#8-Reasons we love and will miss Pensacola

Reason #8.  Delicious Food

We can't talk about why we love Pensacola without mentioning all of our favorite restaurants! We have found quite a few that we love in the last 4 years.  Our definite favorites are:


The Fish House/Atlas
We have probably taken everyone that has come in to visit from out of town here.  It is our favorite place.  The kids love it, we love it and our parents love it.  Bryce doesn't even ask anymore, when Kiki and Papaw Duke are coming in town, he knows we are going to eat at the Fish House one of the nights!  Great food and great atmosphere. 

Dharma Blue

This is my second favorite place.  They have delicious homemade potato chips and yummy sushi.  We like to sit outside which is in the front of the restaurant and people watch.  It is located across from Seville Square so there is plenty of room for the kids to run around if they get antsy!

Lulu's

I know Lulu's is in Gulf Shores but believe me, we have eaten there so many times I had to list it.  We love shopping at the outlet mall in Foley and always find our way to Lulu's after shopping.  In Sept. of 2009 I think it was, we ate there every single weekend for one reason or another!  So much fun for the kids, live music, and delicious food.  My favorite is the Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla! 

Surf Burger
We did not discover how good Surf Burger is until January of this year.  We have made up for it though by going many times!  My favorite was 2 weeks ago.  We took our bikes to the beach, rode them for a couple of miles and then at dark we had supper here.  So much fun!

I look forward to discovering our new favorite restaurants in Savannah.  I hear there are plenty of delicious ones to choose from!

#9-Reasons we love and will miss Pensacola

Reason #9.  Amazing Weather

We have been so spoiled by the amazing weather in Pensacola.  We are blessed with sunny warm days (or super hot in the summer) most of the year.  There can be some really cold days here and there but for the most part the kids and I are able to play outside everyday all year round.  We have rainy days but it doesn't last long.  I have become a cold weather wuss since living here.  When we go home (way up north in Memphis) over Christmas break I can hardly stand the cold.  I know I need to toughen up, but I've been spoiled!

This was taken in Dec. 07 Shorts, short sleeves and crocs!

March of this year

Swimming at the beach in April?  No problem!

#10 -Reasons we love and will miss Pensacola

Reason #10.  The Blue Angels and the Naval Aviation Museum

I get so excited when I see these jets flying around town.  They are amazing and I can't believe I never had a wreck watching them!  Going to watch them practice was awesome!  We never made it to a real show, the noise bothers the kids too much and I've heard the crowds are horrible.  We've seen our share of practices though.  We would make it a beach day and  go to Ft. Pickens and watch them practice from across the bay. 

CeCe was 5 days old here!

Here she was about 11 months old.  She loved them this day and would follow them across the sky

Pensacola Beach this summer.  Notice how Bryce is covering his ears in all these pictures?

The Naval Aviation Museum is amazing.  We have spent many hours here over the last 4 years.  It has a great kids play area and many many wonderful exhibits. 

There is a whole room of helicopters and airplanes the kids can climb in

Space Day

CeCe practicing her walking at the museum

CeCe and Kate playing in the kids area at our playgroup's halloween party

20 Days

We have news......WE ARE MOVING!!!  Anthony found out in October that IP wants him to be the controller of the paper mill in Savannah, GA.  We went over one weekend and found some houses we really like and made an offer on one about a week ago.  We found out the day before Thanksgiving that our offer had been accepted!  We will close on the new house Jan. 4th.  This being so close to the holidays means that the kids and I only have 20 days left to live in Pensacola.  I said from the beginning that I didn't want the move to interfere with our normal Christmas traditions and plans so we will all go up to Olive Branch and West Point the week before Christmas and the kids and I will stay up there and drive to Savannah from there.  Anthony will come back to Pensacola and deal with the movers packing up this house.  We will probably have to get a short term rental condo (on Tybee Island!!) for a week or two while we have the house painted and get new carpet but we need to be there for Bryce to start his new school.  He is excited about moving!  I hope he loves his new school.  He still hasn't fallen in love with Pine Meadow here.  I am going to wait until we get there to find a pre-school for CeCe.  I don't think anything can compare to LEP here (the preschool Bryce went to and now CeCe) but we will try to find something she loves!  I was devastated about moving at first, but am getting excited now.  The house we found is great and Savannah is beautiful!  I'm going to do a series of posts on our favorite things about Pensacola so keep yours eyes peeled for that!  Watch out Savannah, here we come!!  :)

Another Wonderful Thanksgiving Part 2

Friday morning we woke up to another beautiful day and drove to West Point to see Anthony's family.  We got there in the afternoon and the kids hit the ground running playing with cousin Daniel.  Saturday morning we woke up and went out to 'the county'.  The country is the land outside of West Point that has been in the Duke family for years.  Anthony grew up in the country but his parents moved to town about 7 years ago.  The kids and Reagan love it out there.  The weather was perfect and we stayed out there for hours.  CeCe was so excited to check out the buses that are out there, but got spooked when she saw a spider web.  When Bryce was her age he spent hours playing in these buses. 

Hulk is back!!  Expect to see lots of shirtless pictures from here on out.  When he turns into Hulk, his shirt comes off of course!

CeCe and Reagan did lots of exploring

Everyone took turns climbing a deer stand that was out there

Even CeCe conquered the tall ladder!

Daniel and Uncle Anthony at the top of the deer stand

Saturday afternoon we packed all of our rain gear and drove to Starkville for the Egg Bowl.  We knew it was going to be wet night but I don't think we were prepared to get that wet!  It poured on us for the whole first quarter.  We had about a 10 minute break from the rain and then it started again.  I'm so glad we went but we were happy to leave at half time.  The Bulldogs played a great game!!!  HAIL STATE!!

Another wonderful Thanksgiving- Part 1

For the first part of our Thanksgiving travels we drove to the lakehouse on Tuesday night.  We drove through some pretty nasty weather, but thankfully everyone arrived safely.  We spent Wednesday raking leaves and playing outside in the beautiful weather.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day at my Aunt and Uncle's farm.  The weather was amazing and the food was delicious as always.  We had fun going on hayrides, riding the sled behind the tractor, and feeding the horses.  Bryce drove the tractor, an excavator and a bulldozer! That night when we got home the kids all dressed in their matching PJs and were tickled to all be dressed alike.  Jasper saw Bryce first and kept pointing at his PJs and then Bryces and grinning!  It was too cute. 

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bryce's school had a Thanksgiving Feast breakfast last Friday.  Anthony, CeCe and I went up to eat lunch with him that day.  Isn't he the cutest little Indian? 

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!