Destination Destin

Pauli Family Vacation - 2013

Destin, FL

Friday - The journey begins! Brandon picked up the rental minivan, our mode of transportation.  Robin and Kenny drove to St.Louis to fly to Pensacola.  The Campbell's (Amber's family) fly from Phoenix to Atlanta. We had a rather smooth drive.  The kids were content, traffic was moving, all was good.  We had stopped for dinner and we let Elizabeth have a lemonade but didn't make her go potty before we left.  An hour later mother nature was calling.  As we exited the interstate and off the ramp, Brandon rolled through a stop sign.  A cop was right behind us to remind him that those red octagons mean STOP.  I tried to help by saying, "Officer, I'm sorry we have a little girl who really needs to potty." He was very kind and said go ahead and take her and then proceeded to deliver a citation.  I joked with Brandon that even though the kids had been playing a scavenger hunt and needed to find a police car, we didn't need an up close and personal encounter!  The kids weren't freaked out by it, I think Elizabeth was more concerned that daddy had broke a rule than she was that a cop had pulled us over! (EB, our little rule follower!) Next stop was Birmingham, Alabama for a few hours of rest.  We pulled in at about 12:45 and were all sound asleep by 1:30.  Robin and Kenny were also resting in their hotel, that unfortunately had no elevator and they had 3 suit cases. Luckily, we had swapped the "big box" that they had planned on flying down.  The "big box" was full of treasures that Amber had found while cleaning out the Pauli's attic/basement this summer.  The plan was for Robin and Kenny to bring it with them and then Amber would fly it home with her.  On friday morning Kenny had the good idea to trade the big box (it really was a BIG box) for one of our suitcases for ease of maneuvering through the airports.  Good call!  The Campbell's travel didn't go quite so smooth.  Airport delays and a hotel room that was given away was not such a great start in a city that was sold out.  They ended their day at around 2:30 am in a $69 a night Motel (yes motel).  But the  good news was we were all just hours from being reunited!!

Saturday was the first official day of vacation and also Brandon's birthday, but we all forgot to wish him a happy birthday.  Family fail!!  We had been down for breakfast at the hotel and were waiting for the lobby and it hit me.  I looked at him and we all gave him a big hug, but it was too late.  We had all been up for 45 minutes and had forgotten.  He smiled and said it was Ok, but we all felt horrible.  Historically, Brandon has bad luck on his birthday.  Really his ticket came a day early.  We picked up Robin and Kenny in Pensacola and headed for Destin.  The van was loaded.  We found the house (Boomerang), but it was still being cleaned.  So we proceeded to drive around.  Soon Amber called saying to meet her at Wal-mart.  They had procured two carts of groceries and needed help getting it back to the house.  Now we were all really loaded down!! Pictures didn't do it justice!  We were sitting with things piled on top of us! But once we got to the house, unloaded, picked rooms and had a drink we were all in full vacation mode!!

 

We gave B a redo and re-celebrated his birthday on Sunday.   We packed the cast iron skillet so Robin could make him his favorite, pineapple upside down cake.  Par for course there were no matches or fire of any sort in the joint, so we couldn't even light his birthday candles!  He was a good sport about the entire events of the day :)

Throughout the week, all the kids but Briggs ran a fever at some point.  Stella went first. The night we did family photos it was Elizabeth's turn.  Grant got it the day before we left.  It wasn't anything that got them down too hard, just a little extra clingy and quiet.  Everyone else stayed healthy!

We all took turns cooking dinner.  Robin and Kenny finished the week out with a seafood boil of lobster, crab, clams, shrimp, corn and potatoes.  If the flies hadn't come to visit, it would have been perfect!  We ate really well all week and it was so relaxing to eat at home instead of taking 4 kids under  5 out to dinner every night!

