My Happy Place

Last week I put on my big girl panties and took both kids to Pensacola/Ft. Walton Beach alone flying standby to see my friend (and old Pensacola roomie) Kellie for her baby shower.  I fortunately expected the worst for my travels and it was not bad at all.  

I surprised myself at the smart things I had done, #1 taking the car seat for Ella to sit in on the plane.  The car seat worked as good as duct tape and she did awesome!  Minus a couple potty explosions the kids did great.My #2 smart thing was

taking an extra blanket for Rudy, it was much needed after the "explosion" he had!  The hardest part was getting on and off the plane with my hands full but there were always people 

offering to carry something for me.  When we got to Pensacola Kellie met me at the airport as 

I feared not being able to fit my giant double stroller into my $10 a day economy car.  As always they were out of economy cars so I got an "almost SUV" in place of it without paying more. (of course the car agent tried to trick me first)  

We piled everything in to the car and headed down to Pensacola Beach to one of Jon and my favorite restaurants, Pegleg Pete's, for a Blackened Grouper sandwich.   YUM!  I called him to let him know where I was going and also that he could have as much fun as he wanted to that weekend because I was 30 min into my trip and it was fabulous enough to last me forever if it were to end right then. After we ate we headed across the street to 

the beach for a bit.  Ella was in her glory running and running.  Rudy was oblivious to it all but a good sport.

With such a big day behind us we headed from Pensacola to Ft. Walton to my Step Brother house to relax.......RELAX HA HA HA!  Being alone with both kids in someone else's home it's hard to relax.  However it was wonderful.  

One afternoon I went across the street to the beach with both kids in the stroller and when I got there they had both fallen asleep!  I was in heaven.  It was the most perfect day on the beach, not a cloud in the sky, both my babies happy and asleep.  I sat for awhile in the sand soaking it all in and watching the c-130s and f-14s fly overhead.  It wasn't long before I was feeling empty and needing to hold someone so I took turns holding each sleeping child for a bit on the beach.  It was a taste of my heaven, a happy happy happy place for me, the only thing that could have made that time better would have been if Jon could have been with us. 

It was so nice to catch up with my step brother and his family.  Little Emily is now Big, with long brown hair and glasses, looking much like her dad and grandma.  Erin is now big too, a miniature version of her mom in every way.  It's amazing how quickly the time has passed. 

The girls have grown so much but everything is exactly the same.  The beaches are as beautiful as ever, the island was slightly different since the hurricanes, and of course Jeff and Linda's house has had some major renovations but it all still felt like home.  I miss it there so much.  I would live there in a heartbeat if I could.  

Ella had a ball with the girls.  She was exhausted every night.  Having both kids alone for that time certainly was exhausting and I"m glad it's over,  but would do it all again. One trip down, now Ohio to go!