Port St. Joe - A Florida Family Vacation (Part 2)

We had so much fun I couldn't fit it all into one blog post.  We're back from vacation and about to head into the 4th of July weekend and I'd be lying if I said I remembered exactly what day we did each thing (this is why I blog as quickly as I can).  So, I'll do my best to recount it.  

Wednesday we rented a pontoon for the day and spent the day on the water.  The kids wanted to fish (we didn't catch anything...wah wah...) and the adults wanted to explore.  I'm not usually the first person to sign up for water excursions - the motion sickness and all - but, how could I miss out?  So I strapped on my reliefband and off we went.  It took us some time to get our bearing straight and to figure out where we wanted to go, but once we figured out a plan it all started to come together.  Unfortunately there really was no place for us to dock and get out for food/drinks, but that's ok, it meant we got the most out of the boat.  We found a place where the kids could swim and a few spots where they could try and fish.  We docked at a tiny nature park area where we could get off and explore for a few minutes.  I wish we'd have asked the owner a few more questions before we set sail, because we didn't see a single other boat where we ended up...which makes me think we missed the memo.  But, in the end, we had a great day and that's all that matters!

One morning we followed Ryan's suggestion and we explored Cape San Blas - a TINY spit of land just north of our house.  At the end there is a huge state park (with a brand new campground!) where there was hiking and beach access.  We thought we'd try to hike, but the campground host we met advised against it.  He said it was a 6 mile out and back and that they'd already hauled a few people off the trail earlier this year and with the kids in tow, it really just wasn't in the cards for us anyways.  We opted for a shorter hike (1.5 miles) which turned out to be all any of us wanted to do...and we ended it with my favorite ice cream stop of the entire trip.  Calories were fully worth it! 

The 4 of us "kids" snuck in a quick date night on the last night and that was super fun!  We really did have a great time with Joey and Andy on this trip and I think it's the best the 4 kids have ever done.  Even Mom and Dad commented at one point.

Hazel's birthday was the day after we got back from vacation so we took the opportunity to celebrate as a family - and...nobody is sad about delicious bakery cake - certainly not me!

One adventure we wanted to do, but didn't quite have time for was to kayak the Dead Lakes.  It was about an hour long drive away from our house and it was so hot and buggy we knew that if we wanted to do it, we'd need to get up and out of the house by 5 or 6 am for it to be enjoyable.  We opted not to do it, but, on our way back to the airport on Saturday we had some time to kill so we took a slightly longer route and drove past the area to see what it looked like.  The pictures in the magazine weren't inacurate...it looked just as cool as the pictures made it seem.  If we are ever in this area again, we'll 100% take the time to kayak and explore this area.  

Dear Hazel (Age 10)

Hazy – you are such an amazing little human.  You surprise me every day with the funny things you say, the smart, thoughtful ways you approach situations and your kindness (to everyone, minus your sister).  You are the coolest kid and if there is one hope that I have for you it’s that you never lose your weird.  You are quirky and silly, and you just don’t actually care at all that you dance to your own drumbeat.  You have the most interesting career choices.  You say you want to be an artist on the weekends and that you want to be an author but one who also does their own illustrations.  You still talk about opening a dog training/boarding place with Lucy too.  You say that you’ll never get married but that maybe you’ll adopt a kid.  You say you want to have a menagerie of pets!  A dog…wait, two dogs.  Very specifically a German Sheppard and a teacup Poodle.  You want to have more rabbits to be friends with Ned, maybe a few cats. We’ll see!  At this point I don’t know that I can cast too many stones – we’ve got a whole menagerie of pets at the house and we’re tee-d up to have another one arriving soon!  Daddy and I surprised you and Abby with a puppy – a female golden retriever coming in just under a month at this point.  I think we’re going to name her Penny.  Penny and Copper…I mean…come on!  How could we not?!?

Ten is a big year – double digits.  You will be in 5^th grade and that’s about when friends start getting tricky, middle school can be tough but so far you’ve been great at just rolling with the punches and making the most of the situation with a generally good attitude.  You’re my “most likely to go with the flow” kid.  You’re my “most likely to give me a giant hug” girl.  My “most likely to be in a good mood”, “most likely to laugh and let things go” kid. 

But, more than anything, I’m so excited to see the person you become.

Fears: “Thunderstorms”

Accurate – thunderstorms.  I secretly check the radar to see what time storms will be moving through and always hope for a post 10pm storm because by then you are usually long asleep and you miss them.  But, a 7 pm or 8pm storm is the worst.  You get all worked up and refuse to sleep until it’s past us. 

