Brassell House: Destination: Destin

Oh, Florida! You were so good to our family. This summer it was such a treat to meet up with John’s family in Destin for a week.

John and I left Friday to drive three hours to the Sacramento airport. It was the middle of a heat wave and 115 degrees. As luck would have it, our air conditioning stopped working 20 minutes into our drive. Miserable doesn’t even come close to capturing the mood. Emma was sick and wailing majority of the drive as well. We would pull over as much as possible to get cold drinks or ice cream. We were so happy to pull into our hotel room for the night so we could shower and rest. I got our departure time incorrect, thinking our plane left at 6:50 am, when in reality it left at 6:05 am. We were frantically trying to get checked in and bags checked and through TSA. There were limited staff and it was a madhouse. We were in the TSA line and hearing over the intercom “Brassell, party of 7, this is your last call, the gate closes in two minutes.” My heart sunk. There was no way we would get there in time. As kids finished through security, they each took off running toward our gate. Cate put those running legs to use and was the first one to pull up and plead our case to the gate attendants and they told her “if your parents are running we’ll wait.” Sure enough, there I was: holding two bags a baby and pulling a ten year old seeing Cate at the gate and William and Johnny running in from behind. John was held up at security and he had all the boarding passes. By the time I make it to the gate, Cate is sprinting back to security to see if she can help John. Soon enough, he comes barreling down the terminal with the stroller and his carry on. I had mine and Emma’s boarding passes, so the attendant said, “hurry you get on, we’ll make sure your kids are behind you.” I couldn’t help but think “Have you not seen Home Alone!?” It was such a mad rush I just did what I was told and luckily there were many empty seats in the back of the plane so we were able to all sit together. We boarded at 6:04 am, and the plane took off at 6:08am. John and I looked at each other in complete disbelief. We made it. Somehow, after the most stressful hour in the history of my life, we were all safely buckled and headed for our destination. The flight crew was incredibly kind to our family, letting the boys make announcements and pass out snacks to passengers. We really appreciated it.

As soon as we settled into our condo, we hit the lazy river and enjoyed the warm Florida evening.

Sunday

On Sunday we went to the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was testimony meeting and delightful to listen to the testimonies of such devoted disciples. After I deposited my crew to all their Sunday school classes, it was so special to attend gospel doctrine with family.

After church, we drove around and saw the different family history sights and got to hear stories about John III’s upbringing and childhood. This is always a highlight for me. We also were able to visit graves of John Sr, and his wife as well as Gail, John III’s mother.

After dinner and devotional, John, Emma and I snuck down to the beach to watch the waves at night and walk on the sand together.

Monday

Monday we started out at the beach. Because of hurricanes, the waves were some of the wildest and most chaotic I’ve seen. It was beautiful. Emma hated the beach so I headed back to the condo with her. Last minute I decided to hit the lazy River and she was so so so happy. She loved the calm of it, and it was a total highlight for me. John took William, Matthew and Johnny out to crab hunt at night and they were actually able to catch a couple!

Tuesday

We went to Goofy Golf and Whattaburger, which was John IIII’s favorite spot as a boy. John beat everyone at golf and won a shirt from his siblings.

Wednesday

We took two boats to crab island. Island is a little misleading. This piece of land used to be above water and was shaped like a crab, it currently rests about 3 feet under the water surface making it a delightful place to park boats and play in the ocean. Hundreds of boast gather, there are restaurants and gift shops and everything it is a really fun and happening scene! The water is perfect temperature and we had so much fun swimming together. One of the boats had three water pump slides that were a huge hit. We also had a wrestling mat that was so much fun. We drove the boats around the pier and it was beautiful. Destin is so lovely and peaceful. Twice Matthew’s bucket hat flew off and he was so sad, John would turn around and grab the hat for him! He was so sunburned this trip (despite using sunscreen), when given the choice to buy anything for his birthday from his grandparents, that was his choice! He loves that hat! That night at the resort, we found an empty side pool and our whole family went out and swam together. It was soooo much fun. I believe there were 25 of us. Emma jumping in the pool with Daphne was my favorite. The kids had a diving competition as well. John and I made dinner this night, and we grilled chicken with rice. It was a lot of fun cooking with John.

Thursday

We visited Fuddpuckers to look at the alligators. Johnny was selected to be the volunteer that got to hold an alligator during the presentation! Emma was running around pointing to things going “woah!” We also took family pictures this day!

Friday

Matthew’s Birthday. We spent most of the day at the beach. It was so fun to ride the waves into the shore. We made sand castles and body surfed, it was a lot of fun. At one point John left with some of the kids and it was just Matthew and Me, enjoying the beach the two of us (and cousins) on his special day. We got back to the resort and William, Matthew and I hit the lazy River together. It was a lot of fun spending time with my two younger boys, the teens command a lot of attention and I don’t get as much play time as I would like with the younger kids.

I think my favorite parts were staying out swimming every night until 10:30pm when the pools closed. It was just so much fun to be actively having fun nonstop. At the night, the three boys would watch a move as they fell asleep. The adults would all gather over to the other condo and Jordan and Kristen would run out and get us Whataburger at 11, when they start serving breakfast. We’d play banana grams and talk late into the night. One night Brittany and I talked until five in the morning!! Brit and Cate shared a room and watched Reba season 1 throughout the week, and Cate said this was her highlight of the trip. At first I was bummed Cate wasn’t in our condo, but ultimately I think it was all around the best case scenario for her. I am so grateful for the bond she feels with John’s sister, Brittany.