fravina: florida family fun!

j & j peden - the hosts with the mosts

things really picked up after we left amarillo. we hit DFW around 4 the next afternoon, had dinner with our favorite friends in fort fun and made it home to dallas in time to shower and have a beer with dad and libby before passing out in a real bed! no time to waste though, because the very next morning we were back on the highway, still heading east, this time to the florida panhandle.

that's right, friends, time had come for the long-anticipated peden family summer vacation! this vacation had been in the works for years, and we were all really excited to be finally on our way. knox and i were particularly thrilled because we were driving in jim's ride, which is SIGNIFICANTLY nicer than our own. we made it to florida in two days, surviving the drive on "bloody 98," otherwise known as "meth alley" (yikes), the nasty carpet at the comfort inn in jackson, ms, and many a poopy-diaper stop (leigh and chris, knox's sis and bro-in-law have three little ones in diapers, two of whom still take bottles, none of whom has much road tripping experience... those two deserve medals!).

and then, the pay off.

navarre beach!!

vacation headquarters

sam and harry totally get it - i think we've got some beach bums in the making...

dang, that's pretty!

it was pretty much all beach all the time, interrupted by occasional breaks for beers, naps, and/or ice cream...

i think i ended up with more ice cream on my face than walt did on his.

you know what? drinking beer at 11am makes me sleeeepy!

knox and i celebrating two years of marital bliss at juana's pagoda, the local watering hole (red stripe, believe it or not, is a sentimental beer for us - if only because we got blitzed drinking it together on the champs elysées in 1994! now that's romance!!)

it was as any summer vacation should be, though the party did end a little early with the news that ike was going to tear up texas. we were beginning to see the outer effects where we were and decided to bail out a day early so as to avoid any inclement weather on the road.