Beach Part 3

So, let me being with saying that first night at the condo seemed quiet enough. We were all tired from the trip and worn out from swimming. We all settled into our respective bedrooms and around 11pm my Clara Paige wanders into my bedroom and announces so pitifully that she has thrown up. Now I will spare you the gory details but it was ROUGH!!! She had gotten sick in the bunk bed in the glorious bunk room that the girls had so excitedly claimed. One small miracle was that she was the one sleeping on the bottom bunk that night. It was just awful. I have images seared in my brain of me cleaning up, pushing CP into the shower, flying by waking Alex up and putting him on CP duty, throwing the covers in the tiny top/bottom washer/dryer, re-washing the covers, sliding into the bathroom myself b/c it was just too much to bear.....anyway you get the picture. My poor baby girl had gotten a stomach virus the 1st night of our vacation. She finally settled in and slept most of the night. I, of coarse, slept with that one eye open hoping all went well until morning. She woke up feeling better so we headed for the beach. She did just fine till on the way back up to the room she had one more abrupt mishap on the board walk. Yeah, that was fun! Anyway, for the next few days everything was all good. Meme & PawPaw arrived and the trip was in full swing.

I love this picture of my most favorite people on earth! Climbing on daddy in the pool was a favorite pass time.
And since we're all involved in this cheer leading thing now, we just had to perform some stunts in the pool. This is the "Daddy Pyramid."

And here's Clara Paige strutting her stuff.

The water was just so clear and pretty the whole week. We had lots of fun jumping the waves. And it's always more fun with a little help from dear ole dad.

Just one more jumpin' the waves shot. There were more adventures ahead in our week so hang tight....

Beach Part2

So still on that first day of coarse my babies had to go to the beach and swim in the pool. No waiting till the next day for them. Me and Maggie stayed in while the others took to the beach and while we were sitting on the balcony there was a beautiful rainbow over the ocean from the storm that passed through earlier. It was so amazing and such a reminder of how awesome God and his creation are.

Here's a picture of that wonderful rainbow. One quick story, Maggie looked at that rainbow and told me that "God Lied." ????? What are you talking bout Mags?? "Well God said he sent that rainbow when the earth was flooded and he would never flood again but he didn't flood the earth today."

That girl. She's so funny. She had part of that Bible story right but wow, she thought God had to flood the earth EVERY time before he sent a rainbow. Oh to be young and so literal and innocent again!!

My Maggie and Gracie stopping for a quick pose for their good ole Mom. Love those goggles!

My girls got pretty good at swimming and jumping in on this beach trip. The longer we were there the more brave they were with the water. I was so proud of them!!


Here's Gracie with her face underwater. I know to most of you that's no large feat but for this momma it's a major milestone.

~And here's their first shovel full of sand for 2010~

I haven't forgotten that teaser I gave ya in that earlier post, I'll get there and it wasn't pretty!!

Most of the trip was wonderful but this, not so much!!

Beach Trip 2010

So you know we hit the beach this year. Our usual haunt at the Beautiful and sadly tainted w/oil Gulf Coast is the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area. Our trip wasn't scheduled until this week actually. But with the current conditions there we upped the trip to June and headed to Panama City Beach, FL. We headed down on Monday and Meme & Pawpaw followed on Tuesday. We had not been there in 12 years. A lot of it has changed for the better. Lots of new and nice condos and Pier Park is great. Some of it is still the same ole PCB of old. Anyway, here's my first installment of the Hicks Panama City Beach adventure.....

The trip down....still fresh into it here. I don't think we had even stopped in Clanton for Ice Cream yet so we're looking pretty calm yet excited.

Here we are somewhere in the middle of the trip getting a little van happy and antsy. If we heard, "how much longer?" one more time I think we'd have sold them for gas $$!!

And here we are hanging out the window b/c we were past our patient point and were stuck in some road work traffic about 30 minutes out of Panama City. (Particular child in picture:Maggie-who else?)

And once we arrived we stopped to eat some lunch before check in b/c check in is always so darn late in the afternoon. Anyway, here's my girls sitting outside Sharky's.

A quick shot of me and Al waiting on our food. While waiting one of those summer beach storms popped up and you would have thought Maggie had seen the coming of the end of the world. She lost it, I mean LOST it so bad I had to take her into the souvenir shop until Alex got our table moved inside. And once he did the bottom dropped out. However, the meal was good and we enjoyed watching the rain come down (b/c we were dry inside and not outside)!!!

Our condo was beautiful and so relaxing with great amenities but here you see the piece De resistance. Yes, folks, bunk beds was all my girls needed to set their hearts on fire. They were blown away and to top it off there were two sets of bunk beds so no one had to fight over where to sleep. They took turns and did so quite nicely I might add!!

The water was gorgeous the entire time we were there. There was a day or two that we had small amounts of seaweed but otherwise it was this pretty turquoise color the whole time! Prettier than I've seen it in a long time-ironic since there's oil out there somewhere lurking in them waters!

Also, the first day we arrived the condo (Sterling Breeze) happened to have a party for the kidos that day. They got glitter tattoos (being displayed above), several balloon animals and played games for candy!! It was a nice little extra for the girls and started the trip off on a good note - however that was not to be for long......more later!!

Freedom....

So I have some great Beach pictures and stories to share with ya but today it's the 4th of July so I'm gonna take a minute to celebrate that. I hope you take at least a minute of this day to realize how truly precious our freedom is. I know I take it for granted daily but hope that I can sincerely begin to appreciate it's blessings more and more! I think in this day & time it is vital we cherish the freedoms we do have and with it certainly comes the right to worship my God and Savior freely! Hold dear to those freedoms and take time to honor and give thanks to those who have served in any capacity to preserve and guarantee those freedoms! We are a blessed nation and I pray that we continue to be so for the rest of our days!

There's a Kenny Chesney song that I always enjoy listening to that makes me remember and appreciate what freedom means.

Here's the part that hits me hardest:

"Through the joy and pain that living brings
Don't we all want the same thing

Freedom, sweet freedom

Its what the junkie needs that the needle cant give
depressed and forgotten are praying for it
Its what the brave and courageous are fighting for
An open sail on a distant shore

Freedom."

God Bless America!