Beach Vacation 2010!

We loaded up the car last Saturday with Papa G (unfortunately DeeDee fractured her foot and couldn't go, she was greatly missed!) and headed down to Panama City Beach, FL!
Dad's best friend, John, lets us use their beach house that is across the street from the beach and also has a screened in outdoor pool!!! Grant was great in the car.. he only slept the last 30 minutes of the 8 hour drive though, oh well!!!! The next morning he went straight for the pool!

Last year he was only 8ish months old and he HATED the sand and I couldn't wait to get him to the beach this year because I just KNEW he would love it... WRONG. He HATED, and I do mean HATED the sand. He called it "sam" or "Crumbies".. if one speck got on his toes he would scream "Crumbies.. get it... OFF OFF". We had to keep him on a blanket with a chair on top and he wouldnt even put his feet on the blanket! Needless to say we went through boatloads of snacks but hey.. thats ok.. we managed to stay at the beach a few hours every day! He loved the ocean as long as you would hold him!

Here he is the first day with this feet in the chair (before discovering putting a blanket down would make it better!)!

Swimmin' with Papa!

Besides the sun, the sound of the ocean, and good eats... here is another reason why I love beach vacations!!!!!.... We had to wake him from 3 hour naps.. EVERY DAY!!! (NOTE: Since we've been home.. hour naps .. BOO!)

On Fathers Day we headed out so Dad and Franklin could get some oysters (YUCK!) and then to Scampi's for dinner!

Happy Father's Day!

He definately gets this from his Daddy... he's eating Alligator!

Papa G got him this hat and he loved it :)

Monday... here he is at the beach screaming because he has "CRUMBIES" on his feet!

Monday was the only day the water was super calm.. the other days it was pretty rough and I didnt feel confident in letting Grant "Swim" without assitance!

SO PROUD OF HIM!

Grant absolutely LOVED this pool! It has a kiddie pool attached to the big pool and he got SUPER confident by the end of the trip.. so much that he was jumping in! Which was good and bad.. I made him float a few times just so he knew he couldn't do that without someone around!

After his naps he often woke up a little grumpy because we had to wake him up instead of letting him nap until he woke up on his own. So.. he had his very first special treat from Papa G and MAN WAS IT GOOD! It was an Orange Crush! Seriously.. you would've thought Papa gave him a million dollars.. it was hilarious! This isnt something that we'll let him have but only on special occasions because I dont want him getting used to drinking soda but this was special! After every nap he'd run up to Papa and say "Papa... CRUSH"!!!!!! So cute! That's their special drink!

Grant's hair was crazy and I had all I could take, so I gave him a little haircut while we were there!

He's been screaming lately when I cut his hair... but it was nothing a Crush couldn't take care of!

Here we are at Angelo's for a delicious steak dinner!

Everyday in the afternoon it stormed for about an hour.. fine by us because we took showers and got ready and then it cooled it off a little by the time we left for dinner! We saw this beautiful double rainbow!We really enjoyed our time as a family and swimming with Grant! I can't believe how much he's grown and wow does he have a great personality!!! He's starting to really put 3 and 4 words together... it makes me so proud of him but so sad at how quickly he's growing up!My favorite boys!

The boys needed another round of Oysters so we headed to Dusty's Oyster bar for an appetizer one night.. needless to say Grant and I had cheese sticks! In the back of the restaraunt there is a lake area with tons of turtles and fish! Grant LOVED IT!

One of our favorite places to eat down there is Schooners, they have the BEST grouper sandwiches you've ever put in your mouth!!!!!!!! DELICIOUS! Grant loved it too! (I'm NOT a seafood eater or really even a fish eater but I had grouper almost every night!)

I love this next picture.. I know Grant is all over the place but thats what I like about it.. Thats MY BOY!

Grant loved having snack time with his Papa G!

Wednesday was a fun day! A weird day though. It started out like every other morning.. we headed to the beach for a few hours. The ocean was ROUGH and a little seaweedy but it was so hot that you HAD to get in. Im a little leary of the ocean (I KNOW.. I'm an adult but there is something about it that weirds me out!) but again.. it was so hot I couldnt stand it. Dad and I got in about waist deep and he was probably 5 feet from me. I saw him get VERY still and pointed down and sure enough... SHARK! I am NOT LYING... it was a baby one, about 18 inches long.. but seriously still a SHARK! About that time I screamed "Is that a shark" a huge wave came and knocked it towards me! I dont remember much after that because I TOOK OFF running/swimming. Dad sd it looked like I was walking on water! Within 45 minutes of that we saw a pack of dolphins (prob 12-15) jumping and swimming at the second sandbar! Needless to say I just stayed hot the rest of the day!!

After my big day they let me choose where we wanted to eat that night so I chose "ol faithful" and we headed to Pineapple Willies for Ribs! Gosh those dont ever get old! Grant LOVED them too!

Dont worry.. there's only water in there!!!! But man was my Signature Pineapple Willy drink DELICIOUS! :)

3 Generations!

Grant sure thought it was hysterical to take Dad's or Franklin's hat off and throw it in the pool! He'd throw it and say "Hat... shwimmin"!!! So cute! He also like sportin' their hats too!

Papa gets up at the crack of dawn and went and got Grant some donuts!!! It was a major hit!
This is silly but thought it was cute!! Papa and Grant had matching shoes!

Like I sd Grant loved swimming and got very confident! We started swinging him and throwing him in the pool! As soon as he'd come up from the water he'd grin really big and say "AGAIN"!!!

Of course you can't go to Panama City without going to Captain Anderson's to eat and then walking down the peer! Grant loved all the boats and seeing the fish being brought in!

An icecream for being a good boy! Yes.. he ate it all!

The last day we went to Margaritaville for lunch and they had these two birds out front that you could hold. However, they wouldnt let you take pictures because they would take them and then sell them to you! But their cameras were broken at the time we went and yet the still told us we couldn't use our own camera!!! When I got the pics back from Dad I found this funny because you can tell he took it when the camera was hanging from his neck! hahahahahah

I have a picture of Grant in this same chair last year.. my how he's changed!

Serious about his coloring!

Our last family photo at the beach! :)

We had such a wonderful time and I am so thankful we were able to go before the nasty oil hits the beaches. As much as I am missing my "brown as a biscuit" tan, the pool, and good eats there is truth in the saying "There's no place like home"! (Sorry for the long post.. only had about 200 pics to pick through!)