Sandy Toes and Salty Kisses {Part 1}

I took a bit of a blogging break, but I am back now and can't wait to get caught up on a few things!  We just returned from a fabulous week at the beach in Florida, so that's where I want to start! I took sooo many pictures (as usual!), so I am going to divide this trip up into a few posts.

Mom and I knew we wanted to divide the trip up on the way down, so we (and the kiddos) left on Friday morning. We stopped in Natchez for a delicious lunch at Fat Mama's!

They have the most delicious tamales and pralines...YUM!!

After eating, we walked over to Rosalie plantation. We just love to look around at these huge old plantation homes, and the boys enjoyed running around and playing so much!

Levi even crawled over and befriended the groundskeeper :)

Finally, after a few hours in Natchez, we loaded everyone back up and drove the rest of that day's journey. We ended up in Slidell, LA that night. We found us a nice little hotel and set up camp for the evening. Everyone was so excited to finally be out of the car and in the hotel room, I didn't think we were ever going to get them calmed down. But eventually they did, and we all got a decent nights rest.

When we woke up Saturday morning, we celebrated a very special little guy...It was Levi Hudson's FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!! He looked so sweet sleeping in his little birthday shirt. I just can't believe he is already one. When he woke up, we all sang happy birthday to him, and he just grinned so sweetly. I just love him so.

Then it was time to load up and head to Navarre Beach!!! We knew we couldn't check in until the afternoon, so we took our time. We did a little shopping at the Pensacola mall, bought a few groceries, and then finally arrived at our condo early that afternoon. Brent and his mom and dad left in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday and drove straight down, so they arrived not long after we did.

We had been keeping an eye on the weather, and unfortunately Tropical Storm Debby was brewing in the gulf. They weren't sure at the time where she was headed, and one of the predictions was right toward us. It was already super cloudy and windy, and the waves were HUGE! We decided to hurry and have Levi's little beach party before the weather got any worse, because they were saying that it was about to start raining and could possibly rain for days.  So, we packed our beach bags with party supplies and headed down!

It was so so windy out on the beach. Sand was blowing in our faces and the balloons were flying away, but we made the best of it and celebrated our birthday boy anyway. He was just precious in his little birthday jonjon I made him.

Amie, Eli, and Luke were vacationing with us in Navarre too...they were just staying a few condos down, so they walked over and joined us for the party. Thanks Lukey for coming all the way to Florida for Levi's party! :)

Brooke and Poppy (Brent's dad) braved the waves and played out in the water just a bit.

But Beckett was happy just playing in the sand!

Blowing out his very first birthday candle (on beachy cupcakes)!

And boy did he think it was DELICIOUS!!

After he finished his cupcake, we washed him off in the ocean and cleaned him up a little!!

Brody and Daddy ventured out a little. No one got very far...I am telling you...the ocean was angry!!

Poppy buried Brody in the sand!

After we'd had all we could take of being sandblasted in the face, we moved the party inside. Levi had so much fun playing on his new toys!!

And Beckett was such a sweet big brother and pushed him around a while :)

We ended the night with a nice warm bath, and tucked the birthday boy in bed. The rain had moved in, and we all slept like babies that night.

More beach adventures to come!