Wow – what a trip! We just returned home from another wonderful vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama! I’ll warn you – this will be a photo overload. If you’ve never been to Gulf Shores, I’d highly recommend it! It’s a beautiful place to visit and the people are incredibly friendly, except for one lady in the Sea ‘n Suds gift shop… Anyway, here’s a recap of our 2nd family vacation.
Duane, Olivia and I flew into Pensacola on the 18th of August and my parents met us at the airport. Olivia was an excellent flier on the way down and she even napped a little bit for us on the flight from Atlanta to Pensacola. (No such luck for another family on that flight – their child literally screamed “I wanna go home!” and “Stop the plane!” for about the first 15 minutes of our flight…then I think he wore himself out and fell asleep.) We unloaded all of stuff at the condo and then headed out for dinner. We went to Lillian’s for pizza and to celebrate my mom’s birthday. There was a live band and Liv loved them! When they handed out shakers for the kids to shake during a certain song, she wanted out of her high chair and walked right on up to the stage! After dinner, we made a grocery run and everyone slept soundly that night.
On Sunday, we made our way down to the beach in the morning.
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| Olivia's 1st morning in Gulf Shores - she was excited! Thankfully, my parents brought along some of my old toys and Olivia loved them - especially the Cabbage Patch baby; it's lying face down in the grocery cart... |
Thankfully the rain held out until after lunch. That afternoon, ALL of us took a nap and it was so nice! We all cleaned up and headed to dinner at the Shrimp Basket and some “high-end” souvenir shopping. You can't go to Gulf Shores without stopping by Souvenir City - they have all the crap you can only dream of buying!
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| The Purple Octopus is behind the Shrimp Basket and next to Souvenir City; I actually found a couple t-shirts for Liv in the Octopus and she loved saying that word anytime we passed it. |
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| Grandma and Papa bought her a dump truck and she HAD to carry it out of the store - no one else could! |
Monday morning brought lots of rain and thick clouds so that was a bummer. My mom and I took advantage and went to the outlet mall and Target for several hours. Duane, my dad and Olivia took a walk on the beach, had lunch and then they all napped.
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| watching a kid dig a big hole in the sand - she would later sit in this exact same hole to play |
By the time my mom and I got back, Olivia woke up so we all headed down to the beach. Olivia was having a hard time waking up and warming up to being around us all so our afternoon was spent at the mercy of her mood swings. Since we spent a late afternoon at the beach, we stayed in and made homemade spaghetti.
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| Gulf Shores at night - the view from our door |
Tuesday we were back out to the beach and Liv seemed okay with it. She didn’t love it as much as I had hoped but I shouldn’t have had such high expectations. She was done shortly after a wave came up and splashed her in the face and the salt water burned her eyes. That was my fault, though – I was more into watching her face as the water came in than keeping an eye on the waves….oh well. I should have learned myself because I went out later with my dad and was knocked over by a wave - and briefly flashed the beach when my top was knocked down, too. Yikes! We had dinner that night at Bahama Bob’s and then walked to get ice cream.
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| Duane and my Dad found this pool by the trash can on the beach - they took it and we used it for a day. Classy. |
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| right before the infamous wave ruined her day at the beach... |
I need to add something about going to the beach. It’s kind of an ordeal and there are many, many items to take when you go. Chairs, umbrellas, towels, toys, a cooler, etc! Setting up and tearing down only takes a few minutes but it’s a lot of stuff to carry and drag through the sand. My dad is always willing and ready to go, though, so that makes all the difference! He is usually the one doing most of the work and carrying most of the stuff so thanks Dad! I also need to thank Brad and Sandy Norris for letting us use their beach tent – it was perfect for Olivia (and my dad)!
Wednesday was a tougher day for us all. I should preface this by saying that Liv left MN with a double ear infection and sinus infection but was on Ammoxxil. We thought she’d be feeling better with the antibiotic but she had a few bad days while on vacation so that was a bummer. She was VERY testy with certain people (mainly her Grandma for some weird reason) and on a short fuse.
