Okaloosa Island 2022, Part 3

Friday morning was the first day of our vacation where we dealt with less than ideal weather. After breakfast, we changed and planned to head to the beach, when it started raining. We waited it out in the room and played a round of Exploding Kittens. 

Katherine serenaded us with a round of "We're Making a Purple Stew" during our game. She sang it all week long during our vacation. It reminded us of a couple of years ago, when her sister sang it during our entire vacation. I think I'll always associate that silly song with floating in the ocean deciding what I'm going to add to the purple stew! Memories!

After our game, we realized that the rain wasn't going to end any time soon, so we changed and drove to the mall. We have always frequented this mall during our vacations, and every year, I tell Matt that we don't need to visit again (it's gone downhill in the last several years). But somehow we always end up back there. And it happened again this year. 

Katherine and Nathan always recreate the picture in the play area that we originally took when she was a baby. 

The rain started to let up around lunch time, so we drove back to the condo, ate a quick lunch and hit the beach. 

There were more waves on Friday which made the boogie boarders happy. 

After an afternoon at the beach and the pool, Matt and I cleaned up and went out on a date. Thanks again to Papa Joe for keeping the kids for us like he does every Friday night. They even watched high school football and ate pizza like a normal Friday night in Oklahoma. 

Matt and I ate at the Back Porch in Destin. Then we drove back to our condo and walked all the way to the Okaloosa Island Pier and back. It was a beautiful night to walk along the beach with my favorite person. Beach date nights are the best date nights. 

Everyone was ready for bed after a long week at the beach. I love that Katherine and Matt fell asleep together watching Big City Greens while the boys and Barry were watching the Broken Arrow football game. 

Saturday was our last day of vacation and our last breakfast on the balcony. There were several mornings where we saw dolphins swimming near the shore while we ate breakfast. So cool! 

This girl was ready for her last day at the beach. The kids planned ahead of time everything they needed to do on their last day. On her list was making a detailed sand town complete with lots of buildings and getting buried in the sand. 

And of course, they had to build one more sandcastle complete with a moat and bridge.

Everyone was proud and impressed with the architecture involved in this. 

Samuel and Elisabeth built a sand town complete with a store, a drawing area, a digging for treasure area and an ice cream shop. 

They both told us all about it. The sand and water are wonderful catalysts to their creativity. I hope they never outgrow it!

Elisabeth ended the morning with her final wish of getting buried in the sand. 

We went back to the condo for our last lunch. Barry watched the kids for me and Matt, so we could run next door to the hotel next to ours and get a fresh fish sandwich. That afternoon Matt and the boys went back to the beach (they wanted to finish up something they had planned). They got rained out after a bit, but they said they finished up what they wanted to play. 

The girls and I started packing up which is always the worst part of vacations. 

We still had some free time Saturday afternoon, so we taught the big kids how to play Seven Wonders. They seemed to like it! 

We went to Sonnys for dinner- another beach tradition. It was yummy! Then we came back to finish packing and say goodbye to one of our very favorite places. 

Okaloosa Island, you were very, very good to us. See you next year!

We had an uneventful drive home on Sunday. Everyone was worn out from our wonderful week.