DESTINATION: FLORIDA

Last week we went on a trip to Destin, FL. Brady's Dad's boss owns a few beach houses in Destin and last week no one happened to be renting the house, so he let us go for free! We drove down there last weekend. It took us 15 hours (including Madison's many potty stops! ;)). Kolton did surprisingly really well. I was proud of him. He didn't sleep very well, but was fairly happy.

This is a picture of us the night we got there on the balcony off the living room with the sun setting over the ocean. The sky was so pretty!
This was Kolton's first experience with sand and the ocean. He never smiled, but he didn't cry either (well, that day). He just took it all in.

When the waves would roll back it would mess up his sense of balance and he would almost always fall. Even if the waves didn't actually touch him, just watching it would sometimes make him topple over.

This was the only time we saw any crabs. Kolton thought it was relatively interesting. Brady, though got bit by a crab one day. He got knocked down by a wave and when his hand hit the sand he felt something hard and thought it might be a sand dollar (we had seen some earlier) so he went to grab it and it bit his middle finger.

There was a lake behind the house and it got pretty windy off of it. We went on a couple walks with Kolton. He didn't want to ride for very long, though. He wanted to push.


When you go to the beach, you always seem to bring a ton of stuff and usually only use half of it, I swear! Anyway, Kolton was being so patient waiting for us to pack all our stuff that I decided to take a picture.

The first day (Monday) that we were there was a bit cold! It was really windy and the high was like 70 or something like that, which is really good weather if you just want to be outside, but when you are trying to go swimming and sit at the beach, it is really cold!

Kolton going on a walk with Grandma Brammer (one of the few times he would). I don't know why, but Kolton gets OVERLY attached to me when we go on any sort of trip. I mean, he is always attached to me and doesn't like to do much without me, but when we aren't at home it is even worse (I know that is hard to imagine! :)). He saw the ball in the water and REALLY wanted to go get it. He was pretty upset when he learned he couldn't. :(

Brady and I at the beach one night. We kept saying we would go on a walk on the beach every night, but never did and then the last day came and we were too tired to do it and knew we had a long day of driving ahead of us the next day, so we ended up not going. I'm kind of bummed, but what can you do?

Kolton and I went on a walk down the beach, though! He was so funny about the sand! He did not like it to touch his feet as you can tell in the picture. He's so silly!

I tried showing him sea shells. He is too young, though, to really appreciate them. I still had fun showing them to him, though!

Madison, Grandma Brammer, Kolton, and I reading a book at night. He likes to show people his animal noises.

Kolton in the ocean! Yay! He loved wading in the water as long as a splash didn't get him. It was fun to take him in!

Our family at the beach!!!

Kolton playing with his sand bucket and shovel. And yes, he's wearing tennis shoes at the beach! He didn't like the sand touching his feet, so one day I decided to have him wear shoes and then he like being at the beach a lot more!

Brady, Madison, and their mom out in the ocean. The water was so clear.

Kolton watching them play in the water. He liked to watch over getting in.

Riding the waves was so much fun! Some of them were huge! Like 5 to 6 feet over your head (just so you know, that number comes from Brady...I know you guys think I exagerate a lot, but that's not me talking!). It was so much fun! And a little scary at the same time! Brady is just riding a small wave up close to shore here.

Kolton doing his favorite thing...playing with a ball. Isn't it funny how he throws it? He gets so in to it!

Before you go inside, Nick (the owner) asks that you rinse yourself off with this hose so you don't bring a TON of sand in. This was probably Kolton's favorite time of day! :) He would play with that hose for an hour if we let him!

And take a few drinks, too!

They had these little windows along the floor in the living room that opened up on to the balcony. One night we opened them and he had fun climbing in and out.

We went to the Gulfarium they had there. The coolest part was the dolphins and sea lions. They did a show too. If you have been to Sea World or something like that before and have seen those shows, than you would think these shows were pretty lame. But, if you haven't, than they were pretty neat. They did a lot of talking, though, and not much trick showing. Kolton still enjoyed watching the dolphins jump out of the water, so that's all that matters!

Kolton and I looking at the sea lions.

We got pretty wet watching the dolphins. Aparantely we were in the splash zone! ;) Kolton had a hard time watching the dolphins play with the balls, though. Of course, he wanted a turn!


And last, but not least, Kolton would throw his balls over the balcony over and over and over. We soon caught on and would have someone at the bottom throwing them back up. He thought that was the coolest thing ever!
It was a fun trip to take and we are glad we were able to go! And I know this is a humongo post with a ton of pictures, but that's me! :)