Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Sandestin 2014

We were lucky to find a place on homeaway.com that would accommodate pets for our summer beach vacation.  We ended up staying at the Pilot House in Baytowne Wharf.  It was wonderful.  We had easy access to taking Buddy out.  He was a great traveler and got lots of long walks on numerous walking paths.  Buddy is an attention getter.  He got lots of compliments and lots of extra pets.

We rented a minivan for our precious cargo.  I'm embarrassed to admit that we filled the minivan up!
Once we unpacked, we headed to the beach for a beautiful sunset.  The beaches of the Emerald Coast are gorgeous.
 After scoping out the beach, we headed off to dinner.
My sunbathing sons did not stay in on the towels long.  There were red flags up on Monday.  The boys loved the waves staying in the ocean as long as possible wearing themselves out.  It is a good thing they rode as many waves as they did.  As the week progressed, the water got calmer and calmer.
 Pumpkin covered Peanut with sand…you have to do that once a beach trip, right?
 Gorgeous...
We got up every morning to do some cardio.  The weather was perfect.  It was hot, but not too hot and the humidity was very low.  We were so grateful.
There was lots of fun on the trip - even when lathering with sunscreen.  We ate out three nights and ate in the rest.  We played card games and dice games.  It was quality family time.  For sure!
I splurged on an inner tube from the grocery store.   The water was so calm.  I just relaxed on the tube. The guys got face masks and goggles.  They swam out looking for life in the water.  They found lots of sand dollars, a big crab, a hermit crab in a big shell, fish, of course, and a stingray.  I did not get a picture, but they played lots of paddle board.
It warmed my heart to have all my boys playing ball and hanging out.  When the boys were little little, the Big Guy spent countless hours throwing the ball with them.  It was the same thing all over again, the smiles, the laughter, the smack talk.  Love it!

I just feel so lucky that we had the week we had.  Love our time together!

1 comment:

Bethany said...

You can see in the photos how much fun you all were having! I think I went to that beach decades ago-- it is so pretty in your pictures! That was smart to rent a minivan too. We ended up driving both of our Jeeps up (with Ellie in the backseat of mine)! We did home away also! It looks like you had the perfect vacation!