Vacation Day 3 - continued

On Friday night, Mom and Dad treated the whole family for a dinner out.  We went to Wintzell's Oyster House in Orange Beach because Forrest and I enjoyed it so much on our vacation last year.  It was a wonderful time and a highlight for me of the trip.

The twins ate butter bread and.....wait for it......a grilled cheese sandwich.  Not great nutrition, but hey, it's vacation.

The rest of us ate much better!

 This girl can't take a bad picture.  She's so beautiful.

Vacation Day 3

This was our first full day at the beach.  We woke up, had waffles (compliments of Mama!) and then got ready to go to the beach.  You'll see several pics taken of the kiddos out on the deck of the condo.  They appear to be "ready for the beach" but they are killing time.  It takes FOREVER to get ready to go out to the beach.  Perhaps someday I'll get better about organizing all of this, but for now it's a monumental effort.  So, while we were getting ducks in a row, I snapped some pics of the cousins.

 Caroline enjoying watermelon purchased from the bed of a truck in Magee, MS:

Beach time!

 Grandmommie gets the prize for playing with the cousins in the water.  She spent 75% of her beach time holding a grandbaby and bobbing around in the waves.  They're so lucky to have her.  She also helped Caroline get over her fear of the water and distaste for the sand (both issues arose during their Destin beach trip in April).

Setting up the home base:

 Ellie has the right idea!

No, I was wrong before.  It's Phillip who has the right idea.  He is relaxing in the shade with beach drink in his hand. 

Vacation Day 2

On Thursday morning, we all woke up and proceeded to get ready for our short (ha!) trip to Fort Morgan.  Forrest made brunch casserole (affectionally known as "egg dish" in my family) so we all got a good start, nutrition wise.  We had to make stops at the boarder (to drop off the dogs) and the Uhaul dealership (to drop off the UHaul) but after that, we were on our way in three cars.  We left around 10:00am and stopped in Mobile at a Chickfila for lunch.

Note