destination destin 2015

We’ve consistently traveled to the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area in years past. We decided to travel a little further south last year, and hit the beach of Panama City (where I frequented as a child), but we weren’t quite sold on PC. This year, we decided to try out Sandestin. I’m not really interest in venturing further south than the gorgeous beaches of the Gulf Coast, the 4 hour drive is perfect and the beaches are full of white sand.

Back in May, we decided we would probably forgo the beach trip this year. With a week at Disney World, and plenty of long weekends at the lake, the beach was just going to wait until next year. But, in true Allen fashion, he booked a condo about two weeks ago and we were planning a short getaway.

Last Friday, we found our toes in the white sand in Destin and I’m pretty sure we’ll frequent those beaches in the years to come. The food was fantastic, the atmosphere was everything I love about the beach, and there are plenty of fun things for kids to do. I loved staying in Sandestin (we’re definitely fans of the beach side, we like being able to leave our room and walk right out onto the beach). There’s a restaurant right on the beach, snow cones, and a beach concierge with everything you might need for the day. We rented a couple of chairs and an umbrella for the stay and it was set up and ready each day (side note: Jud decided he hated the sand after day 1, so those chairs were sort of a bust).

We did enjoy the beach for most of the day on Saturday. Allen was kind enough to let me sneak in a little reading while he entertained the littles.

We spent a good bit of time by the pool. Judson is really great about falling asleep in his stroller, so he took several stroller naps while we splashed around at the pool (or read books poolside). He was also a big fan of the pool, he much preferred it over the ocean.

After dinner one night, Braylen asked to go back and swim, so we grabbed our swimsuits and a few towels and headed back down to the pool until around 10:00, while Jud snoozed in his stroller.

We aren’t huge fans of tourist attractions like water parks and mini-golf. Maybe when they get older? But, we always fill our days with sun and sand, and splashing around in the pool and our evenings with delicious seafood. It just seems so much more relaxed and laid back this way.

After dinner at Baytowne Village, we did stop by this little trampoline contraption on the way back to our car.

I absolutely love a good vacation, but we were definitely left wanting more at the end. BK is so easy at the beach right now, she likes to play and run around in the surf, dig in the sand, and swims around like a fish. She also makes friends everywhere we go, each day at the pool or the beach, she would be swimming around with a new friend and come back and tell us everything about them. It’s one of my favorite things about her, she’ll make friends with anyone that she meets.

We made some wonderful memories, caught crabs at sunset, and even met up with one of my favorite photographers for family photos. You can imagine how excited Judson was to be in the s>and.