Florida

We kicked off our summer this year by taking a trip to what's become one of my favorite places: Destin, Florida.

I've decided that I was really meant to live closer to the beach, or at least within a few hours drive of it. I don't think Kansas counts. *Sigh* Oh well.

Knowing that Chris is not a hot weather person (remember he grew up in Seattle), we thought earlier in the season would be better (and I figured there would be a better chance he'd want to go back if it weren't as hot, ha ha!).

We had a GREAT time. Really, how couldn't we? Spending every day at the beach, the pool, playing games with the kids, searching for sea shells, playing tennis, eating gelato and ice cream and pizza and seafood...no schedule, no stresses, just an all around good vacation.

We went to Grayton Beach in search of sea shells. Last year in the same location we found some good shells and a lot man-of-wars that had washed up on the beach. This year, no animals on the shore, but I did get pinched by a crab and stung by a jellyfish in the water!

Love this pic of Chris scanning the beach with Kierst.

Lisi was a lot more courageous this year when it came to the water...sometimes...

We had been watching the reports for days before leaving for Florida, worried that the beaches would be covered with oil, fortunately for us there wasn't a tar ball in sight! But we had to deal with something else on the beach by our cottage...algae! Ewwww it was disgusting!!

Chris convinced Kierst to go out past the algae and try to do a little snorkeling.

We went back to Grayton Beach a few times to avoid the nasty green stuff.

We had a lot of the beach to ourselves, I guess something good can come out of the oil spill, at least for those of us visiting, not for those who live there!

Chris doesn't like to just sit on the beach (remember, his dislike for hot weather and add to it skin prone to burn easily, whereas I can happily bake for hours), so he spent a lot of his time snorkeling, looking for sea shells and sand dollars.

He found live shells, and sand dollars, but only brought back a couple of perfect ones for me from his adventures.

If you don't know, I love collecting sea shells. Our master bath is decorated with jars full of shells we've collected or been given over the years. My kids have taken up my liking of shells, we had bagfulls of shells after a few days at the beach, so we sorted through and brought the best home.

More beach shots...

We took flashlights to the beach one night hoping to snag a few crabs...

...but there was too much algae in the water to see any! :(

It looked like split pea soup!

Another night we bought a coconut and Chris managed to crack it open. It must not have been very ripe because it tasted horrible! I guess there's something to be said for store-bought coconut baked in sugar.

One night we ate at Dewey Destin, lots of seafood that was fried, fried and more fried. Yummy! I tried deep fat fried bacon-wrapped shrimp stuffed with crab. I'm guessing it wasn't trans-fat free.

Chris had to fly back to KC on Saturday, I guess somebody has to work! How we missed him!!

For our last day on the beach we pulled out the bubble wands.

And the shovels!

Abs and I made one more attempt to get a crab, and even with the muck we were able to catch a couple of small ones and some sea fleas with a shovel.

A good friend of mine from my folk dance years met us in Destin with her husband and baby for a few days. We had a lot of fun catching up, it felt like just yesterday that we were at BYU, instead of 15 years ago!

Her little boy is just absolutely adorable--my girls could not get enough of him, it actually made me baby hungry (do I dare say that???)

She taught the girls how to make a froggy castle in the sand.

Last night on the beach.

Until next year...