Last month we took a trip to Florida. We went with my parents and Kevin's parents and rented a 4 bedroom town home on Scenic 98 in Miramar Beach. It was a great vacation, and probably one of the first that we've taken and actually stayed on budget! I thank our great location/views for the money we saved! We were all so content sitting on the beach or sitting on the decks.
We usually made breakfast and lunch at the condo, and we would eat out for dinner. Several nights we went out for ice cream after dinner. One afternoon the boys went to the pier to do some fishing, and the girls + Austin went to a nearby outlet mall to shop.
One thing we did different this trip was we had the kids earn their spending money. I think they each earned between $50-80. They did odd jobs for grandparents, saved money from Easter egg hunts, and sold some things at our yard sale. I LOVED doing this! It made them really think about what they wanted to spend their money on, and it took out the "Mom, I want ____" every store we went to! Poor Allie may have thought about things too hard - she went days without buying anything and half way through the week, Kevin and I, along with Hayden, took her to another outlet mall to spend some of that hard earned money. I think all the kids came home with some money, but having them earn it saved us from having to budget in spending money for them! Win/Win!
I did take my digital camera, but 90% of the pictures I took, I used my iPhone... so here's our trip in iPhone pictures :)
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| We always get so excited to see the "Welcome to Florida" sign |
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| Austin wearing his cool sunglasses - upside down |
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| I'm sorry, but who taught my daughter to blow kisses at the camera?! |
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| One of our daily breakfasts at the town house! |
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| Our 1st morning at the beach - the kids and Kevin couldn't wait to get out there |
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| I spy my cute family! |
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| We had the best view |
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| Unposed - I love it! May need to frame this sister pic! |
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| Krissy wore her swim cover up a lot the first day at the beach. It was overcast and breezy and 80* didn't feel very warm! |
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| She's a little fish |
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| On lifeguard duty :) |
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| The best sand castle I made. |
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| Austin loved the sand and slowly as the week went on warmed up to the water. He was also the sand monster that smashed every sand castle in sight! |
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| The Bass Pro shop moved their giant shark to the other side of the store. The kids always love seeing it! |
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| These two look so grown up to me! |
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| We have a similar picture that was taken 5 years ago when we just had the two of them! (Krissy and Austin were back at the town home napping with grandparents!) |
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| After our family pictures, we had dinner on the beach at Pompano Joes. And Krissy had to wear her new wings! |
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| After dinner views |
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| One of the outtakes.. |
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| This was one of my favorites of the 4 of them! |
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| Kevin really got into crab hunting. The kids liked it too! |
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| Blurry, but we tried! |
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| This was the day that we had double red flags, which meant the water was closed and no one was allowed in. They patrolled up and down the beach all day to make sure no one was in the water. That was a first for us! |
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| No water = lots of time to play in the sand :) |
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| Had to do the foot picture! |
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| The boys dug a huge, deep hole in the sand. |
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| The girls built sand castles that Austin kept wrecking. |
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| Double red flag! |
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| We want to spend more time at Baytowne Wharf next time we go! We ate at a restaurant that had live music. The atmosphere was so nice! |
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| Our best group picture! |
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| The kids loved the playground at Baytowne Wharf |
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| I had picked out Krissy's clothes for the evening and let her get herself dressed. Shortly after this picture we sat down for dinner and she told me she forgot to put on undies. Normally it's not a big deal because she always wears shorts under her skirts and dresses, but she had nothing on under her skirt! She was so embarrassed, and I was so embarrassed! I had pushed her on the swings earlier at the playground and hoped she didn't flash anyone! So every time I see this adorable picture of her, all I can think about is her forgetting undies! :-X |
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| Allie loves climbing and loved her time at the playground! |
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| We saw this adorable dog that the kids went nuts over. |
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| Kevin and I went out for lunch together the day before we left. He took me to the pier, we watched dolphins and birds. The pier is one of my favorite places to go and watch! |
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| The sunset the night before we left. |
On the way home, I broke out the fudge I bought from Kilwins! I also bought a long sleeve shirt for the ride home because I'm always cold - and I had to have the floral Destin hat because I thought it was too cute!
As far as souvenirs, I bought a floral table cloth, a new pink cup, a couple dresses, my Destin hat and a couple t-shirts. Kevin got a couple t-shirts too!
