Vacation Part I: Destin, FL! Beach and my Birthday!

I have been counting down to a week off from lab/grad school/working for...like 3 months now? I had SUCH a great vacation and I hope you all enjoy my recaps as much as I enjoy sharing them with you!

The first part of our vacation was 3.5ish days in Destin, FL.

Zach's best friend Scott (college roommates) is in the military and back in the US on his month off between deployments! Scott had been in Starkville staying with us for the week before the trip so he followed us down to Destin! We left Friday night (July 1) and drove down to Jackson, MS to leave sweet Zoe with Zach's grandparents for the week. Saturday morning we got in the car and headed on down to Destin!

Scott is ridiculously entertaining in the car. He had a solo dance party the entire time.

It typically takes about 5 hours to get to Destin from Starkville/Jackson. Traffic however caused this 5 hour ride to become a 10 hour ride. (I told the boys we should have left at like 6 am but they wouldn't listen to me).

Our mad traffic faces.

By the time we got to Destin, it was almost 9 pm instead of our anticipated arrival time of 4 pm. We met my parents and sister who were also in Destin at McGuire's Irish Pub for supper and a few drinks before calling it a night.

Parents.

My sister and I at McGuires

Zach and Scott

Zach and me!

Sunday morning (which was Scott's 25th birthday!) Zach and I woke up pretty early to take a run/walk on the beach! Destin's beaches are a little hard to run on because the sand is so soft and there is a big slope down to the water but we made the best of it!

I also had gotten the WORST sore throat at the end of the week before we went to Destin. It seemed to have gotten better by the time we got there but Sunday morning I woke up and had almost no voice! I sounded like a boy!

Run run!

After running we went to meet my parents and sister for breakfast then Chelsea and I went shopping in the outlets while Zach did a little work in the hotel room before the beach (grad students LOVE when their advisors send them work the day before a trip).

After the outlets we headed out to the beach for the afternoon then ate an early supper with my parents, who were headed back to Jax that night. We told the waiter it was Scott's birthday and they made him sing Happy Birthday TO HIMSELF!

"Happy Birthday to Me!"

I would have died of embarrassment!

Zach, me and Dupree (haha)

After supper we went into a few stores then went to Hooter's (Scott picked) to celebrate his birthday!

I have no idea how I managed to eat wings after eating supper but I did! The boys also had a few drinks and then we went to the hotel, changed, and hung out for the rest of the night!

Monday was the fourth of July! Zach did a little work in the morning but we spent most of the day on the beach! This day I had NO voice AT ALL! It was awful! But I'm sure the boys enjoyed the peace and quiet! Haha!

After the beach we got ready and took a few pictures on the beach before heading to eat.

My Fourth of July outfit! I got this one-shouldered red dress from Vestique, and I put a gold belt, gold sandals, gold and pearl necklace (long necklace but I wrapped twice to make it shorter) and gold and sparkly starfish earrings!

Scott and Zach with the sparklers

Zach and I...I had him wear blue so we would be red and blue and festive! :)

The three of us!

We then went to eat at Hooters (again I know....but the wings were so good and I didn't really have any voice to protest! LOL)

After supper we changed and took the sparklers and beach chairs out to the beach to watch the fireworks and relax!

Fourth of July was SUCH a great time! I really enjoyed spending all day at the beach and the fireworks and sparklers at night!

Tuesday (July 5) was my 24th birthday!

(This vacation we celebrated FOUR birthdays!)

Zach and I got up and went for a walk on the beach and collected tons of seashells! I LOVE seashells and I have them all over the apartment as decorations!

After the beach we went and ate birthday cake frozen yogurt for breakfast!

Birthday girl!

Happy birfday to me!

Then we went and woke Scott up and went to eat lunch at Panera Bread! There isn't any P-Bread in Starkville so I picked there :) Then we went to a few outlets and then to the BEACH!

Destin is just so pretty!

We took this blow up raft out to the sand bar to look for sand dollars

and we found nineteen! It was such an awesome birthday gift from the ocean!

After the beach we got ready and went to PF Changs for my birthday dinner! I love PF Changs!

Zach and my birthday outfits

I don't really drink alcohol but I did have one birthday drink called the Pink Bellini! I know I've mentioned it before and if you go to PF Changs I highly recommend it!

After supper we went to The Melting Pot for birthday fondue dessert!

I LOVE this place! Zach and I went in March last time we were in Destin and I enjoyed so much I knew exactly what I wanted for dessert on my birthday!

After dessert we changed, packed up the beach chairs, and went back out to the beach to talk and hang out! Scott is really funny and I always get a kick out of him and of course I love Zach to pieces! I had such an awesome 24th birthday!

We saw a few of these creepy sideways crawling crab creatures on the beach at night...I hate them they gross me out!

Wednesday morning we woke up, packed up, and headed to our next destination on the vacation...

To be continued! :)