End of Summer Vacation

We enjoy taking a quick vacation right before we start back to school ... this year {with no oil to scare us away} we headed back to Panama City Beach for a quick 5 day vacation.

{Pictured above our resort ... our condo was on the 12th floor}

We had an amazing time! We love staying right on the beach ... we get up in the morning and hit the beach first thing - before most fellow vacationers are even up, that way when the heat hits right around 1PM we can head inside for lunch and some down time before hitting the beach again in the evening.

This beach vacation all three kids really got into body boarding - it helped that we had some really good waves for two days. It was not uncommon for Devin, Lexi and Ava Mae to spend a straight two hours in the water of the Gulf. Daune and I even got in on the action and I have the bruises to prove it. On our last day Lexi and I stayed out for a long time even after everyone else went up to the pool to swim - we ended up getting hit by a rogue wave from a boat wake that we were not expecting. We both laughed until we cried ... a memory I hope I remember forever!

When we weren't on the beach body boarding, building sand castles, collecting sea creatures, or flying our kite, we were up at our resort's pool or hot tub. This time of year, when everyone else has gone back to school, the resorts in PCB are relatively desolate. Most days and nights we had the pools to ourselves. We weren't without friends completely ... in fact, some of our good friends were staying right down the beach from us. We got to hang out with them also!

Daune and I really enjoyed eating fresh Grouper. Most nights we would head out - one of our favorite places was right next door {Schooner's}. Nothing beats the taste of fresh caught fish after a long day on the beach!
On the last night of vacation we headed out on a boat called the "Sea Screamer". We had done the slow boat tour before and decided we were up for a little more adventure this go around. You can just imagine why the boat is called the "Screamer". We had watched it for several days flying by at sunset and just had to give it a try ourselves. We had a blast! The tour last around 2 1/2 hours. We had the best boat captain as our tour guide {he even let Devin and Lexi steer the boat}. He had some great stories to tell and knew right where to go to find dolphins. Dolphins are definitely the "golden retrievers" of the sea ... they would come right up to our boat and with heads out of the water try and communicate with us. The kids went crazy - I went crazy. I think I took over fifty pictures of just the dolphins alone. We also saw jelly fish {the deck hand brought aboard what they called a cannon jelly fish which does not sting so the kids got to pet it}. After watching a beautiful sunset on the Gulf we headed back in and pulled crab traps - another fun experience.

We even had time to fit in a photo shoot for our Christmas Card {going to keep those photographs under wraps for now}!

Friday the kids start back to Timothy and next Tuesday we begin our school year! Good-bye summer ... thanks for the memories!!