Panama City Beach Vacation 2020

We finally took Beckett on his first beach trip! As a Native Floridian, I was so excited to share this experience with Beckett at Panama City Beach. He’s such a water and sand kid, so I couldn’t wait to see how much he loved the beach.

My stepdad’s family shares a beach house that’s on Panama City Beach, and they were gracious enough to share it with us for an entire week! The COVID-19 pandemic rescheduled our vacation once in the Spring, but we were able to make make it happen in October!

Though we were so disappointed about having to reschedule the trip, I think it was a blessing to go in October! We had PERFECT weather. The mornings and evenings were cool—perfect for warm drinks and snuggles. The daytime was just warm enough to make swimming in the ocean fun and soaking up vitamin D! There were no crowds, so we didn’t have to wait to use amenities or tables at restaurants. We also had the bizarre experience of coming home from the beach to see Fall colors!

The Resort

The family’s beach house was a part of Venture Out Vacation Resort. It’s an ideal set up for a family vacation. The resort is across the street from the beach and has over 700 other rental homes. The resort has endless free amenities—mini golf, shuffleboard, 2 pools, playground, basketball court, beach volleyball, horseshoes and fishing on the lagoon. It is also next door to a beautiful state park, which we drove our personal golf cart too!

The beach house itself was perfect too! It has a HUGE wrap-around, furnished patio with a view of the Lagoon. If it wasn’t for Beckett’s toddler energy, I think we would’ve easily just stayed at the well-stocked house to relax and enjoy the view. But we were gone doing outdoor things every chance we got! We probably didn’t even discover all outdoor sports supplies that was stashed away at the house for us to use. There was no need to rent anything to have fun, which was so nice!

I mentioned we did SO MUCH, right! It’s impossible write about it all, so I’m sharing it in pictures. There are captions for most images to add to the story, so you can feel a part of it. 🙂 I will share our ONE of our favorite memories though, because we didn’t get a single picture of it!

My favorite memory: we paddle boarded with wild dolphins!

The beach house had a paddle board for us to use, which we took out as much as possible. One morning, Jimmy and I were on the paddle board together while Bobby, my stepdad, snorkeled nearby. There was a kayaker fishing a little ways away. He was attracting dolphin who wanted to eat his fish. Bobby told us that dolphin are attracted to the sound of slapping on the water’s surface, so we started doing it. SURE ENOUGH! They came over! They were within arms reach and swam around us. Bobby quickly swam over and got even closer! One of the dolphins swam underneath him, went belly up, and starting “talking” to him and waving his flippers! HOW COOL IS THAT?! We soaked up the time with the dolphins as long as we could. It felt so surreal. It’s something I’ll always remember!

Anyways, I can truly go on and on about all our experiences, but this post will never get published. It’s already delayed because as soon as we got home, I was thrown into my fully-booked Fall calendar. I’m pretty proud it’s being posted before 2021, to be honest, ha! 🙂 I’m first sharing images taken with my DSLR. We didn’t have time to take a family photos or include me, but we have plenty of phone images to make up for it that follow after!

From Mommy’s “speh-shell camwah”

: Getting giddy over the waves touching his feet. 🙂

: Always on the move!

: He LOVED putting his head in the sand. Don’t ask me why!

: Saying “where go [seagull]?”

: “No mo picshas maw-ee!”

Our phones’ perspective of our family vacation!

: We flew mom up to help us keep our sanity on the 7-hour drive down to PCB. Beckett was thrilled and the fun started immediately! It was so fun that I couldn’t get a in-focus picture, ha! 🙂 Thanks again for doing this, Mom!

: Beckett and I were sick during our trip. Lots and lots of neediness with very little sleep.

: The “vacay house” as Beckett called it.

: We absolutely loved the vacay house, especially the huge front porch.

: The view from the vacay house was the best in the neighborhood! We got a view of the lagoon!

: Headed to the beach ASAP.

: Beautiful, private spot for the neighborhood.

: Beckett at the beach for the FIRST TIME!

: He was immediately so in love with the sand!

: He preferred the sand of the water.

: The waves were a little unnerving for B at first.

: Such a precious moment for me.

: Bubby showing B how to skim board.

: I can’t believe he went for this!

: Love birds.

: Boys hoping to catch some fish.

: Jimmy kept up with his half marathon training and ran on to the beautiful jetty.

: Beckett “washign” the HUGE jellyfish we found. He kept softly saying, “Heee gooo.”

: These jellyfish were everywhere on our first day. They were HUGE!

: I mean look at this scale!

: Build his first sandcastle with Bubby!

: He was so proud!

: SO thankful for being able to take a golf cart to-and-from the beach!

: Happy beach bum.

: I mentioned that there was very little sleep, right? This is Mimmie & B snuggling on the porch at 4:30a!

: Took the golf cart to explore the state park that was right next to the neighborhood and beach!

: I loved getting to cuddle B while we searched for deer ad gator.

: I forgot what FL beauty looks like.

: We did find a baby gator!

: I hope I never forget what it sounds like when he exclaims, “SEE!”

: Off to catch his first fish!

: He was SO proud to carry his pole. He walked with a bounce and huge smile.

: Exploring the lures.

: He did it! Caught his first fish!

: He wasn’t sure what to think of it at first.

: Eventually, he was so excited and exclaimed, “MORE!”

: Look at those hands on the knees. Gah, so precious.

: Bubby caught a pelican who went for his fish!

: Our awesome canopy that we never used and probably got stolen! 🙁

: Boys at work making cool things!

: Holding my grumpy pants after he woke up from his nap and we waited on the guys to come back from fishing!

: Takes him a minute, but he cheers up 🙂

: Bubby caught B a fish off the beach. Just look at that JOY!

: Proof that he held a fish! It was all of 2 seconds before he flung it in fear, haha!

: Examining crabs Bubby scooped up off the ocean floor.

: I love this smirk.

: Just eating “bunnies” and watching the sunset.

: So thankful to experience this with him.

: Off looking for “shewls.”

: Amazing spot to see the sunset.

: My guys <3

: Night walks on the beach!

: Some cool shades Mimmie got B.

: Beckett & Mimmie racing down the pier. Mimmie was imitating B’s hilarious walk.

: Bubby rented a pontoon boat to explore the channel. It was a blast!

: Not sure about having to wear this life jacket though!

: He would NOT let this chapstick go. He calls it “lips.”

: Him and his “lips.” 🙂

: Looking for fish!

: Anchoring at Shell Island.

: We jumped off the boat and walked to the island to explore the water and beach. We saw some very cool fish, more jellies, and did LOTS of swimming at the beach in the waves. Beckett LOVED swimming in the ocean.

: Beckett driving us back to the vacay house.

: We went to Schooners as a family of three. We ate right ON the beach. It was AMAZING!!!

: The biggest reason why it was amazing was the Beckett played happily in the sand while we ate IN PEACE! He was hilarious to watch and was everyone’s entertainment.