We stayed there Friday and then got up Saturday morning and headed for Panama City Beach! Jason, crazy fool he is, rode his bike from Tallahassee to PCB.
We checked into our condo around 3pm and no joke unpacked and headed straight for the beach! The tide was strong and winds were high but the boys thought that was great! Just made the waves higher! Jason kept right by their side and the three of them literally played in the ocean for 3 hours!!
The rest of us reclined in our expensive rental chairs while soaking up some sun and chatted nonsense.
We then all went up to the pool at the condo and played in the pool. Each of us were pushed in one by one by someone! It was like a chain reaction...I pushed Parker, Krissy pushed me, Jason pushed Krissy, Mom pushed Jason and so on and so on :) We were cracking up! We took the funniest pictures with my sisters camera, unfortunately they were with her camera and she has yet to send them to me :(
We then headed that evening out to get an awesome dinner. Mom and Troy treated us to what we thought would be some great BBQ! Unfortunately the dinner turned out to be not so awesome. We ordered ribs, which were served to us warm to the touch but cold on the inside. It was a pretty redneck place we chose which we made the best of and cracked up while gnawing on our cold food!
We stopped by the grocery store on the way home and yet again my mom got the tab for the entire bill!! Thank you so much mom!!! We bought a weeks worth of groceries and headed back to the condo. By the time we got back, we were exhausted! We packed so much laughter and fun in that half day that we were all over our slap happiness and ready to feel the pillow. We called it a night and couldn't wait to hit the beach in the morning!
Morning time came and Jason and I rose to put on our cycling outfits to take an early morning stroll before the day began. As we stood and looked out the window, all that we saw were dark clouds, fierce winds and lots of rain! Oh well we thought, we'll ride tomorrow morning. As we sat around eating a fabulous breakfast made by Meme, my genius husband decided to turn on the weather channel. That's when it all went south...This was Sunday and weather channel called for severe tropical storm Debby all week. Heavy heavy winds with the possibility of a hurricane. Panama City was dead center of it all. We watched for about 30 min. Then we called a Bewley family meeting in our bedroom. We explained to the kids the danger in staying and that it would be best to jump ship. The kids and I literally cried. However we decided as a family that it was best to leave and head back to Atlanta for a stay cation instead. We would drive to Marietta and stay with my dad and get up on Monday and go to White Water. Then Tuesday we would go to Stone Mountain and head home Tuesday night. With that decision, we sadly broke the news to mom, Troy and Krissy. Thankfully they too had decided it would be best to leave :( We loaded our cars and headed out within the hour.
As sad as we were to leave, we truly had such a great time the day we were there! We are going to definitely have a re-do with mom, Troy and Krissy soon! Thank you mom for making what short time we had there so special! You have an amazing giving heart and an unconditional love for each of us!!
Our staycation turned out nice but also a bit unexpected. Big thank you to my dad and Teresa for being so hospitable with no notice :) We arrived at their house late Sunday evening. Grammy (Teresa) had gone out and gotten us some yummy Olive Garden. I could tell they really wanted us to still feel like we were on vacation and trust me, we did!!
Monday morning we rose early and headed to White Water! We had so much fun and rode nearly every ride in the park! We made so many memories including riding down 9 story high water slides, eating $10 dipping dots, eating leftover pizza given to us by complete strangers, and enjoying riding the waves in the wave pool!
When we got back home from White Water, we walked into an incredibly yummy dinner made by my dad!! Of course his lovely assistant did most of the work I think ;) Thank you both for dinner Grammy and Poppy!! It was like being at a fine dining restaurant but only better! What a treat!
Tuesday we rose early packed our bags yet again and headed out. Destination Stone Mountain! We arrived around lunch time and I'm not sure which of us, Jason or I, had the wise idea to climb the mountain in 90 degree weather. The kids were not too excited about it but once we bribed them (with dipping dots at the top followed by a riding the sky ride back down the mountain) they jumped on board with the idea!!
So up we headed!!!
The hike up was fun!! Lots of silliness along with lots of water drinking!
Finally we made it to the top!!!
You think we'd be happy right? Remember the title of this post, not what we expected...yeah well same applies here! We got to the top only to find out the the shops were closed and the sky ride was closed. The winds were so high, they were unable to open. Ok so here's where the day went south. The kids were devastated and exhausted! I too became so upset. Couldn't anything go right? Ok God, you don't want us at the beach and obviously you don't want us riding down Stone Mountain. Really by this point I was angry. I'm not sure if I was angry at God or just plain exhausted. As we walked down the mountain, I honestly had to walk it about 20 feet behind everyone. I could barely take my mental complaining much less the children and their very out loud complaining.
The unexpected walk back down the mountain!!
I talked to God the whole way down. Trying hard to get myself out of this funk. That's when I realized how much each of us really needed to be home. We needed our own beds, no more car rides, some much needed TV veg time and some quiet. We were all so tired from all of the going! We ran a good race but God was telling us to go home. Although the kids seemed upset to suddenly leave Stone Mountain, after a few minutes they all seemed fine with it. We have season passes and decided as a family once again that another day would be best to come back.
The drive home was quiet. We pulled in the driveway, unloaded the van as a team and literally crashed. My eyes closed the moment I hit the pillow. I was one tired mommy!
Jason and I rose early the next morning to have a nice quiet breakfast at Waffle house together.
We took our bibles and sat quietly and reflected on our week with God. Speaking for myself, I took away a lot from this trip. God taught me an important lesson. Although our beach trip was not what we expected nor was our staycation, I'm choosing to focus on our fun times we did have. I'm choosing to thank God for the precious memories we were able to make. What a wonderful 24 hours of beach with mom, Troy and Krissy! Incredible unexpected time with Dad and Teresa and being spoiled rotten by them! An Awesome day in the sun at White Water with tummy taking thriller rides! And an unforgettable hike up (and down) Stone Mountain that I am quite sure the kids will never forget!!!
Beach Trip 2012 = A success (with some added bonuses)
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