Perdido Paradise

A few weeks ago we enjoyed an amazing week long vacation at the beach. Yes, be jealous. The house was perfect, the weather was perfect, the family time was perfect, and the kids were anything but perfect. We all caravan-ed together so everyone came to our house to meet up, take bathroom breaks, and stretch a little. We headed out and were ready for a nice relaxing vacation....10 minutes down the road both cars were pulled over on the side of the road in front of a state trooper. So much for relaxing. To make matters worse, my insurance card was still for our old car and our one for the van was not IN the van. I don't handle these situations well. I started yelling "what do they do to you if you don't have proof of insurance?!' like they were going to take me off in handcuffs or something. I know they don't. But I didn't want a huge fee along with my fee from my ticket. Anyways I panicked when the guy started asking me how many tickets I've had in the past 3 months (none) ... how many tickets have you gotten total (none). In the midst of my concentration of answering the questions respectfully, my idiot brain forgot that I didn't have the correct insurance card, and handed my license and (wrong) insurance card over to the trooper. He walked away, and I started yelling again about wondering what they are going to do with me. Next thing I know he walks back, hands me my cards, and says to be careful. That's it? I'm not going to jail? No big fat fees? Thank goodness. I did not speed the rest of the trip :)
I realize you did not start reading this to hear a huge story about a cop so here's the rest of the trip. We were split up guys (and lexi) and girls for the trip down there. Lexi slept the whole way....Ava didn't sleep at all. I was in the car with Ava. My luck amazes me sometimes. We got to the house and it-was-awesome. There was a garage underneath and stairs that led to the front door. You walk in and everything is nice. Nice hardwood, nice furniture, nice decor, nice TV's, nice kitchen, even the toilet paper was nice. It was folded like the do at the hotels. The main level had the kitchen, dining room, and living room - which were all open and connected - and then our bedroom/bathroom and Ava's bedroom. The upstairs had Chelsie and Brian's room/bathroom, a washer and dryer room with a utility sink, and then the master of all bedrooms, Doug and Sherry's room. This room was huge, but then you walk into the bathroom and it was jaw-dropping. Just huge - the closet was as big as our bedroom. So anyways, you get the point. It was nice.
Now every family does vacations differently. Beach vacations especially. What my family does is we go, and we do spend time at the beach, but we also have activities (shopping, minigolf, eating, shopping) and we go out to eat a lot because we all love fresh seafood. Chad's family goes to the beach. You wake up, eat breakfast, then you go to the beach. Come back, eat a quick lunch, go to the beach. Come in, eat dinner and chill all night. Don't get me wrong, both kinds are great, but I really needed a relaxing vacation like this one where you just go and sit (not that I really sat too much with a toddler running around, but you get my point). They were kind enough to let Chad and I go have a date night which was wonderful! We really needed that AND the place we went was actually a hit. It was called CRABS down at Pensacola Beach. I also got to go see the Blue Angels practice which was honestly extremely cool. I didn't think it would be as cool as it was, I must admit. We saw the practice then went and watched an IMAX on the magic of flight which was also pretty cool. My stupid motion sickness kicked in several times though and I had to look away. We saw the museum and looked at all the awesome planes there. I highly recommend doing all that if you ever get the chance!
Ava really loved the beach. She still randomly gets excited and says "beach! go!" like we can just walk outside and go down to the beach. I was a little nervous about her and the sand because she does NOT like anything on her feet - she stops and brushes off the tiniest of crumbs at home. When she first touched the sand on her feet she paused and said "uh oh" but I kept showing her how fun the sand was and she ended up being fine. She was a little daredevil with the water too. If we didn't hold her hand she'd try and just walk straight on in and the water was pretty rough. She helped Poppy and Chelsie build awesome sand sculptures and one of her favorite things to do was chase the seagulls. The funny thing about that was that she ran about as fast as the birds could walk away so she didn't end up getting the result of the birds scattering and flying away like she wanted most of the time. Still funny. Lexi slept a ton. She was the definition of beach bum. It was pretty windy but it didn't seem to effect her too bad. We would cover her up with a towel and she would just make herself comfy. When she was awake she was happy and playful. Sherry volunteered to watch her during the night so we could get some extra sleep, which we gladly (and gratefully) took her up on!
It is also tradition on the Burris Beach Trip to watch the movie Titanic at some point. We did and I think it took about 3 nights to finish the whole thing because we were all so worn out. We played a couple games during the week and just had fun chilling. It was great. Still can't believe it is over! We need to go ahead and start planning the next one :)

**pictures will be up soon!**