Beach Vacation

Hello!!  Despite the unintentional blog break, we're still here!  I have so much to write about, all kinds of things that have been going on this summer, but I thought I'd start at the obvious place...vacation!!  Last week we had an amazing trip down to Orange Beach, Alabama.  When I was a kid we would vacation at Navarre Beach, Florida, and I haven't been back on a 'beach vacation' since those days.  Sure we've spent a day here and there at the beach while visiting friends, but this was a first for us.  A family trip to the beach for a week.  The beach is my happy place so I was beyond ready for this trip.  Sara Kate found out back in June and just about every day she would get so excited and say 'we're going to the beach tomorrow??'  And my standard response was, 'No baby, at the end of July.'  So we made her a calendar and daily she colored a day so she could track when we were going.  All she could talk about was seeing crabs (she talked about that alot for some reason!), play in the sand, and swim, and I don't think our trip disappointed her.  We did see crabs, we did swim, we did play in the sand, and we also went to a little zoo, celebrated Chris' birthday, and even saw dolphins from our balcony!  I'll try not to go overboard with pictures, but Chris captured some great images while we were there so I have quite a bit to share. :-) 

The view from our balcony.

We greased ourselves up pretty good every day and thankfully managed to get very little sunburn (spray sunscreen is amazing!!!).  The top of Sara Kate's head got red the first day because she wouldn't wear her hat and Chris got a little red on his back and lower stomach, but thankfully we ended up with very little red and a good bit of brown! :-)

I didn't get to sit back and relax much, as Sara Kate wanted me in the water with her or in the sand with her, but I sure loved relaxing in a chair with my toes in the sand and an ice cold beer in my hand!

 

One morning Chris had to stay in the room to wait on a call from his principal but he sat on the balcony and snapped some pictures, unbeknownst to me!

Sara Kate loved walking on the beach and sitting in the surf finding shells.  We came back with a huge bag of shells, and I even found a shark tooth in the sand!

Shark tooth

 

She loved playing in the sand with her sand toys.  We attempted to build several castles, but we did a terrible job.  Sand castle building is not my forte. :-)

I'm not sure what she liked more, the sand or the ocean, but we spent ALOT of time in the water.  'Mommy, come swim with me!'  The first couple of days the ocean was really rough and we got knocked over by several waves, but the last 2 days it was so calm and clear and the tide was low so we could swim out quite a ways and just float.  Perfect!

 

Our beach trip was great.  Lots of sun, sand, and swimming, and some wonderful memories made.  We're so thankful to my parents for the opportunity, but we missed my brother and sister in law.  Hopefully we can all join in the fun next summer.