Lincoln's First Beach Trip

After all of the craziness of Christmas, we loaded up the Durango and headed out to the beach one blistery winter day.  The sun was shining, but the wind was also blowing.  So while, it was a beautiful day, we weren't going anywhere near the water!

Our trip was spurred on by the fact that Andrew said he had never been to the Gulf of Mexico.  Since it is all of 45 minutes from our house, we knew that a trip was a must.

Look at my beautiful baby all bundled up in a hodge-podge mix of clothes.  We call this style "put on as many layers as possible so you don't freeze."



The boys wanted to stroll down the beach and look for shells and driftwood.  Kari and I set up shop near the pier, and made a camp for the babies and ourselves.  Can you tell we were cold?  Look at poor Lincoln's cheeks!



He wasn't scared of the grand expanse of water.  All he wanted to do was crawl around the blanket and play with the toys we brought.  The only problem was that I just wanted him to stay under the blankets where it was warm.



Emmy convinced Kari to walk around with her so she could look for shells.



They came back pretty quickly so they could burrow back under the covers.



We did enjoy listening to the waves roll in and taking in all the beauty that comes with being at the beach.



Emmy decided that a dance and gymnastic performance was on our agenda.  We buy so much stuff to make them happy, but I don't think anything we bought made her as happy as having our undivided attention while she performed and played.  Food for thought next year when I am trying to decide what to buy for Christmas.



After a while, we decided to go and explore on the jetties.  Kari found a walking stick and proceeded to start climbing and jumping way farther than she had any right to.  She made some comment about needing to put her yoga pants to work...or something to that effect.



Before we knew it, we were chilled to the bone, and Dad called and said he was making chili at his house.  That was all of the incentive we needed to pack our stuff up and head back to EC.



Lincoln's first beach trip was a success.  Maybe next time he will actually get to go in the water.  ;)

Gulf Shores Vacation 2014 {Family Photos}

At Christmas when we were all together, we started dreaming up this beautiful family photo we would take when we went on vacation in July.  We knew we wanted to have turquoise and coral, and quickly after we decided that the guys could wear navy...they weren't too keen on wearing turquoise.  I think the colors are really pretty together and it all coordinates.  It's riding the border of "matchy-matchy," but when you have a group this big, you have to make concessions unless one person is going to buy everyone's clothes.

On Sunday, after our first day at the beach, we headed back out in our awesome duds and took the pictures from this post.  Although they may not be perfect, and I still have a lot of work to do before they go up on the wall, they are a beautiful reminder of the time we got to spend together on vacation.  This means that to us they are priceless.


Our big, wild, and crazy group!



We are pretty cool too.



Remember when I mentioned crazy?  May I present exhibit A?  I had the tripod set up for these shots, and I think we were giving some of the evening beach strollers a show.



MoMo B & Papa





Mom and Dad.  I finally got him to be serious and smile.  I will have to post some of the silly ones later.


Our family unit.





GiGi looked mighty pretty.





Uncle Samuel's little clan


Sweet siblings.



I love this one of the two of them.



Beautiful Bekah


My handsome little cousin is growing up.  I give him three years, and he will be my height.



This was actually one of the first photos that I took while everyone else was making their way down to the beach.  This was one of the only times the whole week that Kari came down to the water, and I actually caught her in her natual pose--book in hand.



Brittany striking a pose.  You can hear more from her here.



I didn't take a lot of time on a photo of our little family since I knew we were taking more photos the next day in the outfits that I brought.



Mother and Daughter.



It was almost dark and everyone was heading back, but our photos wouldn't be complete without a sister pic!



This was so much fun, and I know that these photos will only become more special as the years pass.  Maybe in ten years, the rest of the family will forgive me for the pain and suffering that I put them through to get these.

But then again, maybe not. ;)

Gulf Shores Vacation 2014 {The Beach 2}

Wednesday dawned and with it came clear skies and Alabama heat hot enough to rival a Houston summer.  Luckily we were never more than twenty feet from the ocean, so we had ample opportunity to cool down.



Some of us were even feeling spry enough to play football.





Emmy convinced some minions to build a sand fortress with her.







I finally gave in to JT's pleas and took him on a night walk along the beach.  It was amazing and I wish I had done it every night.  We even found some sand castle to take photos with in the dark.






Thursday morning while everyone else was getting ready to go shopping, Emmy and I made a quick trip down to the water.  It was so peaceful and refreshing to get down there before anyone else was awake. 



Isn't here little swimming suit just adorable?  We have a pleathora of swimming suits size 3T at our house right now.  When you have a pool party, people buy you swim suits for your birthday.  The good part is that she didn't have to rewear a suit the whole beach trip.









After our shopping exploits and a quick trip to Florida, we spent the late evening relaxing by the water until it got dark.









Friday was our last full day at the beach, and our group did me proud and showed up. 





After a little coaxing, we even got Papa to trust us enough to help him out into the water.  The waves were a little rough, but he said he enjoyed it.





We were taking MoMo B out for dinner since her birthday was the next day, so we left a little early to go by the outlet mall.  Someone wasn't too excited by all the sales.



A few of the books that I read while loafing on the shore.  Don't judge too harshly.  I only took romance novels and fluff because it's vacation trick.



Our trip home Saturday isn't technically "the beach," but it doesn't warrant its own post so here it is.  The quick was mercifully shorter than the trip there even though we did get stuck in heavy traffic on 59 all the way to the other side of the Mobile tunnel.  Apparantly people have never been a tunnel before and feel the need to crawl through and honk their horns and stuff.  We can't handle that novice stuff.



Emmy got a new hat, I read a Pride and Prejudice rewrite, and GiGi did a word search on her tablet.  We are an exciting crew!