What Gives, Mother Nature??

Ah. Spring break. A week of bliss. A week of surf and sun. A week of sharing time with cousins and sisters.

Guess someone forgot to inform Mother Nature of our plans.

Katie, the little ones, my sister and her boys left cold, cloudy Georgia this morning only thirty minutes behind schedule. My fault. Just couldn’t cope with packing late last night. Anyhow….

The cars were packed…we were ready to rumble.



We had to laugh though at the thought of us taking only one car. Which we seriously considered doing. But check out our packing. There is no way we would have made it here sanely in only one vehicle.




But hey, the more space you have, the more you take, right?

As we gleefully pulled away headed toward the interstate, via a stop at Starbucks for my sister, we were excited to begin our adventure.

Until…I realized as we pulled into Starbucks that I had left my make-up at home. Eeek! I need all the help I can get when it comes to looking a bit younger. So, I left Karen (the aforementioned sister) in the drive-thru and headed home. Granted it’s only two miles away but…..

I called Alex, who chose to stay home…but that’s another story...and had him waiting in the driveway so we could quickly drive past and return to meet Karen. But the boy called me saying it was too cold to wait outside so he put it in the mailbox. Good plan.

Make-up recovered, latte purchased, let’s hit the road.

The drive was actually fine. No major issues, no traffic, no nothing. And at times, seriously there was NO nothing. Cows, horses, sheep, roadside stand, what have you. But no bathroom, gas station, food, civilization-----you get the picture.

But, we had the pleasure of the DVD player complete with headphones for the girls so we didn’t have many issues from them except for the occasional yelling from Abby to ask a question that she could not hear the answer to so she’d ask again….but I digress. (Golly gee, but was that a run-on sentence or what?)




With our stomachs rumbling and bladders begging for help, we were concerned about our chances of finding help other than the cooler in the back of the van and the trees along the side of the road……..

But wait? What’s that ahead? The big city of Eufala, Alabama. We were so thankful that Eufala had everything we needed. Mickey D’s, gas, and bathrooms. What more could we ask??

Well, Katie did. She wanted to drive. Oh my. I am a really BAD passenger. Trust me. When we travel, I always drive. Always. But I let her. Yeah for me. And things were fine, like I knew they would be. She was just happy to not have to assist with the DVD player in the backseat. Hmm, I knew there was an ulterior motive.



As we approached Panama City, Katie informed us that this part of Florida is on Central Time. Really? I had no idea. Sure enough, after a few calls home to check, that was the verification.

Wow! We just gained an extra hour of vacation and never knew. Cool!

Checking in was interesting. It took four luggage carts to haul all our stuff upstairs. We were quite the attraction, I assure you. Wish they offered a discount for entertainment.




We are now settled in our condo ON the beach complete with a water park, lazy river, two pools, on the beach, white sand, and full kitchen. Oh, did I mention it is on the beach?

But…..the bummer is the weather. It is cold and windy here. We braved the pool anyhow just to test it out. Well, we meaning the younger four kids. Not Karen, Katie, or I. We preferred goose bumps from the wind only. The little ones swam happily until they had to get out. Brrr. Katie and I had to carry them back to our room because they were so stinkin’ cold.

No pictures from the beach or pool today. Maybe tomorrow. But they’ll just be scenic views. It’s supposed to be colder and windier tomorrow. In fact, we have a freeze warning tonight.

What’s up with that???