A Butterfly, The Back Porch, and the Beach

Today we made the relatively short drive (well, a 4-hour drive seems short when you just drove 15 the day before) from Birmingham to my parents' home in Valparaiso, Florida, which is about thirty minutes from Destin. Christine was already there. We ate lunch at their house and the kids took naps. Before his nap, Joshua noticed a slow-moving Monarch in their backyard. I can only assume this poor butterfly was injured because Joshua was able to catch it and hold it without much difficulty.

After naps, we went to a restaurant called The Back Porch in Destin. Michelle and Sam had spent the day at the beach and met us there. This reminded me a lot of Joe's Crab Shack. Our food was okay. I think it was universally over-cooked. But it didn't really matter because when this is your view:

food is completely secondary. It was really wonderful to have our entire family together for the night.

Michelle and Sam	Mom and Clara

Our group, minus Sam who took the picture

Our little family

After dinner, we went to the back of the restaurant and the kids got their first taste of the ocean. Joshua loved it and was super excited, but Clara thought it was the worst thing she had ever seen or experienced. She hated both the sand and the water. So we shall see how the beach goes later in the week. Hopefully not too bad because Jason and I love the beach and it will be a little bit of a bummer if we have to stick with the pool.