Vacation minus one

Well after all the craziness of Christmas for the past two days. The day after Christmas, me and Savannah in my car, and my parents and Dalton in their car headed south to Florida. : ) Minus Deon. : ( He could not go on this trip with us this year, because of starting a new job 2 months ago so he had no vacation days and we could not afford him not working for a week. We really did wish he could go with us, he so enjoys going down there. So after getting my sister's drive way salted and it cleared, we headed on our way. The roads in Nashville were good and clear. But wow we hit the Alabama state line, you could see they got a alot more snow than we did. Their highway was not cleared very well at all. I don't remember where we were (meaning what city) but we hit one spot with ice and snow on the interstate. Savannah was asleep in the car, which I'm glad because she would probably had been a little scared. I have to admit I was a little nervous myself. I noticed that traffic had slowed down a little, and thought to myself that there was probably a wreck, because I noticed everyone was getting in the right lane. A few miles later I noticed that the reason everyone was going to the right was because there was a thin layer of ice on the left lane! I kept myself in the right lane, and drove slow along with everyone else in the right lane, but man there are some people out there that think they are Superman! They would get in the left lane and drive like it was nothing to them. But then I would notice a few minutes later, they were getting in the right lane. That is because they realized how slick it was. I even saw some slide a little when they would hit their BREAKS! (Don't hit your breaks on ice!) I saw a truck on the other side of the interstate that had slide off into the median, at this time a tow truck was already there getting him out. Then it cleared up and people started moving a little more the speed limit. About a hour later we hit some more. By the time we got about 2 hrs from Birmingham the snow on the roads were gone. You could see where people had slide off either earlier that day or the night before.

We stopped at Steak and Shake for lunch, and the kids thought that was great. They have been to a Steak and Shake but they were too little to remember I guess, b/c they did not recall being at one. Good food! : ) Of course we had to have a shake. : ) It took us about 8 1/2 hours to get to Destin from Nashville. We were so happy to get there. I had no feelings in my legs by the time I got there from sitting soooo long. We got all our stuff settled, and then we went out to eat. We went to Cracker Barrel (Love this place) because we didn't stop for lunch at one (which we always do when we go on vacation). Had the most wonderful french toast there. They made it taste like a cinnamon roll, it had the cinnamon and icing. It was sooo yummy. My parents and the kids wished they had ordered it. I love cinnamon rolls and french toast so this made me happy. : ))

The next morning we got up, and man it was COLD. I don't believe I've ever been in Destin with it that cold. Of course the news was talking about how cold it was in FL and its been a long time since it had been as cold as it had been. I thought and I think even said it out loud to my mom, I would pick to come down when it was this cold. Lol! It was way too cold to go to the beach that day so we decided to go spend our Christmas money. The kids loved this idea, they will spend money every time they have some. Savannah is a better saver than Dalton, but she still loves to spend it. They take after their mom. LOL! We had a good time shopping, eating lunch, and shop some more. I do believe we shopped till we dropped. We stayed in and watched Twilight with my parents. They have never seen it before and Savannah got all three for Christmas so we decided we would watch each one at night.

Tuesday morning, it was suppose to be a little warmer that day, we figured we try the beach after lunch. I mean we did come to FL, so we need to go to the beach. So we did try it, and man it was chilly. We did not wear our swim suit, we just kept our clothes on. The kids played on the beach, and mom and I tried to stay warm. I believe it wasn't so windy it wouldn't as cold. The kids enjoyed being able to be on the beach and see the ocean. They did stick their feet in the water, and it of course was cold! Dalton mostly just digged holes in the sand, and Savannah built sand castles. The beach of course wasn't crowded but there were people mostly walking along the beach, in their winter coats. LOL It was so funny to see people wear winter hats in FL.
Went out to eat that night and watched the movie New Moon ( 2nd part of Twilight saga) So far my parents were liking these movies.

Wednesday, we headed to the beach a little bit before lunch. It was a little warmer but still not swim suit weather. Same ole same ole, we sat on the beach and the kids played. We came back, ate some lunch and watched a view movies. It was good ol lazy day and which I loved, I mean I was on vacation so I didn't have to do much, and I didn't! LOL That night after supper, we watched the 3rd movie in the Twilight saga, which is Eclipse. This one is my favorite so far. The 4th one is not out till November. Mom said "I'm going to have to buy the book, I cannot wait that long".

Thursday, it was a cloudy, and chilly day. So we decided we would stay in and watch some more movies. We watched Charlie St Cloud off paper view. Very good movie, sad, but good. Then after lunch I went and did some shopping by myself and the kids stayed with mom. It was nice to get out by myself, and not have to listen to my kids say "I'm bored, can we go" or "I want that can I have that?" Dalton thinks he needs to buy something in every store he enters. No kidding he does. Ordered in that night, and then rented The Karate Kid ( the new one) That was a really good movie also. I caught up on watching movies I had been wanting to see.

Friday, New Years Eve; I thought we needed to go to the beach since this was our last day there. It was sunny and warm that morning, but by the time we got to the beach it turned cloudy, and windy. We were only at the beach for about a hour till it started raining on us. So we came by to the apartment, found some movies on TV. lol Mostly all I did on this vacation was watch movies, beach, eat and shop. It was a great vacation! LOL Just wish Deon could had been there with us. The kids actually stayed up this year to see the ball drop on TV. (Last year Savannah feel asleep the last 5 mins) She was determined to stay up this year. : )

Saturday morning, we got up, got our stuff packed in the car, and headed north to Tennessee. The drive home seems always the longest. Feels like we were never going to get home. But we did, and had a great time visiting with my parents.