Vacation Part 1 of ?

If you follow me on facebook or twitter, you have probably heard enough talk about my vacation lol. Today has been a real struggle in going back to work. I have missed Maddy so much today and found myself wondering how she was dealing with going back to school. We took a trip to Panama City Beach, FL and stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort. That hotel was perfect for Maddy, and me as well lol. I don't make a ton of money and am barely getting by with my check as it is, but the money for that hotel is so worth it. We only got to stay for a couple of nights, but I'll take what I can get on limited funds. The hotel has a web cam gallery. They have a web cam for the pool area, for the water park area (i will talk about this in a minute), the roof, and the beach. This is what helped us decide where we were going to stay. I have been looking at the beach cam all day today and find myself saying this time last week we were blah blah blah. We left out of Chattanooga around 9 a.m. Sunday morning. This was Maddy's first long road trip as well as her first trip to the beach on this earth. I took her to the beach when I was almost 6 months pregnant with her and boy did i get burned pretty bad lol. Her dad went with us, which I was thankful for because I did not want to travel what should be a 7 hour road trip on my own with a toddler for the first time. I expected Maddy to only tolerate roughly 2 hours because when we go to Gatlinburg by the time we are almost there she is over being in the car. I really think the Lord was helping me out on this one because she last a lot longer than 2 hours. She slept for the first 2 hours I think and when she woke up she fussed a little but once she got food in her belly she just talked away. We sang some songs and laughed and she had her fussy moments, but once it got pretty bad we stopped at a rest area. We ended up stopping in Clanton, AL. She was very unsure of what was going on so she let me carry her in and change her diaper. I feel so bad for her because she freaks out when you put her on the diaper changing station. I think she feels like she is going to fall and has a fear of heights. Once she got changed we got right back in the car and continued our journey. Much to my surprise she didn't fight getting into the car, but that would come later lol. Once we got past Montgomery, I had to make one more gas stop to finish out the trip. We went in and changed Maddy and got her a juice and thought we would just get right back in the car and go. Oh no, this time is the time that Maddy was fighting when we tried to put her in. I don't blame her in the least because it had been an extremely long ride for her. She is real good at listening if you catch her at the right time so you can explain what is going to happen. This time I couldn't really explain much to her, but was able to entice her with her juice. Once she saw her juice I was able to tell her that she had to get in her seat like a big girl and then mommy would give her her juice. It was a success and we were ready to make our final stretch. We were approximately 45 minutes away from the hotel when Maddy got real fussy. I have bragged so much about how well she did in the car and I am just so thankful she did as well as she did. Once we got to the hotel we suited up and hit the beach. It was 6 p.m. and unfortunately there was a cold snap that was moving through so i was so cold due to the wind, but the beach was so soothing. The sun was setting and it was just a really pretty picture.  I thought the ocean would be freezing but it was really warm. Before I go on to tell about Maddy's reaction I want to post a picture of her in the car on the way down.

I will have to add more photos of our luggage and stuff once i get a hold of my mom's memory card, but anyways. I thought Maddy would absolutely love the sand, but much to my surprise she did not. I bought her some water shoes specifically for this trip at Old Navy, they are the most expensive pair of shoes I've bought her but she absolutely loves them and wears them every day now making the price worth it. Once she stepped onto the sand she quickly stopped and just stood there. Actually instead of describing it, I will just post the video.

Her reaction to the sand cracks me up! The next video shows her reaction to the water. I retract my earlier statement. The first night the water was really cold, but Monday morning turned really warm, but as the day went on got really cold again lol. The ocean must be female the way it kept changing it's mind...i know it doesn't have a mind but just go with it.

When we first got to our room, Maddy did not want to leave. We almost didn't make it to the beach that night because she refused to leave. When we asked if she wanted to go outside her response was NO! I think she thought she was going back in the car and was enjoying just being able to run around. Obviously we did convince her to get her bathing suit on and go outside lol. As soon as I turned in my assignments for school sunday night we all were so ready to call it a night. I was worried over how Maddy would get to sleep because this was also her first night away from home. We requested a roll away for her, but she did not want to sleep by herself and I can't blame her. To prevent her from falling we put her in the middle and we slept beside her but on opposite sides. We had a queen size bed so it was not that crowded. Maddy didn't want to lay down and go to sleep and it took her a while before she did. I was the first to konk out so her dad was in charge of getting her to bed. She ended up sleeping on her dad and I must say I really enjoyed waking up right next to her. I woke up around 5 something and kept dosing off and on. Maddy was having a hard time staying awake as well and would roll between me and her dad. Around 7 I decided to just wake her up and get ready to hit the beach. Monday was a beautiful day in FL. It started out cold but warmed up.

 This was Sunday night and her face is her reaction to seeing the water for the first time

 This was Monday and this is our view from our room. We were on the 6th floor

 The water was so gorgeous! God has amazing creativity!

This was the sun setting Sunday night...it was so pretty!

We first went to the pool deck on Monday morning and checked out Aqualand. It is a mini waterpark type playground for small kids. The water was perfect height for Maddy and any other smaller children. The water felt like ice water so we didn't go all the way in and slide, but we did try to get Maddy in. After half a day she decided to get in with her dad. I will post some video and pics of aqualand now :)

Now that I have lost your interest due to all the pics and videos we will move on to the rest of the day. We spent most of our time walking around the pool deck back and forth. I think people started to wonder what we were doing cause we were constantly back and forth. I was ok with this because my attention span isn't that long and I enjoy pacing around and unfortunately for Maddy I have taught her to do the same. Maddy was able to meet the hotel mascot which was Splash the dolphin. The rest of the blog I will just let pics and video speak for themselves. We ate dinner at a place called Scampy's...if you are tight on money but want to enjoy good seafood, this is the place to go. Poor Maddy didn't get a nap all day and unfortunately a 5 mile drive wasn't quite long enough so our dinner was quite rushed and unenjoyable cause she was screaming and crying. I was able to capture one pic on my phone of her eating, but can't upload it on here tonight. At night they put on a polynesian fire show where they have hula dancers and get lots of audience participation and at the very end they do a fireshow. It was very neat to see and we enjoyed watching from our own balcony where Maddy could easily walk around without us missing too much of the show. All in all it was a great trip and we are planning to take her on a cruise for her 2nd birthday as long as we have the funds to do so. I hope you enjoy the pics and video even though they are probably overwhelming lol. Before I finish posting pics and video I have to add that Maddy was such a good little mommy on this vacation. Baby went everywhere with her..the beach, the pool, aqualand...she took good care of her baby, which made me a proud mommy lol.