Our five days there consisted of the mainly the same activities every day--pool time in the morning and in the afternoon with one trip to the beach at some point during the day. Since our resort was right on the water, it was a quick and short walk from the pool to the beach which made it really convenient. With the exception of Ron making daily runs to the grocery store for one item or another, we only left our resort three times in our five days there since we had everything we needed (the pool and the beach) right at our finger tips. Our three outings included a morning stroll along the shops of the Destin Harbor Boardwalk, lunch out at the Back Porch restaurant, and an evening, family photo shoot at Henderson Beach. Although Ron and I were both a bit surprised by the large amount of Southerners who vacationed here and the redneck culture that they brought with them that we couldn't seem to escape at our resort, we really enjoyed this second leg of our vacation. It was the perfect way to unwind after our busy, fast-paced days at Disney World and a wonderful way to spend some quality time with our children playing outside in the water every day!
We spent our first morning of July 3rd exploring the new pool at our resort. Here are the three older ones at the pool's edge giving me a smile.
We took Emmett out for his second dip in a pool on this morning. Here he is with daddy
Sweet, baby Emmett sitting on the ledge.
Ella continued with her crazy jumps and leaps into the water at this pool. Here she is jumping in!
After lunch, we headed back outside to explore the beach in front of our condominium. It was so beautiful that we never felt a need to go and try out any other beaches in the area. Here is Logan giving me a smile.
Lia striking a pose as she waded into the water.
Cute Ella also giving me a smile.
Baby Emmett and I testing out the water for the first time together.
I enjoyed some cuddle time with Emmett under the umbrella away from the sun and wind while the kids played in the water with Ron.
The white sand was so fun to play in because it was so fine and soft. Here is Ella filling her bucket with some sand.
Logan stopping for another picture before heading out with his goggles on to explore under the water for the first time this week. I was so amazed at how comfortable he was swimming the in ocean looking for fish without a life jacket on.
Our boy heading out to sea.
Lia carrying Emmett with our resort in the background. This is one of my favorite pictures from the entire trip.
We decided to head out to spend the morning of July 4th at the Harborwalk Village. Although it is not apparent in the picture, it was just as hot in Destin as it was in Orlando although we were right on the water. As a result, we did not last more than an hour or two walking down this boardwalk due to being so miserably hot.
The kids and me posing in front of the marina located right next to the boardwalk.
The only break we got from the heat was going in and out of airconditioned stores. Here are the kids posing for me inside one of the many tourist shops we visited.
The girls and I couldn't resist stopping for a picture in front of the Ladies Restroom that had a mermaid silhouette on the door.
The kids in front of a pirate ship that was about to set sail with a group of tourist on it.
Logan in front of the pirate ship. We considered booking a tour on this ship, but it honestly was so hot out, we decided that we just needed to go back to the pool and the beach where we could cool down.
The kids and me taking one last picture before heading back to the car.
After some necessary cooling down in our condo and eating lunch, we headed back out to the beach in front of our hotel to spend the afternoon. Here are the kids and me posing on the wooden bridge that we had to use each time we crossed onto the beach from our resort grounds.
A panoramic shot of the bridge, the beach, and the glorious gulf water behind us. This beach was so beautiful!
The kids standing to take a picture before running off to play in the water. We even found a pair of abandoned goggles on the beach for Ella to use in the water the remaining days that we were there.
Logan and Lia heading out to go swimming.
And cute, little Ella bringing up the rear.
A shot of our beach.
Lia and Ron with the baby relaxing under the beach umbrellas.
Ella drawing in the beautiful, white sand.
Lia showing off her name that she sculpted in the sand.
Mama, Ella, and Logan building a sand canal to carry the water to the ocean.
On July 5th, we enjoyed another morning at the pool.
Thanks to all of her swim lessons this past year, Ella really got comfortable swimming in the pool without her life jacket on. Here she is swimming to daddy under the water.
Lia as happy as a clam.
Logan enjoyed exploring under the water in the pool with a mask we found on the beach.
Showing off his new green-rimmed mask.
The three little ones and mama.
A close-up of our water baby and me.
After an early dinner and getting all dolled up, we drove down the road five minutes to Henderson Beach State Park to meet our photographer, Carole, who I had found online several months ago. After contacting twenty photographers through text or email, I decided to choose Carole based off of her reasonable prices and quality of work. She did such a fabulous job working with us for 60 minutes during the 'golden hour' at sunset. All of the kids cooperated and Emmett did an amazing job smiling in a bunch of the pictures that she was able to take. Needless to say, I was so relieved when the photo shoot was over as I had wondered all week long if the children and the weather would cooperate. After we were done and Carole had left, the kids ran out into the water to get wet in their clothes. Of course, Ella was the first one to go in as you can see by her wet, dress hem in this picture.
The kids and me at sunset.
We asked someone on the beach to take a family photo of us.
Another family photo.
Ella smiling in the water.
The girls splashing in the waves.
Sisters!
Another shot of the sisters at play.
Logan showing off his name that he had just written in the sand.
A close-up of our cutie who did such a good job during the photo shoot.
The kids running back into the water.
Lia striking a pose with Logan and Ella at her side.
After getting all wet and sandy, we piled back into the car and headed to the Donut Hole to buy a freshly made key lime pie from this well-known bakery in town. It started to rain as we drove there which made me even more grateful for how smoothly the photo shoot went.
