Beach Trip

We took Melanie on her first beach trip last week.  It was also her first opportunity to meet a new friend, miss Ava Jane.  Ava Jane is about 3 months older than Melanie and lives in Birmingham with our good friends, Gabe and Rob.  We've been trying to get them together for a while.  It worked out great, because they were going to be down at the beach for the week on their family vacation.  They were staying down at Grayton Beach, while we were over at Elaine and Steve's house in Destin.  We rode over there to hang out with their family under the big Auburn tent.  The beach trip was actually much easier than we thought it was going to be.  Gabe and Rob had this tiny pack and play that they took out to the beach.  So, when the girls weren't playing in the sand, eating, or swimming in the ocean with us, they could take a nap on the beach and take advantage of the ocean noises and beach breeze.  There was also a lagoon with no waves that we could set them up in to play.  Everything was great until Melanie fell forward a bit and got a facefull of saltwater.  Then, we knew it was time to head on.  We rode an hour to Dewey Destin's for dinner.  We went as is, which was pretty grungy.  We knew it was kind of a dive, so we thought that would be ok.  After a long wait in line and a fight for a table, we finally got our dinner, and it was great.  A nice family from Cincinnatti let us sit at their table.  They got a kick out of Melanie...their son even offered to feed Melanie while I ate!  Other days that we were there, we did some shopping, and we went down to Destin beach for a day.  It was a great trip, as usual, but we weren't there nearly long enough.  Next time, we'll definitely have to make it longer.  The full album is posted over on the left.