For almost two weeks in June, this was our home away from home. I know that camping isn’t for everybody, but I am so fortunate that the other three people in my house adore it just as much as I do. I’m going to share a post next week with some detail shots inside and a few ways that we make camping work for us. This week, though, is all vacation fun and games! I edited all of the beach pictures and “narrowed” them down to only 78 that I want to share with you. Wasn’t that gracious?! I’m sorry that I’ll never be that minimalist blogger who edits their vacation recap to the three most beautiful, stylized photographs. I just can’t do it. And because there were so many to share, I’m planning to post every day this week!
Josh and I got up bright and early after the concert and were in Gulf Shores by 9 o’clock in the morning on Thursday. We spent our first day setting up camp, buying groceries, napping and indulging in a little takeout on our picnic table before finally convincing the girls it was time for bed. On Friday, we hung out around camp until lunch and then spent a few hours at the water part before a few of our cousins headed back home. By Saturday, we were well overdue for some sunshine, but we still didn’t manage to make it to the beach. I tried feeling guilty about it, but I enjoyed every second of the two weeks we spent away – even those seconds we spent laying in the shade of our trailer. At least I managed to finally unpack my camera and a few {okay, too many} photographs.
When I was a little girl staying at the State Park, there wasn’t a swimming pool and it never even occurred to me that it was something I needed. My mom was a lifeguard and we spent every other day of our summer vacation at the pool, so I never missed it when we traveled. Now that we have a few years of this pool / splash pad combo under our belts, I’m honestly not sure how my mom survived the trip without it! On days when we don’t want to lug all of our belongings to the beach, we can just grab a bag and hope on our bicycle for some water fun and an ice cream cone {or two}.
Do you see that extra cousin there in the middle? She was enjoying the beach with her parents an hour away, so we met them for dinner one night and kidnapped her for a few days. My kids were over the moon to have Isabella at the beach with us for a few days.
We might have even had ice cream for dinner one {a few} night! Josh had gone to play golf with a friend and wasn’t back in time for a real dinner. The kids didn’t care one way or another, so we loaded up and had ice cream instead. I joked with Bella’s parents that I was pretty much letting them do whatever they wanted and I would be sending her back spoiled rotten!
We FINALLY made it to the beach on Monday. I was so ready to sink my toes in the sand and the kids were giddy. We packed up our wagon with all of the essentials and made the quick drive to our favorite beach {Gulf State Beach Pavilion}. I’m not sure how I managed to get us to the beach for the first time on a day when Josh couldn’t be there, but that’s the way it happened. He had to work remotely on Monday and Tuesday and I just couldn’t wait one more second. I drove his truck that day and didn’t leave a single item behind. I had to make several trips to get it all down the boardwalk and across the sand, but boy did I feel accomplished once we got there!
Of course, as soon as we got to the water Sophie commandeered my chair and watched while I did all of the hard work!
We had a great vantage point and I let the girls walk up and down the beach as far as I could see them in either direction. They felt so big and independent and I didn’t have to worry about them straying too far.
Sophie caught some sort of sea animal almost every day we were there and this day it was a tiny fish. Unfortunately, she didn’t provide him very much water and he got a little warm in the sun later that afternoon. I’m sorry to say that our little fish did not survive.
Did I mention this little guy? K and Hudson spent that first day at the beach with us and he was so much fun! Since the kids had been there almost a week by the time Josh and I made it down, he was well versed in sand and beachside lunches by then.
I pretty much read a book a day while we were there. An entire book. It was glorious and I read some pretty great ones. Landline by Rainbow Rowell was my absolute favorite though. It is about a marriage in need of mending and there were so many things I loved about it. My favorite line from the entire book was “I love you more than I hate everything else.” That is pretty much the greatest thing ever.
We had a yellow flag almost everyday we were there {a few reds made their appearance, too, and we only saw green once during our entire stay}, which meant the surf was perfect for body surfing and boogie boards. You can see that our girls weren’t even a little bit timid around the waves. I lost count of the number of times they got thrown around and they always came out all smiles.
After almost seven hours in the blistering heat, we threw ourselves down in the shade of the camper. Daddy had a full day’s work under his belt and we had worked up quite an appetite! There is nothing better than beach food after a hard day of work!
