beach babies

9:09 AM

here i sit, on the balcony of my mother-in-law's destin house reflecting on the last few days and just how relaxing and refreshing the beach is. the gorgeous white sand, the calming rush of the waves crashing against the shore, the cool breeze blowing...it makes perfect sense to me why people flock to this setting. part of me would love to live down here...but then i know i would take it granted as i'm sure so many florida peeps do. on the other hand, i love that it is a treat for my kids to come to the beach. i love that we start talking about going to the beach months in advance until the anticipation builds and builds and builds. i love the look on their faces when we cross the boardwalk and their feet hit the sand for the first time. the beach is such a magical place for kids and we are so lucky to have an all access pass whenever we want!

this time was just a girls trip. we loaded up all our new summer gear and headed south. after the less-than-pleasant 15 hour drive with lilly last year, this year we opted to fly. a much better option.

my rockstar flyers took a little snooze on the way down...

we also opted to rent car seats from hertz this time around. again, a good idea when you're traveling with 2 adults and 2 children...2 less items to lug through the airport. however, by the time we got there hertz only had 1 toddler seat left. so we had to settle for an infant seat for lil. thank goodness she is such a peanut...

wednesday morning we woke up and headed right down to the beach...

lilly was feeling a little sleepy from all that fresh air. listening to those waves has the same affect on me.

apparently on ryan too. miss i-don't-need-a-nap-anymore took one every day this week. playing in the sand is hard work

on wednesday night we decided to take the girls out to dinner. we hit up destin hot-spot, fuddpuckers. i hadn't been since highschool. it was exactly how i remembered it. lots of stuff to do but pretty crappy food. you don't really go to fuddpuckers for the food. you go to get a glimpse of these guys...

lilly wanted nothing to do with "ali" the alligator...but i was so proud of my brave girl for at least holding her tail and smiling! (please excuse the pic of me...was not expecting to be photographed when we left the house)

on thursday we woke and to a little cloud cover, so we decided to do a little shopping before hitting the beach. by the time we got home, lil was ready for he nap so just ry & i headed down to the beach.

we stood here for a good 30 minutes and just let the waves crash into us. she couldn't get enough of the water. then we took a walk and collected seashells.