It has been 3 years since I’ve been to the beach. Jacob was 9 months old and Maggie was just “a twinkle in my eye”, as my mother says. Rick and I started going to Destin the year we got married. We tried to make it a yearly thing with Rick’s parents. It was always my mother in law’s dream to have both her boys and their families at the beach. Between me and Carrie one of us was pregnant for 4 years. So it was either us or them at the beach with his parents. This was the year that we decided to all make the journey. No pregnant women and no infants in tow.
For weeks we looked for places in Destin, but had a hard time finding something that would accommodate three families, two with small children for the week we needed it in the price range we needed it. Upon a recommendation Carrie found a resort in Panama City called Splash. It is a high-rise condo with a small water park on the bottom. There are small slides for the little ones, little lagoons with streams of water coming out of the ground, a lazy river, several pools that are in the sun and shaded, and a hot tub. If none of that suits you, you can be at the beach in about 10 steps.
We were all going to leave on Saturday. Robby and Carrie, and Ramona and Dean were going to follow each other. I called Rick on Friday afternoon and told him that we were all packed and ready to go. I jokingly said we could leave now if he wanted and his reply was let him finish some things at the office and he’ll come home and pack the van and we’ll leave tonight. We left Murfreesboro by 7:00. Since we didn’t really have a plan, I suggested let’s stop around 11:00 so we can get the kids in bed. We made it just outside of Montgomery, AL. The kids were so happy to be in a hotel room and out of the car. The next morning we got up, had a great breakfast and headed to the beach. We left Montgomery around 9:30 and were at the beach by 1:00. It was a great trip down considering Maggie is not the best of travelers, but maybe she’s outgrowing it. We all got to the resort within 5 minutes of each other.
The condo is great. It’s has three bedrooms three bathrooms, a kitchen, living room and dining area. Each bedroom has its own balcony, where I’m writing my blog from. Did I mention we are on the 21st floor, the top floor? When the blimps and helicopters fly by, they are flying at our condo level. Last night some people were shooting fireworks off the beach and they didn’t even make it up to our level. There are floor to ceiling windows throughout the condo. It feels like you are flying or floating because all you see is sky and ocean for miles. When you look out the dining room window you can see our bedroom balcony. My favorite quote so far comes from my niece Dana. When she gets excited she sounds like Amy Pohler’s character from SNL where she is a 13 yr old girl and her step dad Rick. Dana said “I can see uncle Rick and he is naked!” She said this over and over until someone came and saw what she was seeing. Dana was just minding her business looking out the window and she saw Rick hanging his towel and clothes on the chairs on the balcony and he didn’t have a shirt (but he did have shorts on, she just couldn’t see).
Today we went to the beach and it was very surreal for me. Rick, Jacob, Maggie and I were building sand castles. There is something therapeutic about having your fingers in wet sand. Maggie would fill the buckets with sand while Jacob would fill his bucket with water to pack the sand. Then Rick would make perfectly formed castle towers and he even made a moat. The kids are totally loving the beach. I was kinda nervous that one of them wouldn’t like it but they love the beach more than they like the pools. I told Rick today that just a few years ago, it was just he and I at the beach, no sand buckets, arm floaties, or sippy cups.
After we brought them in and got their bellies full of lunch followed up with popsicles, or as Jacob says popsicables, we got the kids down for a nice nap. All of the adults picked a balcony and just hung out, read magazines, listened to I Pods, or me, I just sat on my lawn chair and listened to the waves crash below me. I love quiet time. Its time to reflect, and think, and also listen to God. He talks to me a lot when I get still and quiet all the things that are constantly going through my head. A private balcony on the beach 21 stories up is a great place to do that.
