Destin 2012 - part 4

On Aunt Kara's last night in Destin (she had to fly out on Sunday to be back at work on Monday), we had to revisit one of our favorite restaurants that we found - Harry T's.  We loved this place - atmosphere, food, and it was on the boardwalk in front of our hotel, so very convenient!  The boys loved it because it was on the waterfront, and you could sit at your table and watch the boats while you ate:).

I just had to enlarge these top 2 photos - love these silly guys!!

Here is what the boys spent a lot of their waiting time doing - taking pictures of the boats on their leap pads (LOVE those things!!).

Yum -0!

The other part of the crew:).

After dinner the boys finally got to ride on the little train that runs up and down the boardwalk.  They had been wanting to do this all week, but it never had worked out.

They were thrilled to get to ride!

Cute little train - no tracks required:).

Ali got  to ride, too!!!

We topped the evening off with some yummy ice cream - always a good way to end the day.  Brock chose cotton candy ice cream - it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be:).

This little girly isn't about to be left out of dessert time!

Kyle got birthday cake ice cream - pretty good, too!

Thank goodness Papa had free hands to hold the bowls - they would have probably ended up on the floor:).

On our last night there, we ate at a restaurant that had a baby alligator farm.  They had TONS of little alligators!

The food wasn't that impressive, but the boys enjoyed the view:).

We had a great trip and the kiddos all had fun, but immediately after we got home (I mean still unpacking the van immediately:), Kyle sat down on the couch and said "I had fun, but next time, we're going to Mickey's house!".  He has reminded us (and Grammy and Papa) repeatedly of this since then.  I guess we all know where his favorite vacation spot is:).

Destin 2012 - Part 3 - the pirate ship

One of our afternoons in Destin was spent on the Buccaneer Pirate Ship - learning how to be pirates:).  The boys have been very into pirates lately, so this was another great idea by Aunt Kara!  

Ready to set sail - I think that Kyle was already practicing his pirate sneer:).

Aunt Kara and the boys - again the pirate sneer by Kyle!

After the ship got rolling, all of the kiddos went to the lower deck to begin their pirate training.

"I'm NOT so sure about this, Mom!".  Kyle was a little timid, but eased into it once we moved down to the lower deck with him.

And, he really got comfortable when they got the water guns out!

Love his look of concentration!

This was pretty much wet chaos:).  The kiddos loved it, and the parents were working hard to stay out of the range of fire!

They will tell you that this was their favorite part!

Unfortunately, they needed help refilling their guns.  I took one for the team so that my boys wouldn't be left defenseless:)!

After the water gun fight (which lasted a good amount of time and pretty much soaked the lower deck), they brought out the mops and taught them to "swab the deck, matey!".

This is good practice - now to put them to work at home!

After the deck was dry, it was time for a sword fight, another one of their favorites!

Looks like they're teaming up on this poor unsuspecting guy!

Then, they turned on each other:)

"Arghhhhh!"

After sword fighting, it was time for pirate tattoos and face painting.

Kyle didn't want his face painted - "Too messy!".  That's my boy - keeping it clean:)!

After searching the high seas, we somehow managed to spot a treasure chest in the ocean!  The kids are lined up to help pull it aboard.

"Pull, pirates, pull!!"

Finally aboard!

Waiting to see what was inside.

Each kiddo got to pick 3 pieces of treasure - too bad it wasn't real treasure:).

Time for a post-treasure dance party, complete with maracas and tambourines.

Shake it, boys!!  Kyle wasn't so sure about this part, either:).

This was my favorite part - watching the sunset over the water.

A view of our hotel from the ship - the Emerald Grande.

They ended the cruise by handing out pirate hats to all the kids.  It was great fun, something that we'd definitely do again!