The Rest Of The Trip and Happy Mother's Day

So when we last visited, we had just entered our hotel room.  As soon as we unloaded the luggage cart,

Darbee Rae was ready to change clothes and that's just what she did!  She got right into her bathing suit and was ready to play in the sand.  

That's right where we went.

She had so much fun.  The weather was perfect!  It wasn't 

too hot and a nice breeze was blowing.  

After playing in the sand for a while, we headed out to explore our hotel.

It was huge and we wanted to see all it had to offer! 

We found a HUGE beach chair.  Of course, we had to take pictures.

We even found a mini golf course!  How neat.  We never made it here

to play...we stayed too busy in the sand and the pools.  Our hotel had 5 pools.

Plenty to choose from!

We headed out to Hammerhead Fred's for supper.  It was a really

neat atmosphere.  Darbee loved it.  Had to have her picture made with the shark. 

She wanted to do something fun, so we headed to Pier Park.

It was an open air mall with lots of neat shops.  They were closed, but the ride park

was still open.  She was able to get in a few rides.

She rode the big carousel by herself.  She was so happy to be able to ride alone.

Her favorite was the giant inflatable "pillow."  It was so neat.  It was really a 

giant pillow that you jumped on!  We had to visit here several more times before the end of the trip!  Smile.

She enjoyed the hand crank cars too!  They were a lot of work though.  She said, "Whew..my arms hurt!" when she got off.  It was cute!

The airplanes were a lot of fun on another visit.  She had so much fun at this park.  

It was so much fun to watch her.  Made me happy.

The next day was the best.  We spent the better part of the day here....at Gulf World.

It was the neatest place.  

We were able to see so many animals.

And soo many neat shows!  We watched a sea lion show, a bird show, a reptile show, and a dolphin show!

The dolphin show was my favorite.  It is amazing what those trainers can make those animals do.

Darbee Rae enjoyed this place too.  

Another fun activity was the arcade.  

I am a kid at heart when I go into an arcade.  I love them!

Darbee does too!

She is so fun to watch.  

We went back to Pier Park for shopping.  It was so neat...lots of cool shops.

Of course, we found something good to eat!

Do you think the icecream was yummy?  Oh yea.!!!

The evening was a good time to walk out on the LONG pier.  

It was nearly a 1/4 mile long!  Whew!  We were far out into the ocean!

I love this picture.  My loves.  Smile.

We spotted a HUGE something in the water.  We think it was a giant stingray.  It had to have been about 

6 ft. wide!  It was really big. Ugh....scary!

I couldn't believe all of the folks fishing out there!  It was unreal.

We enjoyed sitting and just watching all of them for a bit.

We ended the second evening with supper at Margaritaville.  What a fun atmosphere.  

We had a blast.

On our last full day, we took a ferry boat out to Shell Island.

It was so neat! 

Darbee Rae was so excited to hopefully find a lot of shells!

We were even lucky enough to spot a dolphin on our ferry ride out to the island!

It lived up to its name.  There were shells EVERYWHERE! 

They were not too big, but plenty of them to find!

Boy was it hot though.  

This is as good as the shade got....NOTHING.  

Good thing we loaded up on SPF110 sunscreen.  LOL!  

Darbee borrowed daddy's hat for a while to make sure her head didn't get blistered.

We only spent an hour out on the island.  We were too scared of getting cooked...literally!  hehe....

But...we did make it back with nearly a 1/2 bucket of shells and one happy little girl!

We had one final beach afternoon to enjoy... 

And some fun pool time.

The kiddie pool was lots of fun

But the lazy river was the BEST!  

WE enjoyed supper at Pineapple Willy's the last night and boy was it yummy!  

The best ribs ever.

We were up early to head home...wah...

Such a fun trip with my precious family!  It was so much fun.  

I want to wish all of you fellow bloggers a very happy Mother's Day!  I hope all of you have had a wonderful day.  I spent the morning/day with my mama and enjoyed a wonderful country breakfast with my favorite...home fried taters.  Hehe!  IT was such a fun day.  We have been going around all evening visitng with hubby's mom and my aunt Kakee.  

I am so blessed to be a mommy and to have a mama that I am so close to.  Many don't understand the relationship that we have and how close we really are but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  It is one I cherish and hope Darbee Rae and I can have one day.  

Until next time.........

Panama City Beach Trip Part 1

Good afternoon friends.  It seems like it has been forever since I last visited with all of you! 

We were able to take a fun vacation to Panama City Beach, Florida last week.  It was a fun getaway for us. Just hubby, Darbee Rae and I.  We sure did miss Nana and Papa but we kept in touch via Skype and the cell phones.  Thank goodness for those things huh?  It's hard to imagine what we did before them.  I remember as a kid when we would go on a trip, we (my mom, dad and I) would check in our hotel and make 1 phone call calling collect to my grandparents and give them the phone number to the hotel.  We might would call them one more time during the trip but that was it!  Those calls were expensive!  My how times have changed.  Darbee Rae thinks the phones in the hotel rooms are for playing with.  Haha!  

Anyway...we headed out last Sunday morning early.  I had one more excited little girl.  I have to admit, I was one excited mommy too.  I had never been to Panama City!  

I made sure she had plenty to do in the back seat.  She had her bag full with her DS, her Leapster, plenty

of paper and crayons, etc.  She was set.   

She was a happy camper once we got breakfast.  

Her favorite breakfast out is a McDonald's chicken biscuit.  

Darbee Rae has always been a good traveler, thankfully. Even as a baby, she was good in the car.

