Our vacation took us to a favorite spot of ours. For the third time in the last four years we went to Destin, Florida. Specifically we stayed at the Surfside Resort in the Marimar Beach area, right outside the Destin city limits. The picture below shows the condo building we always stay in.
The day we arrived, a tropical storm was churning in the gulf and the forecast was for rain almost the entire time we were there. As you can see in the picture below, the clouds were already moving in.
Fortunately, the first full day we were there was the only day that it rained. That left us with views like the one below for the rest of our stay.
With weather that nice, there are several things that you can do, and as you will read later we did other things, BUT the most fun thing to do at the beach is to get in the water. Both of the kids loved the water, but even more than that they loved to get out into the deeper water and have the waves hit them. I would not let them get out into the water without me, so I had one in each hand.
We would let them play in the water by themselves a little, but they were not allowed to go out very far. As you can see in the picture below knee high to Reagan was about the limit without me being with them, but they still had a blast. Nathan was trying to sit down in the waves and a couple of them surprised him and knocked him backwards.
When I was ready for a rest, Sharon and I would sit under the umbrella provided for us and watch the kids play in the sand. We didn't get pictures of the best day where we buried Nathan and Reagan in the sand, but there were other fun pictures. In the picture below, the kids are trying to get water in Frisbees that they had gotten from a restaurant the day before. We forgot to take any of the dozen sand buckets we had at home and kept forgetting to buy new ones.
There is only one downside to all of the fun in the sun. That down side is seen in the picture below. That is my lower back that was burned, and despite what I told my wife, it hurt pretty bad. It was well worth it to make those memories with my kids though. As you will see in some of the pictures later on, Sharon got some sun on her face. It is most noticeable because she had her sunglasses on.
I mentioned earlier that there were other things to do on nice sunny days. One of those things is shop. We did our share of that on this trip, but specifically we like a mall called The Destin Commons. This mall has most places that the kids like to shop such as Build-A-Bear Workshop, The Croc Store, Godiva Chocolate and a really neat toy store, but I don't remember its name. It also has a movie theater. That is where we took the kids to see Brave. Nathan loved the movie, but Reagan was asleep half an hour into it. The other part of the mall that we really like are the fountains. It is so much fun for the kids to be able to get out an play in them, especially on a hot day after a couple of hours of shopping. At first Reagan didn't want to play. There were several kids there, but I didn't want pictures of them. So, Nathan was out playing in the fountains by himself. Then he made friends with a couple of boys who were there and they started playing together. He is so outgoing it is crazy. I don't know where he gets that!!!
Finally, Reagan decided that she wanted to get in on the fun and play in the fountains. While she was there playing, there was another girl about her age who might as well have not had anything on because of the size of her "swimsuit" if you want to call it that. It wasn't decent enough to take a picture. I'm not going to get on my soapbox about that right now though. Most importantly, we all had fun there.
One of the other days we decided to take a Dolphin cruise. The last time we were in Destin we took a Dolphin cruise, but Reagan wasn't old enough to remember it, so we thought it would be nice for here to see the dolphins. This trip wasn't as much fun for me. I spent most of my time standing in lines like in the picture below.
First, the kids got to feed Sea Gulls off the back of the boat, then the kids wanted to get something to eat and drink. What was a dad to do, but wait in line? We were on a boat with about 50 other people. Ultimately, we stood in line for the best part of the trip. Nathan got to drive the boat. The picture below might look like a prop, but the captain just to the left of the window had to keep telling Nathan not to turn the wheel. He was so excited about driving the boat!!!
On the trip we did see Dolphins. Well, let me clarify, they all saw Dolphins. I got to see the pictures. After buying food and drinks, someone had to sit down and hold them all. It was okay though, because the family had a great time. Ultimately that is all that matters.
I was going to write about some of the other things we did on our vacation, but they will have to wait for now. Hopefully, I will be able to blog about those tomorrow. For now, that is the first part of our Family Vacation.
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