The Proctors: Pensacola!!

The week of July 4th we got to have the best vacation in Florida! It was wonderful spending time with my family and Shannon, and we were so glad they used their vacation time for this trip! David and Grayson and I drove down to Pensacola, and met up with my mom and dad and brother and best friend from college, Shannon, who all flew in. Luckily the drive went much better than expected now that we know a few tricks to keep Grayson happy and occupied in the car. He's still not the best traveler, but he's tons better than he was last year. We split up the trip down by driving to Birmingham the first night and then the rest of the way the next day.

Made it to Alabama!

Playing in the dirt at the rest stop!

Glad to be out of the car the first day!

We had never been to Pensacola before, but some of my brother's clients have a Beautiful condo down there that they let us use for free that week! What a huge blessing!! It was right on the beach with an amazing view from the wrap around balcony.

We made it! Checking out the view from the balcony

Dad, Robin and Shannon

Living room and balcony

Kitchen

We got to watch fireworks at eye level right from the beach below.

Fireworks down on the beach!

And the beaches and water were perfectly fine with the soft white sand we love. Unfortunately we only had one sunny day while Shannon was with us, and then one more the day before we left, but it was okay. Grayson is not a fan of the sand or getting it on him. He tolerated 15 or 20 minutes at a time when my mom was playing with him, but then he was ready to go to the pool. It was really windy while we were there and on most days the waves were really big. The last day of sun the day before we left we actually witnessed a man getting rescued from the ocean. Scary! His wife had been walking up and down the beach asking if anyone had seen her husband, and then someone spotted him way way out in the water. He was just a speck from shore. Luckily there was a lifeguard on duty at a beach near by, and he was able to put on his flippers and swim out to him. They also sent out a water rescue team on a Sea Do, and the man was fine.

Hitting the beach!

David showing Grayson the sand with our condo behind
them - we were in the top unit on the right

Checking out the waves!

Happy 4th of July!

After a few mis-adventures driving back towards Pensacola looking for restaurants we discovered that Orange Beach, Alabama was just a few miles down the road in the opposite direction and had MANY more good choices in the food department!

Dinner at the Crab Trap! Yummy!

Grayson was obsessed with this playground!

Grayson and Uncle Rob

Sunset on the beach

And the storms rolled in :(

Grayson waving at the camera

Grayson and Janny

Grayson showing off his muscles for the camera

Taking a break for a bath - check out his farmer's tan!

Checking out the cool fish tank at Cobalt for lunch

Look at Grayson's face!! Priceless!

Monday we spent a good 3 -4 hours in the local emergency room after Grayson had a fever that wouldn't go away for 5 days. They ended up not finding anything, and he was perfectly fine the next day. BUMMER!! We also got to visit the National Museum of Naval Aviation while we were down there. That's where the Blue Angels are. We even got to see them do a fly by twice on 4th of July.