Beach Pictures and Crab Hunting

Of course I had to have my family and kid beach pictures. So here are the best of the best?






















Today was our last day in Destin. The state park campground is so popular it fills up a year in advance. I lucked out and found three days together, so we found other places on the first and last day. We were moving to a KOA in Perdido Key. It was fairly close to the first place in Big Lagoon, but it had a pool so I decided to check it out. I have since learned the KOA must mean Kamping with Others in a small Area? In short I didn't really care for the KOA. I prefer my own campsite sorta away from others. Eddie did like that it had a dump station next to each site, so that was convenient, but not enough benefit for me to stay at another KOA. And to make matter worse we didn't even make it to the pool, and I made us miss the ice cream social. Live and learn.

Since we were on the bay, I thought it would be a good place to catch hermit crabs. We walked down there with our flashlights, buckets and nets, but there were no crabs to be found. It was a nice walk, and there was beautiful full moon. Too bad I forgot my camera.

Even though we didn't find any hermit crabs to take home as pets, I bought the kids these yellow belly turtles. They are so cute.



Meet Squirt, he has 4 black dots on his belly, and a yet to be named turtle with 2 spots on her belly.

Fun At The Beach

Friday the only thing we planned is beach, beach and beach. We played at the beach until we were too hungry to go on.

Too bad the boys got sunburned :( Brian just had a small section of his arms, but Eddie took his shirt off. Big mistake for his skin that has never seen the light of day.

Brian figured out how to boggie board a little.

These segalls were very agressive, if you even open a bag a chips they swarm around you waiting for food. The kids were feeding them cheetos.

Danielle drove us to the beach.

The night we pulled into our campground, I saw this huge spider glisening in the light, we went back in the daylight to take a closer look, I just had to take a picture.

Pirate Cruise

Thursday morning we headed down to the beach. The kids had a great time, playing in the water, building a sand castle, and trying to boggie board. Even Danielle loved the sand. She didn't mind being sandy, and didn't try to eat it, but if some got in her mouth or eyes she didn't seem to care too much.

We packed up early, so we could have lunch and head down to Panama City Beach for our pirate cruise.

Emily was a little sleepy when we got there so she was somewhat unsure about going on the pirate ship, but she warmed up to it about halfway though.

The kids played games, got lots of pirate treasure, and watched dolphins. It was a perfect day for the cruise. The weather was great and the ocean was smooth. Daddy finished off the day with ice cream shakes for everyone.

Tattoos for the little pirates

There was a pod a dolphins that swam around the boat very close for quite awhile

Sword Fights

Water Gun Fights

Swabbing the Deck

Limbo Stick

Danielle, did you sneak into the sunken treasure?

They found it!

Beautiful Sunset Over the Ocean

Daddy, did I miss dinner? This rock seems tasty.

Blue Angels

Wednesday morning, the kids woke up bright and early with the sun, like they always do (except on school days) without realizing that mom and dad had only just gone to bed several hours ago. It was OK though because we had a big day planned starting first with a trip to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, home of the Blue Angels. They were practicing that morning and we needed to be there by 8 am. Our campground was only about 15 minutes away so it worked out great.

After the Blue Angels performance all the little kids get to go out to the flight line with American Flag to wave in the pilots. Very Cool! (Emily didn't want to do it.)
We watched the Blue Angels perform, too bad my camera battery died about halfway through the show, but I did get some pictures on the iPhone too.

The pilots signed autographs after the show, if we had been a little more prepared we would have gotten something special like a hat or t-shirt or cool poster for them to sign. As it was we just got a brochure about the Blue Angels.

After the show we toured the Naval Aviation Museum, and had lunch. The kids had a great time seeing the planes, checking out the cockpits and riding in the simulator.

Then we made our mandatory Walmart stop for a new tire, and a few other miscellaneous needs.

The kids had been dying to go to the beach since we left home, so we decided to check out the beach near our campsite. I also wanted to collect shells there, since there are no shells on the Destin beaches. We went to the Perdido Key State Park beach. It was gorgeous, with white sand, lots of shells, even big ones, and warm blue water.

We went back to Big Lagoon and packed up to head to Destin which was about 1 hour and 30 minutes away.

Danielle at the playground in the Big Lagoon campground.

We made it through the rain and traffic to the beautiful Henderson State Beach Park. The park is pristine; freshly groomed sites, with no trash, bottle caps, or butts. The bathrooms are so clean, and adorned with flowers. It is awesome!

We decided on eating at Fudpuckers, mostly because it was across the street. The food was OK, but kids had a great time. They bring dinosaurs on their plates, a balloon guy made them a hat and a flower, and the atmosphere was fun.

A Bump In The Road

We got everything fixed and working, and got almost everything loaded Monday night. The goal was to hit the road by 2pm Tuesday September 1st.

We finished up at work, I picked the kids up at school, and Eddie went home to finish packing up. We did pretty good getting out on time, we left at 2:30, stopped for gas and were on our way.

I was excited, and nervous, but everything was going just as planned. We were losing time on the GPS, instead of gaining like we usually do, and we had to stop for gas more frequently now that we were driving a gas guzzler.

Bathroom breaks were easier and shorter, and we had snacks easily accessible. We did end up stopping for dinner about 7 pm, in Vicksburg, MS, which is about halfway. We were hopping to be at the campsite in Big Lagoon before 2 am.

We got the kids in their PJ's, put on a movie, and they fell asleep. Then there was a thump and a bump, and sparks were flying. Ut Oh! We got out to survey the damage. A tire had blown out on the trailer. Luckily, we had all the right tools, a spare tire, and we had no problems getting it changed. Hopefully it was just a fluke, and we wouldn't have any more problems. We were back on the road within 45 minutes.

However, about 20 minutes down the road, we heard another thump and a bump. Oh &*#@! Eddie got out and looked around, all the tires were fine, no damage, he figures we must have hit a small animal. Whew! Back on our way.

We finally arrived at the campground in Big Lagoon State Park about 2:30 am. It felt like we would never get there. All is well for Day 1 on our trip to the beach. The kids were so awesome on this leg of the trip we started paying them a dollar each hour for spending money in the gift shop. Tomorrow we would be going to Walmart to buy another spare tire just in case.