To the Beach!!

This has been one the busiest seasons we have had as a family. From starting kindergarten and preschool, cheerleading, dance, room-mothering, working, and not to mention expecting a new one's arrival soon, we were exhausted! Don't get me wrong, it has all been extremely fun, but we were ready to spend some time together without the interruptions of life. Kinley's teacher gave us an enthusiastic thumbs up, so we booked a last minute trip and headed to the beach!

We left at 4:00 am and stopped for donuts along the way. The girls LOVED the Krispy Kreme store!

 

Then, back on the road again. We made it to Panama City Beach by 12:00 so our next stop: shrimp! We had lunch, hit the grocery store, and then checked in to our condo.

Kallen approves of the bunk bed :)

And the balcony off their room!

Aww, love the view from the big balcony!

Some nice beach time :)

The cool water park area!

Sisterly sand castle time

The first day, the girls were a little timid of the ocean. But, by day two, they were more adventurous!

Beautiful sunset, beautiful girl

That night, we were surprised with an awesome fireworks show on the beach!

In the mornings we did a little schoolwork so Kinley didn't get too far behind

Kallen did a little closeup photography work...

Admiring the view

That night we went to dinner at Captain Anderson's!

 Then went to Pier Park for some fun!

Me and Kinley on the Ferris Wheel

 And then some crabbing! What a fun night!

Then, a little more beach time. Who can visit the beach without burying someone??

See ya, Daddy!!

One day we decided to rent a pontoon boat and explore Shell Island. It was so much fun! The girls both loved being on the boat. Almost as much as Jeff and I did :)

 Once we anchored the pontoon, we had to walk a pretty good distance to get to the gulf side. (No pontoons are allowed in the gulf). It was beautiful, uninhabited beach for as far as the eye could see!

 Family photo by Kinley

 After some exploring, we got back on the boat and ate lunch. Then we followed our map to do some sand dollar searching!

 Funny thing about "searching" for sand dollars-- they were everywhere! We literally just shuffled our toes in the sand and, Voila!, a sand dollar! I think we ended up with close to sixty. We threw about forty back.

 Me and my prize sand dollar! Also, did you know, sand dollars are dark brown?? And they ooze a weird bright yellow liquid? Ew. And they stink. We carefully took them back home and bleached them to a beautiful non-stinky white :)

 Later that evening we went back to Pier Park for dinner and a train ride!

 The sky walk at our condo building

 We had dinner Thursday night at this restaurant right on the beach. The view was breathtaking! Then we walked out on the pier for the sunset.

I know I'm biased, but seriously, aren't these the most gorgeous little girls you've ever seen!? And sweet, too! ;)

Friday was our last day to spend at the beach. We made the most of the day by building castles,

 feeding some birds,

and playing in the ocean!

 Love for baby Graham!

 Our last night

We had such an amazing time. It was a much needed, well deserved, break. After our first full day there I asked Kinley what her favorite part of the day was. I'm thinking she will answer with either the lazy river, ocean, building sand castles, playing in the water... her answer? "Spending time with our whole family". AWWW! Wow. I agreed.