Beach Vacation: Part 1

Okay, so initially I thought I would be able to bust out the whole recap of our beach vacation in a post or two…yeah, there is no way. Going back through the pictures I took over the week, I have whittled 475 pictures down to 350 or so, but that isn’t including the pictures from my Mom’s phone, her camera, OR the beach photo shoot pictures we had done. So! To talk properly about all of the wonderful, amazing, and awesome moments on our vacation, it’s going to have to take a few posts to tell/show it all. Bear with me 🙂

We departed from Carl Junction after breakfast on Friday(8/10) morning to start our long trek to Destin, FL! My parents rented a giant 12 passenger bus van, we stopped for gas and Starbuck’s(grande vanilla nonfat with whip latte, please!) and were on our merry way. My mom( Grammy) put together an awesome princess bag full of all sorts of goodies to keep Abigail occupied. She would get to open a new item when she started to get restless and when I was trying to postpone the inevitable dvd viewing.

By the end of the trip Abigail had acquired some new books, two new DVD’s, a mickey, minnie, and pooh bear stuffed animal, a couple small disney princesses, a few sticker packs, crayons, and paper dolls.

Back in April, when we went to Vera Bradley Abigail discovered the wonder of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. At the time, there was only one episode on demand called “Daisy Bo Peep”. She watched it over and over again that weekend, learned the hot dog dance, and what a sheep says. Well, Grammy got Abigail a MMC dvd with a few different episodes on it and that particular episode happened to be on there. Amazingly, Abigail remembered that episode and spent the entire rest of vacation asking for “Baa”. Which, considering that episode actually taught her what a sheep says, she asked so politely, and it kept the peace and quiet for a glorious 24 minutes, there were quite a few viewings of ol’ Daisy Bo Peep over the past 9 days.

An exciting event happened as we were driving through Alabama. Jim had recently taken the wheel and I was in the passenger seat. A tahoe drove past us in the left lane and total Final Destination style, kicked up a 2×4 which then flew up the hood and smashed into the window.

Fortunately, it didn’t break through and the window seemed to be holding. We were able to make it to Jackson, Mississippi for the night without any further excitement(except for when my dad forgot which hotel we were staying in. We all unloaded at the Hampton Inn only to discover we were actually staying at a Hilton about 6 miles back the way we came)

Abigail slept great in her pack n play at the hotel, Jim loudly quietly munched on popcorn, and I cheerfully stewed myself to sleep!

We started Saturday morning fresh and ready to go. We hit up Cracker Barrel for breakfast, Starbuck’s for the road, and we were on our way to the beach!! It wasn’t too long before we arrived. This was the awesome condo we got to stay in.

<—–This was Abigail’s sweet room. It worked perfectly!

Grandma and Grandpa arrived from Indiana at almost the same time we did. We all unpacked together and then headed to the Mellow Mushroom for dinner!! Mellow Mushroom is one of Jim and my favorite pizza places. We discovered it last May when we were in Gatlinburg, TN and have been hooked ever since. Quite honestly, it may have been the thing Jim was most looking forward to about this trip :p We savored cheese bread, mighty meaty, baked potato, and bbq chicken pizza. So fabulous and even amazing leftover!

Sunday was our first day out at the beach. It was so perfect. The sun, sand, salt water, all of it was amazing.

Abigail was all kinds of ready to go to the pool and the beach! By the end of the week she was saying “osh” and “poooool” and “ssss!”

After a long day in the sun and surf, we got ourselves cleaned up and headed to Mitchell’s. It was a restaurant we stumbled upon last year and really enjoyed, so we headed back this year!

(Look at how crowded that place is!! har har)

That evening after we got back from dinner Abigail turned into the biggest showoff/ham ever. She was putting her Mickey and Minnie on top of her float, knocking them off, and exclaiming “oh no!!” all while laughing hysterically. Who knew floats could be even more fun indoors than out?