"It's a sweet, sweet life--living by the salty sea"

During our transition summer (from living in Utah to moving to Ohio for Darrell's graduate school), Darrell and I took full advantage of our time off.  We left Provo the first week of June and made the 31 hour drive from Provo to Darrell's parents' house in Niceville, Florida (a little different than we were originally planning).  Thirty-one hours in the car was not near as bad as I was imagining (we listened to a couple of books on tape to help pass the time), but I wouldn't be sad if I never had to do it again! 

We spent six fast weeks in Florida. When we planned on staying in Florida for six weeks, we thought that it sounded like such a long time, but it came and went so fast! It was so fun because Darrell's brother, Michael, and his wife, Courtney, were there interning for the summer as well. It was a full house having the whole family together.

We spent a majority of our time doing my favorite thing ever--laying by the pool or beach in the sun!

 I think Destin has some of the prettiest beaches in the world. I always tell Darrell how lucky he is to have grown up only 10 minutes away!

We celebrated the 4th of July with the Niceville fireworks, which were actually quite impressive. I loved how they were over the water.

 We then came home and lit off our own fireworks. Darrell and Michael were so excited!

Another really fun thing we did was canoe/kayak in the Econfina Springs near Panama City. The water was freezing, but clear!

 Most of the water was kind of brownish looking, but there were a couple of springs and the water was just crystal clear. We even tasted the water and it was delicious!

 There was also a rope swing into one of the springs. Here is Darrell, Courtney, and Michael braving the it!

Darrell and I also spent a day in the cutest little beach cities--Seaside and Watercolor.

We ate a restaurant called Bud and Alley's and it was delicious. This is the view from where we ate.

The movie "The Truman Show" was filmed in Seaside. They have the cutest little beach houses and shops.

Isn't Watercolor the perfect name for a little town on the beach?

Another neat place that we went was Baytowne Wharf. It is a little village that is inside of a beach resort type place. It is on the bay and has the best views of the sunset!

 They have some really cool restaurants right on the water

 Along with some super cute shops! I loved it there.

One afternoon we rented jet skis. It was my first time on them and it was so fun. The water was a little choppy and it was kind of scary flying through the air, but still so fun!

 While we were jet skiing, we came across some dolphins! It was so neat to be so close to them!

Darrell's Aunt Liz came from Houston to visit for a week (she was actually there during the 4th of July). We had a lot of fun spending time with her! We went to the beach, played lots of cards, did some shopping, and got manicures. 

One day while we were at the beach, Courtney put her wedding ring and band into my beach bag to make sure she wouldn't lose them in the ocean. When we were getting ready to leave, she asked for her rings back and when we opened the bag to get them out, they weren't there! We were almost positive that nobody had stolen it because one of us had been sitting by the bag the whole time, so the only thing we could think of is that it fell out when someone got the car keys out of the bag. We sifted through the sand for about 20 minutes with no luck, so naturally Michael went to Bass Pro Shops and bought a metal detector. While he was buying it, Darrell, Courtney, and I all kept looking through the sand. Finally, after searching for an hour through the sand, Michael returned with the metal detector. Sure enough, within 15 minutes we found both rings. They were right in the area where we were looking, so I'm pretty sure we would have never found them without the metal detector!!

Here is Courtney feeling so happy and relieved after finding the diamond!!

 Still searching for the wedding band. No pictures until after the diamond was found!

We also had the opportunity to see the Blue Angels fly at Pensacola Beach. It was awesome! If you ever have the opportunity to go, do it! I was blown away by how cool it was. 

My father-in-law was in the Air Force (a top gun, I might add) and still works on the Eglin Air Force Base. I have always been so fascinated with military bases--it's like a whole city inside. I had him give me a tour of the base, which also happened to include a museum that has a lot of the planes displayed the he flew. It's fun to get a tour from someone who know what they are talking about!

Darrell and I had such a fun time and we are really thankful that we were able to spend so much time with his family this summer. We were so spoiled! We are both going to have a rough adjustment going back to the real world, but I'm sure we will never forget our extended summer vacation!!