Father's Day festivities

I've been meaning to get this post out since yesterday...then life intervened in the form of an unplanned trip to Panama City yesterday (at least a two hour ordeal, one hour alone in driving) which was also the day I'd planned to pack for our trip, a fun dinner with friends (lots of preparation for the meal but it was good!), another unplanned trip to Panama City today (resulting in the unfortunate cancellation of a play date for Addie) to determine that Addie has one ear infection and an almost ear infection in the other ear, which meant an hour waiting for meds, a really late lunch (early dinner?) and a sleepy girl in for a late nap.

Despite her diagnosis Addie has been in great spirits. As today was my back up packing day, I am behind. But, I couldn't leave a stale blog at hand...

Planning Father's Day for Sabian is always kind of fun.

I made a photo book for him last year and made another this year, thinking it might be fun to start that as a tradition, making a new one for him each year with pictures from the last year. I also gave him a gift of my own, which I will write about later, and had planned a little outing for us.


Earlier in the weekend we took our free and leftover tickets from Addie's birthday and visited the butterflies once again and took another spin on the ferris wheel. I think I forgot to mention in her birthday post that while we were in the butterfly pavilion someone approached us and offered us a few free tickets to come back. There were more butterflies this time around and we were able to see all of the cocoons waiting to release new butterflies. One even hatched while we were there.


As for the ferris wheel, what a difference three months makes. Last year we took Addie on the ride and she was really too little to know to be scared or excited. On her birthday she resisted a little when we got on and then was quiet the entire time. This time, she jumped up and down, squealed and pointed to the ferris wheel and when I asked her if she wanted to ride she immediately said, "Yes!" 


She loved it. She talked and pointed things out and at one point said something we finally figured out was, "Slow down!" over and over again.


Later in the weekend we were invited to the family reunion of some friends from church so we joined them for lunch and some pickin' and grinnin' (to be explained later - remind me!). Addie enjoyed some face painting (her first time) some games for the kids and the little trinkets and toys they gave out to all the kids there. Alas, no photos, but I assure you she had fun. After a good nap and some dinner, we headed to the beach for sunset.


Sunday, finally, Father's  Day! Or, as Addie likes to say, "Happy Daddy!" She is still wishing Sabian "Happy Daddy" all this week. With no evening church service planned, after the morning service the day was ours. I made Sabian a favorite meal of his for lunch, we took naps and later headed for a secret (to Sabian) location.


We ended up at St. Andrews State Park. We'd seen the park from the boat when we took the dolphin cruise for Sabian's birthday and knew we wanted to head back at some point to check it out.

Side note: To me, state parks in Florida are interesting. They're mostly all just another beach, but do have some differences. I guess the same could be said for other places, but replacing beach with forest. But, it's not bad to check out another beach!


St. Andrews was pretty cool. On one side you can launch your boats, do some fishing from the water or the pier and clean your catch all right there. In fact, we saw some guys come in with some huge fish. On the other side is the beach where you'd hang out, including a couple of huge rock jetties. That was what I really wanted to see because that's what caught our eyes from our dolphin excursion.


Addie loved climbing on the rocks, of course, but it was pretty precarious so, much to her dismay, we had to have hands on her at all times. When we were done dodging fishermen and their hooks and pointy rocks and deep crevices, we played in the shallow, still water, made this way because of the jetty separating the still pool from the rest of the gulf. That part was great. Addie could wade into the water without it being too deep and there were little to no waves. She even started mimicking the kids who were snorkeling in the water, getting on her hands and "Wookin' for shish." Never mind she was wearing clothes and no swimsuit. 


We let her play in the water for a while but as it was getting close to sunset we got out, cleaned her up and got her into some dry clothes so we could get some dinner.


I am so thankful for a relaxing, go-at-our-own-pace kind of weekend. It was so nice, especially considering the coming weeks will be busy, in and out of town.


Oops, almost forgot photos!