This year we went to St George Island FL for our summer vacation. This year the crew consisted of my parents, my sister and her family, and us. We rented a house with a private pool that is only 3 doors from the beach (across one street). The kids loved playing in the sand and in the pool - mom preferred the pool to the ocean (much closer to the a/c, no salt water and a lot less sand).
If you like a vacation where you do absolutely nothing, this is the place for you. There are a few souvenir shops and restaurants on the island. Since the closest Walmart was about 2 hours away in Panama City FL we made only one trip there. While in PC, we went to dinner at a place called The Treasure Ship. Although it was very crowded, the wait wasn't so bad because there were things to keep the kids occupied. There were a couple of people doing face/body painting - Daniel got a dolphin on his wrist, Emma had a ladybug on her arm and Rachel & Abigail both had a puppy painted on their arm. There was a pirate making balloon animals, too - Daniel got a parrot, Emma a butterfly, Abigail a puppy and Rachel a turtle bracelet. The stocks made good pictures as well.
The closest major city is Apalachicola FL. This is where we went grocery shopping (our choices were a small IGA store or an even smaller Piggly Wiggly). Apalachicola also has a few good restaurants; as well as more shops and boutiques. We celebrated Abigail's birthday with lunch at the Owl Cafe. That morning Michael and Andrew took Abigail & Rachel out on wave runners.
Darrell, Michael & Andrew were able to play a round of golf a couple of times during the week (the closest of which was about 25 minutes away). Andrew and Michael when surf fishing several times, but I think they only caught a few small fish they didn't think were big enough to keep; as well as a couple of crabs. There was a playground on the island and once Emma found it she wanted to go every day (good therapy for Daniel as well). She always decided that week that she likes ice cream (or ice crame as she says it) and she would ask for it morning, noon, and night.
We did our own little photo shoot with the kids on the beach. Here are a few of the pictures we took. You can find more pictures from this "shoot" and others from our vacation by clicking on our photo gallery on the sidebar.
All in all I think everyone had a good time. Although next year I think we're going back to Gulf Shores - much more to offer in the way of entertainment, eating and shopping.
About the title of this post, for a couple of months before we left we kept telling Emma that she wasn't going to have a passy at the beach. Any time you'd ask her about the beach, she'd say "No passy beach." We had planned to let her have one on the way down (for our own sanity) but once we got to the beach, we were going to try to not let her have it all week. Well, when we left on Saturday morning, we took her straight from her bed and into the car. She had no pacifier in her mouth and we didn't even make sure we had one with us in case of an emergency. She only asked for it a couple of times during the week, but she didn't push the issue. We just told her that she was a big girl and didn't need a passy any more. All seemed well until we got home. We didn't get home until after 11pm Saturday. As soon as Darrell put her in the bed, she said "passy?" Darrell had seen the pacifier on the floor but he was able to get it out of the room without her knowing it was there. Sunday morning, I went in to get her out of bed and she had a pacifier in her mouth (apparently she'd had two with her when she went to bed the night before we left and one had fallen out during the night, but one had stayed in the bed). I got her to leave it in the bed when she got up, then I put it away later. She's only had a pacifier during a nap one time this week. So, it looks like we've finally given up the passy. Our next goal is to try to have her potty trained before Mother's Morning Out starts back in September. I'll keep you posted.
