Did I mention we love the beach?

Alas, we are back at work/Meme's house today, but over the weekend, we all had a fantastic time at the beach! We left our house bright (well, dark) and early on Friday morning at about 4am...I thought (keyword: THOUGHT) that Carter would remain in a semi-comatose state and sleep much of the drive, but he surprised us all and stayed away until after we got into Baton Rouge around 5am! Then he woke up for the day around 6:30am! I thought he would be a total bear, but happily, he woke up like this:



Calm, and laid back, as usual. The drive was pretty uneventful, if you don't count the obsessive handwashing that we forced on everyone at each rest stop. No swine flu here! Luckily Carter did fall asleep again for a quick midmorning nap...



Our first stop was in Navarre Beach, so Carter could dip his toes into the sand. Next time, if PaRandall insists on stopping in Navarre Beach again, I'm insisting that Carter hop into their car so they can hear, "I go on the beach? I go to the beach now? I go to the beach Mama?" over and over on the remaining drive to Destin ;)





Welcome to Destin!



We arrived and promptly changed into our swimsuits and hit the beach!



The wagon was a huge success! Thank goodness we had something to let Carter ride in and also carry all his stuff!



And the moment we'd all been waiting for...would he like the beach? Would he like the sand? Would he like the water? OF COURSE!!







Playing all day makes you really tired!



That evening, we went to Johnny Rockets for a quick bite to eat, and the saddest part of the trip occurred. As we were sitting at the table, Carter saw this little train go by, and said to me, "I go on the choo choo train?" so of course I sent Ryan over to buy tickets while I waited to snap some pictures of them. He seemed excited and fine, until...he realized Mama wasn't going too! It was tragic! The train driver rode them around for a bit, even stopping to offer Carter bribery in the form of Dum-Dums, but it wasn't enough and they had to turn around and come back. It really broke my heart because he seemed so excited about it and I wanted him to have fun :( We'll try again when we go back for the 4th of July. Here are some of the happier pics:





The next day Sutton arrived (with Jarrain and TT and her family too :) It was a bit chilly on the beach, but they all still had fun.















Thank goodness again for the wagon!



We were even able to humor my mom and take more family pictures:

From Destin - May 1-4, 2009

We're already looking forward to our July trip!