Oh, Florida. How I love you!!!!!
For the past few years, we've headed to the beach for Thanksgiving week. It started as a random, spur of the moment decision, and has since become one of our favorite family traditions. It's proved to be such a great way to slow down, reconnect as a family, and just soak in the sun before the chaos of the holiday season starts. We look forward to it SO much every year!
This year, we made good time on our drive and rolled into Panama City Beach a couple of days before Thanksgiving. The kids ate McDonalds on the balcony (we're classy) and oooh'd and ahhhh'd over the sunset over the ocean while we unpacked, and then we all headed to the indoor pool!
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| ^Dying over him in his little towel robe^ |
The next day, we had nothing on the agenda but THE BEACH.
We woke up early and ate a quick breakfast in the condo, hung out on the balcony for a bit watching the waves, and then headed straight down to the sand. Some of us were even still in jammies, and it was awesome.
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| ^Reading on the balcony after breakfast^ |
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| ^Boston was so pumped to use his metal detector at the beach!^ |
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| ^The cutest.^ |
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| ^Most precious moment of my life^ |
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| ^A crab claw!^ |
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| ^tossing a football as the sun rises on the beach. pretty perfect, in my opinion!^ |
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| ^Cam LOVES to be buried in the sand. He could literally stay here all day. haha^ |
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| ^finding seashells^ |
After a while, we went back up to the condo to eat some lunch and get our swimming suits on. Then we went back down to the beach--but this time we came prepared with all of our buckets and towels and beach gear!
Also, the weather literally could not have been more perfect. It was seriously amazing.
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| ^My four boys...just living their best lives.^ |
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| ^The dimples!^ |
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| ^snack break in the tent with Brights^ |
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| ^I love him.^ |
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| ^happiness^ |
I hit 31 weeks in my pregnancy at the beach, and I pretty much felt like I was carrying a heavy beach ball around in my tummy. Haha! But as uncomfortable as pregnancy can be, beach life makes things seem a lot more doable.
(Also, so crazy that it was baby Monroe in there! And now she's here and two months old!! So wild.)
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| ^Heading back after a perfect day^ |
After a long, amazing afternoon at the beach, we went back up to the condo to clean up and eat. Then we headed out on the town to explore a bit and get some treats!
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| ^Spaghetti by the ocean!^ |
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| ^We loved all of the fun Christmas lights set up downtown at Panama City Beach!^ |
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| ^cool and casual^ |
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| ^Camden the alligator!^ |
After we wandered through some souvenir shops, we made an ice cream stop. I pretty much freaked out when I saw Marble Slab Creamery, an off-shoot of the ice cream place I worked at in high school (Maggie Moos). Their ice cream is the BEST, and I was pumped to introduce the blue cotton candy to my kids!
They loved it, and their mouths were stained blue for like two days. Worth it!
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| ^Cotton candy carnival!^ |
Then we found a candy store...and the kids were about to explode from happiness. Even though we had literally just had ice cream, we couldn't tell them no. Because hashtag, vacation mode.
Camden is the candy KING, and I thought he was going to pass out from the excitement. Haha! But they were all in heaven.
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| ^He'd live in this store if he could^ |
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| ^Cradling a sucker that weighed as much as him^ |
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| ^Mario Holls^ |
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| ^GUMMY PIZZA^ |
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| ^I got this and it was such an blast from my childhood. Remember the candy seeds?? So good.^ |
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| ^"MOM! Take a picture--Boston baked beans!"^ |
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| ^Sugar high...just in time for bed. Ha!^ |
Such a perfect day.
More beach photos, coming up next!
After we wandered through some souvenir shops, we made an ice cream stop. I pretty much freaked out when I saw Marble Slab Creamery, an off-shoot of the ice cream place I worked at in high school (Maggie Moos). Their ice cream is the BEST, and I was pumped to introduce the blue cotton candy to my kids!
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