Party in slow motion...Motorboatin'

Well I have been in a slight vacation mode ever since the 1st of July. There are numerous blog posts I should have been writing in the month and a week I have failed to make a post. Oh well...

Back to reality of not traveling finally this week, and I'm going to make time to make a few posts about the last month or so.

For our birthdays, Todd's in June and mine in July, we treated ourselves to a little vacation to Mexico Beach, Florida, to spend time with one of my best girlfriends, Katelyn, and her family. We did go there on our honeymoon, so it was awesome to go back to places we already knew pretty well. Todd was talking about oysters and fish for weeks leading up to our trip.

Here is a little recap:

We flew into Panama City and Katelyn picked us up. We arrived in a downpour of rain. Not exactly the kind of Florida sunshine welcome I wanted. We drove the hour to Mexico Beach and settled into the beach house where we met Kyle, Katelyn's husband, her dad and mom, Mark and Janora, and sister and cousin, Abigail and Morgan. Kyle took us to the marina to get our fishing licenses and we went to the fishing shop to get some gear. I knew I HAD to fit the part of a legit Florida fisherwoman so I got my Columbia fishing shirt in purple, of course. That night we had red snapper the gang caught the day before on the Gulf and grits. Mmm boy...good Southern food!

The next day was our day on the water. I ran 3 miles that morning on the beach and it was gorgeous!

We then got ready to head out on the boat. Mark, Katelyn, Abigail, Morgan, Todd and I all went. Now, I was not fully prepared for the fashion that I should have brought with me to go on this trip. The girls were dressed to the nines in their amazing jewelry, cover ups, hats, and shoes. It is also a must that everything be monogrammed. Not that I would disagree with all of that, but being from Missouri, we definitely have a different way of fashion. We also listened to the best tunes, hence the name of this post. Here are a few pics from being on the Gulf.

Todd in his element. He loved fishing for even the bait fish.

Our catch for the day, king mackerel

The next day was rainy so Todd stayed with Mark on the canal all day and bs'ed and drank beer. His kind of day! Us girls did a little shopping in Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe. There are only a few shops, but they are great. One of my favorite is Persnickety. I was introduced to Lilly Pulitzer, oh my...fun fun and girly! We then ate at my favorite Mexican restaurant of all time, Pepper's. I had the fish tacos. Yum!

We then went to the beach that day to layout and try our hats that Katelyn got us. Yes, they are monogrammed!

That evening we went out with the entire gang, around 40 of us, to Boondocks. It is the restaurant at the resort we stayed at for our honeymoon. It is a tradition of all the families that go to have at least one dressy dinner together.

All of us "young" gals on the trip. 

On Friday, it was rainy again so we hung out most of the day at the beach house and tried to go out on the boat one more time. We didn't catch anything this time. The water was incredibly choppy. Thankfully, none of us lost our lunch!

We left on Saturday morning to head back to Missouri. I was so sad to leave as I hardly get to see Katelyn on a yearly basis, but I know we have such an amazing friendship that started back in college. I love her to pieces, and hope that we can make a trip to Florida every year to spend time together. The best part of our trip was the great conversations and getting to know the Crow family even better. Such amazing Southern hospitality!