Vacay in a Nutshell

Like I said in my last post, we've been at the beach house this week.  It has been wonderful; the weather has been in the high 80s, so definitely hot but not sweltering like it will be this summer.  The peak season here really starts this weekend with the Memorial Day holiday and we can already tell that as it gets close to the weekend, the crowds are getting bigger.  I'm really glad we were able to come before everything got packed! For the first time ever, we brought Lolli with us.  Riding in the car for that long was quite the adventure for her.  She couldn't ever settle down and nap for fear that as soon as she did, we'd arrive at our destination.  That meant a solid 8 hours of her standing in my lap looking out the window.  Good thing we had an audio book to listen to since I couldn't do much else.

First thing on the agenda was definitely to take the dogs to the beach.  Henry had seen the ocean before (see his first visit here) but not Lolli.  I just knew she was going to love it because she loves getting soaking wet outside.  If there's a rain puddle or wet grass anywhere near her, she's definitely going to roll around in it.  She completely surprised me, though, because as much as she was content with the sand, she hated the ocean.  Didn't want to have anything to do with it.

This is her giving me the stink eye after I'd drug her into the edge of a wave to get her feet wet.  She was not happy with me.  (As you can tell from the photo, I was so convinced that she'd love running in the water that I had all her hair shaved off before we left.)

She plopped right down in the sand and seemed to be telling me that she was perfectly fine where she was, thankyouverymuch.

Henry, on the other hand, was much more excited about the ocean this time around.  He loved running into the water and trying to lap it up.  (Henry is like me in that he doesn't have very cute beach hair...)

We were there too, but the only proof I have is our toes in the sand.

While my parents were here, Doc and my dad played golf a couple times which means Mom and I had some shopping dates.  We hit up several different locations and found some good deals but the Outlet Mall - usually one of my favorite parts about coming down here - just wasn't that much fun for me.  Being preggers, I found that none of the stores work for me, it's a whole lotta walking, and the bathrooms are spaced way too far apart.  I know, I know, first world problems.

We made two more patio chairs to go with the set here so we'd have 4 chairs instead of two.  With the extra chairs we were able to all eat dinner out on the patio one night while listening to a storm move in.  It was my favorite kind of meal - hot dogs from the grill, chip and dip, and fresh fruit. :)

On Mom and Dad's last night here, we went out to eat at La Crema in Rosemary Beach.   They specialize in tapas and chocolate and it's all so, so good.

I really hate this picture of me but it's the only one we took together the whole time we were there.

After they left, Doc and I spent a full day out on the beach and both turned into lobsters.  Re-apply your sunscreen, people!  We had a date night that night at Pier Park in Panama City Beach.  We ended up sitting out on the patio at Margaritaville for dinner.  The sun was setting as our dinner began and Doc tried to capture it behind me, but his phone didn't pick up all the pretty colors in the sky.

That's really about it.  We spent the last day under the shade hiding from the sun and cleaning up the house.  The next scheduled trip we have to come down here is when I'm on maternity leave.  I have a feeling I'll get my camera out a lot more on that trip!