A Special Surprise 5th Birthday!

We planned a fun, surprise birthday for John Michael's 5th birthday.  He didn't even know until that morning of his birthday that we were leaving to go get on a plane to head to Panama City for his birthday!  We woke them up and let him open gifts and blow out a candle.  His last gift was sunscreen, sunglasses, and a book about the ocean and then we tried to get him to put it all together that we were going!

To say that they were excited was an understatement!  We already had everything packed, in the car, and ready to go (even their breakfast that they ate on the way to the airport!)

We have a small airport so everything is so easy to get checked in and get through security.

We were ready to take off!

We had a small layover in Dallas, and then on to the beach! We watched a movie on the floor at our gate while Jordan got us Chili's To-Go and we ate that just hanging out on the floor watching the movie.  Kind of gross, but it worked for us!

By our second flight, Noah was not happy.  Every time we walked onto the plane he would just try to get out and say no, no, no!  He fell asleep and eventually did fine.  He did much better on the return flights (sort of!).

Jordan's mom picked us up at the airport.  I LOVE the beach so I was SO excited to be at the beach for a few days!!

I have not been to Panama City since I was in 6th grade and I didn't know a lot about it at all.  We stayed at "Splash!" and had a great time.

I mean, when this is your view, how in the world can you complain about anything.  What a blessing to be ON the beach and see this!

We went out to eat and then opened presents and did John Michael's cake after dinner.  The boys were SO tired by the end of the day.

I love surprises so it was so fun to plan this and not tell them!  We had a great time and the boys traveled so wonderfully.  It was a fun way to celebrate our oldest turning 5!  I still can't believe he is 5.  The time has flown by, but it's been such a sweet few years at our house.  John Michael will start kindergarten at a private Christian school next school year.  I am so proud of him!  More beach pics to come!