beach recap – summer 2017

How about a beach recap while we’re on a blogging roll around here?

I’m still trying to catch-up, don’t worry, I won’t go back too far. I’m thinking a this beach recap plus one big summer recap and we’ll call it a day. Then it’s back to our regularly scheduled blogging…. or so I hope.

For now, let’s travel back to June… when the sky was blue and the air was salty. Oh, and for the first time we met a tropical storm up and close personal, they called her Cindy,  she threatened to steal our fun, but we didn’t let that happen.

Let’s start at the very beginning, I ordered groceries before we left our house and we didn’t have to set foot in a grocery store with cranky kids who had been in the car for far long than should be allowed (for the sanity of all involved). Walmart grocery pickup is my best friend these days, I just changed the location to Gulf Shores in my app and we timed our arrival just right to coincide with the pickup time. Y’all, do this, I’m telling you, it’s glorious!

We arrived on Friday and even though we couldn’t check-in just yet, we packed a bag because our neighbors were staying at the same condo and we quickly changed in their room and headed straight for the beach and pool, they’re kind of amazing, in case I haven’t mentioned that before!

We spent the first few days on the beach at our condo and even visiting our friends who were vacationing at the same time as us (I may or may not have coordinated that part).

Full disclosure, Allen wins all the awards for playing with the kids on the beach. He is basically super dad in all capacities. I always watch them in awe playing together and always vow to let things go more often and just get lost in playing with the kids.

We spent our days hanging out on the beach and we ate things we normally would think twice about at home with zero regret.

And Braylen did research on shells and sea life (while I monitored them closer so nothing was actually harmed). Mainly just some tiny clams that were abundant on the beach.

And Judson fell in love with Ella at dinner….

We saw tropical storm Cindy rolling in on the local news channels, but we decided if it was just rain and mild storms, we could stick it out and enjoy a few days towards the end of the week. When the rain started, we thought we could sneak over to the milkshake place all of Facebook had been raving about, The Yard and get in and out quick.

Turns out, this place is always crowded. We waited it out and had the most amazing milkshake in all the land!

That’s definitely an entire piece of cheesecake on top of my salted caramel milkshake!

After our milkshake, we grabbed a few games and things to keep us busy in the condo for a few days while we waited out the storm. $77 later, we were all set to wait out the tropical storm in our comfy condo.

We seriously made the best out of the rainy days. It was so nice to spend a few days inside with nothing to do, there was no laundry or closets to clean out, I didn’t feel any obligation to anything except another game of Jenga with Braylen and play-doh pizzas with Judson.

And of course, we had plenty of delicious food to devour…

We put together every piece of that puzzle… I might have stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it one night!

As soon as the rain subsided a bit, we went out to catch some crabs on the beach. We were all happy to sink our feet into the sand once again. 

The next day we woke up to sunshine and headed straight back to the beach!

We had planned to leave on Friday, but added a couple of extra nights and it was totally worth it!

And we did manage to document these sweet smiles and capture beach pictures before the storm.

The trip was a huge success and a much needed break in the middle of a busy year. Next stop, a Disney cruise and we are definitely counting down the days until we board the ship!