we {heart} the beach

Last Monday, we headed south with Jamie's parents for a week of fun, sun, relaxation and yummy seafood.   We stuck with Brink family tradition and stayed the night at the halfway point, in Montgomery at the Embassy.  During the first half of our travels, I noticed BOTH of our boys were running high fevers (Collier's was varying from 100 - 101 while Noah's was up to 102.5 at one point).  Uh oh... this wasn't quite how I hoped our vacation would begin.  Thankfully, when we arrived at the hotel, the kids were both acting just fine and in great moods, despite their fevers.  I chose to sleep with Noah, who was running the highest fever, in one of the beds so I could keep an eye on him.  His temperature actually came down during the night... probably because he was doing somersaults in his sleep.  Kidding, but this kid is a wild man in his sleep so he kept me up most of the night.  The following morning, we set out with both kids still running fevers, and arrived in Sandestin mid-afternoon. We chose to keep the kids in the rooms and out of the heat for the day to try and prevent their fevers rising anymore. 

THANKFULLY, after a little more than 24 hours of consistent Tylenol and Motrin doses we woke up Wednesday morning to normal temps so off we headed to the pool!  Both of the boys had lots of fun floating in their little floatees and playing in the water.  After a few hours I was even able to get Collier, my little busy-body who will never fall asleep out in public, to GO TO SLEEP in my arms... but wait, it gets better, AND I was able to lay him in his stroller under the umbrella!  SCORE!  HE took a decent 45 minute nap, Noah relaxed on a chair under the umbrella and the rest of us were able to lay out and work on our tans (well except for Jamie's dad because he could care less about getting a tan and more about walking around and socializing with his homebuilder friends.)  The rest of our days were alot of the same.  We owe a HUGE thank you to Jamie's mom, Nana, for staying with the boys while they napped in the room and allowing me and Jamie a few hours to ourselves each day out by the pool! 

Dinner at Louisiana Lagniappe

We ate delicious dinners each night at all of our favorite seafood spots, such as Louisiana Lagniappe (my FAVORITE), Mitchell's Fish Market, Seagar's, and Bayou Bill's.  On Thursday night, we attended the Homebuilder's Cocktail and Hors d'oeuvres party on the deck of the Hilton.  We took this opportunity to have a little photo session with the boys on the beach. 

Hombuilder's Cocktail/Hors d'oeuvres Party

This is what happens when daddy's behind the camera... he cuts off our bodies! :)

Trust me, this picture took lots of effort. And help from Photoshop.  I even managed to slice my foot open on who knows what while working hard to get both boys to smile, all while snapping pictures.  But like any determined mom, I kept on going, despite my injury.  I had begged Jamie to let me hire a photographer to take family beach pictures and he wouldn't let me because of all the money we've forked out to Captured Studios recently, so needless to say, I was desperate to get a good one of the boys.  Even if that meant I walked away with battle wounds.  I mean, the cut will heal.  The pictures will last forever. :)

Friday morning, I started my morning with a much anticipated visit to the spa at the Hilton and enjoyed a Deep Tissue Massage. Ahhhh... I sigh just thinking about their spa and that massage.  It's so relaxing and enjoyable!  And why is it that no matter if you get the 50 minute or the 80 minute massage, it always goes by way too fast?! I always wrap up my visits there with a nice, LOOOONG shower.  Their showers have not one, but two shower heads and for some reason it's like the ultimate shower experience for me!  Once I returned to the room, I hung out with the boys and let Jamie have a little one on one time with the sun.  Its so funny that while we are at home, he could care less about working on a tan, but when we're on vacation, he can't get enough.  After he had all he could handle, he allowed me to head off to the outlets for an afternoon of shopping child-free! 

Later that evening, following a delicious dinner at Mitchells, we headed to Seaside.  If you ever visit the Destin area, you MUST make the short trip to Seaside.  It is THE cutest little community.  In fact, the Truman Show with Jim Carrey was filmed there!  Every Friday evening, after the sun sets during the summer months, you can enjoy a family-friendly movie projected on a huge screen in the Seaside Amphitheater located in the center of town.  They have adorable shops, candy and ice scream stores as well as delicious seafood restaurants lining the square. All of the buildings, landmarks and beach houses are gorgeous.  Seriously, Seaside is a must see!

Our last day was spent like the others, enjoying our time out in the sun.  Homebuilders had their annual pool party for all the attendees so there were inflatables for the kids, free food and drinks and live music all day at the pool and on the beach.  Later that evening, we took the kids down to the ocean to see what they thought of it.  As I've said before, I love to be AT the beach (i.e. I want to be able to see the ocean from my room) but I hate the sand and can do without it getting all over me, especially when I'm covered in suntan oil/lotion and carrying a little person on my hip.  Jamie feels the same way so we always stick to the pool and just visit the ocean at night.  Plus, I couldn't imagine trying to lug all of our stuff, plus two kids, all the way out to the ocean!  It's hard enough getting it all out to the pool.  Anyways, last summer, we never even ventured out to the ocean while we were in Tybee Island and Hilton Head (mainly because I was 7 months pregnant and it was just too dang hot).  So the last time Noah had seen the ocean was when he was 2 and to be honest, the rushing of the waves scared him.  WOW what a difference 2 years have made.  He LOVED it.  In fact, he kept trying to pull his hand out of ours and head further into the water!  Collier dipped his little toes into the ocean too but he was pretty indifferent over it.  I'm sure he'll love it next year. 

This is what majority of our family shots turn out like!

Later that evening, we put the boys to bed and Jamie's parents stayed in with them so that we could have a dinner alone.  We chose to eat at Seagar's, which is located in the Hilton.  It's the only 5-Star restaurant in the whole Destin area so we were excited to try it out.  Our reservation was set for 8:30 and we arrived a few minutes early.  We were seated in the bar to wait until our table was ready.  We waited... and waited... and finally the manager came and apologized for the delay and offered us each a drink on the house.  Finally at 9:45, our table was ready and we were seated.  Seagar's is one of those restaurants where it's an EXPERIENCE.  It's definitely not an in-and-out in a hour kind of place.  You have a Captain and a Server and they prepare items table-side.  I'll admit, after waiting so long, we were pretty ill... and hungry.  After waiting another 10 minutes or so without so much as a menu to look at, Jamie finally got up and let the first person he could find know that we were starving and had been waiting too long and at least needed menus.  We decided pretty quickly on what we were having, which was a fried green tomato/crab meat appetizer, the Surf-n-Turf (Filet Oscar and a Maine Lobster) with Sauteed Mushrooms.  The food was DELICIOUS however, we didn't get our food until 10:30.  By that time, we were just plain tired.  I know Jamie was disappointed with our wait but I hope we'll get a chance to try it again in the future.

We had an awesome vacation... in fact, it was by far one of my favorite trips we've ever taken!  I was so surprised how great the boys did, how well they slept at night and that they even took good naps.  They went with the flow and behaved well at dinner and were very easy to take care of the whole time.  Not a single breakdown or fit.  Jamie and I enjoyed watching them have fun.  But we also enjoyed getting a little time to ourselves, as well as spending time with his parents.  I know his parents enjoyed being around the boys so much, too.  They told us repeatedly how much they enjoyed it.  We had gorgeous weather, delicious food, got good tans and a little R & R!  All and all, we had a wonderful, wonderful week!