Spring Break 2011 Destin, Florida

For Emma's Spring Break, we took a trip to one of our favorite near-by (meaning 6 hours away) cities- Destin, Florida! We love the beaches there- the sand is great, the beaches are clean, and things are pretty family friendly.

The boys were pretty hesitant to get near the water at first. I ran up to the water with them, and then screamed and ran away as the waves came onto the sand (like it was chasing me). The boys thought that was pretty funny, tried it for themselves, and begged to be at the beach almost every second after that. They DID NOT like sand in their flip flops. Apparently that is just too much. These jelly fish were all over the beach. I am pretty sure they were dead, as they didn't have any tentacles, and we pretty much played with them without getting stung. I thought this one was neat with the purple spots on it. I don't like putting non-flattering pictures of myself on this blog, but here ya go. I was there. This area of Florida is known as the "Emerald Coast," and according to Wikipedia, is known for "its white sand and emerald green waters." I don't always trust everything I read on Wikipeida, but judging from the picture below, I think that is probably credible information. (Some other interesting info from Wikipedia, it says "The sand on Destin's beaches is some of the whitest in the world. The sand comes from the Appalachain Mountains, and is made of finely ground quartz crystal giving the appearance of sugar.) Emma took advantage of that sugary-quartz sand to practice her writing skills:

This was another jelly that we found on the beach. It was so different from all the others that we had seen, and it still had its tentacles. I didn't take any chances and scooped it up with some sand and set it on my flip flop to take its picture. I thought it was a neat little jelly!

A big storm blew through the second night we were there, and it cooled things down quite a bit. There was a strong wind blowing as well, so we took the kids to a "family fun center." The kids wanted to ride this airplane so bad, so we let them. And the boys cried (and screamed) the ENTIRE time. Emma was being such a good big sister and tried to calm them down, but they just weren't happy. After torturing them with an airplane ride, I took them on a train ride, and I went with them this time. They were still so upset that this is the face I got when I tried to get them to smile: I think that the favorite part of the trip was playing on Dad's surf board. The kids all tried it out and LOVED it! (Which is good. That is what we are hoping for!) They thought they were pretty cool once they stood up! (On a side note, I am glad they liked it so much, since we are in the process of decorating their room in a surfing theme!) Here is my surfer girl, Emma. I am glad that she got out in the water- especially after I told her about Bethany Hamilton (the girl who surfed and got attacked by a shark, losing her arm) and seeing previews to the movie coming out about her.... Is this a happy girl, or what?! We also kept seeing these pools and inflatable bubbles in the parking lots of the beach shops. Emma wanted to try it so bad, but there was always a long wait. So, on the day we were leaving, we found one, waited till it opened, and Emma was the first one in!

She had to get in the uninflated bubble, and they blew air into it with a leaf blower. Once it was fully inflated, she had to walk up the little ramp to get into the pool. (She kept calling it her hamster ball!) Once she got in the water, she flipped, rolled, and acted like, well, a hamster in a ball! She had a lot of fun in there! We kept trying to get her to stand up, but she was never able to for more than a few minutes at a time. It was so nice to have a little family getaway, especially since Aaron had such a busy "busy season," which required much travel and time away from home. The boys keep asking to go to the beach, and I hope we can go again soon!