The Walkers: Destin Vacation

In April, we took a family vacation with just the three of us to Destin, Florida. I have to admit that I was nervous about our strong willed two-year-old being out of schedule and throwing too many fits- especially since we decided to road trip it! It took us over 15 hours to get there, and we actually enjoyed the adventure there and back. We planned on leaving around 6:00 am so naturally, we left around 8:00 am. At 9:30 am, Barrett informed us he was "ready to get out!"...... I planned ahead and had everything he loved ready for him to stay entertained. He is not one of those toddlers who will just watch cartoons or movies so this was quite challenging. Trucks, trains, Star Wars, coloring activity, SNACKS, flash cards, and his letter learning laptop and more were readily available. We stopped what felt like 1,000 times, he soaked through three pairs of shorts, and told us he did not want to go to the beach and wanted to go to Na's house more times than we wanted to hear. At 11:00 pm we finally arrived in Destin. This was the first night of bliss and Barrett is STILL not back on a normal schedule because of how laid back and relaxed we were this week. We will cherish the memories made with our little family of three :)

Day One:

The first day was cloudy and rainy, so we slept in and hung out at the outdoor restaurant at our hotel to watch the storm roll in.

Pictures on our balcony

Cute little downtown area- we strolled around and found a good restaurant.

Back at the hotel after our first full day. Barrett wanted to watch Thomas and eat a sucker before he got ready for bed. He slept in a pack-n-play in our bedroom, so we could put him to nap and bed and hang out in the living area.

Giving his trains hugs and kisses before bed. He's the sweetest.

Day Two: It was supposed to storm this whole day also, but we took a chance and headed to the beach and it was a beautiful day!

He was very nervous about the water and would not stand in it at all. He eventually warmed up and wanted us to hold him while the waves splashed up on us. Extremely strong-willed and extremely cautious is a funny combination.

This precious thing wouldn't even put his bare feet in the sand "because it's dirty!" We had to lay a beach towel down for him to play.

Barrett met this girl, Emma, on the beach and he is still talking about her. He had the best time playing with her and was looking for her the rest of the trip. He makes friends everywhere he goes.

Blue Moon on the beach. Perfection.

After Barrett took a much needed nap back at the hotel, (and I realized I was completely burnt!), we found this place called The Beach House. We ate dinner overlooking the ocean and had a blast!

Day Three:

While Steven was boogie boarding, I watched this man, who was by himself, soak up the sun and enjoy the ocean waves. He looked so happy, even when the waves knocked him down. Later, him and his wife showed up with this beautiful, rare type of jellyfish she found on the beach. They were sweet and made an impression on us.

Barrett's set-up while we played frisbee on the beach. This was probably my favorite thing we did!

And this....was the beginning of my least favorite part of the trip. Barrett got majorly upset that I set on that part of his towel and messed up his "parking places". Horrible toddler meltdown ensued. We both just laughed and managed to get him to stop crying for a minute because we told him we could go walk around and look for Emma.