Beach 2017
In early September, we went to Destin, FL for a family beach trip with my in-laws. Brad's cousin was getting married there, so we decided to make it a full vacation. Melody's first beach trip was August 2016 when she was about 3 months old. She didn't get to spend too much time on the actual beach on that trip though. This would be the first trip where she was mobile and would get to experience the ocean and sand.
Day 1
The Drive - It is ordinarily about 5.5 - 6 hour drive to Destin for us. It really just depends on how many stops we make. Melody doesn't handle the car super well, so I was afraid it would take us about 2 extra hours, at least. We decided to leave at 4 am in hopes that Melody would sleep most of the way, but it wasn't so early that Brad and I wouldn't be comfortable driving.
Brad and I stopped for a snack at Hardee's on our way out. We were able to get through both Birmingham and Montgomery with very little traffic thankfully. Melody started to wake up around Montgomery, but she continued to go back to sleep a few times until we arrived in Luverne where we stopped for breakfast at McDonald's. We were making really great time; it was 7:45 a.m. Melody took her bottle along with some yogurt and a hash brown. We spent about 30 minutes here before deciding to head out.
We turned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for Melody for the rest of the drive. She slept a lot of the way though. She would get fussy every now and then, but overall she did really great. We made it to Destin around 10:30 a.m. I thought 6.5 hours was a great time considering we were traveling with a one year old!
Killing Time - We could not check into our room until 1 p.m., so we decided to find somewhere with a playground so Melody could burn some energy. We opted for the playground at the Destin Outlets. There were a few stores we wanted to hit anyway. We let her play for about 30 minutes, then we visited The Disney Store followed by a bookstore. We bought a few things for our Disney trip in December as well as some Tsum Tsums that were on clearance for Melody and her cousin, Caroline.
We had lunch at Whataburger that is across the street. Melody had a chicken finger and a few fries while Brad and I had burgers.
We headed towards the condo around 12:30. We wanted to stop in at Walmart and grab a few things we knew we would need for Melody. Melody fell asleep on the way, so Brad ran in alone while I stayed in the car with Melody. The parking lot was the most chaotic I had ever seen it. Brad said the same thing about inside. Hurricane Irma was supposed to be hitting the coast early the next week, so everyone was stocking up on water and other supplies. They only had 5 bottles of water! It was pure chaos.
Arrival - We got to the condo around 1:30 p.m. The cleaning crew was still cleaning our condo, so we kind of just sat back in one of the rooms until they were finished. Brad's family arrived a little while later than us. While we waited on their arrival, Melody pulled some of her toys out and started playing.
After they arrived, we decided to go take the girls down to the beach. The only "bad" thing about our condo was the staircase to the beach! It was mighty steep with a lot of stairs. It wasn't as awful as I expected it to be, but it surely wasn't fun.
Melody was skeptical of the ocean. She didn't really want to stand, and since she was dressed nicely, we didn't want to let her sit in the sand.
We went to dinner at the Surf Hut around 5, then we came back and relaxed on our patio. We had a ground floor and plenty of room for the girls to run! Nanny bought ice cream, and the girls were in heaven! The sunset was really nice too!
Melody and Caroline have fairly different sleeping schedules. Caroline goes to bed around 7:30-8. Melody goes to bed around 9. So after Caroline went to sleep, Melody played in the living room for a bit before she went to bed. She even found herself a nice sitting spot!
Day 2
Melody woke up around 3 am, and we just put her in bed with us. She never sleeps well in a pack and play, and I didn't want her to wake Caroline. Thankfully we had a king bed!
She got up for good around 8:30. Her and Caroline did some playing before breakfast.
Nanny fixed pancakes, so we attempted to give some to Melody. She wasn't a huge fan [not because they were bad, but because she is picky] so we opted to give her a pop tart in the end.
