The Journey of Parenthood…

Family Night in PCB

Since we had been cooped up in the hotel room all day Thursday I was HARDCORE about us GOING somewhere on Friday 🙂 First the beach for lunch and then to the outdoor mall for dinner. I asked on FB for ideas of family friendly things to do in Panama City and Citywalk (I think that’s what the mall area place is called?) was the thing most people recommended. It was SUPER close to our hotel so it worked out great. We got the kids up from naps then headed out. We took our time and walked the entire strip of the mall (and only went into the As Seen on TV store to browse and ran into a souvenir shop to buy an ornament but that was it!)

I had heard good things about the Pier Park area so I was eager to check it out and was expecting to find some fun things for all of us to participate in. BUST. It was CRAZY super expensive and they didn’t even have but like two things open to play/ride/experience! No thanks!!!

We did let Kye pick ONE thing to do as I felt bad having him see so many fun things and not allowing him to do one. He picked to ride the choo choo. It was $5 per person. Even the parent had to pay which is ridiculous to me. I really felt guilty not letting Britt ride but it was a 10 min ride and was SO overpriced. So Kye and I rode it together!

When we didn’t let Britt ride then I also felt guilty being the one to ride with Kye b/c Britt was stuck with Daddy. If I’d been staying with her I would have gotten her out of the stinking stroller and walked around with her, showed her the trees and such, let her run around, etc. But, nope, she sat in the stroller the whole time we were gone. Lame!

We were the only ones on the choo choo. It went down the entire strip of mall area then turned around and came back. It drove on the street along with all the regular traffic. So you KNOW the other cars LOVED us haha. We made a game of it to wave over and over at all the people and count how many people waved back. Surprisingly, a good number actually did! It was a fun challenge!

 Of course Kye picked the caboose for us to ride in

 So we got to see firsthand all the cars that we were annoying to death haha

Once we got back we decided to go ahead and get dinner. Originally we planned to eat at Margaretaville as we’ve eaten there a couple times in the past and it’s VERY kid friendly. A lot going on and I knew the kids would enjoy it. However, it’s also pretty pricey. So when we passed by a pizza place we decided to go that route instead. Cheaper AND we could eat outside 🙂 It was still pretty chilly but it was a nice enough day for it and people watching is like the best free entertainment ever, right? While we waited for our pizza the kids had fun running around!

 Singing a song about pizza

 Tell me she’s not so dang cute!!!

 Skinny Jeans and Ballet Flat Twins!!!

 Our Pizza!!!

 I looooove white pizza 🙂

While we were eating our pizza a neighboring store had Lord of the Rings playing on their tv. Kye was sitting where he was facing the movie. He kept asking us about it and saying what bad choices the people were making (the violence, fighting scenes). I talked to him about how the devil tempts us to do things we shouldn’t do and that he needed to resist that temptation and NOT watch the movie. Even though it was up on the screen and even though it was very hard not to look at it he needed to try super hard not to. One of my most important goals as a parent is to train my children how to live Godly lives in this crazy world we live in. Yes, I try SO HARD to shield and protect them from as much as I can. But I won’t always be able to keep the world away from them…they have to learn to stand strong on their own and resist temptations even when I’m not there to do it for them. I took this as a learning opportunity for Kye and a chance for me to help him practice self control and resisting worldly temptations. 

Our pizza was AWESOME. So, so good! I’m glad we made the decision to eat there! We all enjoyed our food and it was a much more affordable option for us too 🙂 As the sun started going down it got COLD again super fast so it was time for us to go! As you can tell from us wearing the same clothes over and over on the trip…we didn’t quite pack for the mega cold front 😉

 Gangsta faces

 Britt’s gansta face

 Red Brick Pizza = YUM!

 Racing back to the car to warm up!

 I knew I’d forget the name of our hotel so I took a picture…Legacy! GREAT deal, good size room, GREAT location!

 We got back and did baths and were able to see the sunset again…so beautiful!

That night Zach and I were watching The Office (duh) in the living room when we heard someone try to get into our room from the connecting door! You know how hotels have the double doors that are both locked from the inside for connecting rooms? Well someone on the other side had opened their door and was pounding on our side and rattling the doorknob etc…like they were trying to break the door to get in. I jumped up and stood against our door and then Zach took over standing there and yelled through the door for whoever it was to stop. I called the front and told them to send security asap b/c someone was trying to break into our room. We weren’t sure if it was someone trying to GET to us OR if someone was trying to GET AWAY from a bad situation in their own room. My heart was POUNDING. I told the lady on the phone to just call us back and tell us what happened b/c I didn’t want anyone knocking on our main exterior door since Britt was sleeping in that area. Zach actually was able to hear the whole exchange when the security came up and a girl in the room was trying to get into our room b/c she thought it was a closet?!?!? I mean really??? I guess you can expect some stupidity when you’re staying at a cheap hotel in Panama City huh? I was glad that everyone was okay b/c I was SO worried that someone was hurt in the room beside ours and they were trying to escape a bad situation!

We got a great nights sleep and headed back first thing the next morning. The drive home went awesome. I switched out Britt’s movies a lot so she watched all the short age-approrpirate stuff and she LOVED it. Laughed and babbled most of the way. Cried some but even managed to sleep a bit since she was missing her morning nap on the drive. Kye, of course, was a happy camper with his headphones and movie 🙂

We had SUCH a great little trip. I have been bugging Zach to death about finding another opportunity to travel with him for work. It’s such a great way to spend family time together on a “vacation” without spending nearly the amount of money we normally would have to! I’m also counting down to our big beach trip this summer! Now that I have two beach lovin’ kids I can’t WAIT!!!!

Emily Parker
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