We are home! Vacation was a whirlwind, and exhausting, and stressful, and fun, and much needed, and now over-booooooo! I really could use about 3 weeks at the beach every year. One to acclimate, one to relax and enjoy myself under the umbrella, and one more to make me homesick. Oh well. I would need to win the lottery for that, and seeing as how we didn't buy A SINGLE TICKET the whole time we were there, I guess we won't win the $28 MILLION lottery. Also, there's that pesky little oil problem...
Our trip started not so great. The plan was to leave Saturday morning at 4:30 in hopes that Lucy would sleep until we got to B'ham. There we'd stay for a few hours, visiting the old college campus and letting Lucy run and play on the quad where Bryan and I spent so many of our days.
Instead, Lucy was awake ALL 10 HOURS (with the exception of two 30 minute naps spread out along the way). Bryan puked before we even got to Chattanooga, and Lucy seemed to be a bit grumpy and feverish and oh my! PULLING AT HER EAR!!!!! NOOOOOOOO!!! TUBES! WE HAVE TUBES!
So...we arrived at my in-laws house near Pensacola about 2 that afternoon. We unpacked and began preparing for the wedding rehearsal dinner we were going to that night. (We spent the first part of vacation there in P'cola area for Bryan's best friend Travis' wedding. I will say he married a lovely girl and we are thrilled for them!). Lucy began running about a 101 fever. I was torn. Do I go and support my hubby and his pal? Do I stay home with my sick baby? There are actually 3 capable adults in the house... I decided to get dolled up and go.
Lucy took some motrin, I gave her grandparents her schedule, and we were off.
So, a bit nervous about sweet Lucy, we drove to the rehearsal and dinner. It began to POUR rain. We were on a bridge. It was over the OCEAN. It was a long bridge. Here is a dialogue of what came next...
Me: (From inside the car ON THE BRIDGE OVER THE OCEAN!) "What is that noise?"
Leah: (From the backseat) "Yeah, I hear it to. It is a whistle"
Bryan: (Looking around from the driver's seat) "Maybe it is that car."
Car passes, its occupants flailing their arms at us pointing to the back of the car.
Me: "What in the world?"
Car: Boom, flap, grind
Bryan: "Oh crap, we have a flat."
Leah: "Yep, it's a flat, is it two flats?"
Me: (I won't actually write all that was said, but let's just say I panicked.)
Leah: "You have to get off the bridge"
Bryan: "I will, I am.
Me: "OH MY GOSH!"
Leah: "There is some HUGE fine if you stop on the bridge."
Me: (I'll just say there was more panic)
After that, we pulled off the bridge IN THE POURING RAIN, called AAA, and inspected our tire. It was a rear left blowout on the side. Thank goodness only one! AAA said it might be 2 hours, so we called Bryan's dad. He was there in no time, had it changed pretty much instantly, and we were only about 20 minutes late for the rehearsal. It was so nice of the two highway patrol cars that were LESS THAN 100 YARDS AWAY to come over and ask if we needed help...oh wait, they did NOT. Thanks FHP. Good think my father in law must secretly work for Nascar. He was my hero that day.
The rehearsal was great! We were able to see a lot of good friends and hear great stories about Travis and Amanda. These two are a perfect match! The food was good, the wine was good and the fellowship was good. We were also in a HUGE house on the bay, and were able to have an up close and personal view of a major thunderstorm that blew in. It was pretty amazing.
Sunday morning we woke as zombies. Bryan had stayed out a little late, and I'd been up with Lucy several times that night. Her fever had gotten up to 103 in the middle of the night, so of course I was frantic. We took her to the doctor that day to find she had AN EAR INFECTION! Can you believe it people?! I thought those things were a thing of the past! The doctor, who I had never laid eyes on before (you can imagine how worked up I was), said that it was mild, and he gave her some antibiotics. We got them filled and she was as good as new by time for the wedding.
The wedding was beautiful. It was right on the water in P'cola, and there was a breeze blowing. The rain held off and Travis and Amanda had the perfect wedding. The ceremony was great, although I spend most of it holding Lucy and telling her that she could NOT get down and run around.
The reception was in a beautiful room that was all windows overlooking the water. There was great food and a LIVE band.
It was during this time that Lucy decided that she was a dancer. That kid danced to almost every song. She had a BLAST! She danced with her daddy, her Poppa, random kids, Aunt Leah, more random kids, Steve and Debbie Hall (Travis' parents), and even got to go on stage and sing with the groomsmen!
She stayed up 3 and a half hours past her bedtime and was going crazy wild dancing. When we FINALLY called it quits, she crashed in her car in about 3 minutes. It has to be the best night of her life to date.
On Monday morning, we drove to Destin (about an hour drive from P'cola). We met up with my parents and chilled in the condo. We sat on the balcony that day and taught Lucy to say "Beach". She did it, and seemed to really be interested in going to see it. We didn't go Monday, but had a great dinner at The Back Porch, my favorite place in Destin!
Lucy crashed that night and did pretty well sleeping, but I can't say for sure because my saint of a mother took care of any wake up incidents there were. Bryan and I were exhausted!
Tuesday we ventured down to the beach.
We knew Lucy loved the pool and water last summer, but were not sure how she'd react to the beach and pool this year. SHE LOVED IT.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that she ran around like a crazy person for almost 2 hours at the beach.
She was not bothered in the least by the sand. Rolled in it, dug in it, ate it, no problem. As for the water, same deal. Ran towards it. No fear. Wanted to get in the water immediately. In fact, she kept saying "WATER!"
She loved the waves getting her feet, and loved that they got buried after a few minutes. Her Grandy and Daddy helped her dig in the sand, and after a few hours of this back and forth between the water, the sand, and the other people on the beach, she crashed. She took a great nap, ate lunch, the went for the pool! Although she didn't like her little floaty device this year, she sure loved to be pulled around the pool. She even learned to kick her feet. We didn't dunk her, as we have not yet had her follow up appt. with the ENT, PLUS that pesky ear infection was still around. But...if the doc says we can, I might look for some swimming lessons this summer.
The next few days were more of the same.
The poor kid was so worn out that she had to take TWO naps each day instead of her usual one.
On Friday Bryan's parents came to Destin to join us for a day (the boys golfed and we shopped) and a good dinner. We took a few pics on the beach, but Lucy was SOOOO tired that it didn't last long!
We have some great memories from this trip and are so glad that it was such fun for Lucy. However, we are exhausted. I seriously underestimated how difficult and tiring it is to have a kid at the beach. I think all my meals were eaten cold, and I am sure I LOST weight after lugging Lucy and her stuff around all week. Also, my days of lounging under the umbrella with a good book are OVER!
All in all, the trip started not so great, but was WILDLY successful! With the oil (that we did manage to avoid) set to be there soon, I don't know where we'll be next year :(
