Beach Recap

 I live in Alabama and we can drive about 4 1/2 hours south on I-65 to our gorgeous gulf coast. A few months ago, we decided to book a four bedroom condo and invite our kids and grandkids to join us at the beach. We drove down on Saturday, June 13 amidst heavy traffic! It was a long drive, but when we arrived . . .it was gorgeous outside.

We stay(ed) at Four Seasons condos in Orange Beach, Alabama. We've been staying there for about 30 years! They are the only place with a private pier for fishing!

We've always called the stuff on the beach - seaweed, but this year the media has been calling it by its real name - sargassum. They drove the tractors by every morning and cleaned it up. I didn't get into the gulf, but our son took the two oldest granddaughters out into the water.

When I walk out toward the beach and feel the wind blowing in my hair, I feel like all of the bad stuff blows away - puff - it's gone!

We rented through Vacasa - new to us. I need to write a review of the condo and post on their website. It wasn't very clean, but we were there with three little kids and six adults . . .so whatever!

Our daughter-in-law created a shared album, so I was able to snatch a cute photo of our son, daughter-in-law and our oldest granddaughter.

This cutie is our youngest granddaughter. She celebrated her second birthday back in March. She is a mess!! Seriously!

The pictures of these two together melt my heart! The middle granddaughter is almost 7 and she idolizes her 10 year old cousin.

I snagged the sunset photo from our daughter-in-law, too. She took the photo from the end of the pier.

I have no idea what we ate for dinner! I think it was a turkey sandwich - maybe! After the littles went to bed, Mark and Glenn were getting their fishing rods ready for the next morning.

Sunday, June 14 -- it was my birthday and we awakened to a glorious morning. We walked out to the end of the pier to watch the fishing action.

I don't know if she was annoyed at me for taking her picture or annoyed because she was holding the rod!

Our son-in-law and our middle granddaughter - discussing the options!

Our son and oldest granddaughter -- they, too, look like they are discussing the options.

Below are my two favorite men -- hubby and son!

A fish was caught - it was tiny!

Lots of fishing -- not much catching going on.

Mark was prepared!

Meanwhile, swimming was happening at the outdoor pool. Within 30 minutes, the two year old was jumping off the side of the pool.

The middle one below.

And . . .the oldest one.

We took Mark's mother with us to the beach a lot! She would get in and swim with our kids in the late afternoon. I realized we don't have a single photo of her in the pool with them so I asked Glenn to grab a phone and take our picture - we don't have the little nugget with us!

Our kid's shopped and prepared dinner for my birthday! We had steamed shrimp and steak and slaw and little potatoes. It was delicious.

After dinner, we played multiple hands of Harry Potter Uno and Old Maid. We had so much fun.

After the younger two went to bed, the older one was right in the middle between her pops and her dad.

And it was night again and then morning again! We had this little grassy area because we were on the first floor. It was great with a two year old, but we didn't have our normal gorgeous view.

We spent some time in the indoor pool.

And we spent more time on the beach.

Just FYI - the little one decided she didn't really like the sand!

She did think she was a big girl sitting in a beach chair, drinking juice boxes, and eating all of the snacks.

What is it about the beach? They couldn't eat enough snacks!

Glenn had the oldest two out in the water.

I forgot my hat in the room so I borrowed the two year old's hat haha!

We saw the pirate ship and heard the boom of the cannon!

When Glenn was a little boy, he loved scooping up sand to see what he could find. I need to find a picture of him as a little boy doing the same thing.

We enjoyed soaking up some sun!

I think it started raining or maybe we just came in because we were tired. I purchased several different art projects to have in the condo.

We ordered food from a local restaurant and picked it up and ate at the condo. We were just too tired to wrangle everyone.

It was night and then it was morning again and it was raining -- so back to the indoor pool we went UNTIL it started thundering.

Then the rain stopped and the little one and I played with bubbles.

. . .and then there were three playing with bubbles. These bubble wands were amazing. My friend, Peggy, gave them to me for my birthday!

On Tuesday night, we all headed out to dinner. Mark was taking the little one to see the musician.

She normally loves to dance but she wasn't having any of that on this night!

Below is the only photo I grabbed of all of us.

On Wednesday morning, Glenn and his crew left because the tropical storm was coming. Laura and her crew left around lunchtime and then there were two.

I knew they weren't staying all week, but it made me so incredibly sad. It was actually a weird emotion I wasn't expecting.

Mark and I headed back out to the beach.

The waves were huge and I was trying to get a shot of the waves hitting the bottom of the pier.

I sent the photo below to the kids and said, "look - the sun is out. You left too early." It turned out to be a nice afternoon.

When we got up on Thursday morning, it was pouring rain. We had rented the condo until Saturday and I had tons of homework which I could do at the beach or at home. Mark decided he was going to be climbing the walls trapped inside a condo. At 6:36 am, he said that if we could be on the road by 8:00, he thought we could hit in between some of the heavier rains. Let me tell you -- I cleaned out the fridge, piled the rest of the linens in one of the bedrooms, packed our dirty clothes in a garbage bag, and took out the trash. Mark loaded the car and we were on the road by 8:10 am.

We were home by about 1:30. We did drive through some crazy rain, but made it safely home.

Next time, we won't rent for a whole week . . .but actually, in 2027, Mark and I are going on a 14 day cruise down the Danube! We paid our deposit this week!

Are you taking a vacation this summer? Beach? Mountains? Disney?