Last day on the beach

It's our last morning here in Panama City Beach, and yes, I made time to write.  How is that possible, you might wonder, when we have a plane to catch and our belongings are strewn all over the condo like they own the place?

I'll tell you how: because the sun in the Florida panhandle RISES at 5:45 in the freaking morning, that's how.  And our bedroom window faces directly into it.

So here we go, things I know I'll be remembering about our trip:

1.  "DAD, get in the FUN!"  Uttered by Carson as we crept along in traffic on Front Beach Road.  Seems people feel the need to toot their car horns or moped horns or whatever they're driving, just for the heck of it.  So Dwayne obliged by honking the horn of our very hip Impala.

2.  "Swooooshhhh!"  The sound of Dwayne's Oakley sunglasses being sucked off his face by a gigantic rogue wave and pummeled to the bottom of the sea never to be seen again.  The only thing not really true about that statement is the "gigantic rogue" part.

3.  "Mom, can we live in Florida?"  From Cooper, who would be happy to live anywhere they have an arcade on site.

4. "Where are my sticky hands?!"  "Stop slinging the sticky hands!!"  "The sticky hands made a mark on the ceiling."  Some idiot decided that a hand-shaped piece of rubber with a long tail on it would be a fun toy.  And let's make it STICKY so it leaves little residue on surfaces.  And really flexible so kids can twirl it around in big circles for long periods of time.  And then let's roll it up and put it in vending machine bubbles in arcades at big resorts.  I would like to punch this idiot.

5.  "Mom, let's go down to the beach..."  I think I've dreamed of hearing those words for many, many years.  Watching the boys fall in love the sand and surf and "get in the fun" was by far the greatest part of our vacation.  I hope they nag their dad every day until next summer to bring them here again.

Many other things come to mind, but for now I have to go wake up two exhausted boys.

Make that three.