It's hard to get a suntan when your sittin in the shade

Hang on to your hats... this is a long one.

Or, feel free to click the red X in the corner of your screen... I'll never know.

We just got back from Destin, and as usual, it was utter paradise. I can't say enough how much I love it down there!

We decided to leave Ginger and let Jim and Sylvia bring her later on in the week when they came. This was the first time in 10 years together we have made this trip without our little pooch and I will admit, something was missing. We just thought with the new baby and ALL her gear, we needed the room.

I was dreading the trip down and was totally prepared to stop halfway and spend the night somewhere but we made it all in one piece. I got a little nervous when Trace started asking "Are we there yet?" 2 hours in.

About Georgiana, AL I really started rethinking the decision to go with bucket seats instead of a bench in the back. I rode what I now lovingly refer to as "the hump" (which is really a double cup holder and console between Keatyn and Trace's seats) for the last leg of the trip. Fun.

It was somewhat bearable at first, but grew a little uncomfortable through the towns of Andalusia and Florala. By Defuniak Springs, I had lost all feeling from the waist down.

Trace had Blue's Clues...
He was a happy boy.
Keatyn had her lovey (and her mommy's face to stare at) She was happy...then.
Daddy had earphones and Pandora... he was oblivious (and happy.)
I had... the hump. My rump may never recover.
But that's just what mama's do.

I realized as I was loading all of these pictures that most of them were taken in the shade.

And I wonder why I came home pasty.

When you have a red headed, blue eyed, lilly white baby, you tend to migrate to the shady spots. When I called my pediatrician to ask what kind of sunscreen I could use on her, his exact words were... DON'T GO. Too late Dr. Coffman, we went but we heeded your warning and survived. She is still as lilly white as when we left.

And so am I.

The shady lady...





Skinny dipping... but still in the shade.
Girby's first golf cart ride...
I will get a phone call about 3 seconds after my mother sees this picture. (Nana, I promise we just went around the corner to the pool and Jimmy and I BOTH had a death grip on her car seat.)

Dinner at Old Bay Steamer... Jimmy's favorite. Their slogan is, "WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' VIEW." And their right. However, with 2 small kids, it's not the leisurely two hour, eat crab legs till you puke kind of meal that it used to be.

My red head...
Lunch at The Back Porch...
A couple of days we would eat our "big" meal out for lunch and shop around during the hottest part of the day, then go to the beach and pool at night when it wasn't so hot and sunny.

(Boy, I just morphed into a 90-year-old with that sentence.)
Please don't turn me in to child's services, but I had to take this.
This is what exhaustion looks like. I don't know many that could fall asleep sideways in a chair, naked, while eating a cheese sandwich, but, hey... it happens. Just one of the many reasons why I want a pool in my backyard!

We did manage to find some sunshine.
We took Keatyn to the beach once (you know, there is no shade at the beach.)
Doesn't she look impressed?

Trace got a lot of golf time in once Granddaddy and Sisty got there...
and airplane flying time...
and some tubing time...

We found our new favorite place to eat... Tommy Bahamas.
Keatyn's new favorite thing to eat...
We rode by a tree like this in the resort and the kids had tied all of their beach towels together and were hanging in them like hammocks from the branches. I saw a glimpse into my little monkey's future!


At the wharf...

Trace has been waiting for years to be big enough to do this. (Well, he's only 4, so years might be a stretch.) It was well worth the wait!

Dinner at Acme. We had to rush back from eating to watch the finale of American Idol. Oh... I hate Central Time Zone T.V.

Loading up and heading home...
We decided on the way back (after daddy had to ride "the hump") that the next time we come, we are pulling out the console and putting a beanbag in between the two seats so we can keep our little princess happy. I was actually driving and simultaneously thawing a frozen bag of breast milk by holding it against the car vents with the heat on high (and it was 90+ degrees outside.) Now there's something you don't do everyday.

We followed storms home from an hour outside of Birmingham, driving 30 m.p.h. in the pouring down rain with our hazards on and a baby that was OVER being in the car. After a 9 hour trip, home never looked so sweet! But if we could leave tomorrow and go back, I would.

Or maybe I'll just fly and meet them there. :)