travel diaries | destin - part one

Well, our big summer trip has come and gone and it's taken me a couple of weeks to come to grips that it is over!

We've made great friends with several families at church and two of those families invited us on their yearly trek to Destin, Florida. We jumped at the chance to experience it with these beach-going pros and set out at the end of August for our first family vacation!

It was Davis' first flight ever and the first one that Beau will have any memory of (at least for a few years). They both did great and we arrived early Saturday morning in Panama City Beach.

We had some time to kill before the rest of the crew got there so we passed the time with lunch, wandering around Bass Pro Shops, and an ice cream/cupcake stop.

We were finally able to check-in to our beach house at 4 and we walked out to this view. We were ON the beach and we will never ever do it any other way. LOVE!

Ian, Beau, and Ellie. The 'big kid' crew for the week!

We took some walks on the beach that evening but saved the swimsuits for the next day. On Sunday, we were up and ready to spend the day on the beach!

How great was this bunk room for the big kids?!

We made a great decision to bring our cameras that work on wifi with us so every morning Davis would nap as we were going to the beach and we could watch him from our beach chairs as he snoozed. We were about 50 yards from the house so once he started stirring we could go up and get him to join the party. It was great being able to enjoy the beach and know that he was getting the rest he needed!

Davis was a FAN. He took one small bite of sand, decided that was enough, and spent the rest of the trip happily crawling (and walking - yeah, that's a thing now!) up and down the beach and straight into the waves as if it was nothing new. He is our beach boy!

We hosed the kids off every day after the beach and couldn't resist these burrito babes!

We all did our own thing while the kids took their afternoon nap and that meant I took some time to read out on the balcony. The weather was great and the view was perfection!

The next day we were up and at it again. 

This ship would go by every couple of hours with this GIANT TV screen displaying ads. It was hilarious to me!

The guys decided to put their heads together to make an 'epic' pool...and subsequently defend it from the children that wanted to play in the sand near it! ha!

The lovely ladies that included us - Jenna and Lindsay (and sweet sleeping Landon)

That night we went to a restaurant that had it's own beach! It was GREAT entertainment for kids that needed to run out more energy before bed.

here's where we ate those first few days:

Pompano Joe's

McGuire's Pub

Lulu's 

I've got TONS more pictures and a video to share, so check back for the rest next week! 

travel diaries | be-UTAH-ful day three

I realized I hadn't posted day three of our Utah trip yet! Here we go...

Day three was a Friday and we decided to head into Salt Lake City (about 30 minutes away) to check out the famous Temple Square as well as a fall festival later in the day.

On the drive there, I realized I hadn't packed a change of clothes for Beau if something happened. I figured, ah well...he rarely has accidents anymore so it will be fine. We found a parking spot near Temple Square and all had to go to the bathroom (and get a diaper change) so we headed into the Family History Library in search of a bathroom. Well, guess what. Beau had a major blowout and it was quite obvious in his white onesie! I had to strip him down to jeans and no shirt (luckily the jeans came out unscathed) and walk through the library with a shirtless baby. Luck would have it that I had spotted a Nordstrom just across the street when we were parking so we hightailed it there and picked up a shirt on sale for Beau. Bonus - it matched his outfit! Onward...

While we are not Mormon, we wanted to see Temple Square because we figured we wouldn't be in SLC anytime soon again and it's just something you have to see when you are there. They have a large complex of temples, tabernacles, office buildings, libraries, and museums, so we wandered around for a few hours. The weather was warm but comfortable, it was a beautiful day, and the grounds were perfectly maintained! It was surprisingly relaxing just taking it all in.

After we walked around there, we headed over to Cross E Ranch. I had picked up a groupon for their fall festival and it was so cute and fun! It was a warm day in the valley and it was pretty empty so we almost had the place to ourselves. They had animals you could pet, hay mazes, pumpkins, a corn pit, and a hayride. We enjoyed the fun with the beautiful backdrop!

After all the fun, we headed back to (chilly, usually 20 degrees colder than Salt Lake City) Park City for dinner at Bandit's Bar and Grill. We were wary of non-Texas BBQ but it was really good! Then we took a swim at the hotel and went down for the night. Most of the flights out of SLC on Saturday were early so we were up and out of our hotel before 9am to head home to Dallas. It was such a fun trip!

If you missed them, check out the other days here:

day one

day two (with full recap video)