our week at the beach

at the end of June we went to Destin, FL with our close friends.  We have had this trip planned since the beginning of the spring.  How were we to know that we planned our trip for the same week that the first hurricane hit the Gulf…thanks Alex, thanks a lot.

Our biggest concern was the oil spill and that turned out to not even be an issue.

We arrived in Destin on Monday, late afternoon.  We got everything unpacked and headed for dinner.  We ate dinner at Stinky’s Fish Camp.  Yum!  If you are in the Destin, Santa Rosa Beach area, I recommend it!

When we arrived, there was quite a wait.  Thankfully Tanya is like the toddler whisperer and had our children eating out of the palm of her hands.  She is so good with kids.  Maybe one day I’ll be a mom like her.

 

When we finally got into the restaurant, we had a good time fellowshipping with each other and LOVING the fantastic food.

 

Amber picked our condo for us and she did a great job!  It was a four bed/three bath condo on the top floor of a 24 story high rise.  We were pretty far up!

Matthew would have a minor heart attack every time the kids (or the adults) got near the railing on the balcony.  Because of that, I took the pictures below…ha!

 

The view of the ocean from our balcony.  We weren’t directly on the beach, it was a short walk to get to the sand.  The walk really wasn’t that bad though. 

Our pools (looking from our balcony).  We spent a LOT of time in the pools.

One night we decided to cook out for dinner.  There were no grills at our condo though.  Michael told us that Wal-Mart has disposable grills.  So, when we did our big shopping trip we picked one up.  This was not the grill Michael was referring to.  We had to end up cooking our chicken in the oven and Josh was only able to cook a package of hotdogs on our “grill”.  Look at how small it is…ha ha ha!

After our “cook-out” we headed to the beach for some night time beach fun…

 

I love this picture!  I love how Nora is holding onto Sydney with a fierceness.  She didn’t want her falling into the “swamp”.

All the kids had their nets, ready to pounce on some crabs…

Family picture on the beach

Isn’t this picture weird!  Matthew was messing around with the shutter speed and whatnot and ended up with some pretty crazy looking pictures…

      

Look!  We found a sand crab!

We were able to go to the beach everyday but most days we weren’t even there for an hour before the sky would open up.  Here is evidence that we were actually at the BEACH.  Most days we made it to the beach, I kept my camera covered up because of the moisture.

The kids burying Michael in the sand…check out the clouds in the background.  Nice.

A little game of bocce ball.  Even Sydney got in on the action.  They didn’t get to finish the game though…rain.

 

See the green tractor.  Oil relief workers.  They were there to collect tar balls.

We did get into the ocean some.  The waves were so strong that the girls couldn’t even really go near the water without one of us with them or they would have been swept out to sea.  Ok, maybe not, but it was pretty rough.

 

Sweet James.  Taking a little beach nap.  Those waves did the trick of lulling him to sleep.

Nora LOVES the sand.  She could have spent hours and hours digging in the sand and making castles.  But she couldn’t…rain.

  

The four older ones (John David, Nora, Elyn and Gibson) waiting under some shelter during a thunderstorm.

During our time in the condo we had to figure out some things to do while it rained.

Yahtzee…

 

Washing dishes

Getting pedicures

One evening the rain did let up enough for us to venture out for some ice cream.  We all really enjoyed it!

   

Because of all the rain, we decided to go see a movie one afternoon.  Toy Story 3!!!!!  The theater was PACKED.  All the tourists in Destin had the same idea.  We knew Nora would be a rock star in the movie but had very low expectations for Elyn.  Well, she delivered.  We had to take her out twice.  No amount of popcorn or Sprite could quiet her down.  Despite wrestling Elyn like a bear cub, I did really enjoy the movie.  I cried. 

That night, we went to Fudpucker’s for dinner.  We had a good time seeing the alligators and having birds land on our heads and arms for pictures.

Are we the only people whose kids think that the ride-on toys don’t actually move?  We never put coins in them and they still have the best time pretending.

These two pictures make me laugh…oh no!  They are being eaten by huge scary jaws!

 

Just a routine ride on an alligator.

Just checking out the alligators and cozying up to one.

On our last day in Destin it was SUNNY!!!!!  Imagine that.  We were supposed to check out of our condo and hit the road by 10am.  The Henderson family decided to check out of the condo and HIT THE BEACH.  We were so glad that we did too.  The weather was perfect and the girls had a great time.  The waves were the highest that day and the tar balls were the worst.  Thankfully neither one affected us.

Yes, I have a swimsuit on.

Doing the favorite activity…playing in the sand.

 

These are funny pictures to me.  Nora came up to me with her net and asked me to hold it for her.  She wanted to limbo underneath it.  Ha ha!

That’s it.  Our week at the beach.  We had a wonderful time, despite the soggy weather.  We were so glad to be there with our friends.  They mean the world to us and we would vacation with them again in a heartbeat.