A Gorgeous December Beach Day

By far the greatest advantage of visiting Crestview is the proximity to the beautiful Gulf of Mexico.  By far, the HIGHLIGHT of any trip home including this one always involves sand in our toes.  There is nothing more beautiful than the beach in the winter.  We loaded up Saturday morning and headed down to Ft. Walton to enjoy the pier, playground, and a yummy seafood lunch.  Bonus: I got to bring along my new camera and really test it out on all this beautiful scenery.  How could I not get great photos?

Emmaline is ready to go!

Beckett wanted a picture before we left with his rescue bots

And Eli needed one too!

It didn't take the boys long to get warmed up to the sand again. This is Beckett's mode of operation.  We get there and have to wake him up.  He cries "I can't want to go to the beach." Then he wakes up, has a blast, and cries "I can't want to leave the beach!" Ha!  

Justin's turn with the camera.. good work babe

checking out a crab

one of my favorite shots

This was Emmaline's first trip to the beach since January when she was a little bitty tiny thing and we were in town.  What a blessing to share this day with her too!

Dad and Emmaline ready for the beach

what a great family shot

We took a great family shot.. minus Eli.  He was not interested and he meant he wasn't going to be in it.  Oh well! Maybe next year.

Family minus Eli 2012

Gamma got some great shots with her sweet granddaughter. 

Love this picture!

And Justin got beach snuggles from a shaggy headed sweet heart.

No beach trip is complete without flying babies.  This year it was Emmaline's turn.  

Momma and her sweet girl

not high enough

There we go!  Just right Daddy

The playground is so fun for the boys... and Daddy's too!  He had a blast playing in shark. This was another first for Emmaline too.  Her first slide.

Daddy in the shark

He ate me mom!

It's ok. Get in here!

Riley boys in the shark

Getting ready for her first slide!

She loved it!

And now she needs a rest

I love that you can watch the playground and the beach from the windows.  What a view!

Lunch!

That's a mean bloody mary

After lunch, the fun continued as Uncle Preston lead the way to feed the birds.  Last trip, we went all official and paid to go on the pier and paid for bags of popcorn.  Not this year.  Budget friendly. We took the left over chips and left over animal crackers and hit the beach below the pier.  

Gorgeous day. Gorgeous guy.

JOY!  I absolutely adore this picture

trying to keep Emmaline out of the water.  How can you resist it??

It was all fun and games until someone got bit.  Eli got his finger bit first and then Preston.  Ha!  We found out also as you can see on the video, the birds don't like red tortilla chips.  Who knew?



And all to soon we had to wrap up our day and head home.  As we were driving back to Crestview we passed the airforce museum and the boys were going nuts to stop and see.  Of course like any good Big Poppa, he pulled in.  The boys are still talking about seeing these.  They were pretty amazing.

That beautiful day marked the end of our adventures home for Christmas.  The days were long and full as can be as we squeezed in as many hugs, love, kisses, laughs, meals, and memories as we could.  As we were packing up Saturday night, I couldn't help but just be overwhelmed and grateful that the boys and us have so much family and so many people that love us. My heart was full and we could not have asked for a more wonderful time at home.  When we told Eli it was time to go on Saturday night he said "but mom, I will miss all my friends."  And I will too.  

Love,
The Riley's