Mexico Beach!

We finally arrived to sunny, Panama Beach and met up with Uncle Steve and Tutu. We hopped in a minivan and drove 45 minutes to Mexico Beach. Our first impression was that Mexico Beach hadn't been updated in years and it exudes a quaint beach town feel without any of the updates that other towns embraced. There wasn't a McDonalds or Starbucks and only has mom and pop shops that adorn the highway.

We found our cute little beach rental called Sis's Place and hunkered down for about a minute before hightailing it to the beach...which was a stone's throw from our back porch!

Every day was wonderful and the kids only wanted to go to the beach. Uncle Steve and Ryan would head over to the Shell Shack - - a genuine shack - - and get steamed shrimp for the day and every morning started with shrimp and grits then the beach. Period. That was pretty much the plan - - and maybe find seashells but mostly it was swimming. We thought about deep-sea fishing but decided against it as the kids truly loved swimming every day. We even saw dolphins in the distance every day and that was memorable as well!

When we were indoors, we worked on puzzles that the homeowner had and ate picnic lunches before heading back out to the beach. I'm getting better at going to the beach as the kids love it so much. Eban started to swim on his own while we were there so that was a big milestone. Then Aunt Eileen and all the cousins came over for a day's visit and they hopped right into the water. They also brought water toys so the boys were in 7th heaven. Eileen busied herself with teaching Eban had to swim a stroke so that was fun to see that! She would use a Buzz Lightyear catch phrase, "Reach for the Sky." And Eban did. Shannon was huge with her twins so it was a BIG plus that she made the trip over to see us!

There were some minor meltdowns - - due to the burrs on the wodden pathway to the beach, sometimes we would get some stuck in our toes or such. Eban would lose his marbles and yell about them. Jack would only cry. It was interesting to see how they reacted differently to the same issue.

View from our Beach - -

Getting to Florida - - for the second time in the summer of 2011

Words can't describe the mayhem of getting to Florida. Moreover, I need to applaud my children for loving every minute of the craziness that was our trip to get to Mexico Beach.

Tutu invited us to a beach house in Mexico Beach for her birthday. She was savvy enough to realize we should get there a day early since no flights would allow us to get there on Satruday by noon when we could check in. We agreed that we could fly in to Panama Beach and stay the night there and pick them up in the morning when Tutu and Uncle Steve arrived from Chicago.

Best made plans are meant to be broken...right?

In the following pictures from my cell phone, you can see Jack or Eban witnessing the crazed passengers after we deboarded a full flight due to a mechanical error. I love their vantage point of the mayhem while we sorted out who would do what to get us to Florida. So I got in line while Ryan tried to call United to change our flights so that we could arrive in time. I was the third or so in line and it took an hour to get to a desk agent.

After a lot of looking at various schedules, it was deemed that we should fly to Atlanta and then onto Tampa to stay the night. They said they'd put us up and that we'd fly from Tampa to Atlanta on the 6am flight and then get to Panama Beach by 10am. At this point, our luggage was 'who knows where'.

So we readied ourselves for the big day and off we went to catch our back-up flight. We only had two back packs and since Jack wasn't potty trained yet, most of one back pack were filled up with clothes for the boys in the event of any accidents and toys for them.

When we finally landed in Tampa after a day long flight excursion, we were grubby and dirty. The hotel was attached to the airport and it had a revolving restaurant at the top of the hotel. The kids thought this was WAY cool. We celebrated our long travel day with shirley temples and sushi. It was pretty cool and there was even a live piano man which was fun.

We crashed shortly thereafter and woke up early to catch our flight to Panama Beach. Some of us were bright eyed and bushy tailed while others needed copious amounts of coffee...imagine that?

Introduction to the awesomeness of Legos

We had roughly two weeks between South Dakota and our second Florida trip of the year. These dates were packed with kiddie dates - - Jack went to his buddy's birthday party. Gavin turned 4 and he lives at the top of the street so that's fun for him.

Eban and Zoe got together for a pizza date. This made his evening as he hadn't seen her since preschool.

We saw that last shuttle take off. I hope this doesn't stick and that NASA reinstates this.

We planted flowers that were asymmetrical in the front tree area.
More importantly, we learned about real Legos and the wonderful things that can be created thanks to these little toys. Eban fell in love to say the least. This was his first love of the summer...next would be BMX biking.

Leaving Mount Rushmore

After the quick fun of the camping trip, it was finally time to leave. We left early in the morning and finally saw Mount Rushmore from multiple angles and the kids loved seeing the presidents. Sandy and Scott even gave us some passes to go alpine sledding so that was fun for us. From the top of the alpine slide area, you could see the monument, so I put the camera on a rock ledge and took the below pic...not bad. I actaully like the side angle of presidents' faces!

We drove south through Custer State Park and saw the beautiful scenery and the wildlife.There were also these amazing "S" turns that took you through one way rock bridges. Really neat! My favorite part was the donkey area in a secluded part of the park. These donkeys are tame and beg for morsels of food from the visitors. I knew that they'd be there so I brought a bag of carrots which we fed them. Although the park is also known for its buffalo herd, we didn't see it through our travels.

We traveled south of the park and into Wind Cave National Park. I wanted to see that but given the fact that we had to drive all the way down south off the highway, I figured we could see it on our next visit. Ryan got pulled over by a seemingly 14 year old park ranger. The boys were riveted by this! A real police car! Anyway, he was nice and let Ryan off with a warning and then told me I had to drive due to an expired license. So keep those licenses up to date!

We also saw the largest wind farm in Colorado as we traveled south through Nebraska and into Colorado. It was crazy how large these turbines were. We eventually made it home and Ryan conked out while we went over to the Levarios for a small fireworks show in their cul-de-sac. The boys loved it and this was a first for them...to see small fireworks up close and personal. Of course, I was stressing safety the whole time, but Colorado laws are pretty stringent on what type of fireworks an individual can possess. Eban and Jackson both held their first sparkler...fun night!

Feeding the Donkeys

Mount Rushmore and Razors

I think a highlight of the trip was the half day rental of the 4-seater ATVs called Razors. Everyone donned a safety helmet.

Then the Stuck family and the Tracys tore off into the wild woods to explore and get dirty!

We laughed and had so much fun, I couldn't believe it. Even Jack, our timid son, was yelling at us to go faster and hit bigger rocks. The KOA abuts acres and acres of wilderness and they gave us a ratty map to adhere to so that we wouldn't go out of bounds. They entrusted me as the gatekeeper...

I had no idea that ATVs could tire you out, but the Stucks got the short end of the stick as they chose to follow us most of the time and Sandy's teeth were simply classic after we returned our ATVs. We laughed so hard at her face. Check it out. Priceless, eh?!

The video doesn't do it justice...oh well.