The Emerald Coast

We were blessed to spend a wonderful family vacation in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. Scott and I loved having so much time to spend with the boys. We had great weather for most of the week and found lots of fun things to do.

Here we are together waiting for our ride on the Sea Blaster to start. The boys LOVED their ride on the super fast Sea Blaster. It was a huge speed boat. We got to see dolphins and go really fast through the ocean. Isaac and Ethan spotted the dolphins right away and loved watching for them to swim up out of the water.
We spent lots of time swimming in the beautiful pools at our resort. They boys loved jumping off the steps with their kick boards. Ethan is a little dare devil. He will jump off the side without hesitation and without checking to see if you are ready to catch him. We had to put a life jacket on that crazy kid. Isaac started getting lots of confidence in the water and he can hold his breath under water for 10 seconds and swim under water. He liked to pretend he was a shark when he was swimming under the water.

Another favorite activity was playing in the sand on the beach. The beaches in Ft. Walton are totally gorgeous. They have beautiful white sand and gorgeous aqua water.

We tried to make a sand castle, but destructo Ethan took pleasure in knocking it down with his sand trucks.

The boys decided to build a race track in the sand for their sand trucks. Isaac drew it and Scott helped him make some walls. They had fun for a long time driving their trucks around on the track.

Our favorite way to play in the ocean was to run in and out of the waves. We went for walks on the beach every morning, and most of our "walking" time was spent running in the waves. Isaac liked to think he could push me in the waves, but I was able to get him back and take him with me.

We got to the resort Saturday evening, and went out to the beach around 8:00 at night. That was the boys first look at the ocean ever, and it was truely magical. They giggled and ran in the water and were totally amazed by the experience. I will never forget that moment.

Ethan is showing off his pile of sea shells that he picked up. They were most fond of the broken sand dollars. I think because they were the biggest. They wanted to get 19 sea shells, so they could bring one for each person in their class at Shining Light.

Ethan was fast at running in the waves.

The boys are excited to head out to the beach. They are on the boardwalk that took us down there.

Isaac got pretty brave running in the waves.


They boys are floating on their raft in the lazy river. They preferred Scott's "Crazy River" to the lazy river. Scott would bounce their raft up and down and spin them around. They called that the crazy river.



One of our favorite days was when we rented bikes and rode along the Timpachoe Trail. It is a trail along the ocean and several coastal lakes that goes through some beautiful little beach towns. Ethan insisted that he was going to ride his bike, and was quite upset when we suggested a bike trailer for him. He rode the first 1/10 of a mile and then he was happy with the bike trailer.

Isaac was a great bike rider. We rode 5 miles to a little town called Seaside, and he rode the whole way. He did awesome!


We had lunch at a little outdoor diner on the beach in seaside. They boys are enjoying hotdogs and smoothies.


After lunch we played in the beach at Seaside. It was even prettier here than at our condo. We really had fun cooling off in the water, it was a hot day!