The kids and I had our final "hooray" of summer a couple of weeks ago when we decided to venture to Destin, Florida to see Bryson's dad and Elisse! The kids have been anxious to go see where they moved to and I was itching to take the kids to the beach. Flights there are so expensive so when Bryson decided to buy me a new car in July I decided to just bite the bullet and drive out there. My old car would've never made it all the way to Florida! It is a long car ride so I was a little nervous about how the kids would do. When my parents found out I was going to drive by myself neither of them really liked the idea of that, so my mom arranged to go with me! I was so glad she did. She made it so much more fun!
The kids were fantastic in the car! I told mom if I ever say anything bad about my kids ever again that she can tell me to be quiet, because I have some awesome kids! Over the last couple of months I had purchased different activities for them for our trip to Disney World. So I just busted them out a little early and purchased a couple of metal cake pans with lids and we were set!
We left Sulphur around 8 on Friday morning and drove to Longview and stopped for lunch and swam at my mom's cousins house. They have an awesome pool and backyard and the kids enjoyed having a fun stop along the way. We enjoyed them both sleeping for about 2 hours after we left! Thank you Angela for letting us stop by!
Brody spent most of his time watching movies and playing games on the I-Pad but he did enjoy the new stamp set I got him!
We made it all the way to Mississippi before we had to stop! They have a great welcome center!
We made it south of Jackson that night before deciding to stop. We found a nice little hotel and then went and grabbed some dinner!
The next morning we were up early and hit the road! The balloons Meg found in a bag were a big hit!
Lots of time was spent playing with her princesses. I get such a kick out of hearing her conversations with them!
Happy Camper!
Brody was a little uneasy crossing all the bridges! The last couple of hours of the drive was the worst. We hit lots of beach traffic and Meg was tired. But it still wasn't bad! We finally arrived around 4. We unpacked and went to a yummy BBQ place and then decided to take the kids to the beach just so they could see it!
Worth the drive for that beautiful sand and clear blue water!!!
I quickly found out you can't just take the kids to the beach to see it! They have to be in it. So Nana and I just swam with the kids in our clothes!
Lots of wave jumping!
Sunset on the beach! Doesn't get much better than that!
This one was up and at em early anxious to ride his bike with Papa and take Charlotte for a walk!
After breakfast we headed to the marina to get Papa's boat out!
We all found it fascinating how they stored the boats and get them down
Meg was a little unsure of the boat at first but after some snacks she started to get a little more comfortable!
Cruising Around!
Papa was nice enough to let both kids drive!
After getting a little tour of Destin we headed to Crab Island. It is a great shallow area that the boats can dock and they have floating vendors and blow-up slides and trampolines! And great snorkeling. It was perfect. Even Meg could touch!
We saw lots of fish and a few crabs!
Catching a ride to go grab a hot dog! They even had ice cream boats instead of ice cream trucks!
That afternoon we all rested up (except Brody....that kid doesn't need rest) we headed to a fun restaurant called Fudpuckers! There was a long wait but there was plenty to keep us busy while we waited.
They had tons of live alligators that you could feed, an arcade, and then live music with girls teaching the kids dance moves!
Meg was shy at first but eventually got brave enough to dance on stage! She danced for a long time and it was so cute!
The next morning we hit the beach again! This time we were all prepared to swim!
I was so surprised by how much the kids loved the water! They never got tired of it. I thought Brody might be a little scared, but he wasn't at all. He wanted to snorkle the entire time. We nicknamed him "Scuba Steve".
Meg preferred to stay by the shore but she still loved it!
Papa got lots of snorkeling time in too!
Meg loved playing in the sand. Brody didn't really care for the sand. He just wanted to be in the water! That night we were all pretty worn out. We stayed in and ate delicous fish tacos and watched the Olympics!
The next morning the weather was looking pretty yucky! We ate a great breakfast at the Donut Hole and then took a little drive to some smaller beach communities. We stopped at Seaside and did a little browsing in some stores!
Meg loves mermaids. This was an interesting one!
They cared nothing about shopping. They just wanted to be by the water!
I was worried we wouldn't make it back to the beach with the sky looking like this and thunderstorms forecasted the rest of the day. Mimi and I took the kids to McDonalds for a little play time and to burn off some energy and then we decided to brave the weather and head to the beach one last time. We picked Papa up and loaded up our swim stuff. The sun actually came out and we got in almost 2 more hours at the beach. It was perfect and it made Brody happy to get to snorkle one last time!!!
That night Papa and Nana wanted to take us to the Sandestin Resort. They have a great place called Baytowne Wharf that has restaurants and tons of activities for the kids. Brody saw the ropes course and had to try it! An adult is required to go with the little kids and so I happily agreed to go with him. I was so proud of him for doing it all. Although you have a harness on....it was scary! Then we headed to one of the restaurants for dinner out on the water! There was a beautiful sunset midway through dinner so I snuck the kids away and walked out on the pier to try and capture some good pictures!
I'm a sucker for a sunset. Especially a sunset on the beach!
Thought Meg did a pretty good job taking this picture!
And Brody too!
Love my babies!
After dinner Nana took Meg on a carousel ride!
And Mimi waited with Brody to do the trampoline!
Meg and I occupied our time taking random pictures around the resort!
He has always wanted to do one of these!
Hanging out waiting for the fireworks!
Meg and I found us a nice spot to sit while the rest of the group walked out on the pier to get a better view of the fireworks. Meg doesn't like fireworks and fell asleep right before they started. I wish she would've watched them because it was a very impressive fireworks show!
The next morning we had to say our goodbyes!
These two love Charlotte so much! She kept them entertained the entire time we were at the house!
Pretty good picture Brody took!
Final Hugs! The drive back went even smoother than the drive there. There was no traffic and the kids were so tired that they just sat back and watched movies! I started to feel pretty sick a few hours into our drive. I couldn't really figure out what it was but I was so happy my mom was with me because she drove the entire time while I dozed off and on. We made it to Monroe, LA and stopped at the Duck Commander store from "Duck Dynasty". My dad loves this show and so does Bryson so we stopped to pick up some t-shirts!
Showing off their new t-shirts! It was a pretty cool place! Down the road from here we found a place similar to Incredible Pizza. The kids played at the indoor playground and we ate some pizza. By this point I was going downhill quick. We drove another hour or so and stopped for the night at Marshall, Texas. We let the kids swim and I sat in the hot tub doing anything I could to attempt to feel better. I went to sleep and my mom took care of the kids! I was hoping to wake up the next day and feel lots better. Unfortunately it didn't happen. We were supposed to be at the Gaylord Texan around 3:00 Thursday (another blog post to come). We made it to Grapevine around lunch time and mom treated us to lunch at the Rainforest Cafe!
The kids loved it! Just so you know pictures can be deceiving. At this point I felt like I was going to die :)
Not sure why this is Brody's favorite pose! After we finished up lunch we headed to an urgent care center right outside of the mall. After waiting over an hour then having x-rays and blood work I found out why I felt so awful. I had pneumonia! Awesome way to end vacation!!!
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