Vacation and...a new record!

Hi y'all!  It's been an absolutely crazy couple of weeks.  My mom, oldest son, and I went on vacation. Unfortunately, the hubs had to stay home and work.  Booooo!  But, being the nice wife that I am, I decided to leave my youngest son at home with him so that he wouldn't be lonely. (Or, maybe it was because I was stressed out thinking about taking two young children on a plane on vacation without him??  You decide. =) ) Anyway, we had a fun time despite leaving half my family at home.

So, my family and I are beach people.  Vacation to me always includes water of some sort, and preferably sand, too.  To me, going to the mountains is not a vacation.  And, no, I've never been to the mountains, so my opinion could possibly be a bit skewed.  But for now, I will stand firm that I am a beach person.We had originally planned to head to our stand-by vacation destination of Cozumel or to try something new by going to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.  I've heard really great things about the Dominican beaches, and we were interested in trying some place new.  After much consideration, though, we decided it wasn't really in our best interest to travel to a third world country with half of my immediate family remaining in Oklahoma. I'm so glad I inherited some common sense. So, in the interest of staying in the continental US, we settled on Destin, Florida.

Reid is ready to go!  He's been on a plane before, but he was 8-months old, so this was basically like his first plane trip.

To be honest, we were a bit disappointed with the beaches at first.  They were PACKED.  I mean, I'm okay with a crowded beach, but when I say PACKED, I mean...like sardines!  On our first full day there, we managed to find a beach that wasn't as busy, which was great, BUT, it was filled with seaweed.  Oh well, beggers can't be choosers, I suppose.

The good news is...our awesome and amazing front desk guy gave us some tips on where the better beaches were that were less crowded, so we ended up really liking our beach visits the rest of the time.  Shout out to the Sandestin Courtyard Marriott on Grand Blvd, by the way!  If you are ever staying in the area, you should definitely stay there!

Here is a picture of the beach that came recommended to us.

Reid had a blast playing the sand.

Looking like the cool dude that he is!

Doing some work!

The really good thing about Destin, if you haven't been there, is that there is an area called The Village of Baytowne in Sandestin.  It is a family-oriented area that has restaurants and tons of activities for kids.  Here is Reid doing some of the fun things they had to offer.

Zip line (I'm not sure who this daredevil is???)

The rock wall (again, who is this child??)

Bouncy thing

There were also a lot of really great places to eat in the area.  Apparently, this area loves grits.  Cheese grits, shrimp-n-grits, buttered grits!  Yum!  Any town that has grits on practically every menu is a town that I love! I may consider moving to the South merely for the grits.

Here is Reid dining outside before we enjoyed the most amazing creamy grits ever!  Clearly, he's excited, too, and is telling YOU that should try these grits!

We had fun, fun, fun and were busy, busy!  I'm not quite sure if Reid really had a good time?  It's a shame there wasn't anything for him to do.  ;)

And just because all the pictures are of my firstborn, here is picture of the one I left behind for the sake of my husband.  Ahh, I love these boys!

That's it for now!  I shall return!

(Oh, and I'd also like to point out that I've met a new record for people reading my blog!  I had 2 views on August 10th!  Woot woot! )  =)

To be continued... Catherine