This year for our annual family beach vacation we went to Destin, Fl. Joining us on this family vacay was my dad and stepmom KC. It was a lot of fun and a lot of firsts for the boys. It was Noal's first time to go to the beach:
(unless you count while he was still in my belly last year!) and it was Trace's first time to go deep sea fishing:
which he absolutely loved. They both were very well behaved the entire trip. Chad and I feel so fortunate that both of our boys have always been great travelers. Traveling is something that Chad and I both love to do and so the boys have been drug along by association since birth! Our annual beach trip is something that I look forward to every year.
This year was no exception, work had been cRaZy to say the least and a week long vacation with no made plans was just what I needed. They boys, while good travelers, are still very young and so we spent a lot of time, doing a whole lot of nothing, in the beach house with the boys. Let me tell you, it doesn't get much better than that... not that I don't look forward to the days where we wake up and go, go, go. but it was nice just to have some quality time to spend with the boys and with my family as well.
The deep sea fishing trip was, well let's be honest, not my favorite. I would normally leave that kind of thing to the men, but with Trace, I wanted to tag along to help. Trace, on the other hand, absolutely loved the deep sea fishing trip and was awesome. He spent time outside with Daddy and helped all of us reel in our catches and then was a very big boy and played on mommy's phone for entertainment on the two, yes two, hour trip back. So even though the deep sea fishing wasn't my thing, I am glad that I got to share in such a special memory with Trace and Daddy.
I did enjoy getting to spend time with my boys on the beach. Noal was unimpressed by the beach, but did enjoy it I think. Trace LOVED it, he still wakes up asking if we can go to the beach. He really surprised me because I thought he would be scared of the ocean, because for as much as we are out on our boat, he can sometimes get scared of the lake. I just knew that if the lake scared him ocassionally, the ocean would be out for good. Boy, was I wrong. He loved getting in the ocean and playing in the waves. Chad even got him to go out one day past where he could touch and he just swam around in his puddle jumper like a big boy.
Another fun thing that we did was take Trace to Alligator Beach at Fudpuckers. For those of you who have been to Destin, you know that Fudpuckers is kind of one of those necessary evils. It's the place you go that has the okay food, for the ridiculous long wait, and even more ridiculous prices. However, Trace LOVES "cwocadiles" so I really wanted him to go see the alligators (they all look same, right?). Luckily, we went for lunch and didn't have to bad of a wait and so while we waited Trace got to hang out at Alligator Beach and see the alligators.
Of course we had to have some family photos taken while we there and I learned that getting good family photos could pose to be a problem for the next few years; it seemed I was the only one interested in getting them done instead of playing on the beach... SHOCKING! (-: I do have to say for the little amount of cooperation I had, we got some pretty good photos:
Overall, it was an amazing vacation and has already left me anxiously awaiting our return next year!
