A beautiful spring day

Yesterday was a beautiful day and Saturdays are Family Day...so we headed over to McConnell Springs. This is a great area close to our house where Lexington was first settled. Katelyn, being the explorer that she is, was happy to wander down the path and point out EVERYTHING that caught her eye. It took an hour to walk a mile. :)

She likes her cool sunglasses. She says she HAS to wear them because it's hot out.

Posing...

Here we are in front of one of the springs.

Katelyn up on a Shaker wall.

Michael and Katelyn hanging out on the bridge.

We followed up our little hiking adventure with lunch and a trip to the library. After going home to rest we brought dinner over to my brother and sister-in-law's new house and spent some time at their great new place. Congratulations Mike and Niki!!

I made peanutbutter, banana, chocolate chip pancakes this morning. Michael and Katelyn's favorite breakfast. And while the pancakes were cooking Katelyn read a library book. Katelyn said, "I love the local library." That's our girl~!

Last day...

Yesterday was our last day of vacation before we started to head home. The weather was perfect. We spent several hours at the beach in the morning and then some time at the pool in the afternoon. Katelyn has adapted to beach life quite nicely don't you think?

Of course if there's water to stomp in she's stomping.

Chasing a seagull.

Dolphins came by while we were on the beach. They were right off shore. It was AWESOME to be able to see them up close. I got in the water like this guy did and they were maybe 30 feet away. That was a great treat for our last day!

Some older kids helped Katelyn get a minnow in her bucket. She was so excited that she had her own fish.

We really enjoyed The Village of Baytowne Wharf in Sandestin earlier in the week so we decided to go back for our last night.

We even let Katelyn ride the $4 carousel.

Katelyn and Michael hanging out.

And the sunset did not disappoint us.

This morning was a bit tragic as we packed up to head home. We had a perfect vacation...we'll definitely go back to the Destin area again.

We're staying in Birmingham tonight and will head back to Lexington tomorrow. Now that we're on the road we're all ready to get home.

Adios beach. We will miss you!

An evening at the harbor

After an afternoon of this....

We went here and ate very yummy Thai food....(which Katelyn said was the best dinner ever)

And then we went down here to wander around...

We were just in time to catch a beautiful sunset.

Katelyn wanted to climb on board every boat in the harbor. There was a place where you could rent pontoon boats and she said, "Hey, that's just like papa's boat."

It was great just to take a walk and smell all of the smells and see all of the sights of the harbor.

On our way back to the condo we stopped at The Donut Hole. It's a cafe and bakery that's open all night. Little did we know that we dressed Katelyn appropriately for the evening because when she saw the cupcakes she knew exactly what her treat would be.

Michael and I had a cup of coffee and a piece of key lime pie because really, you can't come all the way to Florida and not eat a piece of key lime pie.

I know, I know...total gluttony...the whole trip. We'll eat salad next week...but for now we have one more day at the beach!

Time in the water

The last two days have been GORGEOUS...and since the ocean looks like this....

...0ur routine for the last two days has been to wake up whenever, sit on the balcony in our jammies drinking coffee and eating breakfast, pack up our stuff and head to the beach, rest, play and swim at the beach until lunch...

...because this is not a crystal clear pool...it's the ocean!

Katelyn was entertained with this bucket and straw for 30 minutes today.

I really don't think Michael is going to go back to work so we might all be living in a cardboard box on this very beach fairly soon...

Then we head back to the condo and make ourselves some lunch. (Remember the 2 pounds of boiled shrimp? And the leftover pizza from the best little italian place ever?)

And today we made the same salad because it was SO good and had some fresh bread and brie cheese with it. Yep, we're good at vacationing!

And Katelyn had leftover chicken and french fries from the greek place we went to last night.

And then after lunch we head to the pool. Katelyn is doing great in the water. She gets her floaties on and she's off...

Our biggest decisions of the day are how long do we nap...

And where do we go for dinner.

Tonight we're going to have some Thai food and then we're going for a walk down by the harbor with a nice stop for some key lime pie before the night is over. :) Have I mentioned that I love vacation?

More beachy fun

We went to the seafood market this morning and bought a couple of pounds of fresh shrimp. Then we had lunch at a little italian place and we had THE BEST pizza I've ever eaten. It was SO good! And then we came back and went to the beach. It was windy this afternoon and I thought it was chilly but Katelyn was not affected and just wanted to play, play, play...

This evening before dinner we took a walk and collected shells. This activity kept Katelyn engaged for over an hour. Yeah.

Katelyn drew a picture of herself in the sand. Super cute!

I think it looks just like her.

We had our own shrimp boil tonight after Katelyn went to bed.

Ummm...2 pounds of shrimp was a little overzealous for the two of us. But we put a dent in it and we're going to have a salad with some shrimp on it tomorrow night for dinner. I got some fresh bread and brie to go with it. Yum, yum!

The Village of Baytowne Wharf

Last night after everyone had a nap we decided to go out to Sandestin which is a gated community but you can get in to go to The Village of Baytowne Wharf. There are restaurants, shops and activities.

Here's Katelyn and I on our balcony before we left.

Here's Michael and Katelyn at the fountain when you first come in.

Us being tourists...

We had a big, late lunch so we fed Katelyn leftover spaghetti from our first night here before we left for the village and Michael and I decided that we'd just eat sandwiches and salad back at the condo later....so we had dessert first....gelato at Sweeties of course!

Katelyn was very happy with her rainbow sherbet. Yum, yum, yum!

Me and my honey looking out at the marina at sunset. It was gorgeous out there.

Here's what the village looks like at night. We really loved it out here. We're going to go back again before we leave. There was even a playground area for Katelyn. It's really fun...lights, live music, people wandering around. The perfect place to go for the evening. We're going to eat at one of the restaurants in the next couple of days sometime.

Here's Katelyn and I at the fountain before we left.

Today we're going to a local fish market to get some fresh shrimp and we're going to have our own shrimp boil at the condo tonight. There's a cool italian place we're going to go to for lunch and the agenda for the afternoon...the beach of course!