The Photographer's Wife Parenting, Disney, Travel, Reviews & Other Randomness
On Saturday, we decided to try a new beach…Grayton Beach State Park. It was about 2.5 hours away, which is only about 10 minutes more than the beach we normally go to, but the drive back allowed us to stop at Pier Park in Panama City Beach to enjoy some Red Robin and shopping. We went with some family members and we must bring a lot of stuff because we each had our own “cargo” to carry to the beach.
Even the pregnant woman had to pull 45+ pounds in the Radio Flyer wagon with a 30 pound toddler on my shoulders. The things us moms do!
After all was said and done, this was our little home on the beach for a few hours. That canopy was such an improvement over our umbrella…we had lots of shade. Perfect for a red-haired toddler to play under.
The two times we brought Trent to the beach last year (here and here), he was absolutely NOT a fan of the sand or the ocean. But since he did really well at Castaway Cay in the Bahamas during our cruise, we had high hopes for him being much better this year…and he was! He was trying to get me to put him down as soon as we found our spot! After the mandatory sunscreen application process, he immediately started playing with all of his beach toys.
Brett kept busy by building a sand replica of Main Street USA and Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom!
And then we let Trent destroy it.
Another new item this beach trip was this inflatable beach pool. We had seen and tried a version of this from Pinterest last year using a shower curtain, but we bought this from Zulily a few months ago and it is much easier to set up and hardly gets any sand in it. (They also have it on Amazon)
The ocean water was a little chilly, so when we first got there, we set up this pool, poured the water in it and let it warm up a little. Trent had his own little pool and he loved it.
Then it was time to head down to the water.
I walked him down to the ocean, but let him stand on his own to figure out whether he liked it or not.
We think it definitely helped for him to have water shoes on…it was easier for him to run around and not have to think about the sand or seashells touching his feet, which he didn’t like last year.
He would stand back and watch for a few seconds, then run towards the water and then run back. Back and forth…he did a lot of running while we were there and he was definitely much braver!
Jessi was a tad happy…can you tell?
Delicious zero calorie sparkling flavored water…yum.
After a few hours, it was nap time, so we set up the umbrella to block any wind and sun with a little spot for Trent. He fell right asleep…I wanted to join him!
After Trent woke up, we packed up our temporary home and headed towards Pier Park in Panama City Beach to enjoy a tasty dinner at Red Robin. Trent was well-rested and quite rambunctious during our meal.
A must have at every visit to Red Robin…freckled lemonade with free refills!
I had a Whiskey River BBQ Chicken Burger with fries. It was good, but I could have used a little more BBQ sauce on it, as it was a little bland.
Brett had a fried chicken sandwich with cheese.
I love how the sides at Red Robin are endless…endless fries, endless broccoli, endless salad. Too bad I don’t think I’ve ever taken advantage of the “endless” benefit.
After dinner, we walked around the shops for a bit and enjoyed the nice afternoon/early evening.
We ended the day with some ice cream and Starbucks. Trent was a fan of the peanut butter and chocolate ice cream Brett picked out.
Can’t you tell?
I was so glad that Trent enjoyed this beach this time and we are so excited to take him more often. In fact, he slept so well the rest of the weekend…and THAT is a darn good reason to go back, as well!!
I hope your weekend was just as great!
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