Florabama

*************WARNING**********************
There are WAY more pictures than you will want to see and I got the weeks backward--the top pictures are of our second week and the bottom ones are the first week but I don't have the patience to flip them all around-



This girl loved those waves!

This was the view when we got off the elevator at our second condo. For whatever reason he just loved looking out there, and wasn't that impressed with the beach off his bedroom balcony. I guess you never know what kids are going to like!

Will tried his best to help us keep up with Maggie. It's not an easy job!

Macy and Will on our last day of finding hermit crabs at the little lagoon.

Maggie loved this arcade. We found lots of things to keep us busy in all the rain.

Molly, Will, Maggie, GG, Macy

Once again, someone trying to keep Maggie from running into the ocean. This was also an unsuccessful attempt.

Leap frogging on the beach with Macy


Just chillin' at the pool one afternoon when we FINALLY got some sunshine!

Will just loving on his GG



Look at those clouds!

Playing in the shower. For some reason, this was a big hit when we were in Cabo earlier this summer too. It took about 2 seconds before they found it here.



I don't know any other 87 year old GGs that can keep up with four small kids as well as mine! It was so much fun to see them all together. And she was such a big help to me keeping up with Maggie! She was finally given a break on our last day by Maggie taking a three hour nap under the cabana by the ocean. It was such a peaceful morning!

One of the days it rained ALL DAY LONG. It finally stopped around 6 that evening, so Shayla and I threw the big kids in the truck and set out to find dinner. The Crab Trap is my new favorite place! It had a huge sand pit with a giant playground in the middle of it and we were seated at a picnic table right next to it. Shayla and I enjoyed a good dinner and lots of time to talk while the kids ran out some stored up energy.



After a day of storms, we braved the beach for a few hours and there were tons of beached jellyfish. Now I've seen jelly fish before, but never ones this big. The biggest one we found was about a foot in diameter. Macy and I had fun with a few other brave souls catching them and stacking them up. Will and Molly kept their distance and made stick castles.


Surprise, it started raining again. The kids cuddled up and watched "Cars" that morning.

One of the rainy day activities of week 2. Not exactly like playing on the beach, but we found some great deals at the outlet mall!



We ended up here almost every night-the go carts. It was such a fun track and we all had a blast racing the cars.

Maggie's very first train ride.

Macy introduced Will to sleeping in a big t-shirt, rather than PJs. He was quite skeptical in the beginning, but I practically have to take this shirt off of him in his sleep to get him into something else now. He loves that Macy and he have the same one. I miss all those cute PJ sets I just bought him!

This was Will's first "real" crab catch of the trip. We went again the second week with my sister and the girls and ran into some nice men that had caught about 10. They were nice enough to let them go on the beach and let Macy and Will run them down. Unfortunately I didnt' have my camera with me!

The kids had so much fun on this sandbar. I had never seen such a big one, especially so close to the beach. And it made me feel a little more secure after watching shark week specials every night the week before we left!

Running from countless waves was a pretty fun game

I didn't get many non silly pictures of him this night-he was in the goofiest mood for some reason!

Maggie, of course, walking in to the ocean in her dress. She ended up sitting in the middle of a giant wave about 2 seconds later so this was the last picture I got of her!


Half the pictures I have of Maggie are of her backside. She always seemed to be running away from anyone who wanted to hold onto her in the ocean!

Will's first drip dry castle of the vacation.


Will eating his first bite of alligator tail. He's not usually an adventurous eater, but he requested this several more times!

Maggie re-fueling after jumping a thousand waves and chasing seagulls all morning.

If Eric or I looked away for a second, this was Maggie, running fearlessly into the waves. She didn't even care if they knocked her down-she was right back up looking for more.

Maggie wasn't happy looking at the dolphins. She would have preferred swimming with them.

The boys had such a great time spending a whole week together.

Snuggling with my baby on the dolphin cruise.

I had to put this picture in here for my brother who tortured me for years when I was little by messing with my cheeks. I have never seen Will do this before, but for some reason when I was trying to get them to take pictures he started doing this and it was cracking him up. Poor Maggie.

Will, Maggie, Tyler and Maddie

Maggie got back in touch with her inner baby on the trip. It seemed like every time Maddie got out of the exersaucer, Maggie was climbing her way in!

The boys had so much fun with all their matching stuff. Not sure the daddies felt the same way...


It seems like I have a hundred pictures of me and my siblings on the cannons at Vicksburg. We didn't stop to see the battlegrounds, but they had this cannon at the rest stop entering Vicksburg.

Will was looking for those dolphins!

The four kids on the dolphin cruise. I know, Maggie is not wearing a life jacket. Trust me when I say I carried that thing with me everywhere!


With such a long trip in the car, of course there had to be some pictures! On our way to take Eric to the airport, Will was supposed to be taking a nap so we could go to the beach when we got back. I turned around to see this. Looks so restful!

This is his first time through the Mobile tunnel. I think it was one of his favorite parts of the trip!

Will and Tyler burying each other in the sand. My sister has since informed me that this is dangerous and the sand can collapse under them and "swallow them up." Who knew? Apparently the Today Show ran a story on it earlier this summer.



One of Will's favorite thing was "crabbing" while we were there. He and Tyler found tons

Will and Tyler on their first crab hunt

Sorry for the long delay between posts. I meant to post one about swim lessons, but got a little distracted getting ready for two weeks on the Florabama coast. Originally it was only going to be a week with the Joyce's in Gulf Shores, but the day before we left, my sister decided to pick up my GG in Mississippi where we had dropped her at her sister's house on our way to Alabama and meet us for another week on the beach. Unfortunately Eric had to fly home after the first week, but my sister, GG, me, and our four kiddoes moved down the beach and across the state line to Perdido Key, Florida and spent another week there. I have way too many pictures of course, and I realize several are only funny to me or "had to be there" pics, but since this is my online scrapbook, I had to include them all!

Our favorite memories of the first week are the sandbar, finding hermit crabs, the dolphin cruise, hearing the kids laugh CONSTANTLY together, watching Maggie chase seagulls and how her face lit up when she saw the ocean, watching her run to the door screaming "Pool" every time she woke up, seeing how much fun Will and Tyler had doing everything together, watching Tyler and Will be so super sweet with Maggie and Maddie, enjoying the boys' "baseball games" around the condo, and spending 7 straight days with my family and our wonderful friends! The guys played golf one morning, and Kristy and I were treated to massages one afternoon. It was such a fun week and I'm so thankful we had the chance to take this trip!

The second week was equally as fun, but completely different. We were able to spend the first afternoon at the beach and pool, but day 2 started the week of rain. We loaded up and went to the outlet mall not far away, then came back for an early dinner and a night at the go-cart track. It was cut short by some scary lightning and the rain came back, so we headed home. The next day is the one you see in the pictures with no rain but some scary clouds. We found all the jellyfish that day! It didn't rain again that day until later in the evening, so we were able to spend a good part of the day outside. The next day it rained all day again without any break. We always found a way to entertain ourselves and we had a great time catching up and playing. We had one more beautiful beach day and we soaked up every minute. We were thinking of staying an extra day, but after 13 days away from home, we were starting to feel it a little. Will was so bummed when he realized we were leaving, but he was thrilled to see his daddy, dogs,and grandparents when we got home. He and Maggie pulled out every toy in the house!

Well that's where we've been the last couple of weeks. Hope everyone's doing well!