Panama City Beach 2011

Here it is! FINALLY, the official Beach Trip 2011 post :)

Just to fill you in - we flew down to Florida a few weeks ago for a week-long vacation with James' family. I have so many pics and couldn't narrow it down to a reasonable number, so I'm doing this post collage style... You should be able to click on the collage to see it larger.

First up - Knox on the beach...

He LOVED the ocean! He's still asking for sand castles and sea shells. He liked the pool OK too, but it took him a little while to get warmed up to it. We stayed in a condo with James parents and sister, brother-in-law and their 3 boys. In a way - this was heaven for Knox because he had the fun grandparents and the boys to play with... But he was an absolute terror for most of the trip! I think being around his cousins (=FUN!) and his parents (=Business.) was like his 2 little worlds colliding and he was not happy about it. But when James and I would take him out with just us, he was fine. I guess it's just the age...

Now, Miss Hadley on the beach...

I blogged a little bit about how much she "blossomed" on this trip. It's like when we left she was so content to just 'sit-pretty' and she morphed in to a wild woman once we were there. (And she's still a mess!) It was cute to see her on the beach though. I think she and Knox both had 4 suits apiece and I had so much fun dressing my beach babies everyday ;)

Hadley LOVED the pool! We put her in her little saucer float in the kiddie pool and she ended up using it like a walker. She'd walk around for hours, and she got pretty fast too!

We attemped a photo shoot in their matching suits but it didn't go great. (a) Knox is NOT in a posing mood for me these days. Every pic I got of him this day he's walking away from me and squinting in the sun. And (b) My camera's about 2.5yrs old and I think it's time to have it serviced. It just hasn't been acting right for me lately... Irregardless, I did get a few cute shots...

We had so much fun. We went to the beach and pool everyday, went out to eat, James and I snuck out one night for a movie (Water for Elephants... LOVE!), and we drove out to Destin one day to hit up the outlets! We came away with some really good buys - plaid Sperry's for Knox, new Stride Rite sandals for Hadley, some Gap and Banana Republic clothes for me, some essentials at Carter's, and my new Vera diaper bag. All for under $250 :)

Here's some random pics from my phone...

See the top two? James' mom threw a birthday party for Knox, James, and cousin Collin since they're all fairly close. Knox just loved that ;) ...The middle pic is of Hadley and PawPaw - James' dad. You'd never know this guy had a heart attack and triple by-pass a little over a month ago!

James' mom wanted us to do some family pics right before sunset one night. It's so hard to get my two to look at the camera at the same time... Let alone 6 more adults and 3 more kids. Ha! I think there's still some framers in here though...

And lastly - a few more randoms...

Thankfully our plane ride home was MUCH more pleasent than the one there (see here), and after a few days Knox has transitioned back to his old self :)