Who Could Ask For Anything Moore? ...: Beautiful, Sunny Destin

We all slept in on Sunday morning, which was a nice change after waking up super early almost every day the week before vacation. After having breakfast and packing up our beach supplies we went down to the beach to stake out our place in the sand for the day. We played in the sand and ventured into the water for a bit. I figured that if I held Tyler and showed him that the water wasn’t so scary that he might start to like it. Not quite. He fussed and moaned. I was able to distract him here and there by pointing out boats, balls, etc., but he kept fussing until a nice woman we met on the shore made her way over to say hello. Tyler was enamored with her and he immediately stopped fussing. Shortly after this, Doug and Andrew joined us in the Gulf. I took over Andrew duty and Doug took over Tyler duty. Andrew was enjoying pretending to surf on his boogie board and I was just trying to keep him afloat when Doug decided that he wanted to cool off. Doug handed Tyler to me (all the while I am still trying to keep Andrew balanced) so that he could put his head under water and Tyler, who calls most everyone and everything Mama, started saying “Da da da da da da da da da” as soon as Doug let him go. It is good to know that Tyler knows another word! Side note: Tyler seems to know the following words now – mama, dada, nana (for banana), dog, stop, bye bye, uh-oh, wow, mouse (for Mickey Mouse) – his vocabulary really increased on the trip or we are just now able to understand him! He also knows where his hands, feet, ears, eyes, nose and tongue are and delights in showing off his knowledge… ok, so now I am just bragging about my baby!

That afternoon, Doug took the boys up to the condo for a nap and I went for a run on the beach. The beach is sloped in Destin so I ran without shoes because I knew that I was going to be getting wet. Doug warned me that running without shoes in the sand might hurt my feet but I shrugged it off (because and I quote Doug, “What does Doug know about running!”). Let’s just say that running on the beach is just about as overrated as “other things” that can be done on the beach, or so I am told. I actually really enjoyed the run, but after about 30 minutes I realized that the water that had splashed my shorts was causing some undesirable chafing and I felt blisters forming on my feet. I should have stopped running right then, but I wanted to run for at least 45 minutes so I kept running. I finally stopped just short of my 45 minute goal when I decided that I was being stupid because the blisters were getting worse and my arch was really starting to hurt -- an extra couple of minutes was not worth the pain I was starting to feel and the potential damage I was causing. For the record, I got 10 blisters from my run!

After my run I went up to check on the boys and Tyler was still napping, so I took Andrew to the beach and we had some Mommy-Son time. We had a blast digging holes, making sand castles, crushing sand castles and digging a tunnel (that Andrew eventually collapsed causing it to bury him in the sand). It was a great afternoon!

That evening we drove around Destin a bit and decided on Ciao Bella Pizza for dinner, which was quite enjoyable. We wanted to have pizza at Fat Clemenza’s (named from the God Father) because the name alone implies wonderful pizza, but alas, they are closed on Sundays. We decided to go back later in the week. Have I mentioned that it is impossible to diet on vacation? :)

After dinner we went for a short walk on the beach with a flash light to look for crabs before calling it a night. The boys went straight to sleep which means we had a successful day. Doug and I both commented on how wonderful it has been to spend quality, uninterrupted time with the boys.

Andrew and Daddy