Beach Bums... :)

Every year, Chris's family takes a week-long trip to a beach in Florida. For years they went to Destin, but ever since I've been going (for the last 3 years), it's been to Panama City Beach. They have some friends they rent a 3 bedroom, 2 bath condo from that is right on the beach and is immaculate! It has tile floors throughout and granite countertops, and the decorating is absolutely superb! It's all the way up on the 12th of 17 floors and so our view is amazing! (The hotel actually doesn't have a 13th floor for superstitious reasons... funny, huh?)

This was Macie's first year to go to the beach, and she did pretty well! It's actually funny, because it was this same trip the year before where they decided she was, in fact, going to be named Macie (up until then, they had been calling her "Emily.")

I was especially excited about going this year, because it gave me a break from school work, and we had our own room! Yes, this may sound silly and unimportant, but for the last 2 years, we've always invited one of his grandmothers to go with us, and we gave the extra room to them, leaving Chris, Jonathan, & I to sleep on the single couch, pushed together chairs & ottoman, or the tile floor.... not fun!

Every morning, we would all get up, have a nice breakfast that our brother-in-law, Wesley would usually fix, and go down to the beach until lunch. Chris & I were especially excited about laying out at the beach this year, because we got these great beach chairs with some of our wedding giftcards to Target (sorry, i can't find a picture of them!). They have footrests, cupholders, gadget pockets, headrests, etc. We were set!

Macie would do great, but since we were in the middle of a heat wave, she didn't cope with the heat as well as everyone else, so in order to keep her happy just a little while longer (so no one had to go up to the condo just minutes after coming down), I decided to share my bag of Blow-Pops I had gotten for the trip down there, and boy did she love them! She is just now starting to want to taste "real food" and as she was watching me lick mine, her little lips and tongue were just a goin' mimicking my motions. She also only has 2 bottom teeth, and was currently getting 2 more in, so knowing she couldn't bite it, I gave her a classic Cherry one for her very first taste at yummy goodness! Boy, oh boy! She was loving it!

I ended up enjoying a lot of my trip down at the pool. It was great! I found a great lounge chair that was in a great location and waiting just for me everyday! It was near the part of the pool that had this great cove where you could sit in the deep in on a step that put that water just at chest high -- so it was away from all the little children learning to swim, and right near my chair! I even made new friends down there -- they loved my little cove too!

All in all, it was a really great trip... I am always ready to come home and get back to reality, Chris however will be sulking for weeks that we're not still there... Bless his heart! We're already looking forward to our next trip, though, to Lake Junaluska, N.C. for the 4th of July with our family! :)

Enjoy these next few pictures of our trip down there...