Gulf Shores Vacation

Hi,everybody! I had intentions of getting caught up on my blog, but decided to just start from here. Too hard to get caught up now. My last post I was pretty much in tears because me and the kids were sick and fixing to head to the beach. I had a lot of response through to my blog, texts, emails, and instagram. A lot of people were praying for us to have a safe trip and a healthy one. I am very thankful for all the prayers because I have such good news. Lets start out by our travel day on Saturday. We woke up early and loaded the van. Amelia was pale as could be, but smiling ear to ear. She was burnt up with fever. I kept checking her at every pit stop and would give her more medicine. I was so proud of the kids on how they handled the long 10 hr rd trip. They were so well behaved and didn't ask to stop every few minutes like I thought they would. We arrived at our condo and quickly unpacked and headed out to the beach. It was dark and cool so we didn't stay long. I loved seeing my kids take it all in. I couldn't get Amelia off the boardwalk because she was playing in the sand on the sides. I kept saying, "Come on, there's plenty more sand out here." We went to bed and crashed. The next morning we had to go get some groceries so we made a quick trip to walmart and came right back. We put on our beach clothes and headed out to the beach. It was a beautiful day, but the red flag was up warning everyone of rough water. Maynard and the boys still played in it a little bit. Titus has no sense of fear and was scaring us to death. Amelia played in the sand and I just chilled in my beach chair. Oh, I forgot to add that this was the first day Amelia was fever free. She started feeling better and I was so thankful. Me and Maynard took a sore throat and sneezing and coughing, but we are better now too. We went to eat at Lamberts Sunday night for suppper and it was a lot of fun. Our waitress kept playing tricks on Josiah. They were amazed at how they were throwing rolls around to people. Titus mentioned that this place has bad manners. Ha Ha! Titus hasn't been eating real well when we go out. He compares all our food to London's and it is never fixed right. The only way he will eat is what I fix in our room. He is so odd, but he just don't do good with change. Monday it was soooooooo cold. We decided to go sightseeing instead of going out to the beach. We drove to Mobile, Al and toured the USS Alabama battleship. They boys loved this. There was a lot of levels and steep stairs and I was wigging out. I kinda have a stair phobia thing too. We stayed there a couple hours and had lunch at Longhorns. We came back to our room and let the kids swim in the indoor pool. Its so funny because Amelia stays in the hot tub most of the time with the older people. She loves hot water and the boys are like, eww eww, that's too hot. Tuesday, we went to the beach and me and Amelia layed around with jackets on and watched Maynard and the boys metal detect. We finally got to shed our jackets and it was feeling pretty good. We stayed out for most the afternoon. After lunch in our condo, we headed to the hot tubs where we pretty much had it to ourselves mostly. Then we went back to the indoor pool so the kids could play. When we got back and dried off, we had plans of going out for supper. Our kids threw such a fit because they didn't want to leave. They cry everytime we want to go somewhere. They are content just to be in the resort whether its in our room, beach, or pool. I decided to fix breakfast for supper and we all went to bed early. My kids are sleeping soooo good here. Wednesday, we got up early and headed out to a gift shop. And because I'm a tightwad, we left empty handed. I wanted to get the kids airbrushed T-shirts and wouldn't dare pay $30 each for one. Not going to happen!!!! We made a fast reservation to go on a dolphin cruise and 30 mins later we were on a boat out in the bay. We got to see about 20 dolphins jumping and playing in the water. Amelia absolutely loved the dolphins more than I can explain. She would get so mad when they were done playing and she couldn't see them anymore. Today is also mine and Maynard's 14th wedding anniversary. Isn't it neat that we got to be on vacation the same week as our anniversary? I think so!!!! We went back out to the beach. Maynard and the boys got out in the ocean. Titus loved it more than Josiah did. Whatever Maynard did, that's what Titus wanted to do. Me and Amelia played in the sand. After awhile Josiah was wanting to go swimming. So I took the kids down to the indoor pool, but it was closed for the day for repair. Josiah was wiping away tears of dissappointment so I said, go jump in the outside pool if you think you can stand it. It was really cold out and windy. Titus and Josiah jumped in and and loved it. They swam for about 45 mins and then decided they couldn't handle it anymore.
By Wednesday evening, Amelia got homesick.  She sat on the couch and boo hooed.  She wanted to go home.  She missed her bed and Fatty Patty.  She missed our dog Jack and she missed her friends at church.  She got in a bad way.  I texted my friend Michelle to have her daughter call her.  Amelia got to talk to them a few minutes and then she settled down and went to sleep.  She was ok by in the morning.
Thursday and Friday was nice sunny days and we headed to the beach about 10:30 and stayed until about 5 pm every evening.  The yellow flags were finally up and the beach was filling up.  Titus and Maynard played in the gulf quite a bit.  Josiah did too, but he didn't like it as much as Titus did.  Amelia would let me hold her and carry her out, but she thought it was too cold and she did not like it at all!  We kept applying sunblock, but we still came back tan with a few sunburns.  Maynard's feet got burned to a crisp.  He never goes barefoot and he didn't think about putting sunblock on his feet.  So funny!  Amelia loved the sand and me and her made quite a few sand castles.  I even made an awesome sea turtle.  So what if it started out to be a cake. Ha Ha
Our last day on the beach they had an egg hunt.  The Easter bunny was there and they had an area marked off in the sand for the egg hunt.  I just think that was pretty cool because how often to you get to have an egg hunt on the beach?  Titus came out like a bandit.  He won 2 prizes which included a water ball and an easter basket full of sand toys.  He also won 3 free drinks from the cafe.  Josiah won candy and a candy bar from the cafe.  Amelia won candy and a drink from the cafe.  I had a hard time getting her candy away from her.  She has to to go a year without candy because of her food allergies, and it is not going so well.
After the egg hunt, they wanted to go swimming.  It was too pretty outside to go swimming indoors, even though the pool water was still freezing.  One of the 6 pools at the condo was a huge pool that started at 1 1/2 ft and ended in 5 ft.  The kids had lots of pool to play in and not be in any danger.  I loved it!  Of course, I didn't get in, but they all did.  People actually thought the pool was heated because they were in it.  They would jump in and scream and want to know how my kids could handle it.  Hilarious!
We went out for supper again and then headed back to our condo.  I started cleaning and packing up.  Titus walked around with his lip out and his chin quivering.  He said, "Tomorow is a sad day, ain't it?"  He absolutely loved everything about our beach trip.  He loves the outdoors anyways and here for 7 days he got to stay outside and play from morning until night.  I'll have to admit, I didn't want to leave either.  Most of our trips end in disaster, but this time it started that way with the strep and flu.  So many people were praying for us and we ended up having a great vacation.  We were all rested up and ready to come home afresh.
Our trip home was a little bit more hairy than on the way there, but we made it finally.  Somehow a burst of energy shot through me and I completely unpacked all our suitcases and put everything away.  I even had done 2 loads of laundry and put them away.  I am so shocked at myself.  That is so unlike me if ya'll know me at all.

