We took our first family beach trip Labor Day weekend to Gulf Shores, AL. Some good friends of ours have a condo there and we were able to reserve it for the weekend!!
WARNING.....there are A LOT of pictures in this post!
We kicked off the trip with a ferry ride across the Mobile Bay....
We finally arrived at the beach 4 hours later to see this beautiful view and to meet up with the rest of the crew for the weekend!! My parents and sister and her family were all there for the weekend!
Cousins are reunited!!
We took our first beach trip that night, we didn't have much time before it got dark but we wanted the boys to get some sand on their toes.....that didn't go over too well!! We quickly figured out Brooks is just like his daddy...he HATES the sand!
So most of our beach days were spent like this.....Brooks crying, us trying to entertain him, and eventually ended up with someone holding him pretty much the whole time!
We all had fun though and kept the beach time in short increments, went up for lunch, and then the boys took a nap while the girls headed down for more beach time fun!
We took a little pool so that the kids would have some where to sit without getting sand all over them. While I thought this was a genius idea that one of our friends suggested, they really didn't care about it!
Some more pics from our beach days.....
The second morning we all got up and took the boys fishing....
Yes, that's right, they were equipped with miniature Columbia fishing shirts and all!!
Cade loved being the "teacher" by showing Brooks and Briggs how to work the fishing pole~
It was a slow morning for fishing, so Cade finally got bored with it all and decided to be a beached whale...not really, but that's what this reminds me of haha!
No one caught anything that morning, but then we headed to the pool for a quick swim lesson with Papa and washing the sand out of those suits!!
We headed out to the beach for our second day!
Daddy sucked up his hatred for the sand and built an awesome crab in the sand with Dani and the boy's help!
Parker was a trooper the whole time and just relaxed on the beach under his tent with his fan....living the life!
There was a perfect sandbar a few yards off the shore, so the boys loved going to sit on it with Papa and Daddy because they could stand on it and still feel like they were far from the shore. We had to watch Cade though, the child had no fear and would just take off towards the sand bar if you turned around for a split second!
Brooks was my little buddy on the beach, he was practically on my him the whole time because he didn't like those toes in the sand!!
When you gotta go, you gotta go....priceless pic!
I got some sweet lovin on my little nephews when I was there!! Seriously, you can't walk by this kid without kissing his cheeks!!
The boys were so entertained by "the baby Parker" and they loved sitting with him and teaching him new tricks!!
Rara and Papa got plenty of loving on their grandbabies...although I don't think it is ever enough!
And the boys had some fun flipping with uncle Josh!
The boys had so much fun playing together, whether we were on the beach, in the condo or just lounging around!! SO MUCH FUN!
One afternoon Briggs was taking a "nap" and Iris went in to check on him, he had DESTROYED their bedroom!!! Diapers were everywhere, and he even found her make up....haha!
And finally we got to take my long awaited beach pictures.....
Uncle Justin did a fabulous job on the pics!!! Definitely ones for the wall....
AND my favorite family pic, only thing missing was Uncle Russ!! I love how the boys are all holding hands...so sweet! I love my family and cherish memories like these!
We went out to eat one night to our old family favorite, Wolf Bay Lodge on the bay. It was just as good as we all remember!!
We even got done in time to take a picture in front of the sunset, although my shirt was brighter than the sun so let's just say this one won't go on the wall, but a cute LSU family pic!
We even got to witness a boat bringing in their catch of the day which was this large shark...NASTY!! The boys thought it was cool though!
These boys are just so cute!! BFF's forever!
We ended the night with some Dippin Dots ice cream and then headed back to the condo to watch LSU beat TCU in the opening game of the season!!
Our last night there we decided to be adventurous and take a sunset dolphin cruise! Dani planned out the whole trip for us and when we got there we got a bonus....not only was it a sunset dolphin cruise but a PIRATE sunset dolphin cruise, haha! So we got these cool doo rags (sp?) and eye patches, the kids didn't like them, so Dani and I had some fun with them!
We saw a lot of dolphins, definitely worth the time and money to take the kids! They loved the experience!
RaRa and Papa had to go home a day earlier, so it was just this crew for the dolphin tour!
We even got some couple pics with the beautiful sunset behind us!!! Not the most flattering of myself, but the background is priceless!
We had a great beach trip!! It was filled with fun times with the family and memories I will always remember! We had fun crab hunting, ferry riding, good eating building our sand crab, playing in the waves and spending time with family. I was quickly reminded that the beach is not Josh's favorite vacation spot but I am glad he came along for the vacation! We look forward to our next vaca together!!! Hopefully next time Uncle Russ can come along for the fun!
Until next time...
