Lucky Bathroom Breaks: Alligators and Car Sick Stops

We said goodbye to the beach house on Saturday morning and then started on the drive home. Though we had planned a pit stop at the military museum on the way out to Florida, we had no planned stop for the way home. We were just going to more or less drive straight through, stopping only when necessary. We determined we'd eat our lunch at...some random gas station along the way. 

And some random gas station it was!

Sunset at Panama City Beach: May 23, 2025

It's always hard for me to say goodbye to the beach...even though I know that regular-ordinary life is piling up back at home so we need to get back to real life. It's just so beautiful...

Last Beach Day: May 23, 2025

Our last beach day was a beautiful one.

When we got to the beach we found that the shallow waters were filled with jellyfish of sorts, so we were a little hesitant about getting into the water. Eventually we caught one and identified it as a brown comb jelly—so not a jellyfish at all. While jellyfish often have stinging tentacles, jellies are typically harmless. 

Here's Benjamin holding one:

First swim meet of the season

The kids had their first swim meet of the season this afternoon. It was drizzling when we arrived and soon started a veritable downpour. The chairs that I brought got completely soaked. All the children's towels were drenched. Everything was soggy.

I had Andrew bring an extra canopy for the kids when he came. I should have brought one when we set out, but ran out of time to grab it. Next time we'll be better prepared. It would probably be good to set up the canopies when it's sunny outside as well, truth be told, so it's good we dug them out.

Here's Alexander doing his warm up (he's adjusting his goggles—you can see "A Heiss" on his back):

Cool pool days and graham crackers

It has been so cold and rainy this week that they even cancelled swim practice for the youngest swimmers on the team yesterday. Zoë suffered through her session until she was told to get out of the pool to warm up before she went hypothermic (reminding me of my youth and being sent to the hot showers in the middle of practice...except that our current pool doesn't have a row of hot showers to retreat to).

This morning I took the kids to practice. 

It was cold and rainy. 

Zoë's 10!

Zoë woke up early on Friday morning and convinced Grandpa and Darla to take her and Alexander to play pickle ball. So by the time I saw her she already felt like the luckiest girl in the world. 

After breakfast we headed down to the beach, where we found so many creatures. Brown comb jellies, sand fleas, clams, fish, crabs...animals were everywhere.

Here's Zoë pretending to pop a clam into her mouth:

Dig a Big Hole: Thursday, May 22

I hardly took any pictures this day. When I got up, Phoebe was already wide awake, watching video montages on a phone. Sunrise was at around 5:45 every morning, so the day was already bright and well under way by the time we were getting up. 

Bedtime roulette

After scriptures and prayer Andrew announced that two children had bedtime coming up in 25 minutes and one child had bedtime coming up in 55 minutes (early swim practice means early bedtime). 

"I'll take 55 minutes!" Alexander squealed, his little hand shooting up into the air...before he realized his mistake. He let his hand fall onto his face in shame. "I mean..."

"Yeah. You're a 25-minute kid," Andrew said.

"But way to jump at the opportunity," said Miriam. 

Print Shop: Wednesday, May 21

Andrew didn't actually have to work on Wednesday, so he came to the beach with us in the morning for a quick splash in the gulf before playing tourists. It was another red flag day and the waves were just right for boogie boarding again.

Here's Phoebe enjoying some snuggle time with Daddy (she sure likes being held):

Garbage Baby II

Darla tried to convince Phoebe to select a name other than Garbage Baby for her doll. 

"How about Gabby?" Darla suggested.

"No."

"What about Gee-Bee?" Darla said. 

"No. Her name is just Garbage Baby."

Here she is asleep at the beach house with Garbage Baby, Cookie (the pink thing), and Bean Bag Puppy, with Llama Llama at her feet. The two toys she named personally are Garbage Baby and Bean Bag Puppy. We're hoping her naming skills...mature...a bit before she has to name actual humans or something.