I'm gonna try to add a few random pictures.  There were so many to choose from so I just picked a few and pray that they will upload this time!!!

Thanks for ya'lls prayers for a safe and healthy trip.

 Amelia on the beginning of our road trip.  She was so pale and a very sick little girl.

Boardwalk looking at the beach.

Boardwalk looking at our condo.

 

Kitchen and dining room

The kid's bedroom

Maynard chillin' in our living room for the week.

 

Grocery delivery on Monday morning.  Great service. Ha

 

Amelia loving the sand.

My beach bum. (We got to shed the jacket and socks a little later.)

Josiah a little fearful of the gulf at first.

Burying Daddy in the sand.

Whatever Maynard did, Titus was sure to follow.

No caption needed.

 

Toured USS Alabama battleship

My boys love anything to do with soldiers and battle.

 

 

Lamberts Cafe.  They actually told us to put our phones away because more than likely, we were gonna have some spills.  Sounds fun already, right? Ha

 

Dolphin Cruise.  Look at her face.  She loved it!

Our only group picture the whole trip.

 

Souvenier Shop

 

 

Freezing pool.  I didn't get any indoor pool pics.

 

Not sure what he was trying to prove here.  Not cold, maybe?

 

Egg hunt on the beach.

I love this picture.

 

That's it.  I gotta stop somewhere even though I have tons more!