Panama City Beach

We went to Panama City Beach with Luke's sister, Tamara, and her family. We had a fantastic time! Although, vacations with children are a bit more work than without, we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. 

(Thank you to Sage for taking our family photos!)

The condo was fantastic. It was very spacious, with 4 bedrooms and 4 baths so kids could be separate from parents. The two adult bedrooms had sliding glass doors to the huge balcony that also had a door to the living room and kitchen area. We spent a lot of time on the balcony! It was so amazing to sit there looking out at the beach and ocean. We saw rays and dolphins from up there. On the 5th of July, people were setting off professional size fireworks right on the beach. The fireworks went off at eye level to us on our balcony- so cool! Another night, we saw a storm out at sea, which was really amazing. Almost every day, we were out there to watch the amazing sunset.

This was Nathan hanging out with me at sunrise. The sun didn't come up along the beach, as hoped, but it was still so nice and peaceful in the early hours.

We had such a great time with Tamara and Ronald. It's nice to have 1-on-1 time, since we only have ever been together with them and all the other family members. They are a lot of fun and really sweet. It was great to feel comfortable and relaxed around them and their kids. Their kids are wonderful. They're all so good, kind, and loving. They've been raised well! I hope our kids turn out so well. Bradley absolutely loves Sage. I went to get him from Sage and he said, "I want Sage! No, I don't want Mommy." I've been outdone. Abby and Sicily spent hours doing who-knows-what out on the balcony. They were really cute together. Bradley liked wrestling with Sawyer, who is a 9-year-old version of him. Nathan loved Sara so much that he fell asleep with her holding him.

Well, here's what we did:

To backtrack a little, Tamara and Ronald came to our house on Thursday night (unfortunately, I had to work and they hit bad traffic). Friday was the 4th of July. We went out to eat at a Jim N' Nick's BBQ. It was funny because the power went out twice, so we had to calculate our total and pay in cash. 

Oh, and Tamara found their long-lost half brother :) Funny, he really did look and act like Andrew...except for one minor difference.

I was tired after working and took Nathan home to bed, but the rest headed to the fireworks in downtown Atlanta. Apparently, that was chaotic, to say the least. There were a ton of people there and traffic was horrible. But, the fireworks were pretty cool.

We headed to the beach the next morning. Thank goodness for a DVD player.

 Walking down to the beach for the first time. Brad with his auntie.

 The girls (including Tamara) loved holding the baby. He is a cute one!

The the kids loved the beach. They immediately love the sand and loved the water after some convincing. Waves can be a little scary when you're a little one, but they ended up really having fun.
"What is this cool stuff?"

 "Food?" No, Baby!

Diggin' a hole and fillin' it with water.

 On our last day, Luke masterminded this Stegosaurus, which Tamara and Sage helped with. Big kids playing in the sand :)

On Tuesday, the their family went on a dolphin cruise. We met them for a picnic afterwards at St. Andrew's state park. It is such a beautiful place. After lunch, we parted ways and went out on a pier where a fisherman threw one of his little bait fish to a pelican for our kids to see. Afterwards, we went to the beach there. There were a bunch of people hunting for sand dollars, which some sweet people gave to our kids. 

The next day, Tamara and Ronald took their kids to a water park. We headed west to explore a bit. We drove through Santa Rosa and Seaside, which both have some beautiful resorts. We stopped at Grayton Beach State Park to swim. The waters were a little different there and there was a quieter area behind a sandbar that Abby and Brad loved playing in. We also buried Luke there. A sweet old lady offered to take our picture. After the beach, we had lunch at a delicious restaurant called Local Catch. All seafood, of course. Yum!

On Thursday was my favorite. We rented a pontoon to drive to Shell Island, part of St. Andrew's State Park, so it's preserved. Just being on the boat was fun. We saw dolphins, one up close, but no good pictures. They're fast.

And, we got ice cream from a boat.

Captains of the ship.

Abby was sitting like this for a while. Perfectly happy.

Nathan fell asleep while Sara was carrying him on a walk, then Sage took over when we got back to the boat.

We stopped at a couple places. First was a really calm area where some rocks were blocking the waves. The water was crystal clear and only 2-3 feet deep. I took pictures with a water camera that needs to be developed, but here are some from Tamara's camera.

 Next, we stopped at another area where there were tons of little hermit crabs.
Sicily picked up a shell and started screaming! It was so cute. She screamed for someone to save her from it until I told her she could throw it back in. So funny! I picked it up and let it crawl on my hands.

 We followed Ronald down a little sand path to my favorite place! It was this gorgeous beach with hardly anyone on it and no buildings! Amazing!

Had to carry Abby back because she didn't like the dried grass poking her in the sand.

That night, we went on a date to a nice seafood restaurant, then to see Edge of Tomorrow. Thank you, Sage and Sara for watching our little ones! That was awesome.

In other thoughts, Abby and Brad slept together in a queen bed with Nathan in the same room, which turned out better than I ever expected. The 1st night was rough, but after that went smoothly. They were so cute sleeping together and were always cuddling each time I peeked in. Luke even joined them a couple times.

Other random pictures:

The lightning storm.