Day at Destin

Since we took a family vacation over the summer, we really didn't have the money to go somewhere for an extended time over fall break. We thought we would at least take a day trip somewhere, and asked the kids where they wanted to go. Naturally they all said the beach, but when I looked online at the extended forecast for Destin (our favorite beach destination!), it was supposed to be raining every day. That bummed us all out, so we ditched that idea. No one really came up with anything better, though, so Tuesday I took another peak at the forecast and saw that Thursday was supposed to be bright and sunny, with a high of 89! Perfect!! I ran the idea past Barry, and we made last minute plans to head south after school on Wednesday. We snagged a hotel reservation nearby, and planned on getting up Thursday morning, spending the majority of the day on the beach, then heading on home in the afternoon.

We made it to our hotel safely, and had a decent night's sleep. We were all pretty excited, so sleep was a bit difficult. When we woke up Thursday morning, we were greeted with foggy, cloudy, even rainy skies, and Barry giving me dirty looks! This was our view as we headed into Destin across the Mid Bay Bridge...


Isn't that beautiful?! HA!! Of course, it was very humid as well, and my lense kept fogging up on my camera... so maybe that shot is a bit of an exaggeration! But, we did have a few rain drops fall on us, and Barry couldn't help but give me a hard time for just checking the weather channel instead of local news stations!

Thankfully, though, the clouds and fog lifted, and we were blessed with a beautiful day. We hit the outlet mall first, and scored some great deals on some clothes for the kiddos. We then headed for the beach, and enjoyed our day! It was beautiful, and everyone had a ball. We all look like lobsters this morning, but none of us mind too much!


We didn't build these... just admiring someone else's handiwork!


That is a crab in the gull's mouth. We watched him dive-bomb the poor thing right out of the water. The sandpiper is trying to fight him for it!

Just a few more of the waves on the shore:


We really wanted to stay to see the sunset on the beach... one of our favorite scenes. But, we didn't want to get home so late, either, and we were all pretty wiped out as well. So, we decided to travel home a different way, sticking pretty close to the shoreline so we could pull over to enjoy the sunset, and snap picutes. Well, the further west we headed, the cloudier it got, so we missed out on a beach sunset. But. I was able to grab a few pictures of the clouds and sun...


As an added treat to our day, we met up with Nate and Alisha, and the Smith family while we were there. It was fun spending some time with them, and we hope they are having fun today!

We made it home pretty late last night, but everyone slept well! Today we are all being pretty lazy. Kayti paid me quite a compliment this morning when she told me that I didn't look quite as much like a tomato as I did last night! Thanks, Kayt! Gotta love that girl!