My brother and family were here for a very quick visit. They had a funeral to attend nearby in Tennessee, so were able to spend one night with us. We kept their visit a surprise from Alyssa and when they knocked at the door, she was a little in shock I think. She talks about Blakely coming all the time, so I thought she was going to be so excited. But her reaction proved that she didn’t understand why all her family was peering at her through the front door. We had a great time hanging out with them and I know the kids enjoyed being together.

We tried something different this last day. We saved the beach until evening and rode bikes and played a little putt-putt in the morning. There is bike rental on the property so we checked them out and rode over to the putt-putt course. I must say, Alyssa has the best attitude of the worst putter I have ever known. She had a blast all 18 holes. I think her best was a 2 and her average was more like 12. It was hilarious to watch her “scoot” the ball toward the hole. She did not complain once or even notice that too many hits was a bad thing. Then again, she wasn’t surprised when she “beat” mom and dad too. Megan had a good time carrying her putter and ball around for about 5 holes, then she was done. So we tried to find interesting things at each hole to entertain her, like the tiny frogs on the green. We rode the bikes back to the house, ate lunch, then continued on to a park where Ethan managed to get into a fight with a palm cactus of some sort. I am afraid to say he had to ride to the nearest hotel with his hand dripping blood. And… classic line of the trip: While I was outside with the girls waiting for him to clean up his hand, Alyssa says to me,” I wish it were you that had gotten hurt and not Daddy. I like him better than you.” Touching, isn’t it?

After naps, we headed out for our last chance at the beach. We found dozens of more sea shells, flew the kite and had fun spinning in the sand. All in all, a great trip. Wonderful trip.

Since we did not buy any souvenirs, we felt obligated to buy Megan the puppy she kept pulling out at Cracker Barrel. Of course, with that came a pink pony for Alyssa. But watching Megan pat and talk to her new friend in the car was priceless. That’s it from Destin.

Final pics in beach gallery

The next day was just as much fun. A shirt for Alyssa’s red shoulders and we were good. We spent the morning at the beach again. Then after nap time, we got dressed and went to the Village. It was a pretty cool place with lots of restaurants, shops and a great playground. It was nice to just be outside and enjoy watching the girls run around.

“Let’s go Megan!”

Our awesome sand castle 

More in the beach gallery 

We took our first family vacation to Destin, FL this week. We thought both girls were at a good age to make it 8 hours in the car and enjoy the beach. After about 1 hour in the car and 2 concerns if we were almost there, I decided we needed some sort of way to keep time for Alyssa. I had read that someone else did something similar on a long trip, so I gave Alyssa a bag of 12 skittles equaling 6 hours. Every 30 minutes an alarm went off and she was able to eat one. We explained that we would not be there until all of them were gone. She did not ask again…instead she asked if it was time to eat her skittle.

We got in that day in time to show Alyssa the beach and scare Megan. Megan did not like the water. It is loud and I guess the waves scared her. She is really the independent, exploring child, and I was very shocked she did not like it. She never went down to the water, but would eventually sit with me if she was directly in my lap holding on tight.

The next morning we went straight to the beach. Alyssa had a great time. She loved to walk up to the water, jump over the waves. She begged Daddy to get in the water despite how cold it was. They played, kayaked, and even got in the pool. It was too cold for me. Megan however, preferred to sit under our umbrella and play in the sand. They each had fun in their own way.

More to follow…

Beach Gallery

We made it to Houston and back. Do you know how hard it is to travel back to a place you used to live and see everyone you want. With family living in 3 different houses and friends in at least half dozen more locations, it never seems that I spend enough time with everyone.

We spend the night with my brother and had some good cousin time. I love that they all play together, mostly outside and I have to do very little. Even Megan got in on the action this time, and Braden did a great job taking care of his littlest cousin.

We spent some time with friends.

And of course we hung out with the grandparents and family.

I have to say that Megan’s favorite is Papa. Any time we would come go to my mom’s house, she would look around and say Papa? She was very interested in what he was doing – whether it was sitting with him in his chair or helping wash his truck. She is a Papa’s girl.

Complete photo gallery