First Family Vaca - Destin, FL

(A really late post about our trip to Destin)

We decided to take our first family vacation to Destin, Florida to visit our good friend, Robbie and enjoy some beautiful clear water and white sand. Now, to be completely honest, I'm not the biggest fan of vacations *gasp*... yes, I know, I am weird. There's just something about preparing for them that tends to stress me out. Since my hubby LOVES vacations, we've definitely taken quite a few and I had become a better vacationer. But after having Hollyn the idea of a vacation REALLY started to freak me out! What if she doesn't do well? What if I forget something important? What if...? What if...? What if...? So somehow I had managed no vacations for the first 11 months of Hollyn's life. And considering the craziness that was our life before Hollyn, it had been almost 2 years since our last vacation and, well, Jeff NEEDED a vacay!

Because my hubby is CRAZY sporadic (opposites attract???) He upped our leaving date by a couple of days (decided the day of!). So we loaded up the car and headed to Destin! We left pretty late at night so Hollyn would be asleep for most of the time. Since it was so late we ended up stopping a little over half way at a hotel just to catch some sleep. (Of course the transition woke Hollyn up and it took her a couple of hours to calm down and go back to sleep so I'm pretty sure I got like 4 hours of sleep! Ha!) Anyways, we hit up the continental breakfast in the morning and then we were back on the road.

Kisses from Baton Rouge!

A few hours later we were there!

Eating dinner with Uncle Robbie at the Fishermen's Warf

The next day we headed to the beach.

Absolutely beautiful!

Ahhhh!

A little fun in the sand.

The boys snorkeling.

Doesn't it look like I'm standing in a pool or something??? Amazing!

We had a delicious dinner at The Boathouse. Not a bad view either.

We ate the best hush puppies I've ever had in my life... dipped in strawberry butter! It is making my mouth water just thinking about them!

Smooches for Daddy!

The next day we went shopping at an outlet mall but Jeff had the start of a nasty cold so we ended up at a little clinic to try to get some quick meds in his system so he wasn't miserable the rest of the trip.

Apparently Hollyn has been watching Mommy too much!

In the evening we went on a sunset dolphin tour! It was one of the funnest things we did on the trip!

We probably saw hundreds of dolphins! The tour guides said that it was the best they had seen! The dolphins would surf the waves and then jump over them. So stinkin' cool!

That speck is a dolphin fin.

It was really hard to capture a good picture with the camera we were using so you'll have to take my word for it.

The next day we took Hollyn to the Gulfarium to see all the sea animals.

watching the dolphin show under water

Checking out the seals with Daddy.

Looking at the sting rays with Uncle Robbie.

That afternoon we went for a swim in the bay. (Not as pretty as the beach but no waves so Hollyn was able to swim better).

And she sure loved swimming! I love to watch those little frog legs go!

Hollyn had her first taste of a snow cone... wedding cake flavor... of course she loved it!

Hollyn discovered how fun it is to ride on Daddy's shoulders.

The last meal we ate before leaving was at Tucker Dukes and Jeff and Robbie both got this burger... and yes, it is sandwiched between two grilled cheeses! Heart attack on a plate! But their food was AMAZING!

After stuffing our faces, we said good-bye to our good friend and beautiful Destin and headed home. I'm so thankful for this family vacation! We made memories that will last a life time!