To Gammy’s House We Go…

This summer has looked so different for the Sloans, as I’m sure it did many families. In early June, we learned that our flights to Rwanda in July had been canceled which was heartbreaking. However, with Cory working for himself now, it freed up some time for us to take an actual vacation- like a full week of time together not on the mission field, something we haven’t had in years. With Cory able to make his own schedule, we finished with our fundraiser yard sale (we found out about our flights being canceled the day before the yard sale) then headed to Alabama to visit Cory’s mom the second week of June.

Months prior to this trip, Baker asked all the time about Gammy’s house. She understood it was a long way away but she didn’t remember her previous visit. It was important to us for Baker to have memories visiting Gammy’s house rather than just memories of her here.

We headed out after church on Sunday and arrived in Alabama late Sunday evening. Baker was up early Monday morning and had breakfast with Gammy on her porch.

Like most of the days we were there, we spent our days in the pool trying to get Baker used to the water since she was pretty timid. This is her holding her breath. 🤣

Once Papa K got home from work on Monday evening, we headed down to the dock to do a little fishing. Baker was a natural and was catching fish every time she threw her line out.

She wasn’t too sure about holding the line though.

She had to help Papa K catch a few!

She finally got brave enough to hold the line after catching probably her 12th fish. What a beauty she is!

No makeup, hair still wet from the pool, time with family…a perfect day! 

I’m really not sure who was more excited…

Papa K was trying to catch one from the shore so Baker had to go to the shore too. And she almost hooked a big one…Daddy!

After having Baker, when I would dream about what our memories would look like, they looked just like this.

Baker finally caught Papa K’s fish and had the cutest reaction.

Cleaning up after fishing and Papa K and Baker were officially attached at the hip. Those little tip toes she’s standing on- oh my heart. How can she seem so small yet so big at the same time?

We headed back out to the pool Tuesday morning before a storm rolled in.

So we loaded up to go thrifting and get some coffee with Gammy in between the rain showers. Baker fell asleep before our last stop so I stayed in the car while Cory and Darla went into Goodwill. It started raining so hard, they had to shut the store down because the roof was leaking so bad. 😳

I had Summer Institute all day on Wednesday and Thursday morning so Cory and Baker spent some more time in the pool.

Slowly, Baker was getting more familiar with the water and realized she could reach in the shallow end.

After going back and forth on heading to the beach for a few days, we decided last minute to book a condo Thursday after my last Summer Institute course. Panama City was completely booked but we found a place in Fort Walton, which is about two hours from Gammy’s.

Cory’s stepbrother, Miles, came down with us Thursday afternoon and Gammy and Papa K planned to come down Friday morning.

After getting settled into our condo (after about 30 minutes trying to figure out how), we headed down to the beach to put our feet in the water.

Baker was so excited to finally be at the beach! She loves playing in the sand and liked the ocean last summer so we were anxious to see how she did.

We were all pretty hungry so we headed to the Crab Trap for a meal on their patio. The wait staff all had masks on but other than that, we saw no one wearing masks or even really practicing social distancing.

The food was pretty good (I don’t know that I would go back) but the environment was perfect and exactly what I like in beach dining.

We had hoped that Baker would sleep on one of the bunk beds but no such luck! Cory ended up sleeping there after we tried to cram all three of us into this bed (Baker is a wild sleeper!)

The grocery store had already closed the night before, so Cory snapped this picture when he got up early to go pick up a few things. Like mother, like daughter, huh?

I’m not sure if they set the chairs up like this all the time or if it was a COVID thing but it was pretty smart and a good way to make people social distance because no one wanted to set up right in the middle of the horseshoes. Our condo had two chairs that went with it and we had plenty of room however the beach wasn’t that busy.

Once Cory got back, we loaded up our wagon, and headed down to the beach!

Baker immediately started working on some sandcastles while waiting on Gammy and Papa K to arrive.

Cory has always been an incredible dad but times like this, when he is willing to devote his entire day to playing with Baker in the sand or ocean makes me realize how lucky Baker and I are to have him.

Baker also had so much fun with Uncle Miles!

Gammy and Papa K got there and we played hard until we got hungry for lunch.

We headed back in to eat then Cory and Baker rested while Darla and I headed back out to the beach.

My favorite place to be!

My long legged, beautiful girl. I could eat her up, I love her so.

By early afternoon, I was scorched so we set up a bigger tent that we could take cover under.

It makes me happy that Baker loves the beach as much as I do.

Peep that brand new, mirrorless camera laying on my bag in the sand.

Baker and Cory kept going back in the ocean with Karl and Miles so we ended up staying down on the beach all afternoon into early evening.

Around 6:00, we finally packed up and headed back to the condo to order pizza for dinner.

Darla and Karl had to go back home to take care of the dogs and I watched the sun start going down while Cory went and picked up dinner. Sitting on the balcony is one my favorite things to do in the mornings and evenings at the beach- it’s so peaceful.

I woke up early Saturday morning hot and my back was aching because of this…

I couldn’t fall back asleep so I got on up to watch the sunrise.

Miles got up with me and even fixed me a cup of coffee! He’s such a good kid.

We had to check out by 10:00am so we packed up the car and then headed back down to the beach for the day.

We ate left over pizza for breakfast on the beach and had sandwiches for lunch.

After a couple hours on the beach, we were all starting to get tired and burnt so we decided to call it a day.

Our condo had restrooms by the pool so we changed and cleaned up before the trip back to Alabama. Some of us weren’t too excited to be leaving the beach (myself included)!

We headed back to Gammy’s for the night before having a big breakfast Sunday morning, snapping a few family photos, and hitting the road back to South Carolina.

Baker adores her Gammy (and now Papa K and the harry eyeball) and we had the best week getting to be in her world. It’s always an emotional time when we have to say goodbye to Gammy but honestly, this was the easiest goodbye we’ve had yet because Baker was ready to see our dogs. At one point during our trip, Baker told us that she missed our dogs and house when she was at Gammy’s but she missed Gammy when she was at home. That’s a hard thing to comprehend and be able to express at 4 years old. Hopefully, we will be able to take more trips to visit Gammy in the future to make the goodbyes not so hard!