PCB '08

Kevin and I are very fortunate to have some great hook-ups through my parents. One of my dad's clients has a condo on Panama City Beach that they let us use occasionally, at no charge! So this past weekend we took advantage of their kindness, and spent a three day weekend in Florida. We invited our friends the Evans to accompany us, and together I think we had a weekend worth blogging about.

Thursday night after work, we drove down to Columbus, where we dropped off our dogs with my parents (Thank you mom - another blessing!) and picked up Mike and Jeanine. By this time it is already 10:00pm for our drive to the beach. For those of you who know me, I like to get my beauty sleep, so I'll brag on myself here and say that I was a trooper for the ride down there, and was even perky for our grocery shopping trip, which put us at the condo and ready for bed about 3:00am.

We went down there with a plan - to have as much fun as possible, while spending as little money as we could get away with. Well as far as I'm concerned, Mission Accomplished. Every morning started with breakfast cooked by Jeanine, and then a trip to the beach. We spent less time on the beach than I would've liked, but more than Kevin wanted, so we met in the middle somewhere with bocce ball, frisbee, and the pool. Friday night we played 36 holes of putt-putt (I would like to say that I won...but I didn't). Saturday we went to Pier Park. It was a pretty cool outdoor mall with some great ice cream and candy shops, where I enjoyed some delicious cappuccino chip ice cream. Sunday morning we got up early and made our way back to Columbus to spend some time with my parents. I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all, at least at one time or another.

I think the things that made the trip most enjoyable for me were the learning experiences that I gained as a wife. Every trip Kevin and I have taken as a married couple has been a lesson in the art of compromise. But this trip in particular provided the opportunity for us to use another young married couple as a mirror in which to view ourselves. I must admit, it was a very eye-opening experience. I probably learned as much about compromise and communication in the past week as I have in the past year. This weekend made me proud of my marriage, and the vast leaps and bounds that we have grown over the past three years.

Here are some pics of the long weekend. Enjoy!

The weather was gorgeous all weekend!

Yeah, I look like a wet dog but who cares, it's vacation!

This is the life!

We are retarded!

Much better

Mike and Jeanine

Better at posing than putt-putt

Old friends. Good times.