Vacation!

I've been meaning to post about our family vacation to Destin since we got back (at the end of September), but you know how life can be.  However, I have not given up on this post and so here goes!

On Monday, September 24, we packed up ourselves and Grammy and Aunt Jamie and headed to Destin for a much-needed vacation! After about 10 hours in the car, we were very glad to arrive at our condo. Almost immediately, we all piled outside for our first real glimpse of the beach.

 

Some of us enjoyed the balcony more than others.

This was Emma Grace's favorite activity all week - going in and out.

That night, we ordered pizza and rested. Emma Grace's pack and play was in our room, but she didn't stay in at all night that first night.

That night was peaceful, and it was very sweet to snuggle all together. I obviously woke up first and snapped this precious photo. Daddy and baby slept in that morning.

Tuesday was our first beach day. It took awhile to get everyone into their swimsuits and splattered with lotion, but we were eventually ready to go!

 Emma Grace was excited for most of the trip down to the beach. She loved the elevator and the boardwalk to the beach. But as soon as she put her first toe into the sand, everything went south. She did not like the way it felt and promptly withdrew that foot. From that moment on she wanted nothing to do with the sand - not even sitting on a towel.

Luckily, there's more to the beach than sand. We took Emma Grace to the ocean, and she enjoyed that. She especially liked us to hold her in the waves so she could bob up and down.

She played in the water for awhile, but after taking a couple salt-water waves to the face she was done. So she and Daddy and Grammy went upstairs while Jamie and I enjoyed some sun time on the beach.



We all took a nice restful lunch break before heading back out for afternoon fun. We took Emma Grace to the pool since she wasn't such a fan of the beach. She did like the pool, but only Daddy could stand the temperature enough to enjoy it with her.

After a little pool time, we got cleaned up and headed to Fudpucker's for dinner. This was one of our favorite meals of the week, and my most favorite. I had some kind of Parmesan shrimp with lump crabmeat - divine. We got some souvenirs, including a Fudpucker's t-shirt for me and an alligator for Emma Grace.

On Wednesday, we woke up late (thanks to Emma Grace spending several hours kicking us in her sleep) and found a cloudy sky. We decided to make that our outlet shopping day. We arrived around lunchtime and ate at Cheeseburger in Paradise. Then we spent several hours shopping, ending around 3 p.m. in the gelato shop. Mmm. Then we went home to try and let our stomachs empty enough to eat dinner. That night we visited Callahan's Deli, which was tasty but  not outstanding. It was a good choice, though, because we didn't overload our already full tummies.

We made sure Emma Grace stayed in her own bed that night and got some wonderful sleep, after playing a round of Phase 10 with Grammy and Jamie.

On Thursday, we made another attempt to take Emma Grace to the beach. I really believed she would like it if she just spent some time in the sand and got used to it. Unfortunately, she was having tummy trouble that day and we didn't know it. She played in the ocean for a few minutes, but got upset after getting hit with a wave. After that, she wouldn't stop crying and pointing toward the boardwalk back to our condo. Grammy took her upstairs and Emma Grace proceeded to empty herself of everything that was troubling her. She spent the rest of the morning watching Elmo's World while Daddy, Jamie, and I took a walk on the beach.

We got sufficient sun that morning to keep us inside after lunch. We wanted to find something Emma Grace might enjoy that was non-beach-related. After some Internet searching, we decided to visit the Harborwalk Marina. It was an interesting place to visit. Emma Grace enjoyed running around on solid ground.

 The rest of us enjoyed seeing the Marina boats and souvenir shopping. Oh, and watching Emma Grace do things like this:

 We ate dinner that night at AJ's, sitting at a table that looked right out over the water. It was very nice. After dinner, we headed back to our condo, stopping for some frozen custard and a short trip to Alvin's Island. Emma Grace really enjoyed the custard place. I think she made friends with every other customer.

The next day, we had to head back home. We had a pleasant drive and made great time. We were making such good time that we stopped for dinner at Cracker Barrel in Tupelo. We savored a leisurely meal and then spent some time shopping. We left around 7, planning to be home a little after 8 p.m. Then we hit a snag.

4 miles from our exit, traffic came to a dead halt. There had been a wreck on Hwy. 78 (which we never saw), and nobody was going anywhere. It took us an hour and a half to get to our exit. Right before we did, Emma Grace threw up her entire dinner into her car seat. Thank the Lord that at that exact moment traffic cleared and we could move again. We took a short detour to a gas station to mop up baby and seat, and then made it home around 10 p.m. A stressful end to vacation, for sure, but thankfully the rest of the week was very relaxing! I just wish we could have stayed longer!