Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Oh, Prince Harry...

Your adorableness and royal birth can only take you so far in life, and it is with deep regret that I announce the end of my obsession with you. Surely you knew better than to believe an advertising slogan. What happens in Vegas, does not, in fact, stay in Vegas.

To be a fly on the wall when you meet up with Gran to explain this one. Just a suggestion: she may seem like she has a keen sense of humor after skydiving with James Bond, but I think it best if you keep your clothes on for this meeting.

Sand and Surf

We had so much fun on the beach this vacation.

The boys love nothing more than digging in the sand, and they dug several very impressive, large holes.

They would often compete with other kids for Biggest Hole, although I think Alex and Ryan were the only ones competing.

Every large hole needs to have lots of water in it.

Lots of water.

After they would dig their holes, they would have us bury them.

This never gets old.

They quickly developed shovel envy (since we had only brought small shovels with us).

A quick trip to Publix solved that problem.

At Publix, we also picked up some nets for "fishing."

Sometimes they would even get creative with their big piles of sand, and make some sand castles.

And used some of the sandcastle building skills we learned from "Sand Dad" last year at Horseshoe Bay.

Sometimes they would write in the sand.

But usually, they just dug holes.

(Proper hole size not captured very well here, but this sucker was HUGE)

The first few days of our trip, the water was very calm, with gentle, lapping waves.

We would head out to my shoulder height in the water, and we discovered that if you dug in the sand about an inch, you might find sand dollars. Alex was the king of sand dollars. He collected seven, I found three, leaving Carl and Ryan in the dust. (To be fair, we were in five feet deep water, and Ryan can only hold his breath so long.)

Before we had left for Destin, Mom had told the boys all about the story of the sand dollar, and asked the boys to find a very special one for her to bring back.



The fact that we were able to not only find whole, complete sand dollars, but so many of them, made the boys very happy.

And we spent plenty of time in the water this beach trip. Usually the kids spend most of their time on the sand, with 5-10 minutes of water time for each sand hour. But this time, they lived in the water.

Whether it was wading in ankle deep water trying to catch the "sea creatures," as Ryan called them - they looked a bit like swimming lizards, so calling them fish didn't seem quite right to him. I'm still trying to search the internet for their name, because they were bizarre.

Or whether it was diving for sand dollars.

Or just riding the waves with the boogie boards.

Our boogie boards have never seen so much action!

The first few days the surf was very mild, but after the rain storms started to arrive, thanks to a bit of a push from Ernesto which was hitting the Carribbean around this time, the flags on the beach changed from yellow to red, and the waves became intense.

I was happy there still wasn't a huge undertow like we had experienced last summer, just huge powerful waves that could throw Ryan and Alex on their boards a huge distance back to the beach.

They LOVED the red flag days. :)
 

I loved watching the different colors of the beach, depending on the the time of the day.

And what the weather was like.

Our other big water event of the vacation was renting a pontoon boat.

The boys had a blast helping Carl "drive.

"

Our destination with the pontoon boat? Crab Island, which is not really an island but a sandbar party spot. They had a huge water slide, a water trampoline, volleyball games, a climbing water ball, and a restaurant and bar.

Oh, and did I mention an ice cream boat?

Could there be anything cooler than ice cream being delivered to your boat, complete with the ice cream truck jingles?

Alas, those dark skies you see in the pictures quickly turned into what Ryan screamed was a "hurricane" so our time at Crab Island ended prematurely.

The rain was a frequent annoyance on our trip, but we still managed lots and lots of beach time.

Blue Angels over Florida

While we were in Florida, we spent a day in Pensacola. To sell Carl on the idea of a whole week at a Florida beach, I had researched other things to do in the general area, and came across the National Naval Aviation Museum.

 Which would be cool for Team Danger in and of itself.

But two mornings a week, at 8:30 am, the Blue Angels practice. I'm not much of an airshow person - I went once with Carl early in our marriage to one in Houston and thought I would die of boredom and heat. 

And I am the first to admit that watching the Blue Angels fly was really, really cool.

And if I thought it was cool, you can imagine just how over-the-moon delirious the younger members of Team Danger were with the Blue Angels.

This move below particularly impressed/freaked me out. I felt certain these planes were about to collide and rain fiery debris all over us. Turns out the quick turn is actually planned this way and designed to give the audience a heart attack.

Others just wowed you with their precision.

I can't imagine the focus and concentration it takes to fly airplanes like this, so close together.

Here's Alex in his new Blue Angels hoodie, his 4th most desired item at the gift shop (behind the Blue Angels pilot costume and two different style Blue Angels bomber jacket, all three which retailed in triple figures and which I adamantly refused to purchase).

Alex now wants to be a Blue Angel when he grows up. Sorry, Navy SEALs.

The morning we were there was the one morning of the week when the Blue Angels give autographs afterwards. Sadly, the crowds were out of control, and we didn't get any autographs or pictures. 

The rest of the museum was also fun, and we watched an IMAX movie all about the Blue Angels, and the boys went on some flight simulators.

While we were on the navy base in Pensacola, we also checked out the Pensacola Lighthouse.

Next, we went to Fort Barancas.

Its part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and it was one of four forts in the Florida/Alabama area built in the 1760s by the British to protect its navy fleet. It was expanded through the years, by Spain in the 1790s, and then by the US in the 1840s.

The boys weren't so sure they wanted to go to the fort when we arrived - we were all a bit tired at this point, and it was a typically hot and muggy Florida afternoon.

But once Alex found the dress up civil war uniforms, and Ryan found the cannon balls, all was better, and they were eager to go explore the fort.

 

There were long hallways just perfect for running and pretending that we were under invasion.

 

And shooting at the enemy.

 And silly places to hide from the enemy.

And finding very dangerous places to slide and make a quick getaway from the enemy.

Boys will be boys.

 

Fort Barancas was a big hit, and this was a great day away from the beach in the middle of our vacation.

We headed back down to Destin after this, and dinner that night was at McGuire's Irish Pub. The food was pretty good here, but what really intrigued the boys was the decor in the restaurant. Over 1.2 MILLION DOLLAR BILLS decorate the place, with notes written on them from customers. 

Somehow, I think I could have found a better way to spend 1.2 million.