We started off the morning of July 6th by eating breakfast out on the veranda. Although we did this every morning, this was the one time I remembered to take a picture of it.
After a slow morning at the pool, we left our condo to go out to eat the one time while we were in Destin. Of all the restaurants we read reviews on, we decided to try out The Back Porch which was actually a five minute walk from our condo. In fact, you could see it from our veranda!
The Back Porch is located right on the beach and has stunning views of the water. Unfortunately, we were not seated at a table right next to the window which was a bit of a bummer--especially since it was much cooler sitting next to a window with the ocean breeze coming in.
The kids and I enjoying our lunch.
After coming back to our condo for a quiet afternoon, the kids and I decided to venture out to the beach while Ron stayed back in the hotel room with Emmett. After being at the beach for no more than five minutes, a huge storm suddenly blew in out of nowhere! Before I knew it, the wind was whipping down the coast sending umbrellas, beach floaties, and other items flying as people started running everywhere. It was crazy! The kids and I quickly grabbed our belongings and ran back to our resort. Although you really can't tell from this picture, the palm trees were just whipping in the wind!
Although I was loving all of this excitement, all three of the kids were so scared and just wanted to get back to our condo. They kept on yelling at me whenever I would stop to take a picture!
All three children running to our condo (which you can barely see on the left side of the picture).
After we arrived in our condo, we excitedly started telling Ron all about our adventures outside the past 10 to 15 minutes. We then noticed these ominous clouds blowing in from our veranda.
Within a matter of minutes, a torrential downpour started! As you can see by the picture, we couldn't even see the ocean anymore!
And then the thunder and lightening rolled in! The thunder was so loud and the lightening was amazing. When it would strike, it would light up the entire ocean. Here is a picture I took of the weather report on Ron's phone. It shows that the last thunder strike was .6 miles away from our location.
"Seek Shelter Now." We were so grateful to have been so close to our condo when this storm came through, but it was so fun and exciting to witness a Florida storm while we were there! I just was so grateful that our photo shoot had been the day before as it would have ruined the entire thing if we had scheduled it for this evening!
After a wild ending to the previous day, July 7th started off as another sunny and beautiful morning. Although it was our last day in Destin, we decided to enjoy enjoy another slow day at the beach and the pool. Here is a family picture that a nice woman agreed to take of us.
And a vertical one.
And a panoramic shot, too. As I said, she was really nice and took several pictures for us.
Lia enjoyed another morning swimming in the ocean until she got stung by her first jellyfish and then that ended it for the day!
Ella and Lia.
Sweet, baby Emmett giving me a smile before going in for a dip.
I was able to spend quite a bit of time walking around in the calm water with Emmett in my arms. He really enjoyed it and never made a peep. Here is a close-up picture that Ron took of us.
Ron tried out the water trick that he has done with Lia for years, but this time he did it with Logan!
Logan standing up.
Ta-da! Logan standing on daddy's shoulders.
Logan, papa, and Ella playing in the mellow waves.
Walking in towards the shore.
Ella playing in a floatie that we found on the beach.
Lia holding Emmett in the sand after refusing to go back into the water.
After promising Ella all week long that we would go for a swim in the private, little pool that belonged to our building, we finally made it there on our last afternoon in Destin! She was so happy to get to go swimming in here...and so was I after Ella decided to start diving for the first time in her life! She suddenly decided to just go for it and did a perfect dive without a life jacket on into the pool. We were all so amazed! She dove several more times before we got out of the pool.
Lia smiling away.
Logan pausing at the pool's edge.
The kids and me lined up at the edge of this pool. This is one of my favorite photos from the trip as everyone is looking at the camera and smiling--even Emmett!
My boys and me!
And although I did not take any pictures of our long travel day home on July 8th until the girls were fast asleep on the plane, I am so amazed at how well everyone did! After I stayed up late to get almost everything packed, we headed out the morning of the 8th by 8:30 after a quick breakfast and loading up all of our belongings in the car. We had a smooth 6.5 hour drive back to Orlando only stopping once to go the bathroom as I had packed a lunch in the morning before we left. We made it to the rental car agency in the afternoon by 4:30 and were able to catch a shuttle soon after arriving which got us to the airport about two hours before our 7:15 p.m. flight. After going through a long security long, we had just enough time to buy dinner at McDonald's near our gate and run to the restroom before our flight started the preboarding process. It was perfect timing! After a few hours on board the flight, Emmett fell asleep in Ron's arms and slept for the remaining four hours of the flight which was such a blessing. The older children also eventually fell asleep, too, as we were all on Florida time. We arrived safely to SeaTac at 10:30 p.m. which was 1:30 Florida time. Needless to say, the kids were all exhausted when we had to wake them up to get off the plane. Here is a picture of Lia sleeping with her mouth open. :-)
Sweet Ella curled up in a little ball asleep with her head on Lia's leg. Mariah kindly picked us up outside baggage claim at 11 o'clock at night. Although everyone was exhausted, we managed to make it within five minutes of our house before Emmett totally lost it and cried the rest of the way. We were able to get everyone in bed by 11:30 before crashing ourselves. Overall, it was an amazing trip and everyone did so well considering the the distance we traveled, the places we visited, and the heat and humidity that we endured. It was a total success, but it felt so good to be home and to go to sleep in our own beds! Farewell, Florida. It was a good run while it lasted!
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