Our Trip: Part 1: The Beach

Total Miles: 1767

Hours and minutes in van: 33:57

Miles Per Gallon: 21.3

Spending time with family: Priceless

We had a great time on our trip. We were gone for 7 days. We left on Thursday and headed down to Alabama. We left around 5:30am and didn't get to his parents house until 7pm. It was a long day to say the least, but Adriana did really good. She was so excited to see her cousins and PopPop and HeeHee, she tolerated the ride very well. Unfortunately she doesn't take very good naps in the car, so it can make a long day for mom and dad too.

The next day we headed down to Florida to see Ryan's oldest sister, Lauren and her apartment in Panama City. We had a good time visiting with her, unfortunately it rained and rained and rained. They had said on the news down there that the weather was that of a tropical depression. The first night there it was so windy, and I was afraid that a hurricane was going to come and sweep us back to Missouri. Luckily by Saturday, it had cleared up a little bit after the kids naps and we were able to go to the beach for a little while that evening. Adriana LOVED the beach. The first thing she said when she saw the white sand was "Snow!". She was scared to walk on the beach at first, but quickly warmed up. Unfortunately, when we pulled up to the beach we noticed that the red flags were up, meaning that it was a high surf and they didn't want people in the water. The good thing was, there was a part of this beach geared towards kids. It was a very shallow entry and it stayed shallow for about 100 yards. It was a great way to get Adriana used to the water. Because it was so windy it made it a little chilly to be in the water, but it wasn't bad once you got use to it (although by the end of the evening Adriana's lips were a bluish color). Adriana had a death grip on Ryan's hand the ENTIRE time we were out there, but she had fun. Every time a wave would come and splash up against her she would hold her fist up in victory and say "yes!". It was too cute! One time a wave came and splashed against her and a little drop went in her mouth. She didn't know what to think of the salty water. I told her that the water was really salty and so now every time we talk about going to the beach, she reminds me that the water is salty.

We enjoyed ourselves so much and wish we could have stayed at the beach longer than an hour and a half. We made some fun memories and look forward to going back there, hopefully sooner than later.

Stay tuned for more pictures and stories coming soon....

Me and Adriana on the beach. You can tell

by the look on Adriana's face how cold she was.

Now you know where Adriana gets

her chubby feet and toes (from her mama).

Family Picture

Adriana and her beach escort.

She would NOT let go of her daddy's

hand for nothing!

You can see the excitement in Adriana's

face, of how much she enjoyed the beach.

The high tides on the other beach. There were

surfers everywhere, I'm suprised I got a picture

with none of them in there.