Raley's First Beach Trip.

I think it's safe to say that our sweet girl LOVES the beach. We took her to the beach for the first time this year over Memorial Day weekend. We were able to spend the weekend with family in an awesome beach condo in Panama City.


We left about 5:30 or so on Friday morning. The sun hadn't completely risen yet so baby girl was able to go back to sleep for a few more hours. I really like leaving early for trips like this since she tends to sleep for a little longer in the car (which cuts down on bored/whiny time). 

After she woke up we stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast in order to get her out of the car for a little bit. Then we hit the road again. We ended up making it into Panama City around 2ish. We picked up some Whataburger (yumm!) on the way to the condo and then hit the beach. 

I thought maybe she wouldn't like the sand or that the waves would scare her. Boy was I ever wrong. She had absolutely no fear! Here's her first time in the water - she's lovin it!

That night we ate at J. Michaels for dinner. It had been years since any of us had been to Panama City so we had a hard time deciding where to go. We ultimately decided on J. Michaels, and it was delicious! I got some fried fish and chips and corn nuggets which were sooo good. Raley loved the fries (of course) and her sucker that the waitress gave her.

The next day we got up, ate some breakfast and headed down to the beach. It was so nice to walk out the back patio and straight onto the beach. It was such a beautiful view! 

I think Raley maybe had even more energy than she did the day before. She would be sitting playing in the sand, then all of a sudden get up and run toward the water. We couldn't take our eyes off her for a second. Luckily we had lots of help! Thanks again to Gigi, Pops, Aunt Lindsey, and Uncle Brian for helping keep our girl safe and entertained!

She had to wave at the planes and helicopters every time they flew by. Sweet girl! 

We went in around 12:30 or 1:00 for lunch and then put her down for a nap. While she napped Momma got to lay on the beach for a little bit. (Thanks to Gigi for listening out while she slept). 

Oh and if you didn't know, pregnant skin tans really weird! I put on tons of sunscreen (50-60 SPF) multiple times and still burned. But not all over, in splotches on my legs, belly and chest and by the second day my chest was broken out in welps. It's safe to say I'll probably be under the umbrella for most of the next trip.

But anyway, baby girl actually slept til about 4 or so, and by then it was time for everyone to start getting washed up for dinner. So we all got ready and decided to go to Captain Anderson's. My favorite thing there was their fried jalapenos! Apparently alot of the locals go there. Kinda cool.

Taken from the back patio. The view is awesome!
*Also, this is one of my favorite outfits! Pretty girl!*

Day number 3 was alot like day 2. We played on the beach the first half of the day, although I could tell R's energy was down that day. She did alot more sitting and playing in the sand than running around (lucky for us). 

Raley and Gigi

Sweet little side pony

The day before, Aunt Lindsey had caught a couple little crabs out in the ocean and held onto them. They were pretty entertaining to watch them all crawl around in the bottom of the bucket and leave their shells and then fight over the bigger shells. 

Well the next day David caught a sand dollar. So then they were all on a mission to catch a bucket full of sand dollars. In the process they caught a whole bunch of crabs and a star fish! This little girl was not scared of any of it! She would grab handfuls of crabs at a time.   

Bucket full of crabs

Live star fish

That afternoon we did the same things as the day before, This time I gave her a bath before I put her down for her nap. She slept til about 4:30. I'm thinking this will be the daily routine for our next trip too. I think it works out better than going back out and her getting all sandy again in the afternoon before dinner. 

 That night we ate at Schooners, which was within walking distance on the beach. She loved getting to walk on the sand. We took our family pictures right outside the restaurant when we got there. The food was pretty good there but it was super loud because of the live music. I've never been a huge fan of live music in restaurants because it's loud and hard to have a conversation. (On the other hand it drowns out the sound of a whiny baby;)

On Monday we got up and decided not to worry about getting yucky on the beach before it was time to head home. So we packed up the car and then went to Whataburger (yes, again) for lunch and got Dairy Queen for dessert. (This pregnant girl loves that Pops is an ice cream guy!)

We stopped at an outdoor mall and did a little bit of shopping before heading home. Raley did really great in the car. Although I've got to give some of the credit to Frozen - I have Frozen and 101 Dalmatians downloaded on my Disney Movie Anywhere app but "Dogs" wasn't working for some reason. So we watched Frozen through twice on the way home. I didn't much mind because she loves the movie and its adorable to watch her try and sing along to all the songs.

We finally made it home at 10:30 Monday night (we got stuck in traffic just south of Birmingham) and needless to say, we all crashed. It was definitely an exhausting but amazingly fun trip! Can't wait to do it all again in a few weeks with the Houghton side of the family! :)