Gulf Shores: family time aka picture time!

Our time in Gulf Shores was laid back, relaxing, and enjoyable. We spent time with family on the beach, at Lulu's, and sitting on the balcony listening to the waves. The one request from Papa Ray and Mama Pat was a picture of everyone wearing their favorite team colors. Our family? Bulldogs, Elephants, and Tigers. Everyone else? Elephants, Tigers, and Tarheels. Unfortunately {grin}, the Elephants outnumbered everyone 9 to 6. Notice I said outnumbered...not won! ;)

I know for a fact that it takes a downright miracle to capture an even semi-decent family shot of the five of us.

Try throwing in 6 more adults, another kid and a baby...

AND two dogs!!!   

And it's down right impossible!

I quit trying to transplant heads and move eyes and just kept the moments as they were.

Because that's what it's all about, capturing the moments: the silliness. the complete absurdity (of holding a 25lb baby on each hip for a good 10 minutes!). the tears and the laughter. the smiles and the closeness. the moment.

We started with Pat's daughter and her family and added my dad and Pat (and Bama Girl of course!)

My poor dad was seriously outnumbered here!

I then handed my camera over to Charlene (thank you Charlene and Sara for being such patient, wonderful photographers!), and we added the Root kids and their families.

Squirming toddlers, cranky preschoolers, teary babies, and distracted canines...

And out went the Moseley's and dad so we could grab some shots of my brother and me and our families. By then, my arms were aching; but Anne Perry and Audrey Kate weren't budging. My favorite {outtake} is the first one where I'm desperately trying to rearrange babies and failing miserably!

But I thought this one turned out pretty cute :)

...except Guinness (the dog) got distracted by something on the beach. oh well. :)

I jumped back behind my camera to get a few shots of my absolutely adorably handsome nephew, Tucker, and his beautiful mama and daddy!

But before that, we attempted to grab some of the Root kids, their families, and Papa Ray and Mama Pat.

I will admit though that is has to be the funniest of them all. My dad and Pat calmly smiling (you know: don't look at the kids, look at the camera so when the kids do look, we'll get everyone looking!) but with complete chaos going on behind them! I will admit they were a photographers dream. Us on the other hand...

...we captured the moments.

So Successful it was deemed.

Papa Ray and Mama Pat, thank you for hosting us for the weekend, providing some seriously delicious meals, and creating an enjoyable environment for everyone! We loved spending time with all of you!

Gulf Shores: beach time

The weather could not have been more perfect for our weekend in Gulf Shores.

And while our 3 little girls loved the beach, they each had their own preferences as to what was enjoyable.

This big girl loved building sandcastles and playing in the sand, but she refused to be anywhere near the ocean unless she was in someone's arms. Because, being the animal enthusiast that she is, she was well aware of all the creatures who call their home the ocean. You know, jellyfish, stingrays, and sharks!!!

Oh, and how could i forget the {dead} crabs! My brother picked up one to share with her.

Her reaction?

And when on the earth did she get so big! I looked up and saw her standing facing the water (bottom left picture below) and all I could think was just that...when did her legs get so long and how did she get so tall? Wasn't she the babies age just yesterday?

And while this little girl let herself enjoy the water, she was absolutely under no circumstances a fan of the sand! She sat in the baby pool, in the little chair Mama Pat found for Addie, in Papa Ray's lap, or in someone's arms!

Apparently all that sand avoidance wore her out!

Which was all fine by me, because I was trying to keep up with this little ball of rolling-in-the-sand-beelining-it-to-the water-lover-of-all-things-beach!

You'll just have to take my word for her loving the water. There was no way i was 1.) letting go of her long enough to take a picture or 2.) dragging my camera that close to the water while attempting to keep the above said child from diving right in! But before you jump to conclusions that this is our cranky-mean-antisocial-crier, she simply did not want to leave the beach here!!! And I can't blame her! Don't you want to cry when you have to leave?

But all three of them were quite content in the baby pool sitting on the beach!

There was lots of playing in the sand.

And oh my word, soaking up the sun on some sweet baby cheeks!

But I think one of my favorite pictures is this one where Audrey Kate had her feet up in the chair attempting to avoid the sand; and as she started brushing the sand off her tiny feet, she got a little help from Papa Ray. Love!

A perfect day in a little slice of paradise.

Gulf Shores: play time

As you might remember, our family headed down to Gulf Shores about a month ago to visit Papa Ray (my dad) and Mama Pat.

My brother and his wife and their son along with Pat's daughter and her husband and their son also joined us. The weather was gorgeous! The timing was perfect. The food was fabulous. And the time spent with family was priceless.

I'll go ahead and warn you that these next few posts will contain a plethora of pictures. Like an absurd amount of pictures. And an even more absurd amount of the pictures are our girls. Because, well, I was with them 24/7, so naturally, I'd be a little top heavy on pictures of our little ones! But enough of that!

Addie and I started the morning with a walk on the beach to look for shells.

