Happy 4th of July!

Unfortunately we woke up to a rainy morning at the beach today. Julia watched a little TV while we decided what our plan was for the day. She decided she needed to climb on the table to watch it. We laughed that she was probably intrigued by that TV because she's never seen one that big before. Most of us have flat screens at home!

We decided to get dressed and head to downtown Panama City for some lunch. Surprisingly, a lot of the restaurants were closed, but we finally settled on Salty Hog. Right as we got there it stopped raining and by the time we left the sun had come out. Julia loved looking at all the boats going by.

Pop & Julia checking out the boats

Last year on the 4th of July we went to eat at the Shrimp Boat which is in the same building as the Salty Hog so we took another family picture in the same spot. I can't believe how much Julia has grown in a year and next year there will be another little girl in that picture!

It is almost impossible to get a picture of her looking at the camera and smiling!

When we got back to the beach house we decided to take advantage of the sun before it set for the evening so Nonny, Julia and I went over to the beach. Julia played in the sand and socialized up and down the beach. We tried to distract her from socializing by encouraging her to find some shells for Nana.

When she was collecting shells I told her to look by the edge of the water. She was hesitant, but we creeped toward the water. When we got close enough for the water to touch our feet she freaked out, but we sat down and let it "tickle" our feet. She slowly scooted closer and closer until she was saying "Let's go that way" and pointing out into the ocean.

I was afraid that it we stopped to take our cover ups off she would change her mind!

When we got out of the water Julia rolled around in the sand to ensure that every piece of sand possible stuck to her body! That was our cue that it was time to go back to the house!

When we got back to the house and got bathed and cleaned up Julia and I made our 4th of July dessert. It was supposed to look like a flag with a bowl of blueberries in the corner for the star, but I got lazy so we just sprinkled the blueberries over the top!

After we made our dessert we went outside and Julia had a "cone" which she now refers to as "a party drink" after Michael's birthday party while Michael grilled hot dogs for dinner. She had been asking for one all day and I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it!

After dinner we ate our dessert with some whip cream. Julia calls it "ice cream" and prefers to eat it by the spoonful!

After dinner we headed outside to watch the fireworks. Julia loved them from inside, but when we headed outside she was a little hesitant to start with. She quickly warmed up though and loved the fireworks. Her favorite was the "happy face" firework.

After we got done watching fireworks we changed Julia into her PJ's. She climbed up on the couch to snuggle with her Daddy and was OUT in no more than 2 minutes. Poor girl had a long, tiring day!