Beach Vacation

We took the kids to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida a few weeks ago. We had a great time last year and were anxious to introduce Elena to the beach. Just like last year, it was beautiful. We saw a few clean-up crews, but David was the only one to see any tar balls and said there were just a few. We tried to spend as much time as possible down at the sand, but also logged a fair amount of time at the pool!




Noah's favorite activity was digging in the sand. He built sandcastles and enjoyed burying our feet in the sand. He was also on the look-out for sea creatures. We saw a several sand crabs, a few larger crabs in the water, of course fish in the water, a jellyfish and David even saw a shark swim by! The lifeguards tried to be reassuring and told us that there are always sharks in the water, but we only see them on days when the water is clear. It wasn't really as reassuring as they intended. Here are some pics of Noah digging in the sand...




The first few days the water was crystal clear, the wind wasn't too strong and it wasn't terribly hot. As the week progressed, storms moved in and the water had more seaweed in it and the waves were a bit more choppy and harder to play with the kids in it. We're so glad we took advantage of the water when it was unbelievably nice. We still went down to the beach each day the rest of the week, but we didn't get into the water as much and we got rained out a few days. In fact, the last day we ended up having to run through torrential rain twice (you think we would have learned the first time) and Elena giggled and squealed the whole time I was running with her, both of us getting drenched. It was the happiest I saw her the whole trip!

Elena spent most of her time at the beach under the umbrella in my lap. She was a good sport, but didn't really seem to enjoy being out in the sun or in the sand or even in the water that much. Looking back, we think she was sick those first few days because the last day she really came around and acted more like herself. Here are some pics of her under the umbrella...









The first day on the beach we got inundated by a few nasty beach flies (and they bite). We didn't last long out on the sand before we decided to head to the pool. I think Noah had just as good of a time in the pool as he did out on the sand. Here are some pics of him playing the pool throughout the week ...





There were some other activities we could do within the complex and one afternoon Noah and David played a bit of shuffleboard. Here's Noah in action...


I think Noah's favorite part of the condo was the bunk beds. He slept on the lower bed, but enjoyed climbing up to the top one to "explore" and then once it was fully explored, he used it as a get away from Elena. Here he is enjoying the space to himself...



For some reason, Elena loved these vertical blinds the whole week ...



I tried to get a picture of Noah and Elena together on the beach, but it just wasn't happening. This is the only shot that I got!