Destin Vacation

Some of you may or may not know, Hardy's father also works for King Green.  He's in the pest control division.  Each December King Green hosts a Christmas party for all the employees with a fantastic dinner and prizes!!  This past year Hardy's father's name was called and he picked a 5 night stay at one of the Kings' gulf shore condos.  They chose to stay in Destin and this past week was the vacation!

The condo is located at Pelican Beach resort in downtown Destin.  It was the perfect location between Panama and Ft. Walton.  We were close to many restaurants (fancy and non fancy).  The condo itself was a beautiful 2 bedroom, 2 full bath with a dining room, living room and full kitchen.  Even had a washer and dryer!

We arrived Wednesday late evening so we just ate Wendy's and explored the condo.  The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed to the beach.  Since I'm the only one who ever thinks to take photos, you think I would have taken some, but I didn't.  Instead I remembered my camera AFTER the beach when we headed to the pool.

Persephone loves to swim.  Her Mimi and Pops bought her this cute life jacket a few weeks ago and it has given her so much confidence.  It scares me a little how much of a daredevil she can be, but I guess that's just proof you aren't born with fear!

 

She had a blast on this float

P.S. This is my first time using Google to upload a video instead

of YouTube so I have no idea how it'll look on other computers.

That night we had dinner at Margaritaville and walked around the Harborwalk Village for a little while. 

 I know I look huge, but this was the only family photo I got on my camera.

Hardy and I even enjoyed a train ride with miss priss.

Here she is holding our tickets punched by the conductor

To say it was a tight fit for parents is a slight understatement.

The next day we returned to the beach again, which was short lived.  She prefers the pool I guess because we can let her freely swim...whereas in the ocean I'm a nervous wreck.

That night we tried to do a family photo session with his sisters camera.  I haven't seen the pictures yet, but hopefully there were some cute ones of us and Persephone.  Here are a few I took with my phone.

That evening we were all pretty tired so we just stayed in and had Little Caesars pizza and watched Frozen.

Saturday we got up and headed to the beach since it was our last day.  We managed to stay in the water a little longer before Persephone demanded to go back to the pool.  The water was crystal clear, so beautiful.  I prefer the Gulf over Myrtle Beach ANY DAY.  The beach itself was even cleaner.

Since it was our last night, we had dinner at AJ's which was a little higher than we wanted to spend for food, but it was worth it.  Delicious food.  Persephone loves corn.

Selfie....

After dinner, we took some photos with Persephone and the AJ's Ford truck.  She had a good time pretending to drive.

If the window wasn't clean, it is now

I almost fell asleep on the drive back.  It was just soooo long and not much to look at.  We got home around 5pm, ate dinner..gave P a bath and let her sleep in her souvenir shirt....CUTIE PIE - - I don't even remember why Hardy was making that face in the background.

Until next time beach, we will be back next year for sure!

Happy 4th of July!

We started last week with yet ANOTHER ear infection, double this time.  I'm not sure if we ever got rid of the original one that hit Persephone back in May or not.  We went through 3 antibiotics and thought everything was normal.  She started acting a little puny weekend before last and so I took her to the doctor Tuesday and sure enough...double ear infection.  This time her PA suggested we try Augmentin since it's not amoxicillin alone (that was the very first medicine we tried back in May).  I thought we were smooth sailing, but she's smart and spits/gags/pukes this medicine up too.  I can't say I blame her, I never liked chalky medicine either.

Thursday I called her pediatricians office again and explained she won't take the medicine despite our best efforts and it's not worth the trauma on both ends.  They suggested we do rocephin which is an antibiotic shot.  We went ahead with the first shot Thursday, second on Saturday and third one this morning.  She has bounced back to life like you wouldn't believe.  I was starting to worry we haven't really seen our outgoing little girl for a while with how hyper she's been.  We're having to give her yogurt now though because that shot has caused some serious diarrhea - like worse than newborn poop diarrhea.  The oddest thing is that it has no smell.  It's the nastiest stuff to change, but at least no smell tags along with it

The shot apparently hurts worse than vaccines because the medicine was so thick.  She did scream, but was a trooper and the crocodile tears stopped before we walked out the door.

Friday the 4th we had no plans whatsoever.  We just stayed at home, Hardy cooked some ribs which were delish.  He also bought a small $10 firework pack from Wal-Mart earlier in the day.  We started shooting them off around 8:45.  Persephone was intrigued at first, but then was more interested in finding lightning bugs.

Lite bug, lite bug

Everland Play

I've been hearing about this place for a while, but didn't take Persephone until this weekend.  I'm sorry it took us so long, because she loved it.  For $6.00 that's a steal!

I wish Hardy would have taken some pics of me playing with her, because always being behind the camera makes it look like I'm not involved, but I swear I am!!  We will most certainly visit this place more often.  So cute.  And aside from the fact that I look/feel like a whale....I totally got to enjoy the inflatable slide!!

Glorified animal killer

There have been so many crazy stories in the news lately.  Have you noticed there's never any GOOD news these days?  Further proof that the media controls what we see.  They want us to all feel the same.  I don't believe or click on many links shared on Facebook simply because most of them aren't true.  It's like chain letters, we as a society are so gullible.

One story in particular caught my eye and when I saw it was from Huffington Post I assumed it had to be legit .  Later that evening it was also featured on People.com and you know "they don't put anything on the internet that isn't true."

Anyway...this story in particular was about a 19yr old Kendall Jones from Texas.  Who since the age of 9 has been traveling to Africa with her father to hunt.  She made it a goal of hers to hunt/kill the "Big 5" which are the lion, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard and the white/black rhinoceros.  In fact her first kill was the white rhino at age 13 which she bragged about shooting with a .416 Remington.  She cites herself as being a conservationist.  She only hunts animals who are already on private land and that need population control.  And on another occasion boasted about how her elephant kill would go on to feed 100+ villagers.

I've always been an animal lover.  I used to dream that one day I would be an animal cop like Annemarie Lucas on Animal Planet's Animal Precinct.  But even though I have a big heart, it also has a tendency to get the best of me.  While I want to save every animal who needs saving, as I got older I couldn't stomach the images or realities of what comes with being an "animal cop".  I to this day feel bad for deer even though I know they're overpopulated in some places.  Maybe it's the Disney-fan in me that always thinks of Bambi?  I appreciate what American Indians did - they literally utilized every kill they made.  From the skin, fur, meat, bone...it all had a purpose.  Right here, right now...we don't all exercise that same appreciation for animals.  Yes they are here for us to eat, but does that mean they have to be killed so inhumanely without dignity?  I don't believe so.  You can agree or not, that's why this is my blog!

So anyway, back to Ms. Jones the animal killer.  Lets say you WERE trying to control a population of lions or jaguars because farmers are losing cattle.  Is it really necessary to publicly share your photos with a giant smile as you stand/sit beside the carcass?  Her supporters praise her efforts saying that she and her father have paid thousands of dollars just for the opportunity to hunt in these countries.  Well woopity damn doo.  How about you flat out donate that money to animal sanctuaries/conservations instead of paying for the kill?!?

So you take a gander at these photos (that are already all over the internet) and form your own opinion. 

I'm curious to hear your thoughts and opinions...