Back from vacation

Wow! Sorry it's taken me so long to post my update! I put all pictures on my Facebook page pretty quickly, but haven't had a chance to hop on here for updates. Sorry!

We made it back home safely the evening of Saturday, 8/23... no thanks to Tropical Storm Fay. When we first got to Destin, we didn't know which way Fay would go and whether or not we'd get to enjoy our entire vacation. Thankfully (for us), she took a longer path, so didn't get to Destin until Friday night...the night before we left. Other than a rain shower when we got into town on Saturday and a brief 5-minute shower around mid-week while I was in the store shopping, we had GORGEOUS weather all week! We definitely can't complain!

Both the trip down there and home took around 8-1/2 hours...pretty good for travelling with a 2-1/2 year old and stopping 3 times! Christopher did as well as expected for a 2-year old: he did fine most of the trip, but had a couple of fits. Believe it or not, he didn't sleep at all going down! Thankfully, he did sleep coming home.

Here's a daily run-down of our week (picture links are included throughout):

Saturday - Arrived around 4:30 pm. Took a quick stroll. We all had grilled hot dogs for dinner.

Sunday - Christopher woke us up by 6:30 am. :p He just doesn't understand that when you're on vacation, you're supposed to sleep in! We waited on everyone else to get up and ready and headed to the beach. I had the lucky experience of getting stung by a jellyfish within the first 5 minutes of being in the water! >:( Thankfully, it was just a little thing, so didn't hurt *too* bad. We spent a long time there before heading back to the beach house pool. Had barbeque for dinner and just lounged around the house/pool the rest of the evening. Christopher went napless, so it was somewhat early to bed.

Monday - Shad and my dad were up bright and early to go deep sea diving. Patti (stepmother), Michelle (stepsister), Cooper (step-nephew 13 months older than Christopher), Christopher and I went shopping at the outlet mall that was located down the street from our neighborhood. I found a great sale at The Children's Place, so stocked up on some summer clothes for this year and next year. I wish I could've bought more, but had already spent enough. If I remember correctly, we didn't go to the beach at all that day, but did take a swim in the pool. For dinner, we had the fish that the guys caught (vermillion snapper). Yummy! After dinner, Nana Patti sent the kids on a scavenger hunt; the prizes were a couple of Cars characters (Christopher got Tongue Lightning and the RSN Helicopter). Thank you, Nana Patti! =)

Tuesday - Christopher didn't wake us up at the crack of dawn today. Instead, some construction workers on the house right by us woke us up before 7:00. GRRR! >:( After getting up and getting moving, Shad decided that I was going parasailing (I wanted to go, but was a bit nervous). So, Christopher stayed at the house with PawPaw and Nana Patti (they later took him to the beach) while Shad and I had our fun time. Shad wasn't going to go since he'd been on a previous trip to the area (he was just going to ride in the boat and take video and pictures). However, I was the odd man out in the group and, since I didn't weigh enough, couldn't go by myself. Therefore, Shad ended up going with me. Afterward, we met up with everyone else at the beach for a bit longer and then headed back to our beach house pool. Since we hadn't gone out for any seafood yet, we went to AJ's Seafood and Oyster Bar for dinner that evening. It's right on the harbor, so had a beautiful view!

Wednesday - Just another day of playing at the beach and pool and lounging at the house. We did manage to get out to run a few errands. Shad and I made my Cazayouz Smothered Pork Chops for dinner. Yummy! =)

Thursday - Another day of playing at the beach and pool and lounging at the house. Later in the evening, we all went to mine and Shad's favorite restaurant down there, Buster's. Ah, heavenly!

Friday - Shad, Christopher and I started our final day by taking a walk along the beach after breakfast. It was SO peaceful and there was hardly anybody out yet! After our walk, we decided to go back to the house and change into beach attire and spend a few final hours swimming, sunning and playing in the sand. By the time we got back out, though, the flags had been changed from Yellow & Purple (medium hazard & marine life present) to Red (hazardous conditions) thanks to the incoming Tropical Storm Fay. Surpringly, though, there were very few waves all day long. By the afternoon, the wind started picking up quite a bit and by dark it started raining. We slept that night with TS Fay knocking at our door! Quite the experience!

Saturday - We woke up and started packing the vehicles...in the wind and rain...and left town by mid-morning. While we did drive most of the way home in the rain, thankfully, it was uneventful. It took us approximately 8-1/2 hours to drive home and Christopher did pretty good, minus one decent fit. He took a nap around early afternoon, so that gave us a nice break! Just like the trip down, we stopped 3 times, so not too bad. Earlier in the week, Shad found a Magellan GPS on sale on RadioShack's website and had it shipped down there, so we were able to use it on our drive home. A great tool, but we learned that we should definitely keep a road atlas handy as well (it took us up Hwy 231 in AL instead of Hwy 331)!

So, that's pretty much the trip! We had a BLAST and would LOVE to get down there again soon, but since vacations are rare for us, we know it's unlikely. =(

I hope you enjoy the pictures! =)