I was driving home from work one day a couple of weeks ago and was thinking how nice it would be to get away for a while and go somewhere fun. I then remembered my aunt's gracious offer of her beach condo in Destin, Florida and decided that's where I wanted to go. And I knew I needed to go quickly because my busy season at work begins about July 15th. So, I came home and told David about my desire to go and that I really wanted to take Madelyn. We wanted to make it a whole-family vacation, but realized that David couldn't get off this time of year as it is summer and he is a warehouse manager at a Pool Supply store. So, we decided that I would go and take Madelyn and Meredith would stay behind with Daddy.
Madelyn and I left on Sunday, June 28th, with my friend Leslie with us and we drove to Dallas to stay with our friends Ken and Cindy for the night. We got up bright and early at 4:30 a.m. to leave Dallas by 5:00 a.m. As soon as the alarm went off, Madelyn shot up in bed and said she was ready to go. I was fully expecting to drag her grouchy self to the car, but I could tell she was already very excited to go. We missed all the horrific Dallas traffic by leaving that early and that was nice. It was a very L O N G trip, but actually very pleasant. Leslie and I caught up on almost 15 years of time gone by and laughed till we cried. We also sang our little hearts out and I was reminded of how well Leslie sings and that I actually have a pretty voice too. Madelyn was content with her crayons, DVD player, and other books. She whined some, you know the usual "When are going to be there?" 876 times on the way. She would get this really depressed look on her face when I would tell her "10 more hours, Sweetie!" But overall she did awesome. She was able to sleep some, but it was difficult in that carseat even though David had bought her one of those neck things people use in airplanes. We stopped and ate in Richland, Mississippi right after seeing a live chicken sitting and clucking in the middle of the road. If we were unsure where we were at that moment, that chicken assured us it must be the Deep South. We got quite a chuckle out of that. We ate at a Wendy's and I ordered Buffalo Chicken Wings. They tasted awesome, but they were so spicy hot that they burned a hole in my mouth. I can usually take spicy, but this was out of this world. I finally decided to take them with us, put them in the cooler and surely someone in our group would eat them. I then ordered a Junior burger. All was going well until I took the fourth bite out of the burger. I swear I bit down on a bullet. It's truly a wonder that I didn't break my tooth! So, at that point I was DONE with eating. It was exciting to me to drive through the south, seeing all the tall pine trees and some of the old houses being the Civil War buff I am. Whenever I would see a railroad track, I would think of people who would take the train as their only means of transportation. After eating in Richland, we were on the way to Pensacola to pick up Holly at the airport. Aren't we always picking up Holly at SOME airport?? Anyway, Leslie drove and I got to see the scenery. I liked going through Mobile, Alabama. It's right on the bay and you go down into a tunnel and drive under the bay. They have battleships right on the water. We hit a pretty heavy rainstorm here and were praying for safety. We finally arrived in Pensacola and picked up Holly. We were relieved we only had an hour or so ahead of us. Shortly after Pensacola, I had to drive over this really long bridge with no shoulder. It was raining very heavily, no shoulder, ocean on either side of me, and unfamiliar territory. I had a panic attack right there on the bridge. I got really lightheaded, sick at my stomach, and felt like I could pass out at any second. The girls kept talking to me and I was praying outloud for God to help me!! I couldn't get off the road, so I just turned on my blinker and slowed down so the driver behind me would stay off my rear. Thankfully, he did. After we got off the bridge, I was fine. I had been craving Outback Steakhouse since about Hattiesburg, Mississippi, so as we came into Destin, we found one. It hit the spot. On the way back to the condo, we stopped at Krispy Kreme and got doughnuts for the morning. We were all too happy to fall into bed that night and we slept like angels........UNTIL...........the most horrendous beeping I had ever heard in my life at 3:15 a.m. I jumped out of bed and being disoriented in a different place ran into the bathroom and was like, "Why the Crap am I in here?" I then realized where I was and ran out into the hall and met Holly with the same dumbfounded look on her face as I was