everyday after school. Especially if Marie was Jorja's age. How fun would it be to hang out here with your friends?

Marie, Eve & Brett, Grace, Mina, Stephanie

 First family photo in their new place!

Marie, Grace giving herself bunny ears, Eve & Brett, Mina, Rachel

 Grace loved playing the sand. She played their for hours and barely moved

 Brett in the ocean next to a kid named Ollie, Marie walking there and Grace in the sand

 Marie & Brett

 Grace & Brett

 Marie had the best time. She played in the ocean for three hours straight.

 Grace

 Marie & Brett

 Marie

 Brett

The saddest thing was watching Mina at the beach. She wouldn't let Rachel wrap up her cast, so she had to be content with watching and getting her ankles wet. Mina kept getting out farther than she should and it would freak Rachel out. She kept telling Mina, "Do you want to spend the entire day in the emergency room?" Brett and Rachel have been pumping up Satellite Beach to their kids for the last several months. It was as amazing as they promised, and Mina just had to watch. She sure looked beautiful though.

Mina

Mina, Brett & Marie

 What a fun photobomb

Mina & Brett

 Rachel did not like things like this. Much too easy to get it wet.

 Grace 

Grace loved playing in the sand and didn't really want to get in the ocean. She is serious about her sand toys because she ran into the ocean twice to get them when the waves took them away. One time I saw Grace look at the ocean. She squared her shoulders and started walking straight to the waves. She got a little farther before she turned back. It was so cute! I was disappointed I didn't have a picture of that!

 Eve

 Brett & Marie

Look at those waves! Fun! Fun! Fun!

 Marie

 Mina

 Grace & Brett, Marie

 I asked Marie to give me a thumbs up if she liked it here. She gave me two.

 Still giving me thumbs up, but the wave got Grace the first time she was brave enough to go this far out.

 Marie in her happy place

 Poor Mina

 Eve & Rachel ~ I like how Eve knelt down because Rachel did

 I couldn't get Eve to look up because she was fascinated with the waves.

Grace is in the background of these three pictures of Rachel and Eve. Try and spot her, she is adorable.

 Stephanie & Mina

 Grace & Eve

 Stephanie

 Mina

 Grace

 Mina

 Grace

 Grace & Rachel

Rachel left with Mina. I gave her my phone, so I don't have any more pictures. I played in the ocean after that. It was amazing! I did get Grace & Eve in the ocean a bit. Not far. They sat on me while I laid on the bogie board. Every once in awhile we would move like three inches and they would yell with glee. It was funny. I did convince Grace to climb on my back. I walked out a bit and then rode the bogie board in with her. Brett did it with her three times. The first two times she loved it, the last time she got ocean water in her face and ran away. Drat. We packed up when Brett started feeling sun on his shoulders. He ended up having a sunburn on his back. He had Marie put sunscreen on him. She did a great job on his spine, but the rest of him is pretty red now. Right as we started walking home Rachel and Mina pulled up with the van to give us a ride home. It was great!

We went to a restaurant that some people told us about. It is close to their house and it is called Longdoggers. It was really good. We were a bit worried when we pulled up because it kind of looked like just a bar. Brett went in and checked it out and said we were good. The restaurant was great. It had a really fun atmosphere. They even had an amazing guy that did balloon animals for the girls. When we were getting ready to leave our waitress told the girls they could pick an otter pop out of the freezer. They loved that!

Mina asked for a tiger

 Grace wanted a shark

 Balloon guy

 Marie asked for a scorpion

 Mina & Rachel ~ Rachel got a bear for Eve, who was asleep on the bench

Rachel and I went to Publix while Brett stayed home with the girls. I confirmed with the bakery that they give out free cookies. I wanted to make sure it wasn't just the Publix by our house in Georgia that did that. I also found another beach towel and I bought some chocolate milk. It's weird how just being in Publix now makes me happy.

That's about it for today. Brett and Rachel were so exhausted by the end of it. I didn't fall asleep until 2:00 in the morning. I worked on my blog for a bit. I'm glad to be caught up.