Florida part 3...An eventful day at the beach..

We decided it would be fun to swim in the Gulf of Mexico so we packed up picnic lunches and headed out for the 2 hour trip. Thankfully, the Lord prompted us to bring 2 vehicles. We decided at the last minute not to all cram into the 'bus' but to take Mimi and Pop-Pop's van as well. You'll see after reading below why this was such a blessing!

The girls were not happy to read this sign in the bathroom before we headed to the beach!! They had already read the sign about rattlesnakes on the way in to the park!! I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive in the water too~

Mimi and Pop-Pop-what fun we have with them :)!!

Me and my man!!

The boys were convinced that they discovered rocks with remnants of the oil spill on them!

What a handsome crew :)!! I can't believe how much these boys have grown up!

Daddy with our 'yummy little boys'!!

You can't tell from this picture but there was a sandbar out pretty far which made the water really shallow once you swam out to it. The route out to it though was extremely rocky so we had to scoot on our bottoms until it was deep enough to swim...it was pretty funny to watch everyone negotiate ! The younger crew pretty much kept a monkey grip on one of us due to the sting ray poster!!

Another shot of the sandbar...you can see how far out it was~

All 8 of us after a swim in the Gulf of Mexico~

All 6 kids had fun making a very cool message out of tiny rocks/shells. I could not get a picture to capture it all ...this was just a small part of it~

All 10 of us :)

Capturing the moment :) Too bad the sun was in our eyes!

After our day at the beach,my mom and I had the girls in her van and we were following my hubby and the rest of the gang in the big van. A few times he pulled off the highway only to pull right back on. At the next exit, he put his flashers on and coasted to a gas station that just happened to be at the end of the ramp. The battery died so my Mom pulled her van up alongside, we jumped it and were on our way again...

This time alongside the highway where my mom was able to pull up on the grass next to our van and M once again jumped the battery. We made it one more exit where M lost all power including the steering...he was able to pull right into a parking spot in this truck stop.

A tired but thankful duo finally eating dinner at 9:30pm!

How grateful I was that I was not driving, that the Lord had us break down all 3 times in safe spots and the final time in a truck stop where we were out of harm's way. Also, we were on our way home and closer to our timeshare. Thankfully, we have friends in the area so we called them to get the name of a reputable garage to have the van towed to which is always a help to make sure you are not taken advantage of when you are out of town! We called AAA and our van was towed away. My hubby and Doyle rode with the very fast tow truck driver who we learned was quite the character!... 45 minutes or so later we arrived at the garage where we left the van. Then all 10 of us squished into Mom and Doyle's 8 seater for the 45 min trip back to our timeshare. Had we not brought their van, we would have been stranded! The van's alternator went causing the battery to fail. It was fixed by the next morning when M and I went to retrieve it. How thankful we are for the Lord's faithful provision for us...this could have happened in the middle of the night on our drive to Florida , I could have been driving when the steering and power went out, we could have all been squished into one van and stranded. The list could go on and on...suffice it to say: Great is His faithfulness!!