We got situated, and we headed down to the beach. We probably arrived around 9:30 am. We didn't bring all of Melody's sand toys for the first day. We wanted to save some fun for the future days of the trip. So we only brought down her beach chair, a sand bucket, a swimming turtle, and a sand roller. Since it was the first time Melody was really playing in sand, I put her swim shoes on. I also wasn't sure if the sand would be too hot. Luckily it wasn't, and the shoes did not last all day! We set up Melody's chair and let her ease into the sand. She walked around it some, but overall she wasn't super interested at first. So she ended up in her beach chair!
After about 30 minutes or so, we just sat her down in the sand to see what she would do. Well she decided to eat the sand! Ugh!
She started to get a little bit braver and began exploring the sand some on her on.
I attempted to take her to the water, but that was a fail.
Bob Bob and Nanny took the girls for a walk down the beach to help them burn some energy. Melody only wanted to be held of course.
After their walk, we decided to give Melody a snack. She enjoyed that!
Then we eased her into the water. Brad and Nanny sat on the shoreline and let her sit too. It allowed a little water to get on her but not too much.
Daddy threw her in the air a bit, and she played in the sand with her sandbucket for a bit.
Then she really started walking to the water. It really got to the point we couldn't keep her out! Even when she would fall face first into the water, she would want to run back! It was definitely exhausting to say the least.
Now that she was better about the sand, she became a lot more active between it and the water for the rest of the morning.
We went up for lunch around 11:30. The showers outside were not working, so we followed everyone else to the pool to get all the sand off of us. I know that is super frowned upon, but there was not really another way to get the sand off. After about 20 minutes at the pool, we went inside for lunch. We all had sandwiches for lunch. Since we knew Melody would be getting a bath after lunch, we changed her into a normal diaper and let her eat in just that. We also let her haver a super messy lunch!
Both Melody and Caroline took naps after lunch. We all took time to relax inside and take turns showering. Since we have to eat so early with the girls, we knew getting back out after naps would be a little too difficult. Melody slept for about an hour and a half - two hours. When she got up, we let her just play around the condo until it was time to get ready for dinner.
Before dinner, we took some cute pictures outside of our condo. The girls were dressed similar, and we also had somewhat matching colors on too.
We had dinner at one of our favorites restaurants, Stinky's. As usual, it did not disappoint. We had a really large group on this night. It was the seven of us plus four others. I thought they did pretty well at serving such a large group. They have amazing desserts too, so we were sure to stick around for those.
After dinner, we simply came back to the condo and relaxed. We took a few more pictures and just let the girls run around outside to burn off all of their energy before bed.
We all were really tired and in bed before 10 pm!
Day 3
A full day for Melody obviously is what she needed because she slept all night long in her pack and play! She woke up around 7:30, so we all decided to get up with her. Just like before, she’ll and Caroline did some playing before we all had breakfast. We had muffins for breakfast this morning, then we all headed down to the beach around 9 am.
Melody warmed up to the sand much quicker today. After about 10 minutes or so, she was ready to build sand castles!
She dug into her snacks early this morning. After about 30 minutes, she wanted to sit with her Nanny and hit some puffs!
After her snack, we went and sat on the shoreline again and let her play. She then started her running into the water shortly after. The water was perfect this morning. No waves and clear as can be.
We had more snacks (you can never snack too much at the beach), then we played again until 11:30 or so. We did the same routine as the day before...pool, lunch, bath, naps, play, dinner.
Brad's brother arrived on this day, so we went to his favorite spot, Red Bar. Before dinner, we did take a few pictures. We even dressed the girls in matching outfits!
Red Bar was just ok. I personally would not go out of my way to eat there again. My biggest complaint was the lackluster menu. There were only 5 items plus their special. I really am not a huge fish fan, and I didn't want pasta. So I was left with no seafood options. So I had the panne chicken. While it was good, it wasn't seafood. Since I knew the rehearsal and wedding were the next days, this was our last night to get seafood. So that was super disappointing. It is also a bar. So they had live music. Some people love this, but I like to hear the people around me talk. It is also a super cramped space. First they tried to sit us at a 4 person table for 8 people. Granted the table was "open" meaning you could have 2 on each long side, 1 on each short side, then the girls on the corners. But that was way too cramped. Then they finally gave us a larger table, but you were literally up against the tables around you. Oh well! It is definitely a trendy place that I think younger people like.
