Pirate Cruise

On Friday morning before we left we went on the Sea Dragon Pirate Cruise. We were scheduled to do this Thursday afternoon but because of heavy rain that one was canceled.

This was really good, Kyle loved every minute of it. Kaitlyn was a little too old but still enjoyed some of the things they did.



First, water fights





Then they made the boys 'sweep the deck' or mop up the water while the girls got their faces painted.



Two happy pirates



We saw a few dolphins on the excursion, this was the best picture I could get.



sword fighting



They even pulled a treasure chest out of the water.





With the captian





We would definitely do this again if we go back to Panama City!

Last day playing on the beach

Playing on the beach later in the day before cleaning up to head back to pier park.





Kaitlyn wrote our name in the sand



then Ashley tried



digging deep to find water



found it



this is about as wet as I got in the ocean water



Kaitlyn being buried



trying to bury an uncooperative daddy



getting yelled at because he threw sand in John's face, and that was the end of trying to bury daddy

Catching the big waves

Wednesday was our last day all together at the beach, Luke, Susan, Ashley and Momma were leaving Thursday morning. It was raining that morning but didn't last long. It was also cloudy and windy. That makes for an empty beach and big waves, we had a red flag that day.





Luke, Kyle and Ashley went down to play in the waves for a few minutes. I had bought Kaitlyn and Kyle these boogie boards once we got down there.



I took all these from the 8th floor balcony of our condo, looking down at the them.



Kyle was determined to float on this board.













Then the rest of us joined them and we went back to the beach to play.

Pier Park

We went to Pier Park several times during our stay in Panama City. It is a neat outdoor shopping mall with several cute shops, restaurants, movie theater, rides and games for the kids, and other things.

Banana boat ride

Luke took the kids on this banana boat ride while we were all at the beach on Tuesday.

Fun day at the beach

Tuesday we spent most of the day at the beach. Susan, Shane, Jade, Peyton and Aaliyah were staying at a condo about 4 miles down the road so we were able to spend a lot of time with them as well. This day we set up the tent on the beach and were all down there playing.

A pretty day weather wise in July also means a crowded beach. This is the view directly in front of the condo. The bad thing about staying in a high rise condo building is all these chairs and umbrellas they rent. Great if you want to pay the $30 a day to rent them, not so great if you have your own chairs and tent and there is now no space to set up.



to the right



You can tell how bad the seaweed was in this picture. There were parts that were clear but then there were huge patches of it in the water.





Peyton throwing a fit on the beach, I think all the kids did this at least once.

shipwreck island

On Monday of our beach vacation we went over to Shipwreck Island, the water park in PCB. We love water parks and usually go to one on every vacation we take. This one was pretty good though the water park at Six Flags in St. Louis is still our favorite. I didn't take very many pictures of things at the water park because I was in the water and wondering around most of the time. It was just too hot to not be in the water somewhere (usually the lazy river was where you would find me). Plus I like to go down the water slides too. Every year I tell myself I need to get a waterproof camera for this purpose but always forget. So I just took a few shots of all of us in the wave pool.












And then for some reason we cannot figure out, Peyton loves John!