Like I mentioned in a couple of my previous posts, DH, DS, and I recently took a quick and much needed mini-vacation to the beach to reconnect after DH had been gone for 6 weeks for work. We spent 3 nights and 2 days in Panama City Beach, FL the first week of May. We had a great time, so I thought I'd do a quick mini-TR from the trip to share some of our photos since there isn't much happening with the Disney trip right now with ADRs being done and all that.
Our pre-planning for the beach trip was almost non-existent! DH & I kept talking about maybe going to Orange Beach or Gulf Shores since it wasn't a far drive. But then we started looking at our timeshare resorts on the FL panhandle since the hotel rooms were pretty expensive for anything decent. By the time we knew for sure DH would be home and we could go (I had been able to get my work schedule taken care of for that first week of May, but if DH hadn't have been able to come home then, I wasn't sure I could switch my shifts later on), the resorts in Destin were totally booked, so we looked a little further away at Panama City Beach, and they had a studio available for the nights we wanted.
It was pretty hectic leading up to the trip. I was working that Sunday that DH was flying in, so the plan was for my mom to go get him from the airport (she was at my house watching DS). I was able to get off of work early enough to go to the airport myself and surprise him! Poor DH didn't have much time to relax at home though, because we stayed up late that night packing to leave in the morning!
Monday morning, DH & I woke up at 7:30 and realized DS had not woken up once all night, which was odd for him. He usually wakes up between 4 and 5 am to eat, but he was still snoozing. So we took that opportunity to finish packing what we could and get some of the luggage packed in the truck. We were done by a little after 8:30 and DS still hadn't budged! We actually had to go wake him up so I could feed him & we could get moving!
We ended up hitting the road a little before 10 am. I sat in the backseat with DS the whole way to keep him entertained with toys and give him his pacifier as needed. Within a few minutes of getting on the interstate, he was knocked out.
We stopped twice at fast food places to feed DS his bottle and grab food or snacks for ourselves, and once at a rest stop just because DS was getting a little restless. Otherwise, we were able to drive in pretty long stretches, and he slept or played most of the way without incident. We finally got into PCB around 6 pm to check in to our beautiful resort! It was right on the beach, and every unit had a view of the Gulf of Mexico.
It was SUCH a hassle to get to the room!! We had to check-in and park our truck across the street from the resort. Depending on what floor of the garage you were on, you had to take an elevator to the 3rd floor where the skywalk was. Cross the skywalk to the resort, take the elevator or escelator down to the first floor to walk across the lobby to the OTHER set of elevators that would take us to the 5th floor where our unit was. Such a pain in the butt!! But we were able to bring all of our junk in one trip, luckily, so we didn't have to make multiple LONG trips to the truck.
The view was pretty worth the hassle though!
Our bed area
We unpacked, and ate some leftover spaghetti we had brought with us in the ice chest for dinner, then got DS settled for bed around 9 pm. We took a little time to look at the maps and information the resort had given us about what there was to do in the area to come up with a loose plan for the next couple of days. But the idea of the trip was to relax, so we didn't stress about doing a lot. We got to bed around 10, and crashed as soon as we hit the sheets!
Tuesday morning, we got up for the day around 8 am, and fed Paxton his breakfast. Then was the long process of getting him ready for his first time at the beach! We slathered him in sunscreen and tried out a swim diaper on him.
What a model! He should sell these things!
In his Mickey Mouse bathing suit & rash guard that we got him for Easter
DH & I got changed into our bathing suits, slathered on our sunscreen, and made sure we had beach towels, toys, sunglasses and everything else we thought we'd might need, then headed down to the beach.
Baby feet in the sand
We broke out the video camera to capture his reaction in the water when I took him down to the edge and let the water roll over his toes. It was a little cold, and he didn't seem to crazy about it. Then he started kicking the wet sand and just started crying like a little whining puppy. After that, he didn't want anything to do with the beach! We spent way more time getting him ready than we actually spent in the sand!
It was actually getting close to his naptime too, so we took him back up to the room and settled him down for a quick nap while we decided on an alternative plan.
UP NEXT: Lunch & shopping @ Pier Park
Just looking for something a little different to try. My pizza-obsessed DH has found an interesting looking pizza restaurant that we may try too. I don't know if I sold him on the Celebration thing.
And I think I have worked out the kinks in the itinerary to where we have everything covered and it all works well with our ADRs. 
looks like there won't be a chance to meet. I'll be posting a PTR soon, which is mostly meant to be a link between my current (soon-to-be-ending) TR and the new TR.
). It's just so frustrating to be missing them by only THREE days!!! 
We got the time we wanted, which is at 11 am. I figured that would be a good time since we will be getting to MK for rope drop that morning and hitting the Fantasyland attractions first thing. Once we are winding down there, we can head over to the Barber Shop for his haircut, get some lunch, and head back to the resort for our break. 
to Seattle, but we are absolutely not putting ourselves through that with an 18 month old! So since we are hitting the air anyway, and since DH has been spending some time in L.A. for work recently (and even spent a day at DL by himself), he suggested that we turn this little trip to visit his grandmother into a vacation. So we'd fly to L.A. first and spend about a week...3 days in DL/DCA, and a couple of days in Hollywood/Los Angeles sight seeing. Then fly from L.A. to Seattle, and then home from there. I'm all about this!!
