The Dotsons: Our First Family Vacation!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Our First Family Vacation!

Although I am extremely late with this post, I figured I'd better get some pictures up from our first Dotson family vacation! Honestly, it's been so long since we went that I can't remember the details of each day...so I'll just do a run-down and then let the pictures tell the story.

We went to Panama City Beach, FL from July 3-10th. We went with our friends, Jeremy & Nancy and their son who's also named Caleb (he's almost 2). Having two Calebs made for some confusing times! A few times, I said "Caleb, no" and Caleb Pearce would start crying, LOL. Overall, the boys did well together. Our Caleb loves being around other kids...especially if those other kids bring toys he's never seen before! He had a blast!

Given the fact that Caleb still naps twice a day...and we generally don't like messing with his schedule unless we have to...we still spent a good bit of time in our condo. It was nice, though. We got to really relax and the view from our huge oceanfront balcony was amazing! Our condo was awesome and had 4 bedrooms (2 masters and 2 small kids rooms). It was a perfect set-up b/c both Calebs had their own room so we could put them down for naps and at night and not have to worry about waking them up!

Generally, we would get up around our normal wakeup time (7:30am) and eat breakfast. Then the kids would play in the living room while the adults chilled out. Our Caleb went down for his normal morning nap each day and I'd read while Rhett played video games (or Stratego w/Jeremy). Then, after naptime we'd hit the beach or pool for an hour before lunch. After lunch, both kids would nap. Then we'd go to the beach or pool again before dinner. For dinner, we ate out three nights and Rhett cooked the other nights (he volunteered for this). We ate way too much icecream and other junkfood and I probably gained at least 5 pounds! (but it was so worth it). Caleb went to bed around 7:30pm and Caleb Pearce would stay up for a while longer. After both kids were in bed, we would stay up way too late and play board games. I think the favorite of the week was "Wits and Wagers" - lots of fun!

One day, we decided to go play putt putt. We figured that Caleb P. would like this, but he only lasted for one hole before he lost interest, LOL. It was still fun, though! I haven't played putt putt in ages. Our Caleb just chilled in his stroller and was very well behaved. I had an awesome sno-cone - "Tiger's Blood" - which is now my new favorite flavor! (it's strawberry + coconut)

Caleb did pretty well at the beach. He was fixated on trying to eat the sand! He would literally just pick up a pinch of sand between his fingers and shove it in his mouth. Disgusting! That was a battle, LOL. We lathered him up good with sunscreen and also had a beach tent we set up, so he did not get even a hint of a sunburn! Neither did I b/c I use SPF 1,000,000 and try to stay in the shade as much as possible. The boy definitely got my skin tone...ghost white! Caleb loved playing in the pool with Daddy. He especially liked sitting on Daddy's shoulders while Daddy jumped up and down really fast. He thought that was hilarious. They had an indoor pool, which would have been a nice shaded area to swim, but it wasn't heated so it was freezing!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention our drive down there and how terrible the first leg was. We left Houston on Friday and drove to Baton Rouge to stay the night at Rhett's parents' house. That day, the weather was horrendous! It took us 8 hours to get to BR! It normally takes about 4.5 hours. Luckily, the second leg of our drive on Saturday went much better. We made it from BR to PCB in about 9 hours. On the drive back, we just drove straight through. That was a little rough with Caleb contained in his carseat for that long, but we made it!

Leaving Houston...

Only a baby can look cute biting their own toes, LOL