This was the sunrise we saw when setting out on Saturday morning from MN. Layla was especially impressed because our kids never have a need to be up early enough to see a sunrise, haha.
The only way to keep three-year-old Kellan calm for 10 hour days of driving was for me to sit in the back with him. Then he did mostly fine, as long as he felt like he had my undivided attention.
Most nights we went down to the beach on the Gulf side (we were staying on the Bay side of an island) to watch the sun set in full glory. It was wonderful.
It rained almost the whole first day of our drive down, but we got just south of St. Louis by then and were able to stop and see the Gateway Arch. Super impressive.
It was so fantastic to leave MN at 1 degree and drive south to 75 degrees and humid. This was from our first night there, exploring the grounds.
Monday and Thursday nights we had this amazing seafood boil meal: king crap and shrimp and butter/corn/potatoes. Delish.
Night swimming was a fun new event for our kids, outside at least...
Kellan got to sleep in between myself and Jonas in the massive California King bed. Not bad!
We brought Dan and Kathleen with us!
Two days before we left MN I had haircuts scheduled for the boys, but it was SO COLD that day I didn't want to leave the house. So they look a little shaggy in all this pictures. Ah, well. :)
4 of our 6 days there were sunny, but two were partly or mostly cloudy, so we went on adventures those days. This day we went to the Gulfarium museum of sorts and saw fun animal shows.
We also went and walked out to the end of the pier you can see in all of our sunset photos...
Kellan sitting on the side of his favorite hot tub...
The sunrise view looking east from our balcony, along the length of the Island:
On this day we went to check out a bunch of FL gators:
We played many Scrabble games. This hand, man. It was rough.
This wasn't a true vacation for us...we were just doing life somewhere warmer. So, school still happened!
The whirlpool jet big bath tub was a huge hit.
The Donut Hole in Destin had some crazy fun
The exact moment when a wave came higher than expected and ruined her photo shoot...
My hair had lots of fun in Florida too...
Layla on our roof-top patio:
💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
My view from our lower balcony on the last night there. Sigh.
What I feel like after 2, 100-hour days in the car with my children...
