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!