Destin, FL - 2014

Mike had been asking to go to the beach for months so we finally caved and booked another vacation to Destin, Florida.  We had such a great time last year, we decided to go back and ended up renting the house next door to where we stayed last year.  The trip was awesome.  The weather was not.  The temperatures made it to 70 one day, the rest of the week the highs made it to the 50s and 60s.  

 

We weren't deterred though.  We donned jackets over our swim suits and spent more time playing in the sand than playing in the water.  The boys LOVED it.  Mike was so much more adventurous this year and multiple times I would turn to Ryan only to turn back to Mike to see him sprinting down the beach, 50 yards away, making a beeline for the surf.  He was fearless.

Ryan was 90% in love with the beach.  He would get a serious look on his face, put his hands over his years and yell "loud" every time he felt the waves were crashing too loudly.  He would happily throw sand and then cry when he tried to rub his eyes and got sand in them.

We expanded our horizons a bit this year and tried a few short trips.  On Monday we went to Falling Waters State Park and explored (from above) multiple sink holes and a 100+ foot waterfall. 

We climbed aboard the Buccaneer Pirate ship and got a bit of a less in how to be proper pirates. And we ventured to Pensacola to visit the National Navy Aviation Museum (or Navy-ation as we dubbed it) and see the Blue Angles fly.

But mostly we hung out and enjoyed the feeling of (generally cold) sand on our toes.

 

 

The boys had their first ice cream truck experience and both went with batman Popsicles.  Ryan made it about 1/3 of the way through his before it turned into a melting mess.



On our last full day there the weather was terrible.  It was windy and raining.  We (read I) decided that we needed one last beach trip so we put the boys in swim trunks, fleece jackets and rain coats and made our way to the beach.  Once there, Ryan was a hot mess.  We set him up on a little chair under an umbrella, but he was not having it.  Brad tried to calm him down while I ran and played with Mike, but he was having none of it.  Mike, on the other hand was happy as could be.  I suggested that Brad take Ryan back to the house and I would stay and play with Mike.  Brad's respond: "NO! This family suffers together!"  Needless to say we admitted defeat and packed up pretty shortly thereafter. 

Even though it was chilly most of the week and somewhat rainy, we were still on the beach and the temperatures were still warmed than in most other places in the country.  Perhaps next time we will plan our trip for a little later in the year.