Destin.ed

I'm not a fan of the heat. Or the bugs. Or the hurricane threats. Or the Snakes. 

But a perfect day at the beach makes it me remember that being a Floridian has its perks. 

We spent our first official summer weekend in Destin.  To get in the staycation vacation spirit, we had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack on Friday evening. It's a full fledged tourist trap, but the food is surprisingly good and the waiters and waitresses sporadically bust into song and dance.  Besides, Heaven is REALLY into crab right now  (It would be better if she were into something cheaper...say grilled cheeses maybe) and honestly I haven't the slightest idea how to cook/boil/season/steam/grill crab. 

Also, they make you wear bibs at Joes.

Score one for being able to possibly re.wear these clothes without washing them....

Just kidding, you know the kids will definitely still wreak the clothes they're wearing. Even with a bib.

Gavin was a big fan of the bib. OBVIOUSLY

Brandito Crew

And because the Hubs literally CANNOT go to Destin without going to Shakes of course we HAD to go there for dessert. He really had to twist my arm because I would much rather have had loads of extra vegetables in lieu of dessert but I just knew his heart would be broken. I'm selfless like that.

Saturday was a PERFECT beach day. After collecting Ava we headed to Henderson Beach State Park to enjoy some sun & sea time. They were also having an "Ocean Day" festival which the girls were pretty excited about. Park Rangers from the State Park were on site with displays, animals and crafts on different types of ocean animals.  The girls were entertained with it much longer than I was, but the shade of the pavilions did wonders for my patience. 

When we'd had all the weekend education we could handle, we headed out to the beach to join the boys. It was hot, hot, hot but the water was perfect and we spent the vast majority of the day in the sun. Covered in sunscreen of course...or in my case sunscreen, sunglasses, a giant hat and umbrella....because Mama ain't got time for wrinkles. 

Chase'n Waves

I have no idea.

Heaven had this awesome idea to bury herself in the sand....which was all well and good until she was buried and everyone else was in the water playing. Needless to say, her buried time in the sand was short lived. 

After a day of goof'n off in the heat, we were left with some pretty warn out kids. By that of course I mean the kids were SERIOUSLY getting on each others nerves big time about 3 minutes after sun down.  

As they were fading quickly, we opted for a quick pizza dinner and an early bedtime. They were all out in minutes and even slept in until around 9 on Sunday morning. (so depressing that 9 is considered sleeping in) We awoke to a torrential downpour so we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and let the kiddos spend some quality time with Nick Jr to see if we could wait out the storm. This was not the case however, which resulted in a very slow drive back home. Since we were forced to be inside, we declared it a perfect afternoon for a Harry Potter Movie & popcorn...which is exactly what we spent the afternoon enjoying.

Not a bad start to summer I'd say.