Better Late Than Never

Monday nigth at 10:30 pm we arrive home from Whistler. Tuesday we rested and did TONS of laundry! Wednesday, packed and ready to go, I head out with the kiddos in tow to meet cousins in Destin. That would mean Logan(8), Brynn(1), me, Kristen (sis in law), Zach(4) and Austin(2). We weren't sure if Josh was gonna be able to get off yet so I went it alone. He ended up riding down with the brother in law, Jeff, and meet us there on Friday.


The kids did FABULOUS on the way down. Logan either read quietly or played DS and B would take a nap, wake up to eat (which I'd stop for and let her stretch her legs), ride & play for a bit then fall asleep again. Perfect. As mentioned in a previous post, the ride home was not the same. Hmmmm wonder what coulda made the difference....??

Basically we did a little bit of beach time...

And I must say, B loooooves the beach. She sat on my lap for about 15 min. surveying the situation. Taking in all the new sights and sounds. After her comfort level was established, she was down diggin in the sand, eating the sand, throwing the sand and splashing in the waves. Complete contentment! This, however, was a faaar cry from Logan's first beach trip. He was barely 2 and Would Not touch the sand until the last day of our trip. He is my cautious child (more Josh like), which can be a very good thing. B is a tad more adventurous (more me like).

We did a lot of pool time...

Canonballs, water surfin, hot tubbin, float loungin and swim practicin.

We did the Destin Commons Sprinkler/Play Zone...

Everyone was havin a great time until Zach's jellyfish sting, that he'd apparently gotten earlier that day, started acting up and Kristen had to leave with him. This left me with Log, B and Austin. All was well until I had literally turned my back for 1 min. to check on B and Austin had hit some kid. I realized what was going on when I turned back to see a grown woman yelling and pointing and shaking her finger in Austin's face. "Where's Your MOMMY!!! Where's Your MOMMY! You CAN.NOT HIT!!" A grown a#@ woman in a small childs face. And I mean YELLIN!! I rushed to his side to assess the situation.
"Austin! Why did you hit her??"
"She poked me in the eye!"
"OK buddy, you can not hit people! You need to go apologize to her!"
He immediately did and he seemed to be a bit somber. I think the lady really freakd him out. Ofcourse he should not have hit anyone but shouldn't the GROWN woman have a bit more sense than to get in a 2 YEAR OLDS face like that!!?? She could have handled the situation ALOT better...like saaay maybe a Grown Up!? I could feel the gaze of every person around falling on me so I gathered the children and left the Splash Zone.

Jeff, Josh, Tay & Babysitter Linz showed up on Friday. We made our usual venture to the Red Bar in Seaside for the beach pics. It was Insanely packed and we got my Jeep stuck in the sand! The kids were NOT cooperating for pics before dinner so we thought we'd give it a shot afterwards. I was literally sitting in the doorway of the restaurant. Completely in everyones way and when I tried to put Austin's lid on his cup the cup crushed spilling drink all over the table and all over me. I scooped B up and stepped outside to breathe, pray & pray and breathe. Dinner was delish as always and we did manage a few pics out of everyone at the end of the night. Let me tell you, this is No.Easy.Feat. One day I'm just gonna sit back and video these crazy photo sessions.

Here's a few random shots I got. Kristen got the nice posed ones.

So with many thanks to Babysitter Linz we actually got an adult dinner and boy was it nice! Also thanks to Babysitter Linz we got to go to the beach while the small children (Z, A & B) took a nap. The waves were crazy big that day and we were getting pummeled! I wish someone had caught this on film cause I can only imagine what we looked like from shore. We would literally get smacked by a wave, recover, wipe hair from face only to get smacked again! It was hilarious! Only a few minutes in did I decide Logan may just be safer playin along the shore.
Thank You Babysitter Linz!

Destin Life

Aside from the Crazy Yellin Mom & jellyfish & gettin the jeep stuck we had a Blast. Mostly just hangin around the condo, pool and beach. Thanks Mayfields for the invite!

The Deckers take Canada FINALE

Back to our regularly scheduled program

Our next outdoor adventure took us down the Green Lake for a little White Water Rafting! I really had no idea what to expect since I've NEVER done this. I knew it was only a Class 2 but I had no clue what that meant. Well basically it means, Very Tame! Like let's go round some bends & let's see a few fast paced ripples in the water & paddle through them & BAM we're done. I was like, "Hey, let's step this thing up a notch! I'll take on that Class 4 and OWN it!" Sadly I have not yet ordered pics from this event SO I got no pics for this part of story time.

We were on our own for dinner this evening & one of our new found friends, Adam, (you know the one that got shot and is a total foodie!) told us about a style of eating called Tapas (not to be confused with Topless). It's basically like ordering a bunch of appetizers and sharing them. We had lettuce wraps, lamb burgers, elements signature bruschetta & about 5 other things I can't remember but it was YummaLicious! Desert was creme brulee & sticky pudding.

