Defuniak Springs, Florida

We made the trip to Defuniak again!  Our friends were visiting some family and it is such a quick trip it was an easy decision to go! Since we moved from Texas we don't get to see them as often!  We left after work on Friday night (after we fixed Tim's blown tire on his way home - thankfully we took my car this trip!)

First we went to dinner at Café Nola.  This place was AWESOME!  I had just a basic fried fish dinner, it was great and everyone else said their food was delicious as well.  There is a hotel attached to the Café.  Apparently room 8 is haunted.

There are 12 rooms.  Two adjoining rooms are downstairs and 3-12 are upstairs.

The lobby area from the stairs.

Rooms 1 and 2.

A little café area right outside the entrance lobby of the hotel.

This is taken from the entrance of the restaurant portion of the hotel.

There is also a bar just inside the entrance off to the side.

This table was great and able to fit us all!

Of course we had to get some beignets! They were SO GOOD!!! 

After visiting for a bit we went back to our motel room and hung out!

Woke up the next morning and met at the local Walmart to get lunch stuff for our trip to Vortex Springs!  Cale loves clowning around with Uncle Benny!

Packing away all the cooler stuff!

Drove 20 minutes and made it to Vortex Springs.

They have a cute little dive shop.

Guys putting together our shade tent.

Some pictures of Vortex Springs.  The water stays 68 degrees year round.  It was a little overcast when we first got there so it wasn't too hot, but later in the day the clouds parted and it got pretty hot!

Behind us was another pool area and it had a huge water slide!

Guys didn't bring a speaker so they improvised with a can!

I did some "reading".

They have a camp ground and some cabins.  In one area they had a "motel" style cabin and it looked like it had a lot of college students at it.

They have a kayak and a few canoes available for people to use.  I don't know if they are free for anyone with a wristband or what, but lots of people were using them and I never saw anyone get told to not use it.  So Kennedie pulled a canoe out and went to town.

 Our little area.

I love this picture that Tiffany got of Tim coming off the water slide!

We left around 3:30 and as you can tell he was tuckered out!  We went back to the motel to rest a couple hours and then headed to dinner.

4C BBQ is what we found through our google search. Didn't expect more than a BBQ restaurant.  Boy were we surprised when we got inside!

I guess Saturday nights are Karaoke nights!

They sat us in the middle of the dance floor apparently.  The minute we sat down the regulars hopped up when the music started for the night.  Man they knew EVERY line dance there ever was created!

This family and another family was our original Army family.  The 6 of us all dated at the same time and all 3 of the guys that were in the army together married Alaskan girls!  Tim is the only one of the group left in the army.

Cale NEVER snuggles daddy like this.  So he was soaking it up!  I left and took the kids back to the motel so they could go to sleep.

It was cool to see the brewery we have 20 minutes up the road from our house being served in Florida.

I thought the doors to the bathrooms were cute!

They are building an addition to the BBQ restaurant called the Hero's sports bar.  The owner took us over to have a peek.  It will be really cool when it's all done!

The next morning we headed back home.  We love Defuniak Springs and we always find something new when we go there.  No doubt though that we will be back to Visit 4C BBQ.  That place was a blast for the whole family!!

Labor Day 2018!

 We had grandious plans for Labor Day 2018.  A month ago I made a reservation at Tyndall AFB in Panama City Beach Florida to stay for three nights.  Days before our trip the weather didn't look good at all.  So against my better judgment we called and forfeited $25 to Tyndall by cancelling and heading down to our old faithful Blue Springs State Park in Alabama.  It was a bad judgment call because my friends that continued with their plans were sending me pictures of the beautiful (yet there were some grey clouds) weather at the beach.  I am making my husband take me to the dang beach this month, and I don't care how much it costs!

We have never really shut off our fridge/freezer so that when we need it it's ready.  During our last quick trip I noticed some ice in the freezer.  Forgot to empty it out and shut it off when we got home, so I opened the door and put some towels in to soak up the water - but it wasn't melting fast enough.  Got my hair dryer out and started pic axing the ice, took me about 30 minutes but I finally got everything free!

