Sitting on the couch kind of day...

The first day home from vacation is always a little depressing for me.

While I am glad to be home, mostly because of my oh, so comfy bed, I miss waking up and seeing the bright white sand and the ocean right outside my window.

I'm pretty sure I could buy a hot dog stand in Panama City Beach and live in a tiny cottage with my dear children and my hot hubster.

Who, I might add, is even super hotter with a tan.

Surely we wouldn't need all this square footage if we lived on THE BEACH! 

We could dig in the sand, wave board, drink coconut strawberry smoothies ALL. DAY. LONG.

Then have a hot dog from our stand on the beach every night as the sun goes down over the pier.

Dreamy.

But, we are back to reality and while I love this crazy life we live...

I do long for one of simplicity and peacefulness.

As long as all my peeps are there.

Which causes an issue with the "peacefulness" dream.

lol.

Just kidding my sweet little kidlets.

You are sweet, and you are beautiful, and I could eat you all completely up...

but peaceful you 

ARE NOT.

Anywho, back to the story.

Today is a super lazy sitting on the couch day.

So I decided to go ahead and recap our vaca in a little more detail because who knows when another sit on the couch day will come along. 

I'm guessing late August.

When I am left all alone in this big ole house.

Again.

I took my fancy camera and used it ONE time.

I have almost 200 pictures on my iPhone and to be honest...

they aren't that bad!

I *heart* you my precious iPhone.

(more on that later)

So here we go.

Panama City Beach, Florida

The land of coconut strawberry smoothies and Pineapple Willy's.

First let's talk about the hotel.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

It is pricey, but they all are this time of year.

It is nice, clean, and comfortable, but it is NOT fancy.

Which makes taking all the hoodlums easy and carefree.

The place is kid heaven.

DO NOT expect the room to reflect the amount of cash you just forked out for it.

It's ALL about the amenities and the "kid-ness" of the place you are paying for.

There are activities planed every 30 minutes to an hour all day long!! 

From bingo to the Cupid Shuffle and the Wobble.

The DJ played the best songs and the kids LOVED DJ Jim.

The kid staff is made up of college kids and are all super energetic and laugh and play with the kids.

Awesome.

It is NOT a place I would go to spend the week alone with my husband and no children.

There are children EVERYWHERE!! :)
The rooms are just "normal" hotel rooms.

I loved it!

The kids loved it!

The hubster loved it!

This would be the view I had the second I opened my eyes in the morning.

Except I had to turn my head to the right because the ceiling was what I saw first.

The sand on the emerald coast is beautiful. 

Crisp and white and warm between your toes.

The water is emerald.

Hence, the emerald coast.

The water, however, on our trip was not great.

I struggled the entire vacation and repeated...

"it's just the nature of things. It is just the process of the ocean. It isn't always like this."

over, and over, and over.

One word.

Seaweed.

Of course the seaweed would choose to come ashore the week we were there.

But, it's just nature and we chose to love it anyway.

It isn't always there.

Just a week or two every year or so.

bummer.

Of course...

Every night they have Polynesian dancers come out and do a dance and then teach the kids to hula.

It was so fun!

They also have an outdoor movie every night on the pool deck.

They show all kids movies: Tangled, Gullivers Travels, etc.

Beach babes...

( you can see the seaweed)

The kids doing the Wobble with one of the cute staff members.

I'm pretty sure this is the hotel manager.

THIS is what makes this hotel so great.

Kenna Mae with Splash.

The resort mascot.

You can arrange to have him tuck the kids in one night if you get around to it.

The kids made a TON of friends while they were there.

Here are a few...

A fun place to eat.

Sharky's.

Pineapple Willy's was by far my favorite place to eat. Of course, I didn't get a picture.

Except for this one of Kooper with the waitress he fell in love with.

This is HANDS DOWN my favorite quality in my Koop.

He never, ever, ever gets too embarrassed to do something I think is fun or funny!

We asked him if he wanted a picture with her...

he said "oh, yeah!"

we asked...

she thought it was awesome...

and now we have memories....

(haha. just realized he's as tall as she is!)

Sandy babies!

One morning they did an obstacle course on the beach.

It was hilarious!

We headed down to pier park for some shopping and dinner one night.

We ended up eating at Margaritaville.

It was a ton of fun.

A highlight for sure.

The ginormous mountain of nachos.

They were awesome!

We danced...

(lol. KM is doing the sprinkler! haha!)

and danced....

And danced...

and danced some more...

Me and the hottie.

DJ Jim gave the kids a mixed CD of all the fun songs they played while we were there.

Playing sand volleyball on the beach while we waited for a table at Sharky's.

 This vacation was so much fun.

I am definitely planning on going back next year.

I'm thinking of maybe splitting the trip between PCB and Destin.

We drove through there on the way and it looks awesome, too!

One more trip to the mountains in a couple of weeks and our summer fun comes to a screeching halt.

We have squeezed as much out of it as we possibly could!

Let me know if you have any questions about PCB. 

I obsessed over the different hotels before AND during our stay! lol.