Beach Vacay ... Part I

This weekend we returned home from a super fun family vacay. We went with Aaron's parents, his sister Ashley and her two kiddos Ryley (7) and Katie Jo (18 months) to Orange Beach, Alabama. Ashley's hubby Clay was super missed as he stayed home working! We had a blast relaxing, playing and enjoying the luxury of having no where to be for a week. Ahhhhh .... I came home with over 800 pictures of the trip. Yes, you read that correctly ... 800. I fear that somewhere in time my 30 year old children are rolling their eyes and saying, "geez Mom ... really?!?!" On one of the last days I asked Avery to smile and she huffed, threw her hands on her hips dramatically and said "Mom, why do you take pictures of everything I do here, everyday? It's ridiculous!" Bahaha I laughed and laughed. And laughed some more. Because of my picture taking disorder I will be dividing the trip into a few posts. I have spent the last couple days making the CUTEST little book on Shutterfly ... and posted pics on Facebook. So hopefully I can contain myself from picture overload on the blog. But, no promises!! ;)

All the deets:
We had originally planned to leave at midnight Friday night so we could get there around 11 on Saturday morning. However, I came down with a terrible 24 hour stomach bug around 4 o'clock Friday afternoon. I tried to look on the bright side thinking of it as a pre-bikini wearing diet-detox ... yeah. We FINALLY got on the road around noon Saturday rolling in around 10pm. The drive wasn't terrible ... but I really don't wanna do it again anytime soon either!

SUNDAY
Sunday was our first day on the beach. It was kind of a "transition" day ... I had to let go of routine, expectations and schedules and adjust to beach time! It didn't take too long. :) I think the kids changed swimsuits at least twelve times, we played outside, and cooked a big dinner. It was a great first day! I didn't take many pictures the first day- I was still figuring everything out ...but don't worry, I made up for it later!

Sawyer was my only kiddo that didn't sleep well there. He arose bring and early at 4:30am almost every day ... ummm. Not what time I pictured my vacation mornings starting. I could usually hold him off until 5-5:30 but after that we were up. We spent a LOT of time on the beach early in the morning. But, on the plus-side that meant seeing sunrises and LOTS of dolphin sightings. Plus, something about babies is even more precious in the morning ... see!!!





Avery burying Ryley in the sand



Sawyer took countless naps on the beach! He was SO good the whole trip!







MONDAY
I can't say enough wonderful things about Monday ... it was perfect. I was literally giddy walking off the beach that day. :) Of course, it started VERY early again but then the other kiddies started rousing and by 9:00 we were in the sand. We played and swam and by 11, Aaron took the big kiddos to the pool and the fed them lunch and put them down for naps. This means I was on the beach solo (Ash was there a bunch too!)for almost 4 hours. Glory Hallelujah. After naps the kids swam in the pool a little more and Rick and Lynda brought home a Seafood Feast! It was delicious! After dinner the kiddos played baseball in the yard and then swam some more while Ash and I watched some of The Bachelorette. We ended the night going out for ice cream and one last dip in the pool! It was a fantabulous day!



















To be continued ...