The Voyage to Florida

So we just took a trip to Panama City Beach,Florida this past week to be a part of my brother, Adam's wedding. We left Missouri on Wednesday April 21st and stayed the night in Mt. Vernon, since we left in the afternoon. The next morning after Jaymee got through the usual morning sickness we headed out for Pelham, AL. It took about 7 hours or so to get there. So I have decided that people in Tennessee are some of the most crazy drivers I have ever seen. Nashville was very busy and people were going at least 20+ over the speed limit the entire time. I have never been passed by so many cars before in my life. We ended up staying the night in a Sleep Inn, which was very nice, but for some reason our room had these little pillows that were half the size of regular ones. I am not sure if little elves stayed in the room the night before or what, but it was kinda weird and neither of us really liked it.

The next day we arrived at my grandparents house in Alford, FL around 2pm. I know it's only supposed to be about 30 mins from Dothan, AL to my grandparents house, but I swear it took over an hour. Anyways we finally arrived and got to spend the rest of the day talking with my family. It was nice since I hadn't seen some of them in a very very long time. It was Jaymee's first time meeting some of them.So the next morning, the day of the wedding, its storming outside and I wake up at 6:30am for some odd reason. The next thing I know, there is a loud pop and the power goes out. Its just about that time that I notice that Adam is in the bathroom sick. Of course it always figures, you never need to use the restroom unless its unavailable. Needless to say it was a rough morning with all of us running around in the dark trying to get ready for the wedding. Thankfully the power came back on and we were able to get ready in time.

Jaymee and I followed my grandparents to Panama City and we actually were able to find the hotel the wedding was at without too much trouble. We only had to turn around once so that's always a plus. The wedding was out looking over the beach under a large white gazebo. It was very pretty. So the minister came out and performed the ceremony which was great except that there was so much wind that nobody could really hear a whole lot. It looked great though :) So we all did the whole picture thing for a little while before we were led into a room setup for the reception. We were served a variety of foods and got to watch the happy couple dance, eat cake, and drink champagne. I did the traditional toast thing, although I just winged it so don't ask me to repeat it because I doubt I could. They left around 2:30pm or so and had Christina's parents drove them to the airport to make their flight to Orlando. It was a beautiful day and we couldn't be happier for them-love you guys.

the happy couple

the Harrison family :)

the wedding party

We ventured on after the wedding to our hotel in Panama City. We didn't really have directions to the hotel so we used the GPS that Hollee and Shane let us borrow. Thanks to Betsy (The GPS) we were able to find our hotel the Palmetto. We stayed on the 5th floor and were able to look out over the beach. Unfortunately it was still very windy so they double red flagged the beach so we couldn't get in the water. Instead we went to an outdoor mall area called Pier Park. It was really a lot of fun. We shopped for souvenirs for everyone at the different stores and ate at this really good brick oven pizza shop. Oh by the way fudge is expensive, but tastes soooooo good.

We headed back to the hotel afterward and took some pictures in the sand and tried not to be carried out to sea. There was a nice lady who took our picture, which was very cool. The rest of the night we just stayed in the hotel and watched tv. Oh so about 7 or so that night I noticed something about the size of a golf ball moving across the floor. It was the largest cockroach I had ever seen. I took care of it before it could eat all of our yummy food. I gave it a proper burial at sea in the porcelain bowl. The next morning we headed back to my grandparents house and ate a great breakfast with them. We chatted for a while before heading out around noon that day.

♥

We drove real hard and was able to make it to outside Nashville Tennessee that night. We decided to eat at a Backyard Burger since we were starving. It was kinda weird since we were the only people there and since Jaymee hadn't eaten in a while, she immediately started getting nauseous. We stayed at a different Sleep Inn that night, and in case you were wondering, yes they had the little pillow nuggets like the first one. Note to self, if you stay there again, bring your own pillows. We decided to leave early the next morning, since we had an 8+ hour drive. It was going pretty well until I started feeling sick. Jaymee was nice enough to take over driving for me about 20 mins from St. Louis. She drove the rest of the way home. I swear the last hour was the longest of my life. Once we got home we unloaded the car to make room for Piper's stuff. We then drove to Lee's Summit and picked up the baby (Piper the puppy). I have never seen her so excited to see us. Hollee and Shane must of ran her to death because she slept the whole way home.

We finally pulled into the drive way around 7pm and went in and relaxed. The trip was over and while we were glad to be home, we will definitely have to stay longer next time. Maybe we can even bring Piper and the baby next time.

Start spreading the news

So, pretty much everyone knows our news, but if you don't, here's a photo to give you an idea:

:)

Piper's Vacation

This post is an email I received from my sister while Andrew and I were on a trip of our own (we'll have a post about that in a day or two).  It was such a sweet thing for her to do, so I had to share it. :)

Here are a few of Piper's favorite things from the week:  playing with her new toy, playing with her ball (especially purple), playing tag with Shane, throwing the ball, looking out the window, and looking/barking at all of the dogs/squirrels outside.  :)  

Thank you, Hollee and Shane, for watching Piper. :)  We know she had so much fun with you two and she would've been perfectly content staying a few more days (or weeks or years)! :)