Goodbye TN, Hello FL!

Our visit to sunny Florida couldn’t have gone any better!  From the mostly peaceful car rides, to the weather, to the food, you name it, it was awesome.  But I’ll fill in all the gaps, starting with the car rides.  Mike and I were equally worried at how Bryson would do in the car for 8 hours.  His usual tolerance for car rides maxs out around 45 minutes to an hour, so now you can understand our fear.  We decided to leave at 4 am so Bryson would have about 3 good hours of sleep left in him.  We had the car packed and ready the night before, so all we had to do was wake him up, change him, and load him in the car.  This worked exactly how we planned.  He stayed up for about 45 minutes, and then eventually fell asleep.   On the way there, we only stopped 3 times (breakfast, snack, and potty break), so we made really good time.  We brought along Toy Story to keep Bryson occupied if needed.  We didn’t think he would watch it, but he would at least look at it occasionally.  We were wrong…he watched the entire thing – TWICE!  There were several times at the beginning where he was actually laughing.  We have a hit!

We arrived around 1:00, but our check-in time wasn’t until 4:00.  Luckily, our room was already ready and the fabulous staff let us in when we got there.  We immediately got our swimsuits on and headed to the beach.  When we first set Bryson in the sand, he wasn’t sure what he was suppose to do.  He just stared at it for the longest time.  He would pick one foot up, stare at it for a minute, then set it back down very slowly.  I wonder if he thought the sand was going to remove his foot since it would get buried in the sand when the waves washed over his feet.  Maybe he was just checking to make sure it was still there.  I don’t know. It was cute though.  Mike took him in the ocean and would let the waves splash on him, which he loved as long as he didn’t get splashed in the face.  Once that happened, it was pretty much over for a good 30 minutes.  Back to the sand!  I don’t blame him. That salt water burns like crazy.  Bryson had a blast playing in the sand.  I was amazed at how long he would sit there playing in it.  As long as he had this shovel, he wasn’t going to move.  Well, he wasn’t going to move on his terms.  At one point, a massive wave came in and actually picked up Bryson and carried him a few feet down the sand.  He didn’t topple over, and he was definitely not a fan of the forced move, but somehow he managed to keep his shovel.  However, somewhere out there a child has a blue rake thanks to that wave.  Sorry, Bryson!

The best part about where we stayed was that our patio, which was a great size, opened up right onto the pool deck.  The pool deck then led right out to the wooden walkway to the beach.  So our usual game plan was to go to the beach, play in the ocean and sand, rinse off, then play in the pool.  It’s hard to tell which one Bryson liked better.  He really enjoyed both.  Toward the end of the week, he was learning how to kick his feet to get him moving.  He has become quite the water baby. 

Since we were with Mike’s parents and Uncle Tim and Aunt Ann, Bryson had a ton of people to play with.  He had so much fun running from person to person to play with.  Each night we would all go out to dinner together, and he would have the best time.  Uncle Tim was quite the master of putting toys on his head, especially the dinosaur, and Bryson would squeal every time he did it.  I’m sure these two put on quite the show for the rest of the restaurant, because they had us laughing for the longest time.  We were sitting outside overlooking the beautiful bay area in Destin, so we got to see all the boats coming in to the docks.  At one point, there was an air show with lots of planes.  Bryson would point at every plane he saw, which was a lot.  He did that when we were at the beach and pool too with the planes that fly the advertisement banners. 

Mike and I had a really great time as well.  His mom would play with Bryson in the sand while we played in the ocean.  I felt like a 10 year old out there.  I would squeal and giggle when a big wave would come, so I probably sounded like a 10 year old too, but it was so much fun.  I had the best play time!  We were able to go out two nights with just us and enjoy some time together, which is hard to come by sometimes.  We went to a hibachi place the first night, which was a huge dud, but the second night, we went to a place called Captain Dave’s.  It was on the beach, and the food was amazing.  It definitely made up for that hibachi place. We also got to see fireworks, which was fun.  We went to the pool one night and swam in the dark.  Good times all around!

The last night we were there, we went to the Crab Trap, which is also on the beach.  The waiting area opens up to a sand playground.  Because we all know how easy to clean off sand is, Bryson didn’t get to go on the playground, but it was a neat feature regardless.  The inside had all the windows opened, so you got the ocean breeze while you ate.  It was really nice.  Since the fun had to come to an end eventually, we had to pack up and head out.  We left on Saturday morning at 6:45, went to breakfast, and hit the road.  This trip was a little longer, because we had to pick up Aspen from the boarding place.  Bryson could definitely tell there was a time expansion, because right about the time we should have been home, he started getting a big hostile.  But it was nothing a little Toy Story and milk couldn’t fix.  We were so grateful for those two things in the car and for Bryson’s good behavior.  We probably would have all lost our sanity if he was angry the entire time.  But that didn’t happen, and we came back relaxed and happy to be home.  We’ll see you next year, Florida! 

Where are my feet?!