Family Vaca to PC Beach!!!

Well, we're back! It was a WONDERFUL trip for our family. A big thanks to Pete and Ashley for hooking us up with the great beach house!! We arrived Thursday late evening and the kids ran around exploring while we got set up. As I said before, we had ac problems, thankfully, that did not set the tone for the rest of the weekend!! The kids slept great, we had a king size bed--life was good!

Anna-Kate chillin' in her Ariel sunglasses on the way down:



Whereas, my boy is happiest while eating. Health freaks that we are, we stopped at McD's on the way down and ate in the car. I made it a twinge better by adding carrots and cantelope to their plates, right?:




We woke up Friday morning to G-L-O-R-I-O-U-S weather and went to meet my childhood friend, Kendel, and her family for a day at the beach. What a blessing that time was. We have been friends since I was 10, I believe, and we have remained close ever since. Our boys are only 3 weeks apart in age even! Anna-Kate asked the rest of the time when we were going to see Miss Kendel and her beach because "she's nice Mommy".

Our family at the beach the first day:



Ryan, with swimmies on, cuddled in a towel. He's a regular Linus (you know, from Charlie Brown?). Happy as pie as long as he something to cuddle with:



Us with Kendel, Eric and their son, Ezra:



That night we went to a new area in Panama City, Pier Park, and discovered The Back Porch, one of our favorite places to eat in Destin had expanded to PCB--yay!! See evidence of completely eaten calamari? It was good...



My boy loves seafood! He gobbles up shrimp, fish, calamari....well, about anything.



This is my favorite picture of the weekend. Sidenote, I loved this outfit of Ryan's, and when I found some fabric to coordinate I went to work asap making the dress for AK. I think it turned out cute!



On the way back from walking on the beach we passed an icecream shop and let the kids get some--they loved it, of course. :)



On Saturday we woke up to pouring rain. Kind of a bummer, though ultimately it's always good to mix up your days to avoid burning. We drove to Destin to do some outlet mall shopping (scored a Loft dress for $20 that will fit me for a while this pregnancy!), then went to our absolute favorite place there, The Donut Hole. There are no words...I got a burger (to.die.for) and Chris got an omelet. Of course, we brought home some donuts too...That afternoon we watched Cinderella, had a small dinner at home then went swimming out back.



My girl plays it safe, staying on the stairs and where she can reach. She will.not.jump unless you are holding her hands. It's a bit frustrating, but she is going at her pace I suppose.



My boy, on the other hand, is a DAREDEVIL! He pushes off the stairs and kicks to you, puts his face in the water, jumps to you--going under water, and loves to be thrown high in the air by his daddy (below). I know it's blurry, but I love this picture of Ryan--the sheer joy in jumping to Chris--from an area 3 steps higher than the edge of the pool!





On Sunday we again woke up to pristine weather. We headed to the beach early, you know, like 8:45. Ha! I have no pics in the water, as we were all there...our time was pretty evenly divided between playing in the sand/making castles, and Chris and I each with a kid about chest deep in the water jumping to miss the waves. Our kids LOVE the beach!



The kids (and Chris) absolutely crashed during naps. I sat on the back deck under the fan and read (if interested, I'm reading Shepharding a Child's Heart and I highly recommend it).

For dinner we went to Uncle Ernie's. It was so nice sitting outside just off the water (until the flies attacked, but we won in the end.). The kids again ate really well and we enjoyed our time. After dinner we walked over to look at all the boats in the dock. They really got a kick out of seeing all of the boats, especially the one that looked like a "pirate ship". :)

Eating...it's what we do:





This is how close we were to the water...just down about 10 steps:



Out on the pier, me with my babies:



A last family picture down at the beach. We could hear thunder in the distance and knew it would rain on Monday...



Something about a boy in seersucker...finally succeeded in getting Chris in it, and I'm training Ryan early!



Excellent...they sleep! Chris and I got to have a lot of time to just sit and chat together, a lovely ending to our long weekend.



That's about right...pouring down rain. It does help to cushion the blow of leaving the beach though. At least we knew we weren't missing out on anything!



We got back in to town around 6 and hit our favorite pizza place for dinner. Thankfully we had a self-proclaimed "coupon freak" for a waitress who totally hooked us up! What a great weekend!!