Destin FL

What a great week we had in Destin, Florida. We drove over 12 hours to get to the beach but it was well worth the time it took to get there. We met our friends, the Walls, and stayed in a condo right on the beach. Destin has the prettiest beaches I've seen. The sand is fine and white, the water is a beautiful green color, and the beaches are clean and free of seaweed and other debris. The average temperature while we were there was in the mid to high 80s and the water was a perfect temperature. It was really humid but that didn't matter so much with the sea breeze blowing all the time.

I never bothered doing my hair because the water and the humidity really would have ruined it anyway. I found out that I have a lot more curl in my hair than I ever thought. I guess those Soderquist genes did come through a bit.
























We played at the beach for the majority of the time. Probably the favorite activity was the boogie boards. We all had a great time trying to "catch some waves", as Breanna always put it. She would say things like, "so mom, have you caught any good waves lately?" or "did you see me catch that great wave?" It was funny to hear her talk like a little surfer.






























The kids also spent hours playing in the sand, whether it was digging holes, making animals, or just building sand piles. Who would have thought that some water and sand would have entertained for hours like this.

Josh and Jacob just loved digging holes for some reason, and some holes did get quite big. They loved jumping and playing in the waves too.

Breanna and Ethan just played in their own little pretend world most of the time. I was wondering what they were doing and saying because they were just talking away the whole time.



























A couple of nights we went down to the beach with our flashlights and nets after the sun had gone down to catch some sand crabs. We weren't too successful but the kids did catch three crabs. Look closely because they are white like the sand. Breanna has one on her hand in this photo.



















Unfortunately, we did have two stormy days that kept us indoors. We got to go to the gulfarium one of the stormy days to see the animals there. They had dolphin, and sea lion shows, many different sea animals on display and a petting area. It was a nice place to be when we couldn't be at the beach.

The second stormy day had amazing waves that restricted us from the water (not that we would have gone in with the rain anyway). The two red flags meant to keep out of the water.

The kids enjoyed playing games indoors and watching a lot of cartoons. The adults got some books read that day. It was nice to relax for a while.



































We went out to get pictures at the Bass pro outlet where they had this huge shark on display. It wasn't real, but it was fun anyway.














CarieAnn (my running buddy) and I even got to run on the beach one morning. After four miles on the sand with bare feet we decided that we couldn't do that again. We both ended up with blisters on the bottom of our feet. There's nothing like running for miles on sand paper. It was an experience though. We got to see a huge (four or more feet tall) crane just standing in our running path. We got right up to it and it didn't bother moving. It just stared at us and I was afraid it might start chasing us. We decided to run around it.

The wildlife was exciting to see also. Joshua and Jason saw a manta ray right by them in the water and Breanna spotted dolphins swimming around too. We saw several little fish and jelly fish too.

Well that is about the end of our wonderful vacation. Besides a few sun burns, a few blisters and a few jelly fish stings, it was fabulous. It will always give us fond memories and hopefully we can return again sometime.