Destin Beach Trip

Woo Hoo, we are in Destin!!!

Stephen had a medical conference in Destin and it had been on our calendar for months.  However, a few days before he left he looked at the conference schedule and he was done every day at noon.  Sweet husband that he is, he invited the whole family along!  We spent a lot of time playing in the waves and relaxing in our cabana.

Amelia morphed completely into a fish on this trip, she was in the pool or the waves for about 12 hours every day.  She is such a social little thing that by the time I had set out our beach towels and toys she would come running up to me with a new little girl she met and say, "Mom, this is Autumn, she is almost 8 too and she is from Mississippi too!"  And off they would go for little girl, giggling fun.  And seriously, how can you not love that sunscreened, missing tooth, goggled girl?

At a dinner for the conference (free dinner? I am so there).

They also organized crafts for the kids, here they are painting sand dollars.

The "downtown" area of our resort, lots of restaurants, shops and a gazillion ways to spend money on your kids-carousal, ropes course, zipline, etc.

Early morning beach time while Daddy was getting his learn on.

This trip contained lots of this which meant it contained lots of relaxed smiles from mom and dad too.

Amelia took a picture of me and Addi, great job Mimi :)

My three little fish by the pool.

Seriously, what a life this one has.

Time with mommy in the pool, "throw me, throw me."  Even Addison loves to be thrown and yells, "Throw me bigger" meaning she likes to be thrown up high and go all the way under by herself.

Our sweet friends the Patinos were also in Destin this week so we were able to meet for dinner.  We all had a great time and the kids enjoyed laughing and goofing with their friends.

Amelia and Luke with their hermit crabs.  Stephen and I have been married for almost 10 years,  yet I learned something new about him on this trip...again.  Who knew I married this guy, "Go on kids, pick out anything you want" when he pulled into the souvenir shop.  What???  Anything you want???  I am panicking as I quickly scan the shop, seeing what I can quickly stash and hide so they don't pick it.  But alas, my kids who long for a pet with all their being both run to the giant cages of hermit crabs.  We now have two hermit crabs, who we must feed and water and mist, and take out and play with because apparently they are very social creatures.  Oh boy.  At least they can't chew on my furniture.

Because we had planned this trip for only Stephen, we had a one bedroom condo.  So couch bed it was for the kiddos, let's just say some nights ended up better than others but we made do.  

Amelia and her hermit crab.

We all loved boogie boarding.  I probably loved it the most after Amelia that is and Stephen did capture a picture of me.  However, look at my photo skills, shooting while they are actually catching the wave.  Stephen captured me while splayed out on the beach after a wave dumped me to shore.  Um, definitely not blog worthy.  Thanks honey.

Addison and I catching some waves.

Multiple times during the trip Stephen said to me, "I am so glad y'all came with me, I don't know what I would have done with all this free time without my family."  I immediately thought three things.  1. Man, I trained him well (his free time is our free time).  2.  The kids should be thanking their lucky stars mommy didn't have a conference in Destin because I would have been plopped in a beach chair reading a book for 5 days while they were at home.  3.  Wow, what an awesome man I have (Maybe this was my first thought, but the other ones did cross my mind).

We love the beach!