Fun at the Beach!

Our family beach getaway was a great time! We were there for 5 days and got a good mix of entertainment and family time.
We spent our first day there with Grandpa & Mimi (my dad & his wife) and had fun floating in the ocean and doing cannon balls in the pool. Bennett also swam all the way across the pool after diving in so it was a big day for him. We got to the house we were staying in late that night and the kids set a record for all time latest bedtime - 11pm. But they slept late (well 8am, late for 4 & 1 yr olds) and all was well the next day. We spent a little time in the morning fighting the seaweed and then went hunting for go carts aka race cars for Bennett to drive. If you know Bennett, you know he is literally obsessed with race cars so this was fulfilling a lifelong dream (can a 4 yr old have a lifelong dream, well you know what I mean). Not only did he & Shane have a crash on the race track, they were the first ones back in the corral at the end, qualifying them as the Big Winners according to Bennett! He also did bumper boats (kind of a dud when there's nobody there to bump with) and played at the arcade with Noah for a while. Then we went for a yummy fish dinner at Schooner's, an open air seafood restaurant on the beach. Great food & great time!
The next day we woke to lots of rain but to our delight, a few miles down the road at Grandpa's, it was only partly cloudy with no rain. So we headed over there for the day. Bennett got buried up to his neck in sand (wish I'd had the camera for that) and Noah floated on his own (wearing floaties of course) in the ocean. After naps, we went to pool that has a hot tub and enjoyed going back & forth from swimming in the big, cold pool to playing in the bubbles of the hot tub. Then we walked to the neighborhood hamburger restaurant to eat what was Shane's favorite cheeseburger of all time! That's one thing I love about my dad's neighborhood - walking leisurely along the tree lined promenade to dinner, passing an outdoor beach wedding reception along the way. That was a great day!
The next day, we ventured to St Andrews State Park, a place Shane went alot growing up. We took a nature walk around Gator Lake, looking for aligators (and secretly hoping we wouldn't see one) only to walk right up to a 6 ft long orange snake, which Bennett spotted right before Shane stepped right on him. We headed quickly back to the car after that. Then we headed to their beach which is along the jetties. There's one part with big waves, which were a little rough for all of us and one part that is sectioned off by the jetties to form a very shallow "baby pool" as the kids called it although it was still the ocean and the size of many pools put together. It was fun for the kids to have some freedom in this part but still be playing in the ocean. Shane took Bennett to the very end of the jetties & back which took probably 45 minutes or more and was quite a feat for a 4 year old.
After naps that day, we headed over to meet Grandpa & Mimi at Pier Park, a fairly new shopping, eating & entertainment area in Panama City Beach. We shopped at the Crocs store (thrilling for my croc-aholic, Bennett), and a hippy store with a real multicolored VW Beetle inside (thrilling to my two Beetle loving boys) and ate multicolored popcorn (thrilling to Shane who remembers it from his childhood). Melanie got to shop and bought some things at a great savings from the prices in Europe. Then we headed for the fun attractions they had, where Bennett did the trampoline bungie jumping thing and jumped super high & did flips until he was dizzy. Then he went to Spider Mountain (see pictures) and climbed up all 8 levels until he was at the top & could see the ocean. It was really hard for him but he worked hard and made it to the top. We were proud of him & could tell he was proud of himself. Meanwhile, Noah got to jump on the trampoline at the bottom for free and was thrilled! We ate a nice Italian dinner after that and wrapped up the evening by sharing a bag of M&M's - split 5 ways, that's quite a treat:-). The next day was spent cleaning up and saying farewell to the beach. We were sad to go but so happy to get home.
Great family memories were made!! Looking forward to it again next year!