Vacation 2013

I am still trying to figure out the whole video editing software thing. I thought what I was using was a 30 day free trial, but it wasn't lol. I'm going to have to learn the software before I can really use it, which could take forever, so I thought I better go ahead and write about vacation.

The week of vacation was so hard on me...not because anything went wrong per say, but more-so my level excitement was out the roof! Friday afternoon was a bit rough on me. It was the day I took Manny to the vets to get his shots and drop him off. He never yelps when they give him shots, but he yelped so loudly this time I almost intervened and made them stop. I was already emotional having to leave him...I didn't want him in that kind of pain. I really feel like it's because they normally let me hold him while he is on the table and they didn't that day so he was scared on top of the injections hurting. Poor buddy thought he was going right back home after the shots and exam because we had to go back to the lobby for them to take him back. He was quite disappointed when he realized he wasn't leaving...in fact, the only way they got him back to his "doggy hotel" was me walking him back there. That was even harder on me because the workers grabbed him by his neck to try to keep him in the kennel...that is NOT how I treat him!!! After I got him dropped off it was time to go get my rental car. The Lord worked it out and let a 2012 Camry be available. It's what I drove last year and it's an awesome car! If I weren't so devoted to Honda I would most certainly buy one of those lol.

It's a sharp looking car AND it's FOUR door!!! Talk about NOT wanting to give it back lol. I am VERY thankful for the car I have, but after driving a car in great condition it made me do some car searching and provided I keep my current job, in 2016 I plan on buying a 2013 Honda Accord. That's another post though lol. Once I got my car I had to go get Maddy and run to Target and Kohl's for sunglasses and leggings. I got up at 4 a.m. to get my work done, so by the time I left to take Manny I was done for the day. We celebrated my cousin's 2nd birthday at our church. Me and Maddy were a tad bit late, but luckily not many people noticed lol. I didn't get any pictures from the party, but Elmo made an appearance and we all had a great time. Maddy was scared of Elmo and frankly I was too lol. After the birthday party it was time to go home and pack, or finish packing. I packed as much as I could the weekend of Mother's Day because I knew if I didn't I would forget something and I would never get any sleep the night before we left. As I've mentioned before I have learned I cannot sleep when Manny is not here...when any of my kids aren't here for that fact, so as soon as we got packed up we headed for "Nana's." I was supposed to have taken Manny his (my blanket I got for Christmas that he has claimed as his own) blanket because I didn't know they could have stuff like that, after Aria's party. With everything going on I completely forgot. My mom texted me and told me to bring it to her house and my uncle would take it to him for me. I was SO thankful for my uncle because I knew that would help Manny out and all they give them to lay on is a little towel. I think I got maybe 4 hours sleep before it was time to roll on out. I can tell Maddy is my daughter because she is NOT a morning person at all and it takes her a good while to wake up. It didn't help that she didn't sleep until I got to sleep and so she only had four hours too. She was so cranky and wouldn't let me get her dressed for anything.I think it was around 6 a.m. when we finally left. We were meeting my step brother and his girlfriend in Georgia along the way. It was an interesting drive on the way there. We had to stop twice for me to catch up because I couldn't switch lanes in time to be where I needed to be. On the way there I realized I grabbed the wrong cord for my GPS so I had nothing to go off of...my step dad let me use his iPad and I felt MUCH better :) We ate at Shoney's for breakfast. We got to Panama City Beach, FL around 1 p.m. their time. Of coarse the first thing we do is get our stuff in...look around the condo for a bit...then just stare at the ocean in disbelief that we are actually there. Maddy of coarse was ready to go to the beach the minute she walked through the door. I have mostly pictures to share of our trip, but want to write out where we ate each day for memory's sake...I will do that at the end. I do have videos that I will more than likely be sharing, but I want to edit them first and make it a little more enjoyable for everybody to watch :) All in all we had a great trip and were so very thankful to get to go. Me and Maddy are still having a hard time adjusting back to normal life and we MUCH prefer vacation life where we actually get to spend time together and sleep in the same bed and all that fun stuff you do on vacation :)

 The week we were in Florida, TN got some severe weather. We ran into some of that heavy rain on our way. It made me a nervous wreck because it was raining so hard I couldn't see. Maddy was exhausted and she FINALLY gave in before we stopped for breakfast...or maybe it was after...I can't remember.

