Gulf Shores 2009

Can I just begin by saying that Gulf Shores is my absolute favorite vacation spot in the entire world and I would totally live there if I could? I even designed my perfect beach home (in my head) while walking on the beach one morning last week. So whenever I become a multi-millionaire, you all will know where to find me! Our family has been going to GS for vacation as long as I can remember and I'm so thankful that my husband loves it now as much as I do so we can bring our kids back now too and make even more happy memories!

We left last Friday morning and drove halfway to Brandon's parent's house and spent Friday afternoon and evening there visiting with Brandon's sister and his grandparents and then we got up early Saturday morning and headed out with Brandon's parents for what turned into a longer drive than we had anticipated. Apparently, lots of people from TX to MS enjoy vacationing on the Gulf coast and getting through Mobile, AL and down highway 59 in AL too a lot longer than we had planned. But, we made it in time to get there and get dinner ready. We had a total of 14 adults and kids in a 5 bedroom beach house, it was so much fun! Our house was nice and it even had a small pool on the deck which Timothy learned how to swim in on the first day there! That boy is scared to death of water, especially when he can't touch, but as long as he had his life jacket and floatie on, he was fine.

Sunday morning, the girls all cooked a Father's Day breakfast and then we headed out to play on the beach and in the pool. Monday, the guys went golfing and the girls hit some little shops in town, Tuesday, we all relaxed and did the same on Wednesday, on Thursday, Brandon and Trey (and grandparents and Aunt Rena) were kind enough to watch our kids so Christi and I could go out shopping at the outlets in Foley, Friday we spent enjoying the last day at the beach, eating at Lamberts and packing, and Saturday we hung around town playing putt putt and we took Charlotte and Timothy to see the movie "Up" in 3-D. We left for home that afternoon and got in early Sunday morning. It was a great week, tiring and fun, the kids had a blast and the adults had fun too!!

So the highlights of the week - we had family pictures made on Tuesday night, email me if you want to the link to see them, they turned out really nice, I can't wait to pick out which ones I want to order and get them up on the walls at home. Timothy learned how to swim, that was a HUGE accomplishment for him, his other favorite parts of the week were fishing, and hitting golf balls into the ocean, and playing putt putt for the first time! Charlotte LOVED to crawl in the sand and she liked to swim as well. She liked the ocean more than her brother though. Brandon got to play at two really nice golf courses and he got in a little fishing in the ocean. I thoroughly enjoyed shopping without children and laying out on the beach. The kids did WONDERFUL in the car going there and coming back, no fussing or crying, and no complaining, it was a great trip. Hopefully this will mean many more road trips to come for us, I love getting out and going places.

It was a little bittersweet to be there without my family, since they're the ones that I have all the good childhood memories with - playing rook, renting movies, singing in the volcano at the putt putt course, all the good restaurants we ate at growing up...I teared up a little watching Timothy play putt putt on Saturday, thinking that I wasn't too much older than him when we came down here for the first time. I hope this is a tradition we can afford to keep up every year. I have 113 pictures from the week...so obviously I can't post them all on here. They are up on facebook and for all the non-facebook readers (ahem - mom!!), I'll get them out on shutterfly and send them to you.