So, we set off last Saturday on our vacation with the Moore Family. I'm sure you all remember them.
http://moorewar.blogspot.com/ We left our house with them following behind us at 6:48 a.m. Grace had not been on a road trip since she was 2, and we quickly learned that she had since added the phrase, "Are we almost there?" to her vocabulary. We've made the trek across the Mississippi bridge a few times in the past, but had never stopped at the Vicksburg visitor's center until this trip. It was pretty cool.
We arrived at Aunt Pat, Uncle David, and
Mammaw's place around 2:30 Friday afternoon. After stopping of course to load up on gasoline at $3.68 a gallon (almost 30 cents cheaper than it was selling in Dallas), and cartons of
cigs for $29.99 as compared to $50.00 in Texas. They were gracious hosts, filling our bellies with lasagna, garlic bread, and homemade blueberry cobbler. It was delicious. I always love visits to their home. They are completely secluded and surrounded by pine trees that their sons planted 10 years ago during a Summer break. Tim and I took a little time to play with our cameras and capture some of the natural beauty that
was surrounding us. Not one of our children had napped during the drive there, and were all sound asleep by 9:00. I take that back. I think the Moore's oldest daughter Kaylee, and her friend
Mykayla stayed up a little later than the rest-- all giddy with excitement about the next day's journey to the beach.
Saturday morning came too soon. Wes woke me up somewhere around 7:00 a.m. and I stumbled onto the porch for my morning cigarette and can of Coke--grumpy as usual. Once the nicotine and caffeine reached my insides, I was ready to go. Aunt Shirley and Uncle Jerry arrived at Aunt Pat's house around 10:15. We visited for a short time before our caravan of weary traveler's set off for the Redneck Riviera. We arrived in Gulf Shores around 2:00 p.m. We were starving and couldn't pick up the keys to our house until 3:00, so we stopped at Subway for some lunch. We finished eating right at 3:00 and headed across the street to grab our keys and check in. We then drove down what appeared to be the longest road ever until we finally reached our road. I mean Our Road. Yep, that was the name of the street our house was on. How perfect is that? The photos we had seen on the
internet did not do this place justice--nor will the ones I took with my camera. It was absolutely gorgeous, and even closer to the sand than we had thought.
So after settling into our awesome five bedroom house, it was time to do what we had come so far to do---hangout on the beach. We gave the kids
Ziplock bags to collect seashells and headed down the road armed with a boogie board, shovels, pails, and beverages for the grown ups.
After a short time
Mariah came running up to us with her bag full of water ready to show us what she had found. "Look what I caught! What is it?", she exclaimed. It was the first of many jellyfish sightings. We have now nicknamed her the Jellyfish Whisperer as her x-ray vision seems to allow her to spot all jellyfish within a 5 mile radius.
The following day was beautiful...overcast, with a nice breeze. We made it out onto the beach around 10:00 a.m. after lathering up with sunscreen and packing our cooler. Tim got busy right away carving chairs made out of sand, and turning Susan into a mermaid. Wes and I decided that it sure looked like a lot of work, and we had no intentions of doing any work while on vacation.
I ordered Wes to take a few pics of me with the kids since I am always the one behind the lens. I want them to be able to look at their photo albums (or rather photo
cd's since none of these pics ever seem to get printed and placed in an album) and realize that we did take family vacations. They didn't just head off to fun places with their dad every year.
After lunch and a little downtime, Susan, Tim, and I took some of the kids back down to the beach while Wes napped. The waves had picked up and the water had become a little murky. The kids were having a great time though. And then that's when it went downhill for Grace. Apparently, she does not have x-ray vision, and apparently the wind and waves push jellyfish towards the shore...Oh and apparently if you have an
inter tube around your waist, and a jellyfish is swept up into it, you will get stung in multiple places, until the jellyfish is freed from your
inter tube. The initial scream was the worst. I knew immediately what had happened. She came running to me saying that there were ants all over her. I dried her off, took a look at where she was saying she hurt and hightailed it as fast as a pack a day out of shape mom can hightail it through 150 yards of sand. Wes jumped out of bed once we got
upstairs and comforted her while I started a bath for her. Then Wes filled a cup with Joey's special sting relief recipe
http://www.friends-tv.org/zz401.html while we waited for our pediatrician to call us back. While she was in the tub I poured some of the magic potion on her. After we got her out of the tub, I applied some Aloe Vera gel to the stings and gave her some Motrin as her
Dr. had suggested.
After a nap, Grace was as good as new. We decided to go out to eat that night for dinner since it was
Mykayla's 11
th birthday. She had come along for the trip in order to keep Susan and Tim's daughter Kaylee in good spirits.
Pre-teens don't seem to be quite as entertained by sand castles and
Mykayla kept us from
hearing phrases like, "I'm bored." all week. Susan and I had been to
Wal-Mart on Sunday to stock up on perishable items and while we were there I had asked a friendly
Wal-Mart employee who looked as if she was no stranger to buffets for some local
restaurant recommendations. She kindly made us a list of some of the best seafood joints in town. We decided to eat at The Shrimp Basket. And let me just tell you--that was some good stuff. The service was fantastic, and every bit of everything we ordered was delicious, including my banana
daiquiri.
