The drive itself is a bit of a long one so we broke it up by stopping in Birmingham on Friday and visiting our sweet college friends Sarah and Ryan. They have an adorable house in Hoover and were so sweet to put us up for the night. We had a blast hanging out and catching up with them! Then on Saturday, after a delicious lunch at Urban Cookhouse, we were on the road again heading south.
As soon as we arrived, John and my Dad had to take Luke to see the beach. He had seen the ocean once before in Hilton Head when he was a month old so its pretty safe to say he didn't remember it. Plus, the sand and water look so different in the Gulf, it was bound to be a whole new experience. He was a little unsure of why the waves kept coming closer and splashing him but all and all I would say he liked it. Now for the sand....not so much! He got irritated with how it would stick to him and he would accidentally rub it all over his face which made for an unhappy baby. It think its pretty safe to say that Luke is a pool baby for the time being.
The next morning (per Lukes request) we hit the SeaCrest pool. It was AMAZING! It is huge and perfect for kids. It is sectioned off into 4-5 areas but it is still 1 giant pool, each area flowing into the next. It was nice for Luke because we could avoid crowds and basically have our own pool by sticking in one section. It was great for kids of all ages because the big kids to jump from area to area and little kids could feel secluded by staying in just one area. John and I were talking about how much Luke's big cousins (Hudson & Brody) would love it and all the action to go with it.
Lucky for us, Nana and Papa were thinking ahead and bought us a Radio Flyer wagon to take Luke to and from the pool. They knew just how much "stuff" it would take to keep a baby comfortable and happy at the pool and figured it would be the best way to ride in style. Boy were they right, HE LOVED IT! It was the hit of the week. Not only did we use it for transporting Luke to the pool, but we used it everywhere. He was riding in style all over the town! We probably put 100 miles on those tires. He was the happiest baby in the world cruising around Seacrest/Rosemary in his wagon with a Mum Mum in his hand.
We got in a lot of good quality time with our Nana and Papa and loved seeing them everyday when we woke up! On Wednesday, we had a lot of our friends show up at the beach as well. We actually had two different groups of friends down in Rosemary which was fun. The first group were a few of my girlfriends from college. Whitni's family (one of my college roommates) has a house down in Rosemary and was sweet enough to organize a few girls to come down the week while we were in town so we could all hang out together. Whitni, Emily Cate and Bonnie brought their babies and Brie came as well! It was so sweet seeing my friends as moms and I cant wait for the day when all our friends can join us with their little ones in tow. Luke loved handing out with Blakely and Ford and we cant wait to do it again soon!
The other group of friends who were down at the beach were some of our Knoxville friends. They were in town to celebrate Julie & Jon's wedding the following Saturday. We had been lucky enough to organize our family vacation around Julies wedding week so we could have extra help with Luke while attending all the festivities.
Above is a picture of Bev, Christian and John trying to figure out how to set up the baby tent so we could spend the afternoon hanging out at the beach with everyone. It took a little longer than expected so Luke and I decided to take a little photo shoot while the boys tried to figure out the tent. ha.
After we spent a little while down at the beach, Luke decided he was over it and wanted to get out of the sun, go for a walk and get some dinner. We took a stroll and headed down to the local Mexican restaurant. We had a great time and Luke even had his first tastes of Mahi Mahi and surprisingly loved it!
On Saturday, we got ready and headed out to Panama City to go to Julie & Jon's ceremony. They got married in a Catholic Church and then had the reception at Alys Beach which was GORGEOUS! She was a beautiful bride and had a beautiful wedding to match. Sadly, we didnt get to spend as much time at the reception as we would have liked to because Luke got sick. He had been running a fever for a few days and also couldnt keep anything in him. At that point we decided to take him to the ER (per our pediatricians request) and get him checked out. Luckily, it was just a virus and 2 days of straight pedialite would do the trick.
After a long night at the ER, we woke up the next morning and packed up our bags to head back to Knoxville. We had such a great week, minus our last night and we were so sad to say goodbye to such a great vacation. We knew Luke wasn't feeling his best so we decided to drive half way and then grab lunch somewhere fun to keep him happy. Lucky for us, Auburn Al was on the way back and we were excited to show Luke his future school.
We said Goodbye to our great house and headed for Auburn!
Here is Luke eating Lunch at Momma Goldbergs in Auburn!
You can tell by the look on his face that he is so excited to
go to school here one day! War Eagle!
After a yummy lunch, it was back in the car and heading North to Knoxville. Here is L sleeping on the way home! A sweet end to a wonderful trip!
