Beach Again

"Turner, get away from the edge." "Turner, No!" "TURNER!!!" Baby goes flying into his carrier (aka his primary residence), and I in all my grace fly into the lazy river to save my fearless firstborn. I am not kidding - John Burke was probably airborne. Turner, however, was holding his breath and bobbing up and down, beginning to struggle to get to the top. I pulled him up and he coughed a second and started laughing. I was trying to calm him yet scold him, and realized he wasn't all that shaken up. Of course not. The lady behind me was hysterical. Screaming and flailing her arms about Turner. Maybe I should have been that hysterical, but what is the saying - This ain't my first rodeo? I haven't had to save him before, but I wasn't totally shocked that he helped himself into the water. And I was watching him like a hawk. I was proud of him for holding his breath - he knew what to do! Not that I trust that he could again...

A few feet away from where he so casually hopped in the water (and minutes before he took off his floaties)

We went to Panama City Beach last week to Heath's parents' condo for the week. It was glorious. Here is one of the reasons.

Look at that baby smile. He has started to laugh so much more - I love it!

Meet my friend Kina. She works with me at Mother's Day Out. She was one of Turner's teachers last year. I asked for her for my anniversary. Well, I just convinced Heath to let her be my anniversary present - a helper for the beach! She was outstanding. She knew what to do because she has spent hours and hours and hours with Turner over the past year. She knows he won't drink milk - just water out of a straw and/or ice. And that he is addicted to peanut butter M&Ms and Teddy Grahams. And his duck and paci. Anyway.

She also loves Slump-a-lump. She held him and made him laugh and coo, and he loved every second of it. Even today in the nursery I looked down the hall, and he was asleep in her arms. Shameless little thing.

Our friends the Bennetts were next door at Splash, which has an indoor water "park", splash pad, 2 pools, a hot tub, and a lazy river. Right on the beach. Heaven for families with a 3 month old, 6 month old, 20 month old and 4 year old!!

We had a ball taking turns with the kids in the pools and at the beach, and thanks to the wonderful husbands and Kina, we had time to ourselves a little bit. Ahhh, amazing!! I read a book and a half! I love to read, but rarely get to do so. It was divine!!

Jami with her two boys (you're welcome, Jami)

The weasel when he actually had on his floaties

The girls and our boys in the lazy river - Kina's favorite hangout

This guy hanging by the water - what he does best! Unless he is rudely awakened by a near drowning :)

We did have a little altercation at the beach. Not surprising. Here is what happened. Our family went to dinner with the Bennetts at a great place in PCB called Spinnaker, just kidding. Called Boatyard. We had a great meal and were walking and talking by the cars afterward. Heath was down by the other car (Jami's rocking van!), and Kina and I had walked back to my car with the boys. Since we were packed in our car, Kina asked me to load the baby in because I had to swing his seat (gently of course) to the middle to pop him in. I opened the door and popped him in, while Kina was putting Turner in. Then I started to get in the car when a large angry lady started tapping on my window.

She starts saying "SHE opened her door into my car." She was pointing at Kina, and I wish you could have seen Kina's face. Well, this rubbed me the wrong way. SHE (Kina) stayed in the car, the mature route. Well, I did not. I hopped over to the lady (lovingly pictured above) as she starts pointing again. I stop her and say, "SHE didn't open the car door. I did. I had to put my child in the car." She shows me a scratch that looked like someone had taken a tiny white pen and nicked the side of her car. I looked, and it was white, so I figured I had done it. I apologized as she began rubbing it furiously. I helped her do that. Insert large redneck husband/boyfriend who insists he can "see the metal" underneath the scratch. "Baby, get their insurance information. We gon' have to file it!" This didn't sit well with me. I went and got Heath and told him that the nice couple wanted his insurance information. He handed him a piece of paper with his office phone number on it. Well played, I thought. Don't worry - they began to pull out their camera phones (which Kina later noted they were temporary Go phones as she watched from inside the car). They said "We gon' need to photograph this for insurance."

If you know me, I am what some might say confrontational. I want to be sorry, but I'm really not. When we were driving home, Heath noted that I didn't do anything to diffuse the situation. I told him I have never been accused of being a diffuser. As I am typing this, I realize more what he was talking about. Oh, well. He loves me.

The money shot - or the money saver for us!

All that to say, I pulled out my cell phone as well. Then quickly replaced it with a camera from the car. I took these pictures. This made them squirm a little. But, they got in their cars and left after I suggested that maybe if they had parked correctly, I would not have hit their car. And we needed to agree to disagree. They weren't thrilled, and didn't get the cash and/or insurance goldmine (ha) they were after. I think they barked up the wrong money tree! The funniest thing was that our friend Jim watched their car leave and was shocked it wasn't a porsche or something, the way they were carrying on.

Anyway, I wanted to blog about it that night, but my husband thought we should all cool down. He is the diffuser!

I was "diffused", too, with the view of the ocean below us like this picture. This was taken one of the nights we decided to eat in. Heath and Jim made burgers, and we let these turkeys run around free. Very fun!

The rest of the time we relaxed, ate, went swimming, sliding and a lot of floating. And enjoyed beautiful sunsets like this one. Perfect time of year to go to the beach - what a blessing!

Taken by Heath - photog extraordinaire

Ahh, relaxation!