Beach Pics: Part 1

Just got these precious pictures in the mail and I rushed to get them scanned in the computer.  I LOVE THEM!  I am still deciding on what size to order of the big family shot...so I will post it later...

WE LOVE SUN SHOTS!

Orange Beach 2014

Pretty sure this is the most pictures I have ever blogged in one entry and that's because I had so many great ones!  We had a great family vacation to Orange Beach. The boys, Shelby and I were there for the week.  Daddy had to leave us for a couple of days to go pay respects at a visitation for a very tragic death but he certainly made up for lost time when he got back.

Wednesday: Head to the beach!  Groceries, unloading and even some beach time.  Mommy cooked some delicious fresh salmon and we ate in the condo.

Thursday:  ALL DAY BEACH DAY!  No naps for boys, turkey sandwiches by the pool and lots of fun in the sun and surf.  Even got John Cole out of the boogie board!  Preston was LOVING his boogie board this year.  Hours and hours people.  That night we got together with the Halls and The Wests and had a delicious dinner at Fishers.  They were hosting a celebrity chef and the food was divine.  It was complete with wine pairings...right up my alley.  The Wests even took us out for a little pre-dinner cruise on their family "boat..."  Super fun night!

Friday:  6am beach pictures!!  I hope to place my order today so I can blog them soon.  They are so good.  Seriously.  I am never going to be able to decide.  SunShots ROCKS!  We had a little waffle house afterwards....
A little cloudy in the morning but we made the most of it on the beach.  I cooked some delicious fresh shrimp for lunch then we all took a NAP!  Afterwards, we headed out to what is always one of our fav attractions: the Cold Mil Fleet Dolphin Cruise.  Always see tons. Preston spotted a REAL Coast Guard boat while we were cruising and we were happy to find it docked near us afterward.  The guys were so sweet to let the boys tour the boat and they thought it was something else!  That night we grabbed a quick, casual dinner as we were wet from the rain...

Saturday:  Daddy left with The Halls and we took the boys to Airplanes Fire and Rescue.  Of course they loved it.  Then had a yummy lunch at Cosmos.  I had never been there but it was good.  It had been raining ALL morning but by the time we got back the sun was out!  Crazy.  So we got beach time in.  Miss Shelby met up with some friends for dinner so the boys and I had a delicious pizza for dinner and turned in early...

Sunday:  Kinda strange weather Sunday.  It was perfect in the morning.  There was a random shower.  Then all of the sudden the wind whipped up and seriously I had never seen anything like it.  Shelby was with JC in the condo and I was out with P and God whispered in my ear to get him out of the ocean.  That's the only way I can describe it.  It was audible and real to me that he needed to get out...so we just chilled in the hot tub until it was time to go to dinner.

Some people don't but I acutally enjoy The Hangout.  The kids LOVE it too.  I got the cutest video of John Cole getting down on the big blue chair before dinner.  And of course the foam party is a hit.  Afterwards, we went to get "Hot Dots" and then we were all super tired and headed home to bed.

Monday: Daddy is back!  I know he had to be tired but he rallied.  We of course spent the morning on the beach, grabbed a quick lunch in town then headed off the the Pirate Adventure.  Seriously, this was a top notch deal that I wasn't expecting that much from.  We hunted for treasure, we got our pirate gear, we ambushed another ship, we swabbed the deck and we even had a little friendly water balloon fight.  So fun.  That night Mommy and Daddy went on a quick date to The Gulf then came back to hunt crabs with P.  Preston is Soooooooooooo good at catching living things.  He caught at least 30 crabs very quickly.  Three of them were HUGE.  They were entertainment all day on...

Tuesday:  ALL BEACH ALL DAY.  Peanut butter sandwiches and watermelon by the pool.  Lots of sun and lots of fun.  Perfect.  We all cleaned up and went to The Wharf and had a wonderful meal at Villagio Grill.  Then we hit the ropes course.  Preston wasn't tall enough to go alone so Jeff and I both did it with him.  Shelby supervised John Cole on the "baby" ropes course.  (Sooooo cute!) Anywhoo, I think Jeff and I both thought P would be scared when he got up but he ROCKED it.  I was so proud of him.  We were all hot and tired when we got done :)

Wednesday: Straight home with a quick donut stop.  John Cole loved his Fruit Loop donut. Only on vacation would this be allowed :)

Lots of sandy hugs and kisses from my boys this week.  Wouldn't trade this time with them for anything in the entire world.  Please pray for the family of Annie Smith Carrier...she will be missed!