But it didn't take long for us all to hit the beach (pictures to come) and then the pool.

Addie loves "swimming" with her puddle jumper. We will be investing in another couple of those for the baby girls by next summer! I kept the picture on the right bc she was SO far away from us and just as comfortable in the pool as could be! I finally strapped the little girls together, and they had a blast sharing their ducks and floating in the water (supervised of course!).

We we so excited to get to meet baby Tucker! He is almost 4 months old here, and I'm pretty sure he's as big (or bigger) than Addie was at that age! He is absolutely adorable and has the sweetest, squishiest kissable cheeks!!! He was such a good baby, and we loved spending time with Uncle Judson, Aunt Anna, and him.

My brother, Judson, found a crab trap on the bay side of the property. Tyler, Pat's oldest grandson (above left. i pointed my camera at him and without saying anything, that's what i got! love it!), came with us to help bate it with the yuckiest meat patty I've ever seen! We decided it probably wouldn't even disintegrate in the water because it was so overly processed!

But it worked! That night Judson and Tyler went back to find quite the crab! Of course, given that it was from the bay, which was apparently one of the last hurricane's dumping grounds and was sealed up right after the oil spill (so sat stagnant for a while), we didn't opt to eat this crab! Oh, and there was one of him and 15 of us...

Addie thought she was hot stuff riding on the back of Tucker's stroller with Uncle Judson pushing. (notice our blue heron friend who landed on top of the pier pavilion).

But I think this is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. I found Addie sitting on the floor next to baby Tucker being super sweet to him! Love them both!

More from the beach to come!

the Beach

Last weekend we packed the car to the brim and headed south to the beach to visit my dad and Pat. It was the {longest} trip we've taken with the twins so far.

The weather was beautiful. Perfect temperature. Gorgeous white clouds. Crystal {blue} skies.

For all of the first 10 minutes we were there! Did we bring the rain with us? As badly as we all needed the rain, we were a little sad to watch the weather radar predicting rain for all three days of our visit all day long.

BUT...

Thankfully the weather radar isn't always correct, and {this} is what most of our weekend looked like!

(and that sky was actually that color...no photoshop enhancements!!!)

Sure, it {rained} first thing each morning and during naps, but each time we were ready to head to the beach, the sun came out and the dark clouds turned beautiful and fluffy!

If you've followed our blog for at least the last year, you might remember Addie's last trip to the beach...

Um...we had to drag a baby pool out to the beach for her to sit in because she completely refused to put her feet in the sand! No walking in it. No crawling in it. No sitting in it. And certainly no digging in it!

Not this time! We literally couldn't keep her out of the {sand}!

She wanted us to bury her, at times up to her waist, over and over again! She thought it was so much fun!

We were very fortunate to see very little of this...

...those nasty {tar balls}. Although when Addie did stand up from being buried in the sand, she had several rusty colored spots on her legs from tiny tar balls in the sand. There are huge crews of people on the beach everyday except Sunday cleaning, testing, sifting, monitoring, watching, waiting, and working to keep the beaches beautiful. They have forged a trail through the sand where they drive all of their tractors/vehicles up and down the beach. All the sifting of and driving on the sand has made it powdery soft...and oh so cool!

and I think {Bama Girl} would agree!

Right up until she got too hot and would sit right up behind my dad to be in the shade! This is one {smart} dog!

But every once in a while she would venture out to watch Addie playing in the sand!

I really think Addie would have spent every waking hour playing on the beach.

{Digging} in the sand.

Very focused.

Making {sandcastles}.

Just so she could {knock} them down...

The little girls stayed in the condo with Paul some; but on the last day, they made their {first} trip out to sit on the beach!

What did they think of it you ask? Well I'll let you decide!

This is how they pretty much started out...

Anne Perry just watching and listening to the waves...

...and Audrey Kate letting the waves put her straight to sleep. 

But before we knew it, they were both sound asleep!

A perfect day for {napping} on the beach!

Addie walked out once with her Daddy to feel the waves, but it didn't take long for her to want to come back!

She informed me that she couldn't go out into the waves because they would splash her swimsuit and get it wet.

Maybe we should redefine {swim}suit for her. ;)

Of course, what's a fall weekend without {football}?

Up first was the Alabama game. Mawmaw Pat is a huge tremendous lifelong-diehard-bleeds-crimson Alabama fan! Addie wore her red dress and yelled Roll Tide to cheer them on. Thankfully, Alabama won!

Next up was the Auburn game, and what's an Auburn game without an Auburn {cheerleader}?

Unfortunately, Addie got a tad confused with what to yell for the Auburn game. She walked in and told Papa Ray...

WAR {BIRD}

well...at least she knew it was a bird. just not specific enough! :)

But this is really where she loved to be!

And this is probably my favorite picture from the weekend! Addie had so much fun with Papa Ray!

{perfect} weekend

{gorgeous} weather

{relaxing} getaway

{yummy} food

{delightful} company

Thanks for a wonderful time Papa Ray and Mawmaw Pat!