 This was the weather on PCB...

 This was the point in which we switched our plans.  I love my wagon I can fill it up in the house and pull it outside and empty it into the camper without having to make multiple trips.  As you can see my car parked right in front of the camper as the groceries I bought didn't even come into the house, they got loaded right out of the back of my car into the camper.  I ordered everything the day before and picked up the night before at Walmart with the pick up service.  I love it because I can keep adding stuff to the cart and send it when I know I have everything.

 Cale gets off the bus at 3pm, he didn't know until that morning that we were even doing anything that weekend (#heaskshowmanydays #getsannoying), until Friday morning.  So he came tearing down the driveway excited! He and dad picked up some of the brush that had blown into our yard and we used it as firewood. 

 Finally Kennedie was off the bus an hour later and we headed out!  P.S. days before my husbands truck a/c blower went out.  So until we got going good on the highway it was windows down for air.

 

  Our normal trusty site 20 was already taken (and I was totally sad about it!), so we found one level and close and set up. 

 Kennedie REALLY wanted to be the one that got the fire going.

And she did! Finally able to relax.

  AND THEN Tim noticed this rotting out tree (I took this picture the next day which is why you see stuff still set up there).  It made him VERY nervous, so we packed everything back up and moved down to site 22 from site 16.  We got everything into site 22 and it started to rain, OF COURSE it's just our dang luck for not going to the beach!  So we stabilized the jacks and put the kids and dog inside while we hooked up the water/electricity. 

Now Mason knows he isn't allowed on the furniture in the house, so why he thought jumping on the kids bed was a good idea, I'm not sure.  My guess was because Cale was moving around too much on the floor for his liking and he decided to get out of the way.

 After we made him get down he was sulking on his pillow.

It sprinkled most of the night so no more campfire at the new site.  So we hooked up the TV/DVD player and had dessert and went to bed.

 Everyone piled in mom and dad's bed for the movie!

 The next day was great weather.  Brought lunch and grilled at the park!

 I normally don't get in the blue springs because it's so flippin cold.  But my husband BEGGED for a family picture so I got in just for that, and ran right back out!!

 YA'LL IT'S FREEZING!  That's as far as I would go in too!

 We were done around 3ish and came back to the camp site and got a fire going.  He's sitting way over there because as the sun was setting it was starting to shine through the trees ON him and he was hot he said.  So he moved behind a tree!

 

  Forgot to get a picture of Cale with his BB gun but Tim played with it while Cale was playing with some new friends at the playground.

 Set up the TV/DVD player outside and watched a movie with popcorn and smores.

 Hard to see Cales head but him watching the movie.  He thought the outdoor movie was the best thing ever!

 Woke up the next morning and went back to the water.  Kennedie is filling up the dogs water bowl.  Kennedie and me decided to go explore the town of Ozark about 30 minutes away. 

 When we came back we picked up the boys and went back to the camper.  We were going to do another outdoor movie (as we bought two new ones from Walmart while we were out), but decided it was hot enough to watch one inside and when it got cooler we would plug it up outside again.  Well cooler came in the form of a downpour.  We stayed in the trailer the rest of the night. 

 Next morning I was a little stir crazy from being inside all afternoon/night so I took my book outside and started to read as they ate breakfast.

 Mason was thankful to be outside too!

 Packed the trailer up and tried to go dump the tanks but there was 4 trailers in line.  Told Tim we would dump later.  Went to the springs with trailer all hooked up.

I started reading my book again.  Noticed that the three big trailers that were in front of the dump line were leaving together (must have been traveling together) so I told Tim I would take Kennedie and go sit in the line to dump and he and Cale could soak up the last bit of water time. 

This time we were third in line.  Took us about 30-45 minutes before it was our turn.  Their trailers had bigger tanks so ours was quicker once we finally got up there.