Winshape Camps for Communities: Best Week Ever

I had never even HEARD the name "Winshape" until recently, but now that I have seen what it is all about I am so happy to have gotten in the know and especially grateful Preston got to experience one of their "Camps for Communities" this week.

The Truett Cathey (of Chick-Fil-A) Family has spent years putting together day/overnight camps, retreats for marriages, retreats for pastors, sponsoring foster homes and even doing missionary work internationally under the "Windshape" banners.  From what I understand, it's a pretty big deal to get one of these camps to come to your church and Temple had it for the first time last year.  My readers know I like to keep Preston busy in the Summer (he is asleep upstairs now though...) and so we decided to check out this great day camp.

There was a long list of activities to chose from, and Preston selected 1) Secret Agent 2) Wacky Scientist and 3)Fast Food.  (If you know Preston none of these should come as a surprise!) So he spent time doing these activities that also tied back into God's word.  I went to his exhibition this morning and I think you can tell he was having fun.  He and I won the cookie decorating contest for our snowman...he was pretty pumped...especially when he got to eat it!

We all got free Chikkalay for lunch and now I am gearing up for night two of the Sound of Music.  Thanks family for coming out last night.   I am going to try and get some good pics one of these nights of performance...

4th weekend in Dallas

Our weekend trip to Dallas was "semi" spur of the moment.  We really didn't have much else going on, and Preston LOVES the Great Wolf, so we decided to go over for a long weekend.

The GWL is crazy expensive on Summer weekends so we decided just to do one night there.  Since you can get in at 11:30 on the day you arrive and actually stay the ENTIRE next day one night is PLENTY in my book.  So, Jeff the trip planner was kind of off the hook for this one and I spent a LONG time looking for something to do in Dallas on the 4th that was not crazy busy or crazy HOT!  I came up with the Fairmont downtown as they had a highly rated pool that even was showing a "Dive-In Movie" at dark.  Score!  Then, we just stumbled upon the super cool Klyde Warren Park as we were driving into the hotel and it was just perfect.  There were food trucks set up and we had some delicious food.  And the boys LOVED the Splash Pad.  SO grateful Jeff is such a good Daddy because it definitely took TWO sets of eyes to keep up with them at this busy park but it was worth it.  We didn't make it to the bitter end of "Frozen"...but we have it at home :)

The only minor (could have been MAJOR!) mishap we had occurred on Saturday morning as we were leaving the Fairmont headed to GWL.  Someone had opened the back glass on Jeff's Tahoe--I guess the valet--and we didn't know and the back window flew open as we were on speeding onto the freeway.  Jeff instinctively pulled over...where there was NO shoulder....and it was a scary few seconds until we decided to heck with whatever flies out of the car we've got to get out of the road!  In all seriousness, it was one of those moments that you literally pray with all of your might, and God pulled us through for SURE!!

I don't know what it is about the GWL, but whatever their formula is sure does work with my boys.  They LOVE IT!  Now, were there some lines?  Sure.  However, Jeff and P rode the big slides for over an hour this morning with essentially no lines.  Are there some unpleasant things that happen when you  mix babies, swim diapers and even big kids who eat too much candy and then go swim?? YEP!  But these things happen anywhere with kids so it isn't a huge deal to me.

It was maybe a tad selfish to sneak to Mi Cocina last night for dinner but I really didn't want a Wolf Burger.  It was awesome.  After we got back to Great Wolf, Daddy and John Cole did some exploring while Preston and I did the "MagicQuest."  Preston was MUCH better (and more into it) this time and I actually sort of enjoyed it too.  There is a LOT of stair walking and I was in high wedges and was not sad when he was ready to call it quits...

Without a doubt the coolest thing about the GWL are the bunk beds.  Seriously, NO FIGHT putting kids to bed.  They were so cute all snuggled up with their wolf pillows.  Wish I could bottle that sweet moment!

We hit the waterpark, did a little more MagicQuest and colored some super cool tshirts before we left today.  Boys were done and quite frankly so were Mom and Dad!  We also really enjoyed our lunch at Meso Maya which came recommended by Kk and Kevin. Thanks y'all.

Its Sound of Music week!  Opening night is Thursday!  Hope I can get some pictures to post.  Until then....