The house was perfect for the ten of us.  We had high hopes of the three big kids bunking downstairs in one of the three sets of bunk beds.  When we went to bed the  first night I actually said to B, "I feel bad, your sister has both kids in their room and we have our room to ourselves." Well as you can guess, I spoke too soon.  A few hours later Elizabeth found us and soon after Grant and we were all in bed together.  The house had three master suites that all had king sized beds which ended up being perfect because someone always ended up with an extra!  The bunk beds were at ground level and we were on the third floor, so it was far away from the kids and they were always a little scared to be down there by themselves.  We all agreed that in a few years, that won't be a problem!  Mimi and Pops were gracious enough to let Grant sleep with them a few nights and he was always able to join Kenny in the morning (usually around 6:15).  I think I sleep until 7:45 one day and B made it to 7:30 once.  We usually stayed up late playing cards so we were all more than willing to lay down with the kids for a nap!

This night Grant fell asleep standing, with his head on my lap during dinner!

 We celebrated Elizabeth's birthday while we were there so she could have a party with Stella.  The party included party favors (the $10 variety pack of plastic jewels), tiaras, dress up clothes and a cookie cake that Elizabeth picked out from the nearby Winn Dixie.  Mommy bought a lighter so she would have candles to blow out!

 We had a great pool and hot tub at the house.  A few days we went to the beach, but other times we just walked out our back door and got into the pool!  The beach was only a block away, but it seemed to take a lot of energy/effort to get all ten of us there and then there was the issue of the sand getting everywhere!  The outdoor shower at the house was awesome.  I think the night we did family pics was the first time the kids had taken a proper shower inside.  Until then we had put a bottle of shampoo/body wash by the outdoor shower and stripped them down and washed them out there.  It was a cute scene, but not really one you can take or share pictures of!

Grant hauling the cooler to the beach

Brandon in the ocean with Elizabeth & Stella 

Mimi watching the grandkids

I love this picture! (credits go to Amber)

Ready to go crab hunting!

 Crab hunting was an activity recommended by the owner of Boomerang.  Needless to say none of us knew what we were doing, but we had nets and a bucket!!  Our instructions were to go out just as it was getting dark and to shine flash lights.  It also said that we would have to be quick and use teamwork.  We put glow bracelets on the kids and headed to the beach.  Kenny immediately took to the water and started looking for large crabs.  We were standing on the beach having a good chuckle at all of this, but later had to eat our words because he actually caught a large stone crab!  The rest of us hunted what we called sand crabs.  We caught half a dozen that were about the size of a spider.  Brandon equated this activity to catching fireflies at home!  Good, clean family fun!

He caught the big one!

All the big kids took a turn on the boogie board, which really just amounted to laying on it and staying on top of the waves, but they had fun!

Briggs thought the sand tasted pretty good! 

Mimi and Pops and the girls took a turn being buried in the sand!

Pops gave Mimi big boobs- the kids thought this was hilarious!

Fun at our pool :)

 One night we all took real showers (not outdoor showers, not chlorine baths, but real showers!) and traipsed down to the beach with our cameras and tripods.  Of course come sunset this is a pretty common scene and really makes for excellent people watching.  On this night we the ones being watched though!  We put on a pretty good show for one couple - they really seemed to be enjoying it at least!

Grant and Stella took the best beach pictures!  They could have run up and down the beach all night!

We often forget that  these two are only 6 months apart - so adorable!

I love that it looks like these two are totally having a conversation!!  They are going to be such great buddies one day!  

What's a vacation without a crazy picture?!

We had such a good week and made so many good memories!  We were all so blessed to be together.  Everyone had pretty good travels on the way home.  We hit a few traffic jams (aka parking lot on the interstate) and calculated our avg driving speed to be 20 MPH less on the return trip.  The first traffic jam we encountered, we later learned was caused by a semi that had swerved to avoid an accident and in the process dumped 60 head of cattle on the I-65 in Tennessee.  That would have been a sight to see!   We were again reminded that are kids are rock star travelers - ALL of them.  Elizabeth, Grant, Stella, Briggs - they all do so good.  They are smart enough to know when to be good...we might just take them somewhere again!!