long awaited beach trip and post---but worth it!

You may be wondering if we've been swept away by floods, if you've seen the national weather lately. I assure you my lack of posting is not because we're sailing down any rivers, though when I lightly told the boys we might need to get a boat tonight because we might float away in all this rain, Luke genuinely asked me if I was teasing. Obviously, he's heard all the talk about the flooding in our area!

No, my lack of posting has just been our whirlwind life lately! I need to do some backtracking, so since we are I am talking about boats let me rewind to our latest beach trip to Destin!

We've been trying to get back to Destin for some time and our schedules just haven't allowed it. Ugggh. Schedules. I'm really not liking that word more and more. But finally, we found a long weekend that we could work a roadtrip there and headed out. That weekend was Charlie's birthday weekend. Yes, that morning, we woke Charlie, headed out to our favorite local donut shop for a celebratory breakfast, Luke went to school, Chad went to work, came home from work and we left late afternoon on Charlie's third birthday. He thought he was king because he also chose where we had dinner. Mickey D's. The big golden arches for his third birthday! Nice. Have I mentioned we took a long road trip on Charlie's birthday? Oh, and he was sick and Miles and Chad and me. Luke was the only healthy one. I was stressed at the time that Charlie was having a terrible birthday. It was all in my head, because he thought it was great! He and his big brother were thrilled to keep the party going when we finally arrived after 2:30am and didn't go to sleep until 4:30am. But hey, we were finally at the beach!!!!!

The first day there was pretty chilly, so I stayed inside with Miles and we lived it up in the condo and Miles found his feet!

The other boys played around and Charlie was reacquainted with the waves. It took a little bit, but then Daddy reminded him to try to jump over the waves and all was good after that! Luke wasn't hesitant at all, after all he's our future marine biologist and loves the ocean, no matter how cold the water is!! The next 2 days we all hung out on the beach (Miles slept in the pack n play one morning) in the morning or afternoon and enjoyed throwing the frisbee, making sand castles, looking for shells and taking walks. April is such a great month to be in Destin---but really, when isn't?

We also made a trip to Seaside. Such an adorable little town full of color and a variety of things to see and do. I think it will be so much fun to go when the boys are older and can ride bikes all through the area! We walked up and down some of the streets admiring the houses and exploring the town. And of course, we topped off the evening with some ice cream!

And speaking of food, one highlight of our trips to Destin is the yummy seafood! This time around, our boys were gobbling it down! A favorite is the Smoked tuna dip from our fave restaurant, The Back Porch. Charlie had chargrilled Amberjack while there and Luke is thrilled to tell you he tried Mahi-Mahi, Red Snapper and squid while on this trip! Soooo good! At another place we enjoy dining, the boys had a fun experience watching some fishermen bring in their catch. Luke's eyes were as wide as saucers when he saw the size of the Cobia these guys were bringing onto the dock. Big!! As soon as they knew the boat was docking beside us at the restaurant, they were waving like crazy trying to get a wave back---sure enough they did and a big story too!

Though the drive was long, the trip was well worth it! Charlie's third birthday, Miles' first trip to the beach, Luke ate squid and the Jackson 5 had some good, quality family time!

 More fun pics can be found on my photoblog!