Watercolor Vacation

We went to Watercolor for vacation this past week and it was wonderful! We had such a great time together, just the 3 of us.

Tuesday:
We flew out of Nashville to Panama City Tuesday morning. It was such an easy flight - we left at 8:05 and were in Florida by 9:30. That is so much better than driving! We thought Will would enjoy seeing all of the airplanes close up since he is so obsessed when they fly over our house. We really didn't get to see any good take-offs or landings though. Oh well, he still liked just looking at them at the gates. He knew exactly what they were and gave them all his airplane salute. Our flight wasn't full, so we got 3 seats to ourselves (Will's ticket was technically to be in my lap). He sat with me in the window seat and watched as we taxied and took off.

He feel asleep right after that. I kept putting the window shade down since the sun seemed so bright on his face, but he would wake up every time and want it raised back up. He was such a great traveler! The flight attendant gave him his first set of wings. (I remember my brother Kyle always getting these when he flew.)

While we were waiting to get our rental car, Will discovered water fountains. He thought they were hilarious! He is so easily entertained!

We had lunch at Bud and Alley's and had a great view of the beach and ocean. So relaxing already! Then we headed to our new home for the next few days. This year we stayed in Watercolor which is right next to Seaside. (We have always stayed in Seagrove Beach before which is on the other side of Seaside.) I don't know what to say about Watercolor except that is is AMAZING! The houses, landscape, everything about it is beautiful. We were on the 3rd floor of our building which had an elevator.

Will LOVED pushing the elevator buttons and watching the doors open! I expect him to ask for one to be put in our house for Christmas. You'll have a better chance if you ask your grandparents, Will!

The condo was beautiful and had patios on both levels. We had a small view of the ocean, but couldn't really hear the waves crashing. The master suite was the entire second floor and I wasn't sure where I was going to put Will and then I found the spacious laundry room...perfect size for his pack'n'play.
We tried to get Will to nap again, but that wasn't going to happen. So off we went to the beach club pool. This pool is so nice and it overlooks the beach. JT bought Will some "swimmies" (I think some people call them "wings") to go on his arms to help him float, but Will wanted nothing to do with that. Will decided that they would be great toys to throw.

After some pool time we headed down to the beach. I am sad to report that Will HATES sand! He does not want to touch it at all and screams like crazy if you try to put him down. Good grief! He liked being in the ocean as long as he was being held and didn't touch the sand.

We were all asleep by 8:00. Now that is what I love about vacation!

As cute as this is, they aren't really sleeping yet. Will is actually laughing hysterically because everything that Daddy does is hilarious! They always play before bedtime. 

Wednesday:
Will woke up early and was ready to play! We put Will in his stroller and walked to our favorite breakfast place in Seaside called "Great Southern". We love their cheese grits! Then we went back to the condo and got ready for some water time. We started out at the beach club pool again and had a great time. JT showed Will how to blow bubbles in the water, and Will was trying to do it too. He would lay on the top step and end up licking the water. Eeww! He loved it though. We tried the beach again, but Will still wasn't touching the sand. JT bought him a shovel and he played with it, but he was sitting in the chair bending over to shovel.

The condo provided 2 bikes for us and we called the rental place and asked them to bring us a buggy attachment for Will to sit in. That was set up when we got back from the beach so we took a ride through the neighborhood. 

We stopped at the fountain and Will threw in some pennies. All I had left was a quarter and he threw that in too. He was mad when I ran out; I guess he thought I was going to give him dollar bills next. No way kiddo!

We kept riding and found one of the other pools. This was at Camp Watercolor. It had a "hide and see fountain". Will loved it immediately and ended up soaking wet! We went back home to get our bathing suits and came back to this pool to play for the rest of the day.

Thursday:
We were up early again and went to eat breakfast. Will entertained the people sitting around us. They were from Lebanon and knew somebody that JT knows from work. Such a small world.
We took another bike ride through Watercolor and this time JT took Will. I think Will figured out pretty quickly that Mommy drives safe and Daddy drives like a crazy man!

We went back to Seaside for lunch at "Pickles" and then it was off to the pool with fountains again. As much as he loved this the day before, all he wanted to do now was play with the water faucet and shower. We made our third attempt at the beach. Still a "NO" for Will.
While I was getting ready for dinner, I saw this out of the corner of my eye and ran outside because JT was supposed to be watching Will...JT was watching Will, he was just catching this on camera. I believe he made it up 2 more boards.

Will has become a climber ever since he watched Daddy and Pops climbing the ladder. 

We went to the "Shrimp Shack" for dinner and sat on a pavilion on the beach. It was awesome! Then we went and got ice cream. Will loved ice cream!


Friday:
We biked to the Modica Market and got some muffins for breakfast and went back to the beach pavilion to eat. It is definitely one of our favorite spots!

We went back to the beach club pool and Will was finally getting brave enough to jump to JT in the water.

We stayed on the beach a little longer today. JT put a towel down and Will sat on that and shoveled the sand around him. There was a little girl next to us that was sharing her sand castle toys with Will, so he was pretty entertained. Then he caught sight of the birds. And he wanted to chase them...correction, he wanted ME to chase them while carrying him since he still refused to walk on the sand. This was exhausting. I'm glad JT was busy talking and not videoing this!
We decided not to go to my favorite restaurant "Red Bar" and instead go to "Great Southern" for dinner. We have only eaten breakfast there and decided we needed to try dinner. It was packed and Will was pretty impatient. Every time a food tray would come out and pass our table, he would start fuming!

Will says, "Stop feeding all of these other people (that were here before us) and bring me something to eat!" He obviously gets his patience from JT.

We finally got our dinner and it was so good! JT noticed a lot of people in the Town Center of Seaside and blow-up movie screen was there. He couldn't see what the movie was from dinner, but as we left we saw it was E.T. We watched for a few minutes and then biked back home. That will be a fun thing to do when Will is a little older.


Saturday:
We took one last bike ride to Seaside and repeated our new breakfast tradition that we did the day before.

We had to be out of the condo by 10:00 and our flight didn't leave until 4:00. We decided to take our time traveling back to Panama City. We were at the airport early and had to wait for a couple of hours. JT watched the UT vs. Georgia game while Will entertained us by checking to see if he fit into carry-on luggage.

We flew from Panama City to Atlanta and then back to Nashville. Will made friends with the girl sitting behind us on the first flight and they played peek-a-boo the entire time. He was really tired on next flight and was restless. He finally calmed down and passed out.

He slept through the landing, getting off the plane, walking through the airport, and finally woke up when we got to NeeNee's car.

Finally we were Home Sweet Home! We had the BEST time! together! We can't wait for the next vacation!

Few other pics...