Beach Week!!

I have FINALLY finished downloading and processing all our beach trip pics. As per usual, I took waaaay too many shots, so I will be making an album of the whole trip. To blog about it, I have decided to dub this “beach week” and post a little about our fabulous trip each day.

This was a unique trip because we got to spend it with Josh’s family, who we rarely vacation with. Lucas was really pumped about getting to hang out with his cousins, Laney and Paige. We also rented a house in a slightly different location this year; in the past, we have always stayed in Orange Beach or Gulf Shores, but this year we actually stayed on the far end in Fort Morgan (technically still a part of Gulf Shores, but a little bit further out from the main strip). I REALLY enjoyed our location—yes, the drive took a bit longer, but it was so incredibly peaceful and quiet, and we had four days of pretty white beaches before the oil rolled in (Orange Beach and Gulf shores were not so lucky…they had oil the day we arrived).

We didn’t try to tackle the eight hour drive in one day this year; instead we hit Jackson halfway and then got up the next morning and went to the Hattisburg zoo. It is a nice little zoo, but the hundred degree weather plus me being seven and a half months pregnant just wasn’t a pretty combo. I enjoyed it much less than our last visit and was pleased to get back into the car and turn the air on full blast.

Everyone was excited when we finally got to our house. As soon as we emptied the cars we headed to our beach to check it out. Lucas refused to take off his Batman mask, so here is the superhero chilling in the surf.

No one wanted to cook for the first night, so we hit my absolute favorite restaurant in Gulf Shores; The Original Oyster House. For the first time in years, we did not have to wait more than fifteen minutes to be seated (this is the sad state the tourism is facing in the Gulf….so many families are vacationing elsewhere.) The food was still fabulous—I had shrimp and grits and a piece of peanut butter pie and was so full I could barely move. Our view of the bay as the sun set was wonderful as well. One thing I really noticed this trip was that everywhere you went, the wait staff or management was REALLY nice. We had excellent service throughout our trip, which was a nice treat since lately it seems like people no longer care about customer service.

The following morning, Alex woke up as the sun rose, so I took him out on the beach in his diaper and let him explore. This was my favorite shot of him romping in the sand, being a TRUE beach baby. (Normally I am not big on diaper shots, but this was too cute to pass up!)

More beach fun tomorrow!