Beach

Hey y'all,

This has been a tough one!! I have put it off the past two days because I wasn't sure how to choose just a few pictures from all the outstanding ones we have from the trip. As it is, there are quite a few pictures in this post, so stay with me! Needless to say, we had an absolute blast! The kids LOVED playing on the beach. They were timid for a short while, but quickly jumped right in and really enjoyed the water. It helped that one day it was so very calm, there were hardly any waves. We got to enjoy a dolphin cruise; that was amazing! The captain was really great and was able to get the dolphins to jump in our wake. It was awesome. We were so glad to have mom with us too. The trip started on my birthday. I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate! The weather was superb and the company was better! :)

Grandma arrives. We were so happy to see her and take her to the beach with us.

The first day was spent driving and setting up. We had to get groceries and Michael had to register for his conference. As a result, we weren't able to swim. However, we enjoyed a nice walk on the beach.

The kids loved the sand. They dug a hole, (to China!) :), tried to make a sand castle, and just plain played.

Here's the attempted sand castle. I really think we just lost interest in the process. At one point there was another one that had a moat and four castles, but we didn't get a picture of that one.

Molly having a blast!

The pool was nice too. There was a bridge over it with a waterfall. Of course, Colin loved the waterfall!

Here is an amazing sunset from the first night.

We did some projects while we were there. These are visors they made. Mom brought the visors and the stickers they used to decorate them. Another project we did was to make foot molds in the sand using plaster of paris. I hope to frame them in shadow boxes with some sand and shells we found. I will try to remember to post pics of them when I get them all together.

We found LOTS of sea life. Mom and I took a walk one night and saw a jellyfish and quite a few sand crabs. I found this shell sitting on the beach one morning. As I approached it, I wasn't really sure what it was. I finally decided that it was a shell, but was still a bit cautious. I wasn't sure I wanted to touch it! Later we did, but I think I was wise to have caution because there was a pretty large hermit crab living inside!

After the crab scurried up tight into the shell we checked it out a bit better. Colin was very curious. I love his intrigue!

Here are two other crabs we found in the water. Mom, Molly and I looked for shells every change we got. We found some really nice ones in and out of the water. We laugh that we picked these up with our feet not really knowing what we were getting, but deciding we were pretty lucky we didn't get pinched. I have to say, I was pretty sad that some of the best shells we found, we had to throw back because they were homes!

This is a view from our balcony! It is SO beautiful!!

Here is Colin Crockett! This was in Souvenir City.

Gulf State Park has a really nice pier. There were a lot of fishermen out there and we got to see quite a few fish reeled in. The coolest was probably the King Mackerel we saw. Here, Molly is "working it" on the pier. The girl LOVES the camera! And, I have to say, it loves her too! She is so photogenic.

The thing to do in Alabama (and I am sure other places with beaches) is to have family pictures on the dunes in white shirts. We kind of laughed that we would know we had acclimated when we had a one of these pics of our family hanging on our wall. Well, it really isn't a joke! I can't even begin to guess the number of white shirts on the beach in just the few days we were there! We all just started yelling out "white shirts!" any time we went anywhere. I have to admit, the dunes, sea oats and white sand make a very picturesque scene. We didn't have white shirts, but we did take a few pictures on the dunes one evening.

It was so hard to get a pic of them looking up at the same time. They were so distracted by the sand and shells. Kids being kids though, makes for a few fun pictures. :)

Colin LOVED the sand!

We were so glad mom came. Though this isn't the reason I was happy she was there, it was nice to have a few family pictures taken and pictures of Michael and me without them being "nostril" shots. Molly loves to take our picture, but being so much shorter, we never get head on pics, just ones from funny angles!

The kids were so cute in their life jackets. They had to wear them on the dolphin cruise. I was very proud of them. They didn't complain about them once. Though, Molly did wonder why she and Colin had to wear them, but the adults didn't. :)

Here is one of the dolphin pics we got. It was so cool to see them jumping out of the water!

Our captains! Captain Richie was nice enough to let the kids pretend to drive the boat once we were docked. It made Colin's day!

I loved these trees! The flowers were gorgeous and I even think the leaves are neat. I have no idea what they are, but I would love to find out. If anyone knows, tell me! Michael doesn't think they would grow at our house because they seem to tropical, but I want to at least know for sure.

This was "I can't!" Colin's favorite phrase right now. The beaches are so wide and it was hard to walk across them, especially when we were tired. On top of that, poor Colin's legs are so short, he wanted to be held every time we went to the beach or back to the condo. Usually no one could hold him because we were already carrying things. We made a game of it. Sometimes we searched for shells or bird tracks. Sometimes we played "Red Light, Green Light." Somehow we made it each time, in spite of "I can't!"

Colin couldn't help himself, he had to get "vet." This was our last night and we wanted to be on the beach again. We didn't have time to do swimsuits, so we just took a walk. Colin was so fun to watch! He was all over the place, running in and out of the surf. I loved his excitement!

We LOVE this family picture. It's actually currently our desktop picture.

We wrote Molly and Colin's names on the beach and took their pictures by them. Molly took it upon herself to write her name all by herself. She did a fantastic job and we had to have a picture of that too.

We had a fabulous time. I wish we could go once a month! Does anyone want to buy a place down there and have us check on it occasionally (READ: as often as we would like) for you? :)

Until next time...