Bless Our Nest: Destin 2010

We had a fun time on our beach vacation this year. We decided to go in the summer instead of October so that my brother's family could go too. (They can't go in the fall anymore b/c of the girls being in school.) We were scared that we were going to be invaded by tar, but thankfully we went 2 weeks before it hit the Destin area. The weather was HOT, but gorgeous EVERY day! My parents and Jeff's parents went too and we usually rent a BIG house in the awesome subdivision, but we had to settle on a smaller house in the same subdivision this year. Brooks, Melia, Olivia, and Vance enjoyed sleeping in bunk beds in the kid's room and everyone else had their own bedrooms too. Braden "slept" in out closet. I use the word "slept" loosely because he was up 3-5 times every night and woke up for good about 5am EVERY morning! He was battling a double ear infection and was just out of sorts. However, he was happy during the day (we weren't though!) We spent most of the day at the pool this year. The beach was so HOT and had lots of seaweed. Brooks learned to swim the second day we were there so he wanted to go to the pool to practice and play. We would usually come in and eat lunch and the kids would take naps and the adults would hang out by the small pool at our house. Then we would head out the the beach in the late afternoon when it wasn't as crowded and hot. Then each night one family was in charge of the meal. We only ate out one night out of 7! This saves us LOTS of money and we decided a long time ago that it isn't much fun to take 5 kids to a restaurant after a day of sun and swimming!

I forgot how hard it was to travel with a baby. Braden was great most of the day, but you had to watch him like a hawk because he was getting into EVERYTHING! We enjoyed our trip, but decided that we will stick to going to the beach in the fall. It is SO much cooler, cheaper, and less crowded. We are thankful for the wonderful time we got to spend with our families and the great memories that we made together!

The front of our beach house...it was nice (5 bedrooms and 3 bath) but we were spoiled to the other house that we usually stay in. It has a lot more living space and the bedrooms are a lot bigger. However, it is about twice the price in the summer!

First look at the beach

First morning at the beach

Braden's first time in the ocean

Fun time with cousins

Our "small" pool.... thankfully the neighborhood had a large pool up the road that we swam in a lot.

Jeff, Keith, Papa, Rue Rue, and Papaw all went deep sea fishing one afternoon. My dad got very sick and almost had a heat stroke. Thankfully my brother was there to help him.

This was their catch. We had a great fish feast that night at our house.... Rue Rue fixed fried fish, hushpuppies, veggies, and dessert! YUM!

The kids listened for the ice cream truck each day. This was the one day that we let them get an ice cream treat.

Hot Papaw's of Destin

Domino night

Braden had fun watching the kids out on the deck.

One day we went to the amusement park. Brooks had a BLAST!

I had fun too!

All the kids got along so well.

We went to eat lunch at McGuire's after the amusement park. It is a really neat place! For good luck the customers would tape a dollar bill on the ceiling, wall, doors, etc. There was over $900,000 dollar bills hanging in that place. It was pretty cool!