After dinner, we went to Seaside and let the girls run and get some ice cream. Brad and I visited Seaside before were married to meet the pastor who married us. In those 4 years, quite a lot has changed! Ironically, I ran into a friend of mine that I used to work with many years ago. She still lives locally to me, so it was ironic to run into her at Seaside vs. at home!
After dessert, we headed back to the condo. Caroline went straight to bed, and Melody played for a bit. After we got Melody to bed, the six adults all stayed up and played Settlers of Catan. It was a lot of fun. Very competitive too. It was been quite a while since I have played Settlers. Over the last few months, we have been playing Pandemic, more specifically Pandemic Legacy. That is super fun too, but it was nice to play another game.
Day 4
Today was our first (and only) full day for all 8 of us to get to go to the beach. Melody woke up around 8. Brad's parents went to get a few more groceries at Publix, so we all went outside and let the girls play for a bit.
When they got back, we had sausage and biscuits for breakfast, then we all headed out to the beach. We made it to the beach around 10 am. After about 10 minutes, Melody was ready to head to the ocean!
Brad's parents bought both of the girls a float while at Publix, so we let them play with them in the ocean. The water was once again super clear, and there were very little waves. Melody is still too small to really use the floats how they are intended, but Caroline was able to. Melody just stood in the water with hers.
Around 10:30, Melody was already ready for her first snack of the day. Then Melody continued playing in both the sand and ocean.
Just as before, we headed back to the pool around 11:45. Melody was pretty much done at this point. She was no longer interested in the pool because she could not walk around it like she could the ocean and sand. Therefore, we didn't stay very long. Melody walked around the pool deck while Nanny followed her. In the meantime, Brad and his brother, Jeff, played with Caroline some in the pool before we called it quits for the day.
At this point in our trip, our routine was pretty solid. We went in for lunch, bathed Melody, put her down for a nap, took showers, then we relaxed until she woke up. After she woke, she would play for a bit.
The rehearsal dinner did not start until 6:30, which was well after when both Melody and Caroline usually had dinner. So we fed both of them around 5:30. After feeding them, we changed them, then we headed to the rehearsal dinner. Dinner was only about 5 minutes away. It was being held at a beach house, so we had to park in the public beach parking. Then they had a shuttle take us to the actual house.
We arrived right at 6:30. They had a bar along with various hors d'oeuvres. The "cocktail hour" was around a pool, so we had to keep a super close eye on the girls. There was luckily a couch that we were able to corner the girls on and keep them away from the water.
Dinner was a buffet, and it started around 7:30. They had various items such as chicken skewers, beef skewers, salad, baked potato bar, green beans, rolls, etc. We ate a little bit, but Melody was pretty much done. She had already fell on her knee and bruised it. Plus she was just wanting to play and run. They didn't have high chairs or anything really for the kids to do.
We left around 8:15 or so. We basically stayed for the dinner and speeches, then headed out so the girls could get back and go to bed.
Day 5
Brad's dad and brother went golfing today with the groom and his family and friends. Brad was originally going to go, but we couldn't fit his golf clubs in our car! We got up as usual, and Brad went to get doughnuts for everyone from a local shop down the street. We had those and all the leftover breakfast food from the previous days! Brad and I really wanted to go shopping at the outlets at some point, and today was the last opportunity for that. Unfortunately that would mean missing our last beach day. We decided to shop anyways. We got ready and headed to the outlets around 10. Brad's mom, Jeff's wife, and Caroline all went to the beach instead.
