So being that i've been on vacation the past couple weeks, i've successfully & finally FINISHED the video I started in January. Have always wanted to use this song in a home video of some sort. Couldn't finish this until I had more footage/video of us on vacation. It starts on our honeymoon, there's a few clips of Air Review's rehearsal, and ends on our vacation this month. Enjoy!

Home at last.

The trip home was some-what pleasant, some-what not. All the way from Destin to Jackson it rained, heavy rain, off and on. Almost to the point of not being able to see. My wife enlightened me that she heard if you wear your sunglasses in the rain you can see better, so I tried it, and it DID help! An amazing trick. Jaci got stung on her toe by an ant during a gas stop! No other injuries occured during the trip, i'm happy to report. Dinner was at an amazing Crackel Barrel in Vicksburg, MS. I ordered a steak & Jaci got chicken-fried-steak. It came out in 5 minutes & we were out of there and on the road in 20 min. Fastest steak i've ever ordered, and it was quality too.
We finally got home about 11:15pm to a nice, quiet place we call the JRob's tiny palace :).

LAST DAY!

Well we made it to the last full day in Destin; had no major problems today, other than the oven in the kitchen wasn't working properly when trying to bake some pizza for dinner. We had to cook it on 350 instead of 450, for some reason it wouldn't bake that hot...who knows why, we just added it to the no AC on monday AND the coffee maker not working properly either. For the past two days i've had to physically brew the coffee into the pot; it's sort of hard to explain in words, but for some odd reason that we got left with (Robinson), the water was getting clogged into the brewer & wouldn't go through so I had to, with a knife, hold the brewer part UP so that the water/coffee would filter through the system properly. It was very tedius, but it worked & Bubs got his coffee every day :).
We also discoverd today that we didn't have to pay for an umbrella/chairs that they provided on the beach, as long as we were staying in these condo's. We could have sworn last year that we did pay, I know we did. So we enjoyed our big umbrella while a brief storm came through, nothing heavy, just a light sprinkle. We had a fun last time in the ocean before we headed back for some showers, then before dinner we took some photos (which I will be posting on here later). We've definately had a VERY memorable, fun, and relaxing week here. Thank you Jesus for unpredictable events that we will remember forever on vacations such as these. =)

jj

Need to catch up a bit, so we can start with Day 2 (Tuesday) in Destin. When we came in after some beach time for some lunch, we wanted to make some sandwiches. We forgot to get any sandwich spread or cheese so all we had was dry turkey sandwiches with some chips :). we still enjoyed it. For dinner was Joe's Crab Shack. You know how the waiters always dance to some loud music every half-hour or so? Well, there was this family with about 6 or 7 small kids eating at a table near us. Before we left I asked the waiter if they were going to dance again & he quietly said that the table with all the kids, the parents complained that the dancing was too provocative, and they asked them not to dance while they were there. It was far from provocative. WHen we left we saw the family with all the kids hop into a 16 passenger van with Christian Fishes/crosses all over the back door. We got the idea right away. We love professing our faith as well, but we just thought it was funny.
OH!! I haven't mentioned yet that on Tuesday they had guys come in and fix the AC in the condo. They had to replace the compressor (yikes)! But yesterday afternoon we had AC & slept a LOT cooler last night.
Day 3 (today). Ate a late breakfast then headed out to the beach, skipped a lunch then went into town to eat at Johnny Rockets! Good burgers indeed. We were excited to find the exact same sunglasses that I lost in the Gulf (on Tuesday) @ a Journeys on sale for $5. Jaci picked up some neat little wooden earings & we walked around in the Destin Commons for a bit before we headed back to the condo. I'll soon be posting up some videos, that is if it uploads right, on this blog. A little clip everyday here at the condo :). TOmorrow will be our last full day here, and as rosey-red as we are, we hope we can get out for a little beach time before we head back to big-D.

the jrobs.

Arrival!