Favorite Color: “Purple”

It’s always been purple.  Purple, forever and ever. 

Bears or Packers? “Packers -hehehe”

We’ll see how long it lasts, but, I’ll take it!!  Go Pack, Go!

Some firsts this year:

The first time I went to the nurse’s office – to be fair though, the school didn’t have a school nurse until this school year.  So, while accurate, I’m not sure that it’s as notable as it seems!  You visited Mrs. Vanessa twice in just one week this year.  The first time was because you ran into a post with your head during recess and ended up with a giant goose egg and glasses that were worse for the wear.  The second time you took a soccer ball to the face during gym, and it was really the nail in the coffin for your glasses.  We visited the eye doctor a few days later and got you a new set of glasses for the year that will hopefully make it the full 12 months til next May.

Ears pierced – I honestly couldn’t believe when Abby convinced you to get your ears pierced, but I went with it.  It was early summer, and I had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be a good idea until the swimming/pool/lake season was behind us, so when you still wanted it do it in the Fall, I figured it was for real.  You got the pierced with zero drama, but when it was time to change your piercings, that’s when the drama started.  You decided that it hurt too much to change and clean your earrings, so we’ve been fighting about that for about 8 months.  I think you’re starting to come around that it doesn’t need to be quite so dramatic and the last two times you asked for help changing them without me harassing you.  So…progress?! 

First Boyfriend: Aiden – technically he was last year.  Ok, admittedly, you have boyfriend/girlfriend with Aiden since 3^rd grade, but…it didn’t seem all that serious until this Valentines Day when you came home with a giant Twizzlers bear from him and all kinds of gifts.  So, a year+ in, it seems like it’s a real thing.  Well, as much as a boyfriend in 3^rd and 4^th grade can be a “real thing”.  Daddy and I haven’t met this boy and other than calling yourselves boyfriend and girlfriend, I’m not sure what else it means to you.  Guess we’ll see….but at this point he does seem to have some staying power.  

First cavity – Sadly, it’s true.  13 years in and you were the first one to get a cavity.  Yes, you are only 10, but Abby is 13 in just a few months and I’m just counting my own parenting record at this point.  We made it 13 years with no cavities and I’m going to call that a parenting win!  And, if I had to pick which kid I’d prefer to get a cavity, it would be you, hands down every single day.  Your “go with the flow attitude” meant that this was a relatively drama free event and for that I am very thankful!

Favorite Toy: “That’s hard, I think Legos.”

You sure do love a Lego set…but honestly, I think was the first year that you’ve said anything other than the little Hazel Village bunnies you’ve had for years.  They’ve been your favorite stuffies since you were old enough to have words to tell us your favorites.  Between you and Abby I bet we own a small fortune in Lego sets at this point.  You are the kind of kid that is willing to take a bunch of pieces and make your own sets, the opposite of Abby who wants the sets to be exactly as they are in the photo and “Please, for the love of God, do not touch my sets.  They are exactly as they should be, so don’t touch them!” 

Favorite TV show:  “Maybe Duck Tails, actually Phineas and Ferb”

Ugh – seems like I need to start watching what you’re watching more closely!  I have no idea what this show is about but a quick Google search and it seems generally fine.  I miss the days of Disney Junior though!

Favorite Outfit: “My favorite shirt is the purple one with little hearts on it”.

Favorite Food: “My favorite meal is chili, but my favorite snack is pickles.”

I can corroborate that these are two of your favorites.  You ask for pickles all. the. time.  I’m going to teach you how to make them homemade this summer.  Chili on the other hand, that’s fully a fall/winter meal and we’ll be putting that one on pause for a few more months.  That being said, I do love that a can make a simple chili that’ll feed the family for 1-3 meals in the winter and you are in heaven.

Favorite Movie: “The Iceage movies”

This answer surprised me – I can’t say that I’ve seen you watch these specifically, but I don’t know that I had a better answer for the question.  Some movies we’ve watched together this year – Field of Dreams, Moana 2 and Men in Black.  It’s so fun now that you and Abby are getting old enough to watch some more adult movies. 

 

Nicknames: (I admittedly reused this exact section from last year’s post – which tells me these nick names are here to stay!)

• · Magoo – This is 100% the nickname I call you most often.  Magoo – Magoo-goo…some variation of this has really stuck.  You even correct me if I randomly use it in reference to Abby.  It’s your nickname and I think this one might stand the test of time.
• · HayHay – Abby and maybe Stella and Lucy are pretty much the only ones that call you this…but it’s another long-term nick name that has been on these birthday posts for quite some time now – since Moana really.  

