Before we left for the beach, Ella had her second dance recital. As I'm sure you know, most every ballerina gets an arm full of flowers to celebrate her performance. Last year, Ella got pink roses and as beautiful as they were, we left for the beach the next morning and never got to enjoy them. I talked with her about waiting to get flowers when we got home from vacation, but she opted to pick out a prize at the beach instead. She was such a big girl about not having flowers that night, knowing she would be rewarded in a few days. I imagined her picking out a necklace or a new bathing suit or even a silly, unnecessary souvenir. I was not prepared for Courtney. Josh's eyes lit up one night in the camper and I knew what was about to happen. He whispered in her ear that there were crabs you ...
Around Camp
Around camp we... played with our toys, learned some new games on the iPhone, doodled and crafted, read and drank Dr. Pepper, practiced our bike riding skills, went on wagon rides... over, and over, and over, we played in the dirt, and even hung out with our sweet daddy! ...
Splish Splash
I used to laugh at those of you who insisted a pool was a necessity for vacation. My response was always that we had one of those at home and when I was on vacation I wanted my toes in the sand. My experience was once of being young and dumb with no one to care for but myself. Vacations consisted of an endless stack of summer reading and plenty of time to catch some z's. That... was before I had children. Gulf State Park has always been on the primitive side of beach vacations, but I have never complained. Bike rides, ice cream cones and card games has been the norm for our family trips as long as I could remember. When I heard they were building a pool at the Lake Pavilion, I even chuckled to myself that we would NEVER waste our time at the pool when we could be beach-side. Fast forward ...
Sun and Sand
What's a vacation without the beach, right? I used to be one of those girls that could wake up and head to the beach at 7 o'clock and stay until sunset. Being a mom changes your schedule. Not only do we have to break for lunch and nap time, but I am considerably more hot natured post-pregnancy and need some air conditioning in my life! Since we have to drive to the beach, there is no "running up to the room" to fix a quick snack, we take it all with us. The Gulf State Beach Pavilion is our favorite beach in the state. It is beautiful and the facilities are so nice. I can remember for several years after Hurricane Ivan that we toughed it out with no real shade or restrooms and it is so nice to have a beautiful pavilion back. There are showers and restrooms, plenty of picnic tables and a ...
Happy Camper
I know I mentioned last summer that we camp on vacation and that it might not be for everyone. Having said that, I honestly cannot imagine spending my vacation any other way. I might also have told you we had a travel trailer when we first got married and that it was the perfect size until we expanded our family. We sold it a few years ago in hopes of upgrading, but haven't felt good about making another investment of that size. For this year, we decided to try our hand at renting a trailer close to the beach and it was a dream come true. We found a great deal on a brand new camper and decided not only did it save us money this year, but it allows us to try out a few different floor plans before becoming an RV owner again. We could not have been happier with our decision. If you are used ...
Tide You Over Thursday
I know you're all waiting for beach pictures, but this week has been exhausting. Instead, I thought I'd offer this little video from dinner. She is so funny these days, but was NOT interested in participating tonight. I love hearing her talk and do her funny little things. Things that are so Sophie. I always ask my mom when I pick her up if she's been good that day and her response is always, "She's been Sophie!". This girl is into everything. EVERY. THING. And she does it with a smile. Words she's saying: Ella (sometimes La-La, sometimes Ewwa) Mama Dada Beemer (Nnn-da, but we know that's what she means) Garan (Gagan) Hi Hello Bye Bite Tinda (this means cup, but I'm not sure why) Toothbrush Quack Quack Moo Jojo (Joel) Jared Nana (Banana) Wagon Outside Mmmm Up/Out ...
Beach Babies
I have just spent the last eight days with these beauties at the beach. We are positively exhausted. Luckily, they were excellent travelers and adjusted well to life at the beach. Everything we did, we did in abundance: rolled in the sand, got soaked, ate yummy food, snuggled in the sunshine and took an insane number of photographs. Not only will it take me a few days to wrap my head around normal life, but I need to upload the images, read over 600 entries in Google Reader, check my email, catch up on design orders and get my house back in order. I also have two girls in terrible need of a schedule readjustment and some downtime with mommy and daddy. Our trip was wonderful and I'll have lots to share in the next few days. We missed you guys! ...
Pool Day
I don't know if you've noticed, but we've already fallen into our summer routine. It's a little different from last year, but we take FULL advantage of the weekends. We call Saturdays a "pool day". I almost laughed when SD asked me Friday night what our plan for the weekend was. Did he have to ask? We got up bright and early to get a few things done around the house and started packing our bags. Spending 8 hours at the pool with two little girls requires a lot of gear. We packed a picnic lunch, extra towels and plenty of reading material for when Sophie was napping. This girl LOVES the water. She pretty much throws herself into the water and cries when you make her get out. She quickly figured out how to balance in her swim ring and she is swimming all over the pool, deep end ...