Destin Favorites

Happy Friday!  We had a great week in Destin, Florida last week and I'm excited to share the highlights with you today for my Friday favorites post.  

We made lots of good memories and can laugh about the hiccups we had throughout the trip now - dead van battery thanks to Leo, car sickness, tantrums when it was time to leave the pool, misplaced puddle jumper, food poisoning, me having to switch from passenger to driver on the trip home, trying to stop at Buccees, getting stuck in the men's restroom and more.  All family trips include a good mix of highs and lows.  These moments all feel kind of silly now that some time has passed and we'll choose to focus on the fun and highlights from here on out :)

We stayed at Tops'L resort on the east side of Destin and loved it.  We've stayed here several times with Kevin's parents and it's always great.  They're painting the exterior of the resort so there was more construction than usual, but the boys loved watching all the action.  We drove down this year.  It says it's a 9.5 hour drive, but we make stops and it takes us a little longer than that.

Now onto my Destin Favorites.

1 // Big kids - all 3 kids carried their own beach gear/tools down to the ocean each day.  It felt like a big milestone.  Leo also made sure to push his way to the front of the pack so that he could greet every person we walked past.  He loved waving and saying hello to everyone.  We barely used our stroller and our days of asking for a high chair or special little kid things are wrapping up.  It's a tiny bit sad, but mostly exciting new territory for our family.

2 // A perk of driving to the ocean - you get to bring your metal detector!  Fletcher found some coins, an earring and a few other random things.  Not as exciting as gold or diamonds, but it was cute to see him searching for treasure.

3 // Twins.  My in-laws kept commenting over and over again that toddler Leo and toddler Kevin were the exact same guy.  They'd laugh at his big opinions and antics and say it felt like they were in a time machine back to Kevin's toddler days.

Look at that gorgeous water!!  It was so pretty all week.

4 // The Fun One.  Kevin took the kids out in the ocean deeper than I would and played in the waves until they were all worn out.  Leo did not wan to be left out from any big kid activity.

5 // Family photos.  While I was snapping a picture of the kids and Kevin a sweet Southern lady popped up from her chair and offered to take our whole family picture.  She said moms need to be in pictures, too.  I promise - you'll meet the nicest, friendliest people when you vacation on the Gulf Coast.

6 // Whoops!  Notice anything wrong with their shorts!?!  The funny thing is that Fletcher didn't say a peep about his shorty shorts until I asked him if they felt funny.  Dressing them in matching clothes is my favorite!  I'll have to start paying closer attention to their size tags.  Leo is quickly catching up to Fletch.

7 // Evenings at the ocean are my favorite!  It's less crowded and just more relaxed.  Leo did not ever want to go down to the ocean without his tools.

8 // Books.  Kevin's parents started taking us all to the bookstore at the beginning of vacation to get us all new reading material for the week and it's one of our favorite traditions.  Each kid picked out 3 new books and I got Where the Crawdad's Sing after we watched the movie together and loved it.

9 // Leo loved playing in the sand so much.  I brought two of his diggers down with us and he was in heaven.  Sandy heaven.

10 // Cousin lunch!!  My sweet cousin Tamara recently relocated to Destin with her family for the coolest new job.  I miss her tons so it was really wonderful to catch up over crab cakes.  We laughed at the ocean breeze and our wild hair.

11 // We rented chairs and umbrellas at Tops'L this year and it was so nice!!  It's so much work (mostly for Kevin) to carry and set up all of our stuff so this felt like the biggest luxury to just show up at the ocean each morning and go to our spot.  We did a mix of swim, walk the shoreline, play in the sand and lounge.

12 // Mushrooms bring this girl so much joy!  It's the cutest thing.  She finds mushrooms wherever we go and usually wants me to take her picture by them.  Just don't ask her to eat a mushroom.  She hates them.

13 // Thanks to Kevin's parents for taking us to the beach every year!  It's our favorite!

14 // Double Red Flags.  We ended the trip with double red flag days.  That meant no one was allowed in the ocean.  They were patrolling and threatening fines to anyone who ignored their warnings.  Surprisingly, it really didn't cramp our style all that much.  We still did all of our favorite things and just relaxed a little more.  We told Leo the waves were too big and too spicy to go in and he seemed to understand.  Now whenever the weather gets bad, he says it's a double red flag day.

15 // Crabs!  We have never stumbled upon crabs in the ocean.  These guys tossed and tumbled in the waves and they were so much fun to watch.  We went on long walks and after Fletcher and I spotted the crabs, we had to bring Olive back to see them for herself.

16 // Leo loves sand.  He rolled in it like a puppy and wasn't bothered at all being sugar coated.  He was so happy to say hello to everyone and tried to set up camp at any umbrella set up that looked kid friendly.  He made a lot of people smile.

 

17 // Olive preferred to lounge and relax and seemed so grown up this year.

18 // Wild waves and lots of happy memories!  Thanks for the picture, Olive.

19 // The double red flags meant that the crowds were down at the ocean and gave us a little more room to play.  We'd play at the beach and then head up to the pools to swim.

20 // Tommy Bahama.  It's our favorite beach restaurant and we made reservations for our last night.  The food was amazing as always (you'll never have better crab cakes or key lime pie!) and the girls got treated to new bags in the shop after dinner.  We love this Grande Boulevard area so much.  The girls could have done a lot more shopping, but the boys were done.  We also had great success at our favorite spot - Silver Sands outlet mall.

Thanks for recapping a really fun trip to Destin with me!  I hope you all get to go visit these beautiful beaches one day.

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