Back From the Beach...Lots o' Pics!

Well we finally made it back home from the Emerald Coast today, and I am EXHAUSTED.  We had a great time....it was very relaxing.  The first couple of days were rainy and overcast, but the sun was out by Tuesday and stayed that way the rest of the week!  I just downloaded all of my pics and I'm missing some food pics....we ate like morons...but as Dwayne kept saying, it's one week out of the year.  I haven't stepped on the scale yet.  I'll consider it this Friday.  If I can't work up the nerve, I'll do it next Friday, lol.  We ate about half of our food in the condo, where I cooked on the little stove we had...that's why I distinctly remember taking pics of spaghetti and Stouffer's lasagna that didn't come through on my download a few mins ago.  The other half we ate out in restaurants.  I'm missing a pic of a grilled mahi sandwich that I ate at Guy Martin's restaurant in Pier Park.  It was fabulous!  Naturally,  the pic of the 1/2 FRIED grouper sandwich I ate at Spinnaker's came through just fine, lol.  I have lots and lots to show you, so ENJOY!!!!  I'll catch up with you tomorrow!  :)

This is the outside view of our condo.  It has 23 floors...we were on the 20th floor...it was an awesome view!

We found a candy shop, and being the chocoholics that we both are, we bought a turtle to share.  We each had 2 small bites and threw the rest away.  So very sinful...and delish! 

We took a walk on the pier and tried to take some pics, but the wind was blowing a steady 20-25 miles an hour....it was rainy and overcast the first couple of days.  A nice couple finally stopped and offered to take a couple of pics for us after we took the first one ourselves.

When we stopped at that candy store to buy the turtle, Dwayne found some white-chocolate covered doggie bones (safe for dogs), so we bought a bag for Scarlette.  This is me holding it for her so she can lick all the chocolate off, lol.

It was impossible to keep Scarlette out of Dwayne's duffle bag.  She kept digging around in his clothes, making a little nest, and then snuggling down in them to take naps.  :)

We went swimming in the indoor pool one night.  We figured it would be heated....NOT!!!

This is the skirt to my bathing suit.  The advantage to holding the camera is nobody gets to take a full body shot of you, lol.  Excuse my fat stomach roll. 

View of the ocean from our pool deck.

View from the chairs on our balcony on the 20th floor.

Uh oh.

Oops...

Oh my..

Yes...that's full-fat cream cheese on a WHITE bagel.

Turns out the best fried shrimp on the whole beach were being served downstairs out the pool bar!!

These things were huge!!  11 jumbo Gulf shrimp w/ fries for $11.00.  Best deal on the beach!

Of course, we had to wash them down with SOMEthing!

Frozen raspberry margarita, anyone???

Now some pics of healthy food to try and redeem myself.  :)

Back to the crap food, lol.  We had lunch at Spinnaker's on the beach yesterday.  The view was gorgeous but the food was so-so.  We shared everything we ordered, so I let Dwayne do the ordering since he's such a picky eater...remember, NO VEGGIES!!  We had a bowl of lobster bisque and a half order of fried shrimp tossed in a chile aioli sauce, along with 1/2 a fried grouper sandwich with fries.

Dwayne brought home some of our leftover shrimp from the pool bar downstairs, cut it up into little pieces  and fed it to the baby.

I took pics of all the souvenirs I bought on the trip, for the 2 challenge winners, and a couple of my close friends.  Since this post is soooooo long already, I'll put up the souvenir pics in my next post.  'Nite friends!  :)

Hi From Panama City!!

Hi everybody!!!  Dwayne, Scarlette and I got to Panama City this afternoon and we're staying in a cheapo motel until we can check into our condo on the ocean tomorrow.  This place is horrible, lol.  I feel like I'm on a Griswold family vacation.......Dwayne tried to take a pic of the outside of the hotel for me to show you, but it was already after dark when we got that bright idea.

Here we are tucked "safely" in our room....with the .45 close by. :)

How do you like our matching double chins?  lol

On to the Challenge winners!!!!

So far, I've heard from 2 people who met the Challenge by losing at least 10 lbs this month.

Miss Haneefa @ Black Girl Gets Fit lost a total of 12.6 lbs this month...AWESOME!!!!

Larissa @ Weighting For the Fall lost 10.3 lbs. this month and is now in ONEDERLAND!!!!

Congrats ladies!  You will soon be the proud owners of a tacky beach souvenir!

If there is anyone else who hasn't reported in yet, that met their 10 lb. goal, leave me a comment as soon as you can!  I'll be going souvenir shopping soon and I don't want to miss anyone!

Now I want to send out some honorable mentions to some people that may not have met the 10 lb. goal, but still made some great strides during this month and I want to give them some recognition!

Phluffy Princess @ Fighting My Fat Gene finally left the 160's behind forever and is now in the 150's!!!! 

Leslie @ Something Brilliant Is Brewing & Alex @ Adventures of a DONE Girl Named Alex have both made it to ONEDERLAND this month!!!  Great job ladies!!!

Linds @ Ramblings of a Fat Girl made huge strides this month in the 3 Day for the Cure fund raising and training.  She's already logged in 17 miles so far this week....rock it girl!!!

Michelle @ 279 took the leap and joined Weight Watchers just in the last week or so and has already lost over 7 lbs...congrats to her for taking control and making this commitment to her goals!!!

My oldest and dearest friend, Pam @ The Rest of the Journey, left a joking comment at the start of the Challenge that since she couldn't concentrate on hard weight loss right now, due to being pregnant, that she would make her goal to NOT GAIN 10 lbs. this month!!  lol  I'm proud to say that she did very well....her gain was quite minimal...I think less than 2 lbs....so YAY Pam!!  :)

There were a few people that joined my challenge who are already very close to goal (if not already beyond goal..266!!!) and didn't really know if it was reasonable to expect a big 10 lb. loss in a single month.  But they joined anyway, probably more out of friendship to me and wanting to participate in something with their friends, so I appreciate the good nature of them joining in and being part of the team!!!

There are 3 that I can think of off the top of my head (and there may be more!), and they are

266

Dawne @ 365 Days To A New Me

Sean @ A Daily Diary of a Winning Loser

These 3 have just had super fantastic success and progress on their journeys and inspire the rest of us to no end....giving us hope that we can do it, too!!

Oh...and a big shout-out to Sean for really ramping up his exercise during this challenge....something that he regularly posts about wanting to improve....and has even joined Spinning classes this month, as well as starting riding a bicycle!!  Way to go Sean!

Thank you to every single one of you for joining me in this challenge.  I hope we can do more in the future....I'll have to think of some new ideas and angles that people might be interested in.  If anyone reached a milestone or made big strides in their progress and I somehow missed it, feel free to tell me and I'll post about it!!  This weight loss business is hard work and everyone who puts in the effort deserves the recognition!

I'm going to try and do some more posts this week with pics of us gallavanting around the beach, as well as some of the souvenirs I buy....but so far the internet connection is REALLY BAD....very slow.  We'll see if it gets any better when we get in the condo tomorrow.

Hope everyone is having a nice, relaxing weekend & I'll check back in with you later!!!  :)