Panama City Beach

We made the final leg of the 24 hour drive back home from our Florida vacation today! We are very happy to be back, mostly because driving that long with two littles in tow is not a job for the faint of heart! I kid…kind of…not really. I’m not kidding at all actually-it was pretty rough at times, but we would do it again in a heart beat! We were so blessed to be able to disconnect from the business and responsibilities of day to day life and enjoy time with family exploring God’s amazing creation!

My Mom planned this trip for all of her kids and grandkids. We came from Minnesota and the rest of the family came from Maryland, Wisconsin, and even Hawaii to spend a week together under the Florida sun. We rented a beach house in Panama City Beach. If you haven’t been there you need to add it to your bucket list! The beaches boasted white sand as fine as powdered sugar and crystal clear aqua water. The gulf is beautiful! I have been to the ocean several times before, but it always takes my breath away. God truly is amazing! The beauty of his creation is sometimes overwhelming!

We had a full week of swimming with the dolphins, jet skiing out on the “big water” (so my 3 year old daughter called it), visiting the sea animals at Gulf World, exploring on Shell Island, and just hanging out on the beach-paddle boarding, kayaking, making sand castles, and getting our white Minnesotan legs some color! It was a spectacular week. Here are a few photos from the trip.

A big thanks goes to my Mom for putting in countless hours of planning this trip (and funding it!!) We made so many awesome memories and I am forever grateful for our time there!

Getting a family picture at sunset was a must!!

Oh Jocelyn! She sure loved the sand, maybe a little too much! It was hard to keep her from shoveling fist fulls of it into her mouth!

This little poser loved exploring Shell Island! We were the only people on the island (that we could see at least).

This was the only photo I managed to get of the two girls together! Haha! Jocelyn was not having it! She much preferred eating sand then going for a walk on the beach with big sis!

The water was just awesome! Aqua and clear and so so warm! This is our crew here-trying out the paddle boards and kayak. Denny and my little sister ended up taking the paddle boards so far out that they saw dolphins!! They jumped in and tried swimming with them. Denny said they were just a few feet from him! So cool!

On the search for dolphins!!

We went on a dinner cruise on our last night. Halle even got to drive the boat for a bit! She was thrilled!

Dancing on the boat after dinner!

Goodbye Florida!! We love you!