A sweet story about you: 

Last summer, just before school started, Stella and Lucy were over and I decided to ask the girls if anyone was feeling nervous about starting school.  Abby, starting into 7^th grade was feeling extremely nervous and uncomfortable in her own skin and I wanted to show her that everyone feels that way…that even though she feels like the only kid who was dreading school, this was a common feeling and she shouldn’t feel so lonely.

I asked the kids if anyone was feeling nervous and everyone, minus Hazel said exactly what I expected them to say…that they felt scared and strange about it.  That the felt like a fish out of water and nervous about the whole thing.  All the girls agreed.  They felt like they wouldn’t have friends, like they were scared they’d be bad at school and that school was scary.  So I said, “See Abby, 4 out of 4 kids agree…”

“NO – NOT ME MOM!  I don’t…I’m not worried about school.  I have so many friends – I am always looking to see who doesn’t have friend and I just go over to them and ask them if they want to be my friend and then I make a new friend!  I’m not worried about school at all! 

“Ooookkkk…so 3 out 4 of kids agree – that they are worried about school.”

LOLOLO!  There isn’t a more perfect story to explain Hazel.  This is fully Hazel, all day every day.  Full of a little big spice and everything nice.  

Height: 4 feet 3 inches

Port St. Joe Beach - Sand Castle Contest

And the winner is.... Team G.B. (Abby/Kayden and Joey)!!  Joey and Kayden will take home the new traveling family trophy and we'll see what contest they come up with next!  

You're probably wondering just what the heck I'm talking about.  Well, a few weeks ago Abby asked if she could organize a family sand castle building contest.  She wanted to have a fun prize and thankfully she'd given me enough time to come up with something good and Amazon didn't disappoint!  I made an engraved trophy that says "Ritterbusch Family Traveling Trophy" and I'm hoping it actually travels between us in the years that come.  

The teams were:

Abby/Kayden/Joey:  Puppy themed scene with a puppy named "G.B." for Green Bay (they were playing to the judges).  The seaweed tail and ears really did it for us...it was adorable and a great use of what they had available.

Mom:  A "Give Peace a Chance" peace sign that got second place.  Mom used seaweed to spell out the words and it was in the running to win until we saw the final puppy theme'd one.

Hazel:  A castle/moat with a feature puppy

Lincoln:  A Transformer themed castle with shells and a village etc.

Ryan:  A beer can (also playing to the judges)

Dad/Me: Judges for the contest Lol!  I sure did make it so I had an easy job :)

Abby was in heaven that everyone was participating and doing a good job.  She was so excited to show everyone the trophy and I'm so thankful that everyone was a good sport.  All of the adults were clearly hot and overheating and a little light headed from bending up and down.  It brought back memories of strawberry picking a few years ago on Erin's bday for SURE.

We gave Hazel an honorable mention for her hard work.  She built her castle a little too close to the water and it kept washing her creation out.  She refused it move it even though she got lots of feedback early on that it might be too close.  But she kept rebuilding and rebuilding and she really did do a great job.  

I've got photos of the final entries below - give them a quick look!

Port St. Joe Beach - A Florida Family Vacation (Part 1)

We made it to the beach!  We've been looking forward to this vacation for a long time and the excitement as been building.  I think Mom and Dad booked our house over a year ago and we've been counting down the days since then...and we've 10000% been counting down the days since school ended.  The kids were so excited to have a full week with their cousins and we didn't really get a chance to "beach" with everyone back in 2018 at the Outer Banks - we were only there 2 days before turning back toward home to try and be with Ellyn in her final days.  

So, at long last, we made it and it didn't take me long to set myself up in the exact position I'd been waiting months for.  The moment when I could sit with my book in a beach chair and everyone else would have someone to "activity" with.  I'd arrived, we'd all arrived and now, we're not even half way through the trip and we have so many memories to share!

The house we're in is amazing!  It's brand new, it's only been open as a rental for 3 months.  It has 6 full bedrooms - four are king suites with beach porches and the other two are 4 queen bunk beds which the kids are LOVING.  There's a dining room table that will fit 16, two fridges, two dishwashers and a pool.  We have our own boardwalk right down the to ocean and we're the second to last house on this little spit of land, so we have the beach nearly to ourselves.  

