Warning: Affiliate links appear in the following post. Although shopping the embedded links won’t cost you any additional dollars, using the links below to shop may result in a small commission for me. Thanks for supporting the brands that make this blog possible. I had no idea when I brought these nine mats home whether the finished product would look anything like it did in my head, but I had to give it a try! And based on the Instagram comments and emails, I'm guessing you might be interested in how it all came together! One of things on my "to buy for camping" list this year was a polypropylene mat for under the awning. It isn't that they're pricey, but they aren't exactly beautiful and I never love to spend $50 on something that isn't positively adorable. It's a curse! One ...
beach
Just One More Time
Right after I left the beach {on Sunday}, I packed my bags and hit the road again for work. I drove WAY too many miles in the month of June. I worked out of town for three days and somehow managed to get my entire forty hours in before arriving home on Wednesday night. As much as I hated to leave Josh at home {again} for a few more days, he encouraged me to drive back down on Thursday morning to surprise the girls. This place was a sight for sore eyes! I was on the road shortly after 5 o'clock and pulling into their campsite by 9:30. The girls had no idea I was coming and they were so excited to see me! It was dreary and raining, but I had already decided that even 3 more days in the trailer with a good book was worth the drive. Sophie could not wait to tell me all about Bible School. ...
Beach Bums
I guess one of the biggest differences between vacationing in a condo and camping, is the long list of fun things we get to do around camp. With the exception of the water park, we don't usually do go carts, mini golf or arcades. We are homebodies and usually stay somewhere between the campground and the beach for most of the week! This is our pretty pool! It is huge and has a shallow end on both sides, along with plenty of shade under the pergolas and a huge splash pad on the other end. There is a fountain in the center and several concrete diving pads around the perimeter. Our kids favorite thing about the pool is the snack bar! Nothing beats $3 ice cream cones while dipping your toes in the water. I hate it, but I have exactly zero photos of Ella on her bike this year. We took her ...
Let’s Hangout for Breakfast
Since we've been vacationing in Gulf Shores for all of my thirty-five years, it's hard to come up with something new to do every time we visit. We have our favorite places to eat and things to do, but otherwise we stay close to camp or live on the beach. I have had several friends encourage us to visit The Hangout for breakfast, but we had never been before this year. Let me go ahead and say that The Hangout is one of our favorite dinner spots. For atmosphere. It is super family friendly {until 11 o'clock at night}, offers great bands, a beautiful view and lots of fun things for the kids to do while you are waiting the {requisite} two hours. BUT, the food is not my favorite. It isn't bad, there are just better places to eat for what you spend. We still go at least once during our stay, ...
Life’s a Beach
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 ...
Where We Went
We were never those people that did Spring Break. We always worked and the girls stayed with my mom and did fun things around her house. Until last year. Now that Josh is helping out with the high-school baseball team, he gets to travel for their spring tournament and the girls and I get to tag along. We missed all of the games last year, but I decided to take the RV down for the entire week this year and I am so glad that I did. In an effort not to blow all of our vacation days three months into the year, Josh and I took turns working and hanging out with the girls and it was the perfect combination. The only downside to our stay was that Josh stayed with the team for most of the week and we didn't get to see him nearly as much as we would like. But it was still crazy fun. Because, ...
Rewind: Beach Weekend
One of the down-sides to my crazy month of work was that the kids went on our summer vacation without us. Everything had been so up in the air for months and with my ever-changing schedule it was hard to determine if Josh & I would make it down or not. We debating him going ahead without me, but ultimately decided that he and I would do the same thing in the hopes we could travel together later in the summer. My parents decided to take the kids with them their entire two weeks, so our house was pretty quiet. Josh decided to go down the last weekend they were there and see the girls, eat some seafood and help them pack up and bring the RV home for the rest of the summer. At the last minute, I found myself with 48 hours at home alone and decided to make the long drive to surprise them ...
Dance + Beach = Ella’s Perfect Weekend
This past weekend was Ella's last competition of the season. We were scheduled for one more next week, but (thankfully) it was cancelled because of a scheduling problem. Our other competitions have been mostly local, but we headed south for the beach this time and spent a few days together in the sand. At the last competition, I forgot to pack Ella's fishnet tights and caused quite the commotion. We danced in tan tights instead, but I vowed never to forget anything again. I had checked her bags against our check-list twice before we left home, but the first thing I did when we got to the condo was to lay everything out and check it all one more time! We started our day in swimsuits and crazy hair and spent some time out on our balcony before trekking down to the stage area to set up ...