So, we were able to drive a while before stopping for a break. Luckily, our pit stop was a neat place!  

It was a regular convenient store, but it had an alligator pond behind it where you could view real live

alligators!  How neat!  

Darbee was so excited to see live gators.  Luckily, there was a BIG one just off the shore.

It was so neat but a bit scary too!  I am glad there was a HUGE fence up. :)

He looks hungry huh?  Hehe...

We got a few snacks and were on our way again.  

I remember as a kids when we went to Disneyworld, my mom took a big black garbage bag full

of prizes for me.  Every so many miles, we would stop and I would get a prize to play with on the way.

I don't remember much about that trip (I was little) but that memory has stuck with me until this day.

So...I went out and bought quite a few prizes for Darbee Rae to have on our trip.  She was

so excited.  I thought it was time for a prize, so I pulled out the prize bag.  

She got two or three prizes on the way and several on the way back.  They were life savers when 

her toys and movies got boring.  

Window markers...what a great thing!  She had so much fun drawing the beach on her back seat window.

A pack of Windex wipes is an easy clean up and you are free to draw again!  Yes..this was cool.

We spotted a huge flea market and quickly turned the car around.  I was so excited!

I just knew I would find something prim or some old treasure to share with you. 

BUT....no luck.  We came out with NOTHING!  

It was the junkiest flea market I have ever been too!

Looks like you could find anything you want huh?

So not the case.  It was terrible!

Plenty of Chickens and ducks and rabbits if that's what you were looking for!

Not for us.....

So...we headed on down the road.  

We sure were happy to see this sign!

We stopped at the welcome center and stocked up on brochures and maps.

We were on our way again!

Of course, we needed a new prize.... 

Post-It notes and a new pack of colored ink pens.  

Perfect.

She had so much fun writing and drawing and sticking them to the window.

This kept her busy for over an hour!  Woohoo!

Then we got silly! 

Hehe...luckily, it was almost over....we were almost there!

We didn't have reservations because we didn't know too much about the hotels there.

We took a chance of finding something. 

I am so glad we waited.  

We checked out a resort that several of my friends had recommended.  It was fabulous!

We will definitely stay there again.

This was the view from our sliding door in our room. 

It opened up to a large deck that was on the beach...literally!

I will stop here so I don't bore you too much or overload you with too many pictures!  Trust me, I took a TON!  Will continue with day 2 soon! 

I hope all of you have a great weekend and a very happy Mother's Day!

Until next time.....

A new look....literally...

Several weeks ago,as we were driving home, Darbee Rae was watching a movie on her dvd player in the car.  I looked back to check on her and noticed she was leaning up close to the player.  When I questioned her about it, she said, "The sun is in my eyes."  I let it go and didn't think too much more about it.  Later on, I noticed it again.  The same response from her but the sun wasn't shining that bright.  Hmmmmm. Just the other week, Nana and Darbee were looking at some old pictures.  Nana noticed as Darbee Rae looked at hers, she got very close to see it.  I knew then, it was time to make her an eye doctor appointment.  So....on  April 19th, we went in for her first eye doctor visit.  She was excited, but very nervous.  Thankfully, Cuddles wasn't too scared to go. :)

I was able to go in with her.  She was proud of that.  

She was a little intimidated by the big machines, but quickly found out it wasn't too bad.  She even got to sit in my lap so she could be tall enough to see through the "big glasses."  She did so good!  The eye doctor was so good.  She has 5 year old triplets, so she was blessed with patience and knew just what to say to calm her nerves.  They even dilated her eyes!  She was scared of the drops, but the doctor quickly told her to be just like Sleeping Beauty and close her eyes.  It worked like a charm!  She did so good.  

She was VERY proud of her silly sunglasses that she got to wear afterward.  

Turns out, our suspicions were right.  She did need glasses.  She was tickled.  She really wanted them.  She wanted to look just like Katie at dance.  She has a friend at dance who wears glasses and she immediately wanted to pick out glasses like Katie's.  It was so cute.  

So...the hunt began for the perfect pair.   

We tried on just about all of the ones that were at that store....

She checked herself out in the big mirror.....

But we couldn't find the perfect pair.  

Nah.....not the right ones yet.

So.....we headed up the road to another eyeglass store that had MANY more to choose from.  They had a whole wall of kids frames.  Wow...the hunt began again.  We tried them on with her hair up.....took it down and tried on more.....

She was more concerned with the design on the sides that what the actual glasses looked like on her face. Hehe...

She was a little model...I think we tried on every pair on the entire wall!

We were there for hours....LITERALLY...hours...

We even tried on more another day....silly girl!

Finally, we decided on two pair.  Darbee chose one pair that she absolutely loved.  They were red with purple on the sides and hearts and stars.  They were really cute.  Nana and mommy liked them too.  Then we chose a more neutral pair that would sort of blend in with her hair color and go with more outfits.  

They were supposed to be ready tomorrow.  But...on Sunday, we got a call that one pair was ready.  Darbee was so excited and so hoping it would be the red pair.  Guess what????  

It was!!!

She was one happy girl.  

She has done soooooo good.  She hasn't complained not one time! 

She thinks she looks soo cute!  

I am so glad she feels good about herself in them.  

She even helped Nana sew today.  Nana wore her red glasses too!

She even says she's a "pop star" in her new glasses.  

So cute!

Don't you just love the pose?  Smile....

I am so proud of her.  She's done so good.  

Another step in growing up...sigh...

Until next time.....