If you haven't read the Pre-Vacation blog below, then you can get the whole picture of how excited we've been for this day to come. We just got back from eating, grocery shopping, and having a barista @ Starbucks grind some coffee for me; but i'll get back to that in a minute. Let's start with the trip; It was a BREEZE. Leaving the night before & staying in a hotel along the way (in Jackson) was probably the best decision I made this whole week of vacation. There still could be many more good decisions awaiting for this week, but i'm pretty set on that one being the "best". We drove into Super 8 Hotel in Jackson, MS about 1am (originally planning 2am, but my foot was a lil' heavy...but not TOO heavy on getting there). We both slept the whole night through, which lately hasen't been happening(that's another blog), woke up refreshed & energized to get on the road for 6 more hrs. It couldn't have flown by more quickly; before we knew it we were checked in to our suite ;)...and on the beach picking up sand dollars & shells for collection.
What I haven't mentioned yet;
When we arrived to the Gulfview condo's our key they gave us wasn't opening the door; so a maintenance guy happened to be strolling around, probably on his smoke break, and realized we were having trouble w/ opening the door. We told him what the problem was & he went back to his shop & brought back a key that worked & opened the door. That was interesting. When we walked into the condo it was blistering hot, so we just thought they had the AC off. I went to turn it on & it was already on - long story short... we still don't have AC & it seems to not be working. I called it in about 5:30, they said they'd bring someone out, but now it's 9:30 and nothing. Oh well, we'll sleep in the 85 degree temp w/ the fans on high & will still enjoy our time here. We're not gonna let that ruin it. Hopefully tomorrow it'll be fixed, so on the next blog i'll have either good or bad news. SO... we decided to go eat & enjoy our evening.
First stop was Jim-n-Nicks and oh man... good job Jeremy! I had the half-rack spare ribs & Jaci had a brisket sandwich. I was completely surprised of how nice of a BBQ place it was. The only BBQ places I've ever set foot in were small town, about 100 sq.ft, you can barely stand up all the way before you hit your head on the ceiling! This place was the Saltgrass of BBQ places! Awesome. After being filled to the top, we went to Wal-Mart next door to do some grocery shopping & I got to the back of the store with my wife & a cart & my stomach started shifting; so I did the classic Robinson ploy (dad you'd be proud) of dropping everything & running to the bathroom. This isn't any bathroom though, this is a WAL-MART bathroom! Haha... I felt right at home.
Now we're back here watching the tube with the slide window door open and the fans on high :). If this is our only problem during the week then we have it pretty dang good. I could be visiting the hospital in Destin because of a stone, but... i'd rather have this problem. So we'll count our blessings. Goodnight! Thnks for all the prayers...

Pre-Vacation to Destin

First of all, Shud, I totally stole your title. But it's just the opposite. I love you =). Me and frog went to Target/Tom Thumb today to prep-up for our travel time to Destin. Picked up some snacks (of course, Sour Patch Kids included), a very convenient little cooler...cause the one we have on our back porch is wayyy too big for the car/beach, and a couple rafts to float on the ocean. I wanted to pick up some goggles but they are too expensive these days. Weren't they dirt cheap when we were kids? Can't remember but they were $15+. So we forgot that & just stuck with the rafts.
We've been so excited and ready to go it's almost painful to wait, but it'll be here before we know it. I'm so ready to get there and remember the same spots we were at on our honeymoon. I'm so glad we didn't go to Paris or Hawaii on our honeymoon; would be way harder/impossible to go back to a year or two later. Destin is such a special place, especially for MY family.
Welp... i'll stop here, but i'll be picking up on the blogs after the 1st day of our travel/time in Destin on Monday the 17th. Thanks for reading. Now... off to vacation time in Destin!

Chandler Trip

Jaci & I have been in Chandler since last night; which by the way was the LONGEST trip from Dallas. Thought we'd never get out of Dallas traffic, construction after construction, & we were starving to death & finally arrived in Ardmore @ 7(driving since 4:30). Picked out a Whataburger & as soon we pulled into the parking lot a BUS was unloading 100,000 kids + adults, the line was to the door in Whataburger so we decided to go to Braums next door & it was the same, if not worse. Finally got our food & left an hour after & made our way to Chandler, not arriving till 10pm(because of a gas stop along the way).
Jaci's dad was already in bed when we got here because he has been running a fever & throwing up, so her mom greeted us. Today her mom started catching the same thing her dad has had, so they've BOTH been home sick & me and Jaci have been running around town (trying to stay out of the sick house) with Cody & Caela visiting her grandma's and such. We actually visited 3 houses here, 1 including an older couple that are hilarious people, drank some coke-floates there then went to grandma stop #1. There I fell asleep about 3 times on the couch because of the coke-float from the previous visit. Then we went to grandma stop #2 before we finally went home for dinner. Something about grandma's houses that are just soooo comfortable that it just makes me drousy... kind of like Thanksgiving Dinner.
Now I'm sitting in the Westfall house computer room while my father & mother-n-law are sick on the couch & my wife is somewhere about NOT getting this sickness. It's been a relaxing day. Tomorrow we get the privilege of visiting the First Baptist Church of Chandler! What a trip!