That night was back to the fire pit

I got to do my hike around the Lost Lake & to the Aborigianl Center that I've been waiting alll week to do! There is a rich aboriginal culture in these parts and I had to experience some.





And FINALLY we have the Farewell Dell Dinner @ the Fairmont. Again, amazing band, amazing food & amazing people.






This guy really liked to dance! And his name was Dick Tracy too boot!

We have to be up & out of the Fairmont by 5:15 AM!! That's right 5:15 AM!! Josh & I were the LAST ones on the bus!

The Deckers & a Nun: A flight from Vancouver

We flew out of this:

And flew into this:

It was terrifying. We circled the city many times trying to land but turbulence was horrid. I'm motion sick trying to hold it all together whilst those around me are crying, hyperventilating & just plain freaking out. We made our final descent into Nashville and the ground never felt sooooo good. That was our Whistler Trip. Thanks for reading! (if your still with me...I'm pretty sick of typing about it myself but I really wanted to get every detail so I could read it many moons from now)

The Deckers take Canada: Part 2

So after the Peak to Peak excursion we were about to head down the mountain when we came face to face with a Black Bear! We've discussed our plans if such a thing were to occur and attempting to make ourselves look larger and, in effect, scare off the bear was our plan.

Rob demonstrates our plan of survival:

He inadvertently is attackedMy plan goes off without a hitchHow do you think this turned out?? Stay tuned to find out!

That night was a Dell Dine Around. They gave us restaurants to pick from and off we went. We chose Bavaria which is a fondue restaurant and also where Tori & Dean (Home Sweet Hollywood) just partook of on their show. The food was just ok. All I really need is the cheese and chocolate.please.thankyou. We did have some interesting conversations though. One of our fellow diners was head of Retail in Canada. We talked Olympics, Canadian perceptions, healthcare and of course hockey (which I was completely out on).

On our walk back we stopped to do a little dancing which is always fun (josh lost his phone:(). I think all of Dell was there and then to the FirePit!

Rise & Shine! It's ZipTrek/Golfing Day! Again, Josh is terrified of heights so he chose to stay on the ground. He did see a mama bear and 2 cubs sitting at one of the holes...not 50 yards from them. And this video is of one of my zips. It was the longest on my trek...length of it is the height of the Eiffel Tower!!

After our adventures we get ready for dinner & dancing on Whistler Mountain (provided by Dell).

Let's just say that Josh apparently HEARTS Cotton Eyed Joe and had to dance immediately! OH if you coulda seen those feet movin! It's a rare occurence when the boy dances but should be witnesses at some point in everyones life. The band was phenomenal. I'm pretty sure the lead singer wanted to be Gwen Stefani circa 1995.

What happened with Josh and the bear you ask??

A picture worth a thousand words.

The Deckers take Canada Part 1

From Nashville to the Fairmont in Whistler was a grueling 14 hour trip. We had flight delays almost missed our flight change and what we were told to be a 1.5 hour bus ride turned into almost 3 hour bus ride but....we.made.it.

We flew into Vancouver. The city is HUGE and streets are crowded and views are stunning!

Although the bus ride was loooong we got to see things like:

This & This

Arrival

Our first night we had a group dinner at the Fairmont and Nashville began to overtake the FirePit area. I'm really not sure where all the other Dell folks congregated (TX, Canada, India, Latin America) but we made our claim!

It was in the back of the Fairmont and looked out at the Blackcomb Mountain. It was also the locale of one of The Bachelorette's romantic nights.

We awake to fresh mountain air. All Dell employees have to do a team builder down in the lobby and the Plus 1's are free to roam. I quickly made an awesome friend Sarah. Sarah's fiance, Adam, is on Josh's team. He's actually the guy that got shot a few months ago leaving his bartending job in Nashville! He's also a total foodie who I learned tons from! Anyway, Sarah and I ventured out and together we discovered this bridge:

This bridge connects Upper Village, where we stayed, to Whistler Village, where all the shopping, restaurants and gondolas are. We also have to cross through LOTS of Olympic construction. If there's one thing we did in Whistler it was WALK! Everywhere! Everyone there is Fit & Fabulous and totally inspired me! I enjoy the outdoors and there were sooo many outdoor adventures to be had there it made my head spin.

After the Dell Team Builder we got a pretty large group together and decided to do the Peak to Peak. This is a very new attraction. It's also VERY high...Josh is terrified of heights. Basically you take a 25 min. gondola ride up Whistler Mountain. Hope off, enjoy the little restaurant, grab some coffee, maybe some amaretto and gander at the heart melting views :



After you've gotten your fill of this Mountain you embark on a massive gondola that will take you from Whistler to Blackcomb. This is an 11 minute ride 1,427 feet over Fitzsimmon Creek (more like a river would look to us Americans). It's the longest continuous lift system on the globe. Oh, by the way, I got total motion sickness on the way up! I was like a kid in a candy store turning and looking out all the windows to take in all the nature scenes. Not a good idea for someone who gets motion sick. Lesson Learned.

Glass Bottom Gondola...totally not worth the wait.

More Canadian life to come...