First Beach Vacation

On the road again

After Mary Ella's birthday weekend we had one day to rest, recover, and repack for our Florida vacation. Thankfully, Mia stayed an extra day with us to entertain the girl. Tuesday, Julie, Mike, and the kids met us at our house, and we left Little Rock when Brad got off work. We spent the night in Jackson, loaded up in one car, and headed further south Wednesday morning. I have to say we traveled with the 3 best kids ever! They were wonderful! We got to Seagrove that afternoon, checked into our condo, and immediately hit the beach!

Ahhh...this is where I could live

Day 1: Not a good idea to immediately throw your kid into the waves. Think I'll ease her into it next time. She liked to watch them, but didn't really like the water rushing onto her.

First vacation as a family of 3

And this is how she felt about the sand! Ha! Most of the time she kept two hands and one foot up.

Brad jumping a wave. We had some great waves because of the tropical storm. It also brought cooler temperatures, lots of wind, and daily showers.

Anna, the mermaid

Trey trying to convince ME the sand is okay. Look at those rolls!

Trey, the merman

After the beach, we got cleaned up and headed out to see what we could find in Seagrove (we usually go to Destin). There wasn't much to it. It's basically a lazy beach town that is mostly residential. And I liked that about it. We found a Publix, and that's all we really needed anyway. We ate dinner at the cutest place, Pizza by the Sea. It had hula hoops and toys outside for kids. So after we ate, Julie and Brad got groceries next door while Mike and I let the kids play.

Day 2: We got up, ate breakfast, got ready, and hit the beach. You can see where Mary Ella took her morning nap. We even packed lunches in the cooler. Our condo was right across the street from the beach, so it wasn't too bad hauling all our beach stuff. We stayed out most of the day.

Stretch!

She liked sitting in her kid-size beach chair (out of the sand of course).

Chatting with Aunt Julie

I love this picture!

Ouch!

Each day after the beach we took a dip in the pool to cool down and get rid of sand. We cooked in that night and watched a movie. Fish tacos. Yum!

Day 3: We planned a 1/2 day at the beach so we could spend some time in Destin in the afternoon. Mary Ella took another beach nap! Think she might be a beach bum like her Mommy if she can get used to the sand.

Mike getting ready to catch some waves.

Love this view!

These kiddos played hard!

A little beach yoga

This was the only pic I got of all 3 of us in the water.

Ooh!

Love that smile!

Mike worked really hard on the moat.

Yeah, those are pretty ominous clouds. It rained on us every day, but we just got under our umbrellas and waited it out. The showers came and went pretty quickly. Mike called us "vacation warriors."

We came back to the condo for lunch, rested, and got ready to go out. We shopped at the Destin outlet mall. I got a pretty good start on ME's fall wardrobe, and I got a new pair of Sevens. Yay!

Cool cat

Standing up! No steps yet.

Waiting at The Back Porch - a Destin must!

This girl was so sleepy!

Anna and Julie

Trey and Mike

I had a yummy crabcake sandwich, and Brad got his usual stuffed fish. Mary Ella is now a pro at eating out. She did so well!

Day 4: We killed some time in the pool to see if the weather was going to clear. It did after lunch, so we were back out beaching it up!

Mary Ella's new hat from Janie and Jack

Waiting for the waves to come

Mary Ella discovered her love for Capri Suns!

Me and my girl

She was touching the sand by the last day. Yay!

Uncle Mike dug quite a hole!

After pool-beach-pool, we got ready for sunset beach pics. Brad found some fresh shrimp, and we celebrated our last night with a shrimp boil. We had the best time! Especially for such a last minute, cheap vacation. There was hardly anyone in our condo, and we had the beach all to ourselves at times. It was a blast!