Beach Vacation

We've been itching to get away, so mommy did a little research and found a great deal on a hotel at the beach a few weeks ago.  It then dawned on us that this would be our first "official" family vacation where we stayed in a hotel.  We've been on mini vacations, but we have always stayed at someone's house.  You ladies knew that we were going to the beach so to say you were excited would be an overstatement.

We left work at noon on Friday and picked you ladies up from school early.  We went home and packed up the car to head on our two hour drive to Mexico Beach.  About half-way there we decided that a snack was in order so we opted to get ice cream cones.  We realized after we ordered the that this was the first ice cream cone for you ladies.  Not sure why we thought it would be a good idea to have the first ice cream cone in a car, but we went with it.

It was shortly after our ice cream break that we arrived at our hotel.  We were able to check in right away, even though we were a little early.  We had to check out the beach really quick before we went up to our room.  We weren't in the room long and everyone had their bathing suits on and were ready for the beach.

Hello beach vacation :)

The sand...oh my what amazing sand.  It was like walking on baby powder.  It was so soft and so white. 

We ran, we explored, we swam and had so much fun!

Emma, you so badly wanted to pet the sea gulls.

We headed back to our room to clean up for dinner.  You ladies loved going on the balcony and looking around.  I'm not gonna lie after a few minutes out there it started to make mommy and daddy very anxious.  We were pretty high up and you ladies could slide you bodies through the slats.  So we had supervised visits in the balcony.  :)

The view...the view was amazing.  I could go on for days about the view.  It was so nice to be right on the beach.  The sounds and smells are so calming.

all ready for dinner.

We decided to go to Toucan's for dinner.  It was also right on the beach and not far from our hotel so we just walked along the beach.  It was a quick walk.  The weather was perfect.

mommy and her little ladies

The restaurant was really nice and our dinner was good.  You ladies were in good moods (i think it was the sea air)

 The sun started to set while we were waiting for our dinner.  The sunsets here are really amazing.

 Toucan's has a small playground behind the restaurant right on the beach.  You ladies played on it for a few minutes after dinner.

 daddy :)

After the playground we headed back to the hotel.  It was getting late and were well all pretty tired.

We "attempted" to get some family pictures with the sunset.  It was just so beautiful.  While we were taking individual pictures and super nice gentleman come up and us and offered to take a family picture for us.

 Emma, you tried your best to "pet" the birdies :)

 high jumper

jumping bean

 

 almost gone

 the sun has set on this day.

I would be kidding myself to say we all went back to the room and fell straight asleep :)  Sleeping in the same room as you ladies was challenging.  Mommy and daddy did not want to go to bed at 830 and apparently neither did you ladies.  I think it was closer to 10 when you ladies finally crashed.  I thought that would be a great thing and you would sleep in on Saturday morning.

the moon at 6am.

So we didn't get our wish and as you can tell by the picture above we were up quite early :)  The good side to getting up that early, is that we were able to be on the beach before everyone got there.

 Not a bad way to start a Saturday morning

 I think daddy might be catching up on missed sleep :)

 starting construction on sandcastle village

Sandcastle village

 Sand angel

After a few hours of playing on the beach we decided to go for a walk and explore.  

 daddy found a crab

 little foot prints

We worked up quite the appetite with all our fun in the sun.  We went back to our room and ate lunch.  After lunch we went to get some ice cream.  Since you ladies did so well with the cones yesterday we got some again.  Let's just say that it did not go so well this time.  It was not a high point of the trip.  Once we got back to the room, everyone was tired and we all took naps.  It was really nice.

We all woke up hungry and it was getting close to dinner time.  We decided to go to The Fish House for dinner.

 happiness is...

While we were at dinner, we were talking about my birthday that was a few days away.  I said that I was going to be old.  Lily, you looked right at me and said "mommy you can't be old, you are my mommy."  My heart melted right there.  :)  Dinner was good and we were done right before the sun set.  We went back to the hotel on the search for the porch swings.

 post dinner sunset

We found the porch swings and when we got there you ladies both said "there is a princess on the beach."  There was a bride and groom taking their pictures on the beach.  You ladies were mesmerized with the "princess."

 watching the princess

It was another beautiful sunset tonight.  Bedtime was not as bad this evening.  Lily you sat with mommy on the balcony for a long time and I just rocked you and we talked about the stars.  It was a pretty amazing evening.  I have figured out that it does not matter what time you ladies go to sleep, 6/630 is your wake-up time.  That was ok, we were leaving today and we wanted to get back home before it was too late.  We went out for breakfast.  It was not the best meal of the weekend, but the view was great.

 bye bye hotel

This was such a memorable getaway. The weather was perfect and so were you ladies..about 50% of the time.  It was so nice to get away from our normal routine and just relax.  I can't wait to see where we go next.