Long before March 2020, when the whole world as we know it fell apart, I would dream of where we would be on Jimmy's 50th birthday. It's a big one and I thought about all the places we could go to celebrate. However, Covid had other plans. Let me preface this by saying... Jimmy couldn't care less if we went anywhere or not. He would have happily spent his birthday flying under the radar fishing on the lake with no fanfare. But, I had other plans. Lol! I knew better than to ever throw him a party, much less a surprise. We tossed around going to Destin but it was still so crowded and we were really trying to social distance. Then we looked into going down the South Carolina shore... Charleston, Hilton Head, maybe Savannah, but then a hurricane formed in the Atlantic. A pandemic AND a hurricane...no thank you. So we looked into a condo that his friend Paul's family has stayed in Perdido Key and literally decided the day before to do it. Normally, I'm a planner, but sometimes it's really fun to do a spur of the moment adventure.
Trace was at a birthday sleepover when we decided on Saturday afternoon so I texted him and told him we were picking him up Sunday monring and heading to the beach.
Perdido Key is between Pensacola and Orange Beach/Gulf Shores AL. It's a little stretch of land that is only 16 miles right on the border of Florida. It was beautiful and we were fairly secluded. The condo only had about 20 units and we had plenty of room on the beach to spread out.
The view from the bedroom...
The first day we were there, we ate at The Gulf which was totally outdoors and beautiful! It turns out that was the only time we actually went to a restaurant to eat. Every other night I would go pick up dinner while the kids played in the pool or ocean with some friends they met.
We loved sitting out on the balcony looking over the pool and the ocean. It was very convenient to be able to let the kids go down there to play and we could enjoy the view.
This girl was ready for some night crabbing.
Both kids met some friends they ended up playing a lot with. It was SO nice because they would have gotten pretty bored with just each other and us. Lol!
One day we loaded up and drove to Pensacola to watch the Blue Angels. When we got to the Navy base, they said because of Covid, noone was allowed in. So we stopped at another location to watch them but they never came. I guess the online schedule was wrong because we never heard them all week. Hopefully we will catch them one day soon.
After that, we drove past "Coasting" in Gulf Shores where we stayed with mom, dad, Andy and Kadi several years ago. Such fun memories!
Playing football from the 3rd floor balcony.
Trace met Cooper, his brother Lawson, and their friend Luke from Arkansas the 2nd day we were there and they played all week.
One night we walked across the street to the bay and they fished off the pier. They LOVED this and we ended up going back the next night.
This bird was hilarious!! When Jimmy would catch a fish, he would wait until he fed it to him or he would grab it in his beak and fly off to eat it. It was amazing to watch!
Keatyn met Chloe from Franklin mid week and they spent hours swimming together.
The last night we were there I went to Jellyfish and got his birthday dinner. I had snuck out earlier in the day and got an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Our dinner was fantastic!
Lawson, Trace, Luke and Cooper. Sweet boys! Trace shared our cake with them and then they played on the beach our last night while we went fishing again.
Leftover birthday cake for breakfast before we left to drive home. It's always hard leaving such a beautiful place!
The rainbow over the river welcoming us home!
Jim and Sylvia took care of the pups while we were gone. We left them out in the house with the doggie door open during the day and they came each night to lock them up and let them out each morning. We got home and found this. So sweet! Jimmy loved it.
It was a great way to celebrate his birthday and we were so very thankful for family time! Love this 50 year old and so very thankful he was born a half centure ago. Lol!
