"Then He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." -Mark 2:27
We promised Noah we would take him to the beach over the summer break and we fulfilled that promise to our little boy. We booked a week's stay on Santa Rosa Beach about 20 minutes outside of Destin, Florida. And did we ever have the best family vacation full of rest and fun! We were able to recharge our batteries, reconnect with each other and unplug from life.
Noah is a little fish. He LOVES to swim! In the summer, we can't keep him out of the pool. We knew he'd absolutely adore the ocean and we were right! After a two-day car ride taking 15 hours, we did not delay, once we arrived at the condo, in changing into our swim suits and hitting the beach before dark. Noah couldn't contain his excitement! He ran ahead of us to see the waves and the white sandy beach.
Look at his expression! First time ever to see the beach!
Our days were filled with beach lounging, building sand castles, boogie boarding on the waves, snorkeling and getting buried in the sand. I spent a lot of time sunning and reading while the family played in the ocean. We invited Nana, Masha and Victoria to come stay with us. And Aunt Sundy drove up from Jacksonville to stay with us a few days, too.
At night, we would take flash lights down to the water's edge to look for crabs.
There were jellyfish all in the water everyday. These kind are called moon jelly fish. They don't sting because they don't have tentacles. There were fish and sand dollars, but not much else for us snorkelers. We did spot sting ray. Victoria, Noah and I saw dolphins leap out of the water 100 yards from us. That was pretty dang cool.
One day Masha and Cody rented boards to surf on. That was quite fun.
Our last full day as a family, we went inland to a family fun park. Noah zip-lined across the lake! We had fun in the arcade and purchased taffy at a local candy store.
If we tired of the beach, we would spend time in the pool at the condo. The place we stayed was just a short boardwalk away from the sand. Noah couldn't get enough of the water or the sun.
What a memorable trip we had. We hope to make the Destin beach area a repeated family trip.
