Vacation day 4

Tuesday, November 30: Day 4

Our little, 7 month old alarm clock went off this morning around 4am. While Amanda got up to tend to Reed, I struggled to fall back asleep due to sinus pressure and my head cold that kept me coughing continually. I did finally fall back to sleep while Amanda was up for the day. At about 7, I was up with everyone else.

The forecast for today told us that it would be the warmest day of the week but that there was 100% chance of storms throughout the day. As we’ve learned from past trips to Florida, when the forecast says rain all day, it really means sunshine for most of the day and rain for part of it. Nevertheless, we decided not to attempt any beach or pool activities but rather, do some shopping. After a few hours hanging out at the condo, we headed west to Destin Common’s shopping center. We said we were going to shop, but we really didn’t do much shopping. Our first stop there was at Build-A-Bear where we let the kids (except for Reed) pick out new bears. Avin picked a new dog, Parker a dark colored teddy bear and Cooper got a cream colored bear. We kept it simple it opted out of all the crazy accessories. As we were checking out, we noticed a special they were running on Christmas bears with another bear purchase, so, Reed got one after all. They asked if we wanted the iconic boxes or just bags. Of course we wanted the boxes, isn’t that why you go to Build-A-Bear, to get one of the boxes.

After building our bears, we went to playground in the middle of the outdoor mall. The kids had a blast, and their new bears did everything they did. They worked up a sweat and we snacked on pretzel bites and lemonade while we all played. From the playground we walked down to the Bass Pro Shops anchor store. This place was awesome. We’ve been to these stores before, but there was something about this one that made it especially nice. At the back of the store, they had an area set up specifically for kids. It had a table to color and do crafts and it also had games like a car racing game and a target shooting game. Once they had their fill there, we headed back toward the car. We ducked into a couple of stores along the route, but never really did any “shopping.” At this point, it was around 1:00pm and Cooper was getting pretty tired, so we headed back to the condo.

At the condo, we ate a small lunch and all just relaxed for the afternoon. Avin and Parker laid in Amanda and I’s bed watching TV (new bear and dog laid with them) while we watched Something About Mary on TV and relaxed in the living room. As it got later, we began the discussion of what we were going to do for dinner. Amanda wanted to either order a pizza or go to the grocery to get something to make at the condo. I told her I couldn’t do that. As I mentioned on Day 1, eating out is a critical part of Seymore family vacations and to go an entire day without eating at a new restaurant was just against everything I’ve been taught. We also realized that, aside from ordering in, anything would require leaving the Condo, so we might as well go to a restaurant. So we did, and it was an extravagant one…Johnny Rockets.

We hadn’t ever been to a Johnny Rockets before. We enjoyed it, particularly because we literally had the place to ourselves. We ate burgers and hot dogs and Avin and Parker colored pictures of Bert & Ernie that caught hung on the wall before we left. After dinner, we went down the block to a place called Kilwin’s for ice cream. This place had every kind of sweet you could think of. After a sample of sample of their Cinnamon Crumb Cake ice cream, I chose the Emerald Coast Sundae with mint chocolate chip ice cream, fudge, crushed oreo and whipped cream in a waffle bowl. The kids got some Superman ice cream, peanut butter / chocolate ice cream and some fudge dipped marshmallows. After dessert, it was back to the condo.

For the second night in a row, the best time of the day was the just before bed. We all got our PJ’s on and brought all the stuffed animals, new and old, into the living room. The first order of business was to name all the new friends. Parker was pretty easy, since I like to call him P-Bear, I suggested we call his bear T-Bear. He insisted that the name be Teddy instead. My resolution, “Teddy can be his real name, but his nickname will be T-Bear”…”Okay dad!” Avin was difficult (which has been pretty common at bedtime lately). He wanted his old dog and his new dog to be “twins” so he wanted to name them both dog. I tried to convince otherwise but he just got upset. The final resolution was to name him “Dog II”… for a little added flair I altered it to “Thurston Dog II.” Avin helped me name Cooper’s cream colored bear “Coconut” or “Coco” for short. After naming them all, we played stuffed animal duck-duck-goose and then a bear neighborhood game Avin made up with the boxes.

Seven o’clock rolled around and it was time for bed. The kids, and their dogs and bears made their way back to their room. I read them a little bit of their dinosaur book (which led me to realize that we need to find a new, less evolution oriented dinosaur book). After a little reading, it was prayer, highlights of the day (which were all getting their new bears) and then lights out.

The weather for the rest of the week looks clear and a little cool. We hope to get some beach / pool time in the next few days.

Another relaxing day in the books!