Day 2 - Destin, FL

Sept 18, Sunday - Day 2

Nels and the boys were up first so they ate breakfast together, while the girls slept in.  Then I had breakfast with my girls.  Waffles, yogurt, sausage, egg muffin, fruit loops for Kira.  We all got ready and went to the BEACH!  

It was a nice three minute walk from our hotel.  I sprayed everyone with sunscreen.  Right as I was about to spray myself, the sunscreen bottle was empty!  The sun was hot so I knew I needed some protection.   Thankfully, there was a little shop that was a three minute walk away from the beach.  Of course, it was expensive...$17 for one bottle!  But it was worth it!  We set up our camping chairs and beach toys and towels.  I understand why people like umbrellas or canopies.  It would have been nice to have some shade!

The white sand was cool instead of hot and the water was the warm!  Perfect temperature.  I actually got in the water and liked it!

I took lots of pictures...

Noah liked playing with the sand and being in the water!  Such a nice change for him.

Isn't it a dreamy beach!!!

Each child enjoyed doing their own thing...

I took this picture of Nels sitting for half a minute and told him "this is so we can remember you got to relax."  Haha.  The "relaxing" didn't last too long before someone needed something.  

I asked someone to take our photo...

Sand Angel.

Noah boy!

Kira and Dad time!

Here's the crew walking back to the hotel.  

Everyone wanted cleaned off at the same time!  Some how we all ended up in the shower.  Then we figured out it was easier if the kids took turns and I helped them as quickly as possible.  An hour later, we were ready to go find some lunch!

We found a nice outdoor mall with restaurants.  We decided to try Gulf Coast.

While we waited for our food, I took the kids to play on this cool climbing structure.

Lots of fun!

There were also ships and sea creatures to climb on...

I just liked seeing the palm trees.

Sofie found the treasure!

Noah loved saying, "Ahoy!"  

Meanwhile, back at Gulf Coast, our food was delivered by a robot!  Very cool!

Nels got a burger and tater tots.

I got a Hawaiian Chicken burger.  

Then we ordered milkshakes to share.

These were delicious!!!  The girls shared the chocolate one and the boys shared the peanut butter one.  Noah had a vanilla shake.

One of the best shakes I've ever had!  And we got to keep the cups.  So fun.

Our vanilla loving boy.

Great place to eat.

Then the kids played some more while we figured out what to do next.  We found a giraffe painting.  

The kids did this on their own!

Kira is a unicorn.

We decided to buy some tubes to float on in the water.  So we found a beach souvenir shop...silly Sofie.

We bought two tubes and it was the best thing!  I loved the tubes!

We went to the pool at the hotel and just played and played.  

Here's another photo of Nels "relaxing."  

Here's the girls in one tube...

Noah above and Isak in the below picture.  

And me in the tube.  I loved it.  I'm so glade we bought them.

I tried to be with each kid in the pool.  We played Marco Polo.  I helped Kira swim.  She's getting so much better at swimming with her head under the water!!

Snuggles with Sofie...Check out her face!  She can make some crazy faces.

Practicing plugging her nose...

Then we walked to the beach as the sun was setting.  

Kira wanted a picture with the baby palm tree.

The sunset was gorgeous!  

Love this photo...

It was late by the time we finished watching the sunset...and since we are vacationing in the "off" season...a lot of restaurants had closed early.  Luckily, we found Chipotle was open so we ate there.  Tacos, quesadillas and chips.   

We were all exhausted and went right to bed.  Sofie and Noah slept on the sofa bed.  Isak and Kira slept on the queen bed. It was a great day!!

Road Trip! Day 1 - Destin, FL

Nels finally took three days off of work!  So we went on a road trip to Florida!  Yay!

Sept 17 Saturday - Day 1

We packed and loaded Goldie (our van).  Even though this was only a four night trip, our van was stuffed...with stuffed animals!  I didn't put a limit on the kids and they brought whatever they wanted to.  Haha.  Isak brought his two biggest stuffed animals, Sam the elephant and Joe the Giraffe.  Kira brought Maui - her pineapple squishmallow and her 3 horses - flower, rainbow and brownie.  Sofie brought her Big Panda and her Big Kitty squishmallow.  Noah brought his big Teddy Jon, sloth, monkey and dino.  Plus, everyone's pillows - including my three pillows!  Nels didn't bring a pillow or stuffed animal.  

We left around 10 am.  I drove first...

We made it about 2.5 hours and then everyone was hungry and needed to go to the bathroom.  We stopped at Cullman, AL and ate at McAlister's.   

We ate outside and took pictures while we waited for our food.

Check out Isak's sandwich!

Sofie's pizza.  McAlister's has a nice menu.

Happy to have Dad along for this trip.

Then Nels drove the rest of the time.  We listened to Ramona's World for a little while in the car.  We arrived at Destin around 6:45 p.m.  We stayed at the Home2 by Hilton.  We ate dinner at FudPucker's.  A very cool restaurant with Live Alligators!

While we waited for our food the kids played with hula hoops.  Even Noah figured it out. 

This is blurry.  But Isak hula hooped with 5 hoops!!

There was even a playground for the kids to play on!

And Alligators to watch...

We liked these cute little gators.

And baby ones.

Nels and I shared the chicken nachos.  We chose not to try the fried alligator!  

Noah, of course, had mac and cheese.  And Kira had grilled cheese.  Kira and Noah shared with Sofie.  Isak and I shared a burger.  We all got cute cups to take with us.

We all got full and enjoyed a unique place.  Then we went back to the hotel and got settled for the night.

Sunflower Outing - September 2022

Online I found a Sunflower field that was a half hour away.  In the description, it said to bring a blanket and food and enjoy the sunflowers and other flowers.  It was $5/adult and kids under 12 were free.  Affordable, yay!  So I imagined our family having a picnic surrounded by sunflowers as far as the eye could see as the sunset.  What really happened...

We got out of the car and within five minutes we had lots of bug bites!  They even gave us some bug spray!  And it wasn't really a field of sunflowers...more like a few rows of sunflowers and a few rows of other types of flowers.  Oh well.  We tried to make the most of it.  I quickly took a few pictures...

Isak is pointing to a butterfly.

Poor Noah.  The bugs love him and sadly, he swells up when he gets bit.  So the four or five on his legs immediately swelled up.

He was very nice and let me take these two pictures...but you can see the grimace...I know he was trying so hard, which makes me love this photo even more.

Pretty Kira..

Here's one of the three or four rows of flowers.

Isak and Nels braved the bugs and ate at the picnic table. 

The rest of us, happily ate in the car!

Then we braved the bugs again to see the sunflowers over this bridge. 

To the left of where Isak is running are the couple of rows of sunflowers.

And here they are...

I took as many pictures as I could get...I love this one of Sofie.

And my handsome Isak.

All 4 kiddos...

Nels quickly took one of me and the kids.

As the kids were running back to the car, I took a selfie with Nels.

And one of me...

Oh my sweet family.  They are so kind to go on my crazy adventures.  Even though, this outing did not turn out how I imagined...I'm still glad we had the experience.  

Sunflower quote by unknown author: 

"I want to be like a sunflower; so that even on the darkest days I will stand tall and find the sunlight."