Beach Vacation, Part 3

Thursday morning, Matt went back to the Donut Hole for one more breakfast treat. Yum! Really, they are the best donuts we've ever had. I already can't wait until our next trip to get them again :).

These sweet girls were being lazy on Thursday morning- TV show in bed, donuts for breakfast, day at the beach, Man, do they have it rough!

Samuel spent a lot of the morning on Thursday building this big trench and another water park. He had a specific building strategy that involved grabbing a ball of sand, dipping it in a bucket of water and then clumping it on the big mound. 

Katherine was a little fish by the end of the week. She much preferred the warm, calm waters of this beach to the rough, choppy water in Gulf Shores. 

Elisabeth made us lots of sand treats from her bakery. 

And we all had fun floating in the water. 

This was heavenly. Elisabeth always wanted to play the "Would You Rather" game during our trip. She swim out to us in the water and say, "Do you have any Would You Rathers." We played it all week long in the ocean- Another fun memory of my six year old. 

Thursday evening after dinner, the kids asked to play at a park. I remembered a really fun park that we usually play at when we're in town, even though it's in Navarre- about a 25 minute drive. We made the drive to it, and I'm so glad we did, because the kids had a BLAST. They all said that the favorite part of their whole day was playing at the park. 

The Buccaneer Pirate Cruise was fresh on their mind, and they spent most of the evening playing pirates. 

Such a beautiful park!

Friday was our last beach day and we were all a little bummed about it. I don't think any of us could ever get tired of it. 

The girls and I spent the morning baking sand cookies and cakes. 

Look at that awesome sand cake!

The boys worked on another water park

Of course, we had to take a break for snacks!

Nathan and Samuel spent the majority of the time at the beach playing in the water. Even though the waves weren't big enough to boogie board, they jumped, swam, and floated for hours in the water. We're raising them, right to love the beach!

Grandma and Grandpa brought kites, and the kids had fun flying them on the sand, and in the water :)

We had a picnic lunch and popsicles on the balcony for our last day. 

After lunch, Matt and the three big kids and his mom went into Destin to Parasail, while I stayed back with Katherine. She and I napped together and I finished the book I was reading. I was also thinking about how the next time we comes, naps won't be a part of our daily routine. That's crazy to think about!

The kids loved parasailing! I'm glad they got a chance to do it! They all three said it was one of their very favorite parts of the whole vacation.

 After parasailing, we ran to the mall in Fort Walton Beach. That ended up being a bit of a bust. We didn't think about the play area being closed because of COVID, and that mall is dying, so there weren't many stores open. Matt and Elisabeth did surprise me, after a very long bathroom break, with a new Pandora charm for my bracelet- they're sneaky. After the mall we grabbed dinner and headed back to the condo to pack up.

We had such an incredible, relaxing, and wonderful week at the beach. The weather was perfect and the kids were well behaved and getting more and more independent every trip. We made amazing memories. I really love the tradition of going to the same place regularly for vacations. We all remember the restaurants and activities and all the fun times we've had together as a family. I'll always remember sweet baby Elisabeth swinging in the baby swings at the track, toddler Nathan getting so excited watching the green tractor cleaning the beach from the balcony, Samuel spending hours and hours building sand castles- never ready to leave the beach, and Katherine begging us to jump in the waves with her and playing mermaids. It's so special to build on those memories every year. We can't wait to be back. We can't seem to stay away!

Beach Vacation, Part 2

One of my favorite parts about the beach is sitting on our balcony eating breakfast and enjoying the views. The kids like it too! One morning we got to see dolphins jumping out in the ocean!

 

On Tuesday at the beach, we rented a kayak and Matt took turns taking the kids out in the ocean. 

After the boys had their turns, the girls and I went out with Matt. 

Sweet Katherine had played hard all morning and gotten stung by a jellyfish. All the excitement along with the gentle rocking of the boat did her in and she napped during our boat ride. 

It was such a precious memory snuggling her while she napped in the middle of the ocean. I think I'll always remember it. 

When we got back to shore she snuggled some more while she woke up.

I realized that I never took any pictures of the pool, but every morning after we finished playing at the beach, we'd head to the pool for a little while- usually just to wash off the sand and pass the time while I made lunch at the condo. 

We had some downtime on Tuesday afternoon. Life is rough for these boys :)

We had reservations for the Buccaneer Pirate Cruise on Tuesday evening, so after our rest time, we changed, and headed to an early dinner at another of our local favorites- Burrito Del Sol. Yum!

Then we drove into Destin just as a storm was moving in. As soon as we parked and walked to get our tickets for the Pirate Cruise, we found out it was canceled due to the weather. We were able to reschedule for the next evening, so no one was too disappointed. We planned to head back to the condo for a movie night.

Once we got back and started the movie, we realized that the storm had mostly moved out and the skies were still overcast- perfect for pictures, so we paused the movie, changed clothes and headed out for some pictures. Since we just took pictures in May at the beach, and they're always a little stressful, Matt had to talk me into doing them again, but I'm so glad he was insistent that we needed to take them (It's tradition, he said!) because they turned out really great and captured all the kids' personalities. Plus, since we had taken them just a couple of months earlier, there was less pressure to get perfect pictures. 

I'm especially in love with the family photo we got. It's definitely going up on a wall in my house.

I can't believe how big these kids are getting! They are such wonderful blessings.

We rarely get giant smiles from this kid, so this perfection!

And this girl is two going on thirteen. Her poses always crack me up! There's no shortage of personality.

This beautiful girl is always photogenic. She's growing up into the sweetest Little Lady. 

And this boy is an anchor in our family, shouldering the responsibility as the oldest in such a great way. I can't believe this was his sixth beach trip!

After pictures we rewarded the kids with root beer floats and they finished their movie before ending another great vacation day.

Wednesday morning we were back at the beach of course!

The kids got busy building a giant sand castle/water park structure.

Katherine worked so hard, she needed a snack!

Working, working, working. Play is the work of childhood, right? I'm a big fan of their "office" :)

They were especially proud of the water park they built full of water slides.

The kids were playing so well and since we had reservations for the pirate cruise, we decided to got out to eat for a late lunch which meant no nap for this Cutie. She had to improvise :)

All I keep thinking when I look at these photos is how she's my last baby and these sweet napping pictures are fleeting. Precious, precious girl.

After lunch we did a little shopping and headed into Destin for our pirate cruise. We sailed this pirate ship during our last beach trip in 2018 and it was a HUGE hit. The kids have asked and asked regularly to make sure we could do it again when we went back to Destin. It was a must do for them!

The cruise was pretty much exactly the same as the last time, and I think Nathan liked that because he knew what to expect. 

Our kids got chosen to help raise the flag before we left the harbor

Then they taught the kids the Sea Leg Stomp :)

They had water gun fights, sword fights, face painting, hula hooping and swabbing the deck.

Katherine said her favorite part of the ship was getting her face painted. 

Near the end of the cruise, all the kids went down below deck to hear a pirate story about treasure, then came back up and found their own treasure! It wasn't quite as exciting this time around, since they all knew what to expect, but they still had a blast. 

They were proud of their treasure!

Such fun memories for this crew of the Buccaneer Pirate Ship- Yo, ho ho and a Bottle of Root Beer!