Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Elyse @ the Beach~Our Family of 3

And back to the Destin trip reports...

Our first 3ish days in Destin were spent with just our family of 3 as my parents weren't able to join us for the first part of our trip.  The first afternoon we didn't have much time but of course we had to take Elyse down to put her feet in the sand for the first time!
1st time in the sand
Momma & her girl
Family photo
This sweet older man stopped us and offered to take our picture...our first family photo at the beach!
Let me tell you, having a baby at the beach or even just having a baby on vacation makes vacations look completely different from what they've been in the past.  Absolutely wonderful, but absolutely different.  
She loved the water!
The first day there was a sand bar a few feet out into the ocean that was perfect for her.  She loved it!
Walking along the ocean...perfection!
Oh how I love this girl!
We got to the beach early to have some time before Elyse's morning nap & then one of us headed up to the condo for naptime while the other stayed at the beach.  The majority of the time Hubby went up as he knows the way to my heart is some uninterrupted time sitting on the beach.  However, a few times Elyse would nap on the beach during the morning since it's always been her shorter nap anyway.  
Napping with daddy...
We'd have an early lunch and all come down again as a family before Elyse's afternoon nap and then one of us would take her back up, give her a quick bath, and relax in the condo.  We had early dinners most nights, not to avoid the crowds, but to give us plenty of time to eat and potentially have time for another quick activity before Elyse's bedtime.  
Dinner out @ Harry T's (not horrible, but definitely not the best meal of our trip!)

Sunset @ the marina
A family photo....so blessed!

 Needless to say, our nights ended pretty early and we were back in the condo by 7:30ish.  However, this gave us plenty of time to relax and honestly it was important that we head to bed early because...

Elyse was a less than marvelous sleeper on our first family vacation.  The first night we attempted the pack-n-play but quickly realized that she was NOT going to be sleeping in there all week.  So...Hubby pulled one of the twin mattresses off one of the beds and lined it with pillows, hoping that would give her more room.  But she wasn't having that either.  She napped perfectly fine on that nice large mattress...but during the nights she spent a lot of time sleeping on the twin mattress with Hubby or back in our bedroom with momma.  Yeah...we were just trying to get whatever sleep we could!
Daddy...are you almost done in the shower so we can go to the beach?
Talking in buckets with Daddy...a new favorite game!
My view...ahhhhh...
Of course we had to dig a hole for her to stand in!
Frameworthy for sure!
Daddy & Elyse during dinner at Grafiti (some good quality Italian food!)
My loves on a walk after dinner
Another gorgeous sunset!
 Thankfully, the reinforcements aka Papa & Gigi arrived on Wednesday morning during Elyse's morning nap. At least now we had 4 people who could share the overnight duties...and trust me, we needed every single one of us!

1 comment:

Mrs. Pancakes said...

Looks like the perfect vacation...how cute were Elyse' swimsuits! Love the bucket game..lol!