sporting. We were both in like slow motion trying to figure out what that ear splitting noise was. It didn't occur to me yet that it could be the fire alarm. We both finally saw this white thing on the wall by the ceiling and realized it was the culprit. In our sleepy stupor, one of us was reaching for a pan in the kitchen to brain the thing and make it shut up. Before Holly did that, it occured to me to look outside! When I did, I saw all these other dumbfounded people in their jammies standing outside. It then hit me.......FIRE!!!! I ran back in in Mommy Mode and said, more like yelled, "We got to get out, It's a Fire!" Madelyn and Leslie sprinted out of bed and we all vacated the premises. Madelyn was very scared and shaking. We were on the fifth floor and weren't sure what to do. We didn't smell smoke or see flames, so we just kind of hung out with the other people. Finally, our ears couldn't take the screaming alarm any longer and we went and sat in my car! After the fire people came, it took about 45 minutes to get the all clear to return to our slumber. No Fire, just some dumb idiot kid probably laughing his hiney off watching all the commotion. The next morning (or should I say about 3 hours later), we began our beach vacation. Madelyn was amazed at the beach. I got her a sand castle making set and she played on the beach. I think she missed having a pal with her though cause she kept scoping out other little kids. She would go up to them, but wouldn't talk to them. So I walked over to this one little girl with her mom and made introductions. Madelyn played a little with this little girl from Kentucky. She mostly wanted an adult to take her into the ocean 500 times. Between me, Leslie, and Holly, we tried to keep her entertained. She was somewhat afraid of the waves, but loved being in them as long as she had a steady hand to hold onto. Blake and Barbie came to stay with us the next day (Tuesday night) and we went to eat at a seafood place. Leslie and I had made a pact to try some new seafood we had never had before. We both tried Mahi Mahi and Grouper. They were AWESOME!! I can't wait to go to Joe's Crabshack here in town and try something. While we were waiting for our table at the seafood place, we saw some dolphins playing in the water right off the shore. Darnit though, I didn't have my camera. Madelyn liked seeing them though. Wednesday, Madelyn was glad Blake was there. He was a big, strong guy and she felt safer with him I think. She called him, "my Buddy, Blake." Blake and I were nicely burnt by Wednesday, so we stayed in the shade more. I was so surprised about Madelyn. I put sunscreen on her, but probably not as diligently as I should have and she didn't get burned at all. Her cheeks got a little rosy, but hardly at all. I guess she has her aunt Holly's skin. Thursday morning, Holly had to fly out and my sweet friends Blake and Barbie drove her to Pensacola to catch the plane so I didn't have to drive over that freakish bridge again. While they were gone, we started cleaning up the condo, then went back to the pool for one more lay in the sun. Madelyn got pretty brave while we were there. The last day, she got in the pool without her lifejacket and actually went all the way under the water. I was so proud of her!! We left paradise about 2:15 p.m. to head for Shreveport where we were going to be staying for the night. The drive was pretty uneventful except for two overturned semis we saw on the road and one other wreck in Mississippi where a guy was laying on the side of the road covered in blood. That one almost made me lose my lunch. We would just say a prayer everytime we saw a wreck and hope they were okay. I didn't think we were ever going to make it to Shreveport. We finally did close to midnight and stayed in a hotel. We slept for about 6 hours and headed out early the next morning for home. The trip was going great save for a little July 4th traffic until we got to the Oklahoma-Texas border. We were making good time and I had just called in to David and told him we'd be home about 2:30. That was a mistake. About 10 minutes later, we were SITTING on I-35 a couple miles south of the border. We figured there must be a wreck. Oh No, when we finally made it to the scene of the bottleneck, it was only about a half mile of one lane that was causing all the confusion. Seriously people, LEARN TO DRIVE!!! I called David back and informed him it would be about 3:15 before we got home. I've never been more excited to pull into my driveway before. 15+ hours on the road was more than enough. We had an awesome time and wonderful pictures to share. I can't wait to go back!!
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