This is when we were getting checked into the condo...she was in mid sentence saying beach

We progressed from just staring at the beach to getting Maddy's bathing suit on

This year we tried out a new game...it was lots of fun, but Maddy had a little trouble with it :)

I am ALWAYS proud of Maddy, but I was so proud of her for conquering her fear of the water. She was scared initally like she has always been, but after being held for a little bit and seeing it was okay to getting down and holding hands and trying to jump over the waves to eventually just running towards the water whether an adult was there or not, she got over her fear. Sure she was still unsure of it, but she would walk in it and before we left walked out far enough that her stomach got hit by the waves...I was shocked.

For dinner we did our traditional Scampy's run. It's right across the street from our condo and we just walk there. It is some of THE best food in Panama for a decent price. If you go you have to get the fried pickles :) Maddy was so tired that we had some meltdowns on our hands lol. I got my usual popcorn shrimp and fries and Maddy got chicken fingers.

It wouldn't be vacation without playing computer in bed. We actually got to bed pretty early every night. After dinner we did go back to the "circle" pool and let her play in the water a little bit. That was the bribe I gave her to get out of the pool the first time. It worked like a charm the first time lol. I don't remember the exact time we got to bed but it was around 8:45-ish or 9 p.m. For me that is super early because I'm used to going to bed no earlier than 11, but more like midnight. I slept so good on vacation. Rarely woke up and actually woke up before Maddy, which NEVER happens at home. I would wake up around 7 but snoozed off and on until Maddy woke up. She generally woke up between 8:30 and 8:45 a.m. When we woke up it was always straight to the patio outside. We would give my step dad our breakfast orders and he would go get breakfast at a place called the Omelet house. Maddy always got bacon, eggs, toast, and grits. I didn't eat breakfast until the last day and got an omelet that had ham, cheese, and jalapeno...it was very yummy!

I had to get some pictures of us together too...I had a mini photo shoot in bed.

Breakfast time with Pops and Nana

The big thing this year was not making a sand castle, but making a sand snowman...she would get so mad at the water though for taking away her hole or her sandman

For lunch on Sunday we walked down the beach to eat at Schooner's. I've never eaten their food other than Key Lime Pie, which is out of this world, so I can't really speak to it. Maddy got a cheeseburger and barely ate it. She was so tired the entire trip. We played hard in the sun for 7 hours or so...give or take 2 hours for her nap.

My hair would not curl for anything down there...it was super soft though...I am loving my new hair cut...I'm not sure I've shared those pictures with you guys yet.

I love this picture of Maddy and my step dad...she loves him with everything she has and he does the same. Clearly I got a little burnt...I'm trying to remember where we were eating...I don't think all these pictures are from the same day. The picture looks like it's at Scampy's, but I don't remember eating there twice this trip. I do remember my step dad asking Maddy where she kept getting all her cute shirts...this has to be Scampy's...actually it is Scampy's...we did eat there twice.

Of coarse Maddy adores her Nana too and her Nana beyond adores Maddy. As you can see Maddy got real brave and would jump off the side of the pool. She didn't care if you were ready or not...she always was under the impression you'd be there to catch her. Definitely had to be on guard at all times lol.

Yep, Maddy was even brave enough to feed the animals on her own. The zoo is the only place away from the condo we went.  Most of these are just from my phone...I still have some on camera but I will not post every picture I have or every picture I may want to. I will have to come back and add a picture of the 6-7 foot hammerhead shark we saw approximately 10 feet from the shore. Never in all my life have I ever seen a shark just go swimming by. It happened Tuesday...the day we went to the zoo. Everybody was screaming SHARK!!! I was in disbelief. My mom was able to get a picture of it. Once I post the picture if you have the ability to zoom in, you should do so because you can really see it pretty good when you do. Another shark was spotted a little further out sometime through the week. I was ok and thought it was neat because all of us were still at the condo, but had we been swimming I would have gone through all the what if's. OH!! One more picture I want to share...

Ok, this isn't one picture and this isn't even the picture I was looking for. I wanted to share the picture of the aqua cycle we rode out in the ocean, but for whatever reason it isn't in my photo stream album. Me, my mom and Maddy rode it out to the sandbar. It would have been more fun if I didn't think we were going to flip over because we couldn't keep it straight at the waves. Maddy didn't like it at all and had a death grip on me and my mom. The sunset there is so pretty and this one night the colors were so beautiful. There is nothing like a Florida sunset. There are tons more pictures but I better stop here. Here is where we ate:
Saturday-Scampy's
Sunday-Triple J's Steakhouse
Monday-I think we went back to Scampy's
Tuesday-Scampy's
Wednesday-Pineapple Willy's
Thursday-Captain Andersons

It's hard to tell from this picture, but if you look closely you can see the hammerhead shark we saw