We're staying in the FL panhandle, in a little town called Port St. Joe and it's perfect for us.  I've joked that all of the pennies Mom and Dad saved from not having air conditioning when we were little were spent on renting this house for us.  We're very fortunate and I'm so thankful for them planning this whole trip for the family.  Mom booked family pictures with a local photographer and I can't wait to see what we get back.  He showed me a few shots on his camera screen and they looked amazing!  I think they'll be photos we all cherish for a long long time - especially Mom.  She even had him recreate a photo we took when we were in the Outer Banks of the whole family running away from the waves holding hands in a long line.  I hope they turn out exactly as she'd hoped.

(Hazel has the cutest little splattering of freckles on her nose this summer and I can't get enough of them!)  

My favorite memory of the trip so far has been teaching the whole group how to crab.  Justin and I spent SO MANY HOURS crabbing when we were kids at Pawleys I couldn't believe not a single other person in my family knew how to do it.  I'd been planning to teach Abby for weeks once I realized there was a little back water channel right behind our house.  When we spied a bait shop in Panama City I didn't hesitate to ask the guys working behind the counter if my memory was right and I had all the things I needed.  I knew we needed a net, some twine and some chicken necks (or really anything that would attract the crabs).  

Us four McGraths set out the second night after dinner with our supplies just to see what we could figure out.  Sure enough, within 20 mins or so we had our first crab and Abby was fully hooked.  Watching her jump around with joy was all I needed.  I know exactly how Mom and Dad ended up renting this house for us all...it was for memories like that....but for OUR reaction.  

We caught about 8 crabs that night and I think everyone in the family was hooked by the end of the evening.  Somehow Joey, Mom, Dad...nobody else remembered the hours we'd spend doing this or how Mr. Ware would cook them toward the end of our week in Pawleys.  We're headed back out tonight to try and catch some more and Andy was even suckered into the whole venture at some point and has now invested in a box trap for crabs and its slow going - a full 24 hours and he's caught 4 - but his crabs are the largest we've caught.  I can't wait to see which kids are willing to try the crab when we cook them up.  I think we have one more day in them before we need to boil what we've got.  

This morning Ryan and I got up early and kayaked over to a little National Wildlife Reserve called St. Vincent Island that's maybe just a mile up the road from our house.  It has 10+ miles of beach and the only way to access it is via kayak or on a ferry.  There are no houses on the island and the entire thing is a Wildlife Reserve.  I'm pretty sure Ryan and I were the first people on the island today.  We hiked about 3 miles and saw a lot of strange things - some sort of native rat, jelly fist, a set of turtle tracks and we're pretty sure we found it's nest.  We saw a handful of other nests that has already been flagged and protected.  We saw tons of shells and lots of native plants.  Ryan commented that it was like hiking in Jurassic Park and it totally did feel that way.  We left before 7am and were home again by 9:30 and I think we timed it perfectly.  We hiked before it got too hot but we weren't too early to miss the mosquitos.  They were BAD once we got to the inland part of the hike.  But...we're pros at buggy hiking.  The key is to not stop!  Since we were solo without kiddos we could hike it pretty quick and we're both much more amicable to extremes (even though Ryan may disagree about my own ability to tolerate extremes). 

This afternoon we took everyone for ice cream and tonight we're having street tacos (made by Joey and Andy)...oh, and maybe the best moment of the day was the quick nap I snuck in when we got back from ice cream.  I decided I earned a nap because of the 6am alarm for the kayak trip and I'm here to say that there are few things better than an afternoon vacation nap after hours on the beach in the sun!

Panama City - A Florida Family Vacation

 

There are few feelings better than the first night of vacation and this one was no different!  We arrived in Panama City the day before the rest of the family because the flights were much cheaper to fly on Friday...and we didn't regret that choice for one second!  Our flight left around 11 on Friday morning and we were brewery side by about 2pm.  We spent the evening and the next day exploring Panama City area.  We didn't venture into the crazy of Panama City Beach but we loved the little historic downtown area.  

We found a cool taco bar/brewery/margarita restaurant called Weirdos that I'm pretty sure was made for Hazel.  It had the strangest, coolest art from local artist and I loved it so much.  It's made me realize I need to embrace Hazel's "weird" a little more and try to get her doing more non-traditional art.  I think she's made to be an artist and I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

We also found a little art museum that had all kinds of local art displayed and I think it might have been the first time Hazel saw real art displayed for sale.  She saw watercolors tagged for sale at $1,500 and even $5,000 and I think she might have finally realized that making art could be a full time career!  I'm so tempted to go back to Weirdos and buy this Party Pooper art for her.  It's hilarious, cool, and with a $125 it's a reasonable piece to buy. 

Tomorrow morning the rest of the family arrives and we'll make our way down to the beach house for the week!