Sweet Home Alabama!

Here we go! 15 hours, 800 miles, 7 movies, and 12 potty stops later, we arrived at our destination - Orange Beach, Alabama (right next to Gulf Shores). We went with my (Jackie's) Mom and Dad and drove in their "big truck", as the kids like to call it. The next day, my sister, Stephanie flew in to be with us for the weekend.

Our first day trip was to Fairhope, AL. My Dad's grandpa lived here for the latter part of his
life, so we wanted to check it out. It was a really cool little town. Lots of fun shops and beautiful flowers and plants everywhere! Even the garbage cans were adorned, as you can see below.

Looking back, this was one of my favorite places that we went. I love visiting cute little towns. They also had a great park for the kids to play at and fabulous pecans.
What a great place for a family picture! Does this say "vacation" or
what? This is back in Gulf Shores.

Eating out in Gulf Shores at a seafood place.

We rented a boat one day and cruised around the "inter-coastal." We beached at an island for a while to play.

Somehow all of us "adults" managed to get completely sunburned. Thankfully we loaded the kids up well with sun block. Calvin was convinced that sunburn was contagious and refused to hug us for fear he would get it on him! This lasted for a couple days. He would ask "do you still have sunburn on you? But I don't want to get it on me." I love how his mind works.

Calvin and Pops, his first go-cart ride! He was so laid back and chill about it!

Mayz and Aunt Steph, what a cute picture!

Our first day at the beach.
Mayzie entertained herself by dumping out buckets of water onto herself and the sand.

They were a little skeptical of the ocean water at first, so we dug them a little hot tub. One by one, we got all of them out into the water with us. They liked to be held and jump through the waves.

Mina loved loved LOVED playing in the waves!

She even got completely somersaulted over a few times, but got right back up with a smile on her face, ready for more.

Joe and my Dad enjoy taking in some history on vacation, which is how we ended up at the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola. Joe and my Dad read lots of signs while my Mom and I chased around the kiddies.

The kids seemed to really enjoy it too, I will say. Here is Calvin by a cool airplane.

Here is the Mayz, checkin' out all the buttons in one of the cockpits.

Mina by a space ship of some sort. (I didn't say that I read all the signs!)

Another Beach Day!

We tried a beach on the Florida side, and it was FULL of SHELLS! Mina especially LOVED shell collecting. We collected a huge bucket full of them. Anyone have a good idea of
WHAT we do with them now?

All of us on the beach.

This is the house we stayed in. When we first drove up, Mina was excited to see that it is built on stilts! She has a thing about this... a few weeks before vacation, I just randomly asked her what she was thinking about. She said "if our house was built on stilts." Funny. ALL the houses near the beach are built this way, so we all enjoyed the different architecture, and being able to play UNDER the house.


This was the "backyard" of the house. Here are Joe, Calvin, and Mina feeding
the fish.On our way back home, we spent the night in Metropolis, IL, home of SUPERMAN! It was a super end to our great vacation!