May Beach Trip 2021

 On the last day of April we left for Indian Rocks Beach.  We stopped in Dothan on that night and finished the rest of the drive down to IRB on Saturday.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  We had a fantastic week.  These pictures are out of order, but all from our trip. Nana and Grandad decided to fly down and meet us there. The kids had a blast walking to Nana and Grandad’s condo to see them, playin putt putt with them, an playing on the beach with them too.

We had booked a fishing trip and Nora Kate and Clayton both decided they wanted to hang back with Nana and Grandad rather than going fishing.  It probably ended up being a good thing though because the wind got up and we were in a small boat with 6 foot swells, 20 knot wind, and it was pretty wet and rough.

BUT we had a great time! We caught Bonita, sea bass, 2 puffer fish, Spanish mackerel, orange mouth, and several others.

Clayton loves the beach.

Clayton missed a baseball game while we were at the beach, but he got in lots of practice on the beach!

Mermaid Nora Kate

We ate a yummy dinner at Caddy’s one night.

IRB

There was a man about a mile down the beach that did really cool sand sculptures. Dawson decided to make his own.  Here he is with his octopus.

Nora Kate and Grandad.

One thing I always enjoy about where we stay in IRB is that my morning runs can be along the inland waters with this sunrise.

On the way to FL...exciting when you finally cross from AL into FL.

Happy to be in our happy place.

We saw SO many sting rays this time! I’ve been here many, many times and never seen this many.  Thankfully the water is so clear you could see them coming.

John’s Pass

Cartwheel Queen Nora Kate

Evening walk on the beach

Morning sky on the beach

On the boat ready for a day of fishing

In the van on the way to the beach!

IRB here we come!!

Dawson also made a sting ray sand sculpture 

The kids were SO excited to get Henna tattoos!!

Always digging

Clayton loved being pulled on this float. Thankfully he had lots of people willing to pull him.

We had been at the beach about 30 minutes and Carter had already caught this lizard before we even had everything unloaded and unpacked.

May Beach Trip 2021

About a mile down the beach a man reel this shark in fishing from the shore. 

That’s Clayton’s finger touching the shark.

John’s Pass

About a mile down the beach a man had made these cool sand sculptures 

On the way to the beach!

Another beautiful morning run view.

We stayed at a hotel overnight in Dothan on our way down to IRB. I think it’s cute seeing the kids carrying their own backpacks/luggage out of the hotel as we were headed to finish our drive to the beach.

So proud of this...I caught the biggest fish on our trip, and reeled this strong thing in on my own. It was a big Bonita!

A beach trip favorite-glow swim! Glow ball and glow sticks in the pool.

Mine and John’s Bonita

With Nana and Grandad at putt putt.

John’s Pass

John flew this kite with the kids and got it SOOOO high.

I was really windy.

Dawson made a sea turtle

Ran 3 or 4 miles almost every morning...such wonderful views.

John reeled in this Bonita on our fishing trip!

We had such a great time at the beach that we decided we needed one more day. John asked what I thought about staying at the beach on Saturday and delaying returning home until Sunday-I’ll never turn down an extra day at the beach, so that’s exactly what we did!  You know it’s a great vacation when all 6 of us are already ready to go back.