Beach Trip

Last week, David, Audrey, David's parents, and I went to Destin, Florida for vacation.  Since David had so many frequent flier miles (the one perk of his many business trips), we opted to fly.  We were nervous about how Audrey would do on the plane, but it is such a short flight that we decided to chance it.  It turns out we had nothing to worry about.  She did great on the flight down and we got there and settled in with no problem.

Audrey didn't know what to make of all the new sights and sounds at the ocean.  The water was still very cold, so we only stuck her toes in it, which she wasn't a huge fan of.  She didn't want to crawl in the sand, but she did pick it up and play with it in her hands.  She never tried to eat it, thank goodness, as we'd planned for a whole week of repeating, "No, Audrey.  Don't eat the sand."  We borrowed a sun tent from my brother and sister-in-law that was perfect for keeping her in the shade.  She played under it with her little bucket of sand toys and was pretty content.  We buried her toes, dug tunnels, and let her splash in her bucket of water.  We pointed out airplanes and seagulls and passersby until she made it clear it was nap time.  

Even after several days of taking her out there, I wouldn't say she was crazy about the beach.  She just kind of tolerated it.  We learned later in the week that evening was a great time to go.  The sun wasn't as bright or hot and she loved holding our hands and walking through the sand.  We had some great sunset views and laughed as she would wave at the waves. 

Despite not being too sure about the beach, she loved the pool.  We bought a little float for her that had a shade canopy on it and she would lay her face down on the front with one hand dragging through the water and just chill.  I kept checking behind her sunglasses to make sure she was still awake!  It was so cute.  We pulled her around and made motorboat noises or helped her kick her feet.  I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of afternoons this summer in our neighborhood pool.

When we weren't by the water, we were eating.  Or talking about eating.  I don't know if your family is like this, but our vacations largely revolve around food.  When we're consuming one meal, we're planning the next.  It's wonderful and I imagine Heaven is like that, in between all the praise songs.  I got some restaurant recommendations from a sweet friend who has a place down there, so we mixed up our usual chain restaurants with a little local flavor.  The best part of the meals, by far, was dessert.  We ate dessert every single night.  Most of the time it was sundaes from Shakes, a local frozen custard place, though we did add variety with some Krispy Kreme and Chili's.  I'll own it:  I gained 4.5 lbs in one week.  Not quite my record of 6 lbs on our 2008 cruise, but close.  And worth. every. calorie.

Thanks to his parents, David and I even managed to sneak in a little time by ourselves.  We played golf (he played, I rode), took some beach strolls, and had a nice dinner date.  We went for a couple of jogs together, which likely burned off at least four bites of one of those sundaes.  I was able to work on and launch my new blog and finished two books, which is more than I could have done in a month's worth of AJ's nap times. 

So, we had a wonderful week of soaking up family time, playing, and eating. Above all, we really enjoyed watching it through Audrey's eyes...even if she doesn't remember it, we'll never forget it.


Pics are in the gallery - enjoy!