Day 3: Bone Breaking Waves

Our third day on the beach started with some pretty heavy rain and hopes that it would stop very soon. We started out with some delicious breakfast, watching the rain, and preparations for perfecting our awesome sunburns that we had been really working on. The rain finally stopped, we all blocked up, and were ready to hit the beach for some more fun in the sun. We noticed very quickly that the waves were out of control. Everyone really enjoyed riding the floaties/rafts in them, fighting the waves and playing in them. We seemed to all be having a great time fighting the waves and playing shark, when we had our first beach injury. Our group has been going to Florida since about 2002, and we have made it this far without any accidents or incidents. Unfortunately, we ended having a broken collar bone in the mix from the extremely violent waves. Day 3 wasn't a  great success but scenery was still enjoyable. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing, having some good food, and enjoying everyone's company, and of course MORE pictures!

Day 2: Lots of Sun...

Everyone was pretty wiped out from the trip, staying up late and being on the beach from our first day; that we tried to get a little sleep for day 2. My aunt made everyone delicious pancakes, I was jonesing for some coffee, and Parker was already in her swimsuit ready to go to the beach. It was so awesome to wake up, grab a cup of coffee, and sit on the back deck and watch the waves. I can see why people buy ocean sounds for sleep. Our day consisted of sitting on the beach, playing in the ocean, sitting on the beach some more, and taking in some nice alcoholic beverages to really top it off. Later that night we all got dressed up and hit Pier Park. It has a ton of shops, restaurants, bars and an area for kids. Parker spent time with her mimi and papaw riding the carousel, ferris wheel and trying out the "benji" jump. We had a pretty awesome second day/night and I of course took a million pictures.

Beach, Fun, and SUN!

What a relaxing week! 5 days and 6 nights of the beach, reading a good book, watching Parker play in the water and sand, good food, tons of laughs with my family, and a bit of relaxation. It was a very good week except for a minor mishap in the form of a broken collar bone due to the extremely intense waves Tuesday. The flag was red and it was red for a GOOD reason. I'm going to break up the pictures daily because there are soo many. One thing that I did notice; I am in absolutely NONE of them. Thankfully, the last night we were there we took family pictures and I am actually in a few of those. :)

Day 1: We all stumbled got out of bed about 3:00 am. Most of my family NEVER went to sleep. Might have done that five or six years ago, but definitely not at 28. Everyone was super pumped and anxious to get on the road. Parker even had a hard time going back to sleep. She was ready to go! I was anticipating on how many times Parker would ask if we were in Florida yet, and she didn't let me down. That question was asked at least every 30 miles or so. I still don't believe the concept of Florida being an actual place has resonated with her.

After 12 hours give or take of being on the road, we were FINALLY at our house and it didn't let us down either. Usually, we stay in a condo across the street from the beach that probably sleeps eight or so people. This year we found a house right on the beach that slept 12 people and maybe an extra one or two, shhh. Everyone immediately threw their suits on and headed down to the beach.