Unfortunately a lot of stores closed early due to the incoming hurricane. We were still able to hit a few stores and get a few deals. We heard from Brad's mom while out, and she said we made the right decision to go shopping. Apparently the waves were really awful, and Caroline wasn't able to really play in the water. The wind was also really bad.
After shopping, we decided to pick up lunch from Whataburger. Melody was literally the worst I have really ever seen her in a restaurant. I am not sure why this was. I am thinking she was just really out of her element from being away from home for so long, and she was ready to be home.
Melody napped on our way back to the condo from Whataburger. It is about a 30 minutes drive at most. We hoped that she would go back down when we got back to the condo, but that was a big negative. She didn't nap the rest of the day either!
We started formulating a plan with Brad's family and how to get back home. Our original plan was to get up and leave at 4 am the next morning just like we did coming to the beach. However, with the incoming hurricane, our fear was running into traffic due to all of the evacuations in South Florida. The group decided to leave after the wedding and head home. We have about a 6 hour drive while they have an 8 hour drive. We went back and forth on the logistics and how long to stay at the wedding/reception, but in the end we all came to an agreement on the plan.
So we spent that afternoon packing up everything and loading all the cars. We decided to leave straight from the wedding. We planned to grab dinner on our way out and just change clothes there. While the adults packed and loaded the cars, the babies decided to soak up their last bit of time together while watching Mickey Mouse.
The wedding started at 6, and we arrived around 5:30. We took a few pictures, and we shared some snack between the babies. Literally minutes before the wedding started, Melody had a complete come apart. Due to her lack of a nap, lack of real food, and general "done-ness", she was angry. Brad took her to the side of the beach away from everyone so that she wasn't too loud.
The wedding was really pretty and quaint. The only unfortunate event was the rude groups of people around the wedding. Granted, the wedding was at a public beach, but most people are semi-courtese. But the group of people near us were exceptionally loud and very disruptive. I am not sure everyone noticed, but I sure did.
We took a few pictures after the wedding. Then Brad's family decided to attend the reception until their family in the wedding arrived and they could say goodbye. This added about 45 minutes and a bloody knee to our visit. We had to take a shuttle to the reception (same location as the rehearsal dinner). The boys drove our cars over though so we could have an easier exit. We hung around for a bit waiting on everyone to arrive back at the reception, but it took quite a while since they were taking pictures. In the meantime, Melody fell again on the concrete causing her knee to start bleeding. She was just having a really bad night. In the end, we saw his family, said our goodbyes, then headed out around 7:45.
On the road, we stopped in DeFuniak Springs for dinner at McDonalds. This was about a 30 minute drive, and Melody was awful. She cried the entire way. I was in tears myself because there was nothing I could do. There was literally no where else to stop and eat on the way out. After getting some food in Melody, she was much happier.
The drive wasn't too bad the rest of the way home. Melody slept the entire way. She would wake up on occasion, but would often go back right to sleep. We stopped once outside of Birmingham to gas up and get a few snacks. That was the point Brad's family separated from us on their drive home. We arrived home around 2 am, making it about a 6 hour drive. Melody was bright eyed when we got home, but we let her sleep in our bed which made her going back to sleep a little bit quicker.
Here is a video recap of our trip with all of the footage I was able to capture!
All in all, the trip was really fun. It was nice getting to spend some quality time with all of Brad's family. They don't get to spend as much time with Melody as my family does since they live so much farther away. So it was really nice to see that. However, like most trips, I was ready to come home. Home is just easier with Melody. It isn't that we can't take trips, but I am almost always ready to get back home and get back in our routine. Melody also had so much fun enjoying the sand and the ocean. I do look forward to taking her back to the beach, but I don't look forward to the drive! Driving while she sleeps is hard on us, but easier with her. Beach trips are also so much more exhausting with her since she does enjoy the ocean and wants to play in it. But at least she isn't screaming the entire time! I give this trip two thumbs up!!