We arrived at Aunt Pat, Uncle David, and Mammaw's place around 2:30 Friday afternoon. After stopping of course to load up on gasoline at $3.68 a gallon (almost 30 cents cheaper than it was selling in Dallas), and cartons of cigs for $29.99 as compared to $50.00 in Texas. They were gracious hosts, filling our bellies with lasagna, garlic bread, and homemade blueberry cobbler. It was delicious. I always love visits to their home. They are completely secluded and surrounded by pine trees that their sons planted 10 years ago during a Summer break. Tim and I took a little time to play with our cameras and capture some of the natural beauty that was surrounding us. Not one of our children had napped during the drive there, and were all sound asleep by 9:00. I take that back. I think the Moore's oldest daughter Kaylee, and her friend Mykayla stayed up a little later than the rest-- all giddy with excitement about the next day's journey to the beach.
Saturday morning came too soon. Wes woke me up somewhere around 7:00 a.m. and I stumbled onto the porch for my morning cigarette and can of Coke--grumpy as usual. Once the nicotine and caffeine reached my insides, I was ready to go. Aunt Shirley and Uncle Jerry arrived at Aunt Pat's house around 10:15. We visited for a short time before our caravan of weary traveler's set off for the Redneck Riviera. We arrived in Gulf Shores around 2:00 p.m. We were starving and couldn't pick up the keys to our house until 3:00, so we stopped at Subway for some lunch. We finished eating right at 3:00 and headed across the street to grab our keys and check in. We then drove down what appeared to be the longest road ever until we finally reached our road. I mean Our Road. Yep, that was the name of the street our house was on. How perfect is that? The photos we had seen on the internet did not do this place justice--nor will the ones I took with my camera. It was absolutely gorgeous, and even closer to the sand than we had thought.
So after settling into our awesome five bedroom house, it was time to do what we had come so far to do---hangout on the beach. We gave the kids Ziplock bags to collect seashells and headed down the road armed with a boogie board, shovels, pails, and beverages for the grown ups.
After a short time Mariah came running up to us with her bag full of water ready to show us what she had found. "Look what I caught! What is it?", she exclaimed. It was the first of many jellyfish sightings. We have now nicknamed her the Jellyfish Whisperer as her x-ray vision seems to allow her to spot all jellyfish within a 5 mile radius.
The following day was beautiful...overcast, with a nice breeze. We made it out onto the beach around 10:00 a.m. after lathering up with sunscreen and packing our cooler. Tim got busy right away carving chairs made out of sand, and turning Susan into a mermaid. Wes and I decided that it sure looked like a lot of work, and we had no intentions of doing any work while on vacation.
I ordered Wes to take a few pics of me with the kids since I am always the one behind the lens. I want them to be able to look at their photo albums (or rather photo cd's since none of these pics ever seem to get printed and placed in an album) and realize that we did take family vacations. They didn't just head off to fun places with their dad every year.
After lunch and a little downtime, Susan, Tim, and I took some of the kids back down to the beach while Wes napped. The waves had picked up and the water had become a little murky. The kids were having a great time though. And then that's when it went downhill for Grace. Apparently, she does not have x-ray vision, and apparently the wind and waves push jellyfish towards the shore...Oh and apparently if you have an inter tube around your waist, and a jellyfish is swept up into it, you will get stung in multiple places, until the jellyfish is freed from your inter tube. The initial scream was the worst. I knew immediately what had happened. She came running to me saying that there were ants all over her. I dried her off, took a look at where she was saying she hurt and hightailed it as fast as a pack a day out of shape mom can hightail it through 150 yards of sand. Wes jumped out of bed once we got upstairs and comforted her while I started a bath for her. Then Wes filled a cup with Joey's special sting relief recipe http://www.friends-tv.org/zz401.html while we waited for our pediatrician to call us back. While she was in the tub I poured some of the magic potion on her. After we got her out of the tub, I applied some Aloe Vera gel to the stings and gave her some Motrin as her Dr. had suggested.
After a nap, Grace was as good as new. We decided to go out to eat that night for dinner since it was Mykayla's 11th birthday. She had come along for the trip in order to keep Susan and Tim's daughter Kaylee in good spirits. Pre-teens don't seem to be quite as entertained by sand castles and Mykayla kept us from hearing phrases like, "I'm bored." all week. Susan and I had been to Wal-Mart on Sunday to stock up on perishable items and while we were there I had asked a friendly Wal-Mart employee who looked as if she was no stranger to buffets for some local restaurant recommendations. She kindly made us a list of some of the best seafood joints in town. We decided to eat at The Shrimp Basket. And let me just tell you--that was some good stuff. The service was fantastic, and every bit of everything we ordered was delicious, including my banana daiquiri.
