Our week at the beach!

Our family vacation this year was a week at Fort Walton Beach, Florida with the Slaton’s.  We were not sure if we were going up until the last week due to the BP oil spill, but we decided to take the risk and go on as planned.  Glad we did, it was a nice vacation and we did not see any oil. 

Our first morning the boys were ready to hit the beach!

When we got to the beach that first day, there was a blimp flying.  Our guess was that it was BP looking for oil.  Luckily, none was found and we never saw the blimp again.

The boys all enjoyed ‘surfing’ on a bogie board that first day.  Greyson was pumped to do some more surfing on the second day, but took a hard wave and was a little wave shy after that.

I underestimated the effort required to keep up with a 9-month old at the beach.  She loved the sand – a little too much.  Every chance she got, she was trying to eat it.  I am not scared of a little sand, but it can’t be healthy to ingest handfuls of sand.  At least she looked cute in her first bikini :)

We stayed at Waterscape on Fort Walton Beach which was a great condo complex for families.  They have three pools including a kids splash area, a soft play area and a lazy river.  Greyson enjoyed the pools just as much as the beach. 

The frog was his favorite hangout at the kids splash area.

The pirates boat water slide was pretty cool too.

Piper enjoyed the soft play area. 

In the middle of the week we took a day to do stuff other than the beach.  We went to the Air Force Armament Museum.  Turned out to be a pretty neat place, and it was free.  Can’t beat that. 

They had aviation warfare armament from the early days of World War I right through to today's high tech planes and bombs. There was an extensive collection of weaponry which made me think about how many people have died at war.  Outside displays include vintage military aircraft including the fastest plane ever built - the SR-71 Blackbird.

One day we caught some critters and collected them in beach buckets.  Not sure what they were, but they would wash up with the wave and then bury themselves in the sand really quickly.  They were mostly tiny little shells, but ever once in a while we would find one a little larger.  Greyson thought this was really neat. 

Piper typically was ready for her morning nap about 30 minutes after we got down to the beach.  One day Paul was able to get her to sleep on his chest for a few minutes, but typically one of us would take her back to the condo.

For the most part we cooked all the meals there at the condo.  I will eat Crystal’s cooking any day, but we did go out a few times.  Early in our stay we went to a local joint called Coach-n-Four Steakhouse.  We found it based on reviews from Google Maps.  It was a hole in the wall kind of place, but prices and food were great.  Our last night we went to Crab Trap which was less than a mile down the beach from our condo.  It is a tourist place, but the food and atmosphere were great.

It was a nice vacation.  Fort Walton Beach is beautiful.  Maybe we can go back sometime.