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| if you look closely at Liv's face, you can see her starting to melt down - also, Sea 'n Suds is in the background |
With that being said, we went for a walk on the beach and then tried the pool. She didn’t spend much time at the pool before we said, enough is enough and took her back to the room for an immediate nap. Once she woke up, we headed back down to the beach but she wanted the pool again. Duane and my Dad played horseshoes while my mom and I tried to keep Liv entertained at the pool. Not too much luck with that either until Duane showed up. Daddy's more fun because he's willing to get silly in the pool!
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| Liv went under the mushroom shaped waterfall with her Daddy |
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| coming back out |
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| While waiting for S & S to finish our dinner, they walked over to see the fire trucks |
For dinner, Duane found a popular seafood supplier called S & S Seafood; he, Liv and my dad headed there to pick up dinner and bring it back for us. While they were on their way there, my Dad taught Liv to say “Alabama” and she was pretty good at it. Shortly after eating dinner, we called it an early night as Liv had us all a bit stressed out.
Thursday was a little better but only marginally. Olivia made a Waffle House run with Papa and Duane for breakfast. (There is a WH right across from our condo and Duane and my Dad frequent it during our stay.) We did the beach in the morning and she enjoyed herself for a little bit with some fish Duane caught and put in a bucket. She tortured those poor things by putting them in her hands and then putting them back and doing it over and over.
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| the setup - yes, Duane, I see you flexing... |
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| the guys hunting for fish |
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| as soon as she saw the bucket with the fish, her hand went right on in! |
After her fish-torturing, we took her to the pool but she let us know she wasn't in the mood for that. So again – we brought her back to the room and Duane stayed with her until her nap and I went back to the beach with my parents. Liv took a nice nap and after that we headed to a little amusement park with kiddie rides. It was such a bummer to learn we could only do the carousel and nothing else; Liv was too small for the other rides. So she rode it twice and loved it. Duane and my Dad did go-karts and then we headed for dinner.
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| while the guys did the go-karts, Liv rode the little carousel...3 times for each different horse! |
Lulu’s was the chosen place for dinner and it was so great! If you’re ever in Gulf Shores, go there! Liv LOVED the guac and chips and was treated to a glass of lemonade (don’t worry Aunt GG – it was sugar-free!). You should have seen her take down that drink - we didn't change her diaper enough and honest to goodness, her car seat was a bit wet when we arrived back at the condo....oops!
As we returned to the condo, she declared she wanted to go to the “big big water.” (ocean) Umm….okay….you don’t have to tell us twice since that’s all we’ve wanted out of her all week. She walked a bit in the sand but never made it to the water. We took advantage and snapped some pictures.
On Friday we tried the pool first but Liv wasn’t into it much. She walked around the kiddie pool a bit, swam in the adult pool with Duane for a while and then she was done for the afternoon.
Once Liv was down for her nap, my parents and I headed back to the beach for one last afternoon in the sun. We called it a day and headed back up – only shortly after that, Duane and my Dad decided they wanted to parasail! We watched them from our balcony and I took some pretty good pictures of it, too. They each went up 800 feet and saw a shark (no joke) and “huge” manta rays.
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| having some cherries while waiting for the parasailers |
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| Duane went first... |
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| my Dad went second |
We walked to Sea ‘n Suds for dinner and then had drinks on their balcony for dessert. After that it was a frenzy of packing and cleaning up the condo. The B-52’s were playing down the beach and unfortunately we could hear them. We actually left the deck to head back in because it was so bad and pretty annoying….no offense to B-52 fans!
Saturday morning my parents headed out around 7am and we had an easy morning before our shuttle came to take us to the Pensacola airport. All the news and talk was about Hurricane Isaac which is supposed to hit on Tuesday. Our driver showed us a picture on her phone of the bread aisle in their grocery store and there were about 7 loaves left – she said everyone is out trying to stock up before the storm hits. Our flights went well and Liv did great again. Somehow we managed to get Economy Comfort seating so we had loads of room. On the flight from ATL to MSP, Liv even had her own seat – it was great!
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| having some dinner and watching Elmo - it's hard to be Olivia |
We arrived home around 8:30pm so it wasn’t too bad. Olivia finally slept in today – she woke up around 7:30am! Tomorrow it’s back to the real world – me and Duane to work and Liv to school. I’m sure she’ll have a hard time when I drop her off, especially since she’s had a week with us and her Grandma and Papa!
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