Pensacola 2017: Days One through Four

We left for our annual family beach vacation on Saturday, June 10. We followed our customary itinerary: meeting Nola and Nopsi at the boat launch and then heading to Shaggy’s for a much needed lunch. Kenny drove the van with the trailer, Nola hopped in with me, and the boys chose to ride with Nopsi on the boat. It was a beautiful day!

  

 

We got to the house late in the afternoon and unloaded and unpacked. Then the boys hit the sand while I went to the grocery for a few things, including the all important frozen limeade for margaritas. Riley built a new Lego set while he ate his dinner, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset, and everyone crashed after a long day.

A strong but fast-moving storm pushed through early the next morning but we were outside playing by 10am. This is when Rory did lots of dock jumping and Riley really got going on building his “gooey splat factory with the volcano of mystery.” It was an impressive set up that included a very deep hole. Oh, and Nopsi took us on a tube ride before lunch!

 

  

Jeff, Erin, Kate, and Luke arrived right around 2pm and the boys were so happy to see their cousins. They played together all afternoon and had so much fun.

 

 

 

Jeff, Erin, Kenny, and I ended up going out to dinner and to watch part of the LSU baseball game that night. Nola and Nopsi had been telling us for years to have a night out if we wanted to, but we never took advantage until this year. We went right down the road to a place called Sidelines. We sat outside and enjoyed the beachy breeze while we watched the game. Thanks for the night off, Nola and Nopsi!

The next morning we had to wait out a bit more rain, so Erin introduced Riley to Snapchat. So funny, especially seeing Luke get jealous that he wasn’t the only one doing it!

  

We finally got down to the sand late in the morning and fought the weather all the way until lunch. The kids didn’t seem to mind the raindrops too much, though, and Kate and Rory even found some ducks to feed. We went back out for a little while after rest time and then all came in to clean up for dinner. The adults even stayed up to play Michigan rummy this night!

 

 

 

The next day we had barely made it out before the rain threatened again. Storms kept us inside most of the day, so we kept busy by watching movies and playing games.

  

It finally cleared up late afternoon, so Kenny and I decided to take advantage of the break. We brought the three older kids over to the Gulf side after they had their popsicles.

 

They had SUCH a great time for two straight hours. We buried Riley and Kate in the sand, Riley dug a big hole, and all three of them loved searching for shells and playing in the waves.

  

We finally got back to the house, rinsed off, and called it a day. We were even rewarded with another pretty sunset. And we stayed up to play Cards Against Humanity! What a fun day.

Recap of the second half of our trip coming up next!