Carter was beyond thrilled to be asked to be a part of the Athens All Stars Team this year. They practiced all November long and then we went down to Dothan (about 5 hours south) for the weekend before Thanksgiving to cheer them on. Carter had worked hard and we were excited to support him. Also, we are all always excited for a little trip! We all had a good time in Dothan last year and were excited to go back.
We can’t take Duke to Dothan so we have to board him. The kids requested a picture before we dropped him off at the boarders.
Which turned into rowdy Duke hugs.
Roadtrip Selfie!
Athens played in two games on Saturday. The lost the first one and won the second one. We had one game scheduled for Sunday. Then depending on how things ended up potentially a second game Sunday which would be the championship. Unfortunate we didn’t make it to the championship, but they ended up winning their Sunday game. So they won two and lost one which was great! Carter played so hard and did awesome!
(That him…number 3)
With our favorite ALL STAR!
Carter with his Coach.
John and I with our All Star Carter.
The Athens All Stars ages 9-10
Carter and his friend Mason both made the team!
They received medals for coming in second in their poole.
One thing we did in Dothan last year that the kids requested to repeat was visiting Adventure Land! We had fun playing putt putt.
John got a hole in one.
We really had a great time in Dothan and we really enjoy that town!
Last year I said that if we ever came back down to Dothan we HAD to go on to the beach because it’s SO close…only about an hour and a half away. So when Carter got invited to play this year, we made plans for the beach afterwards.
So after the soccer game Sunday we left straight from the soccer field and drove to the nearest beach…Panama City Beach. John and I hadn’t been to Panama City in 18 years and the kids had never been. We thankfully were there at an unpopular time so it wasn’t crowded. It was the best little beach trip! We got three beach days which was perfect.
My happy place is most definitely the beach.
Our mermaid
The kids love the beach.
Our resort was really fun and neat. The had several pools, a splash pad, a lazy river, and activities. We watched our first Christmas movie of the season. Here the kids are in the pool at the “Dive in Movie” watching The Santa Clause.
My beach bums
The view from our room
No filters on any of these. The water was so blue green and perfectly clear.
The biggest pool at our resort had this waterfall behind Dawson.
The lazy river was a huge hit!
Just can’t get enough of this view.
This was when we were about to leave. The kids had put on pants to ride in the car home in, but we went out “to say goodbye to the beach” and they ended up getting in the ocean in their pants haha! I turned around to snap a picture of it, but I also realized Clayton is jumping in this picture out of excitement and looks really high off the ground! Haha!
The sky was so beautiful blue
That water!
Sweet boy loved all the different pools
We had to take the throw in net. Here Dawson is trying to catch fish. There were not a ton of fish here, but there were a ton of shells so we switched to shelling pretty quickly.
More pool time.
Our room had two bunk beds and this was a huge hit.
We played putt putt
Lazy river
The day we left it was kind of cool so the kids bundled up for a walk on the beach.
View of the pier from my run.
Of course, we had to take the kids to Pineapple Willies!
The splash pad at the resort. That blur is Carter and Clayton running through it.
Our resort.
Breakfast by the beach at our resort.
View from our room.
Balcony
Swim time
The resort had an arcade.
The lazy river tunnel lighted up at night…complete with Christmas light colors.
The place we boarded Duke was great about sending us pictures of him. This one cracked us up though. Obviously he made a friend with a sweater-wearing dog.
I could stay here forever!
We found SOOOOO many shells. Mostly olive shells and even tiny sand dollars. It was unreal!
Sunset
The view walking out the back of the resort toward the beach.
After a few days in Dothan and a few days in Panama City we were not ready to head home. John and I even talked about him taking one more day off work to extend our trip by one more day. It’s SO hard for us to leave them beach. In the end we stuck to our plan and headed home so that we could have about 24 hours to unpack and repack before heading to Tennessee for Thanksgiving. This was a wonderful November trip to get to watch Carter play for state in Dothan AND then go on to the beach. It always feels extra special to get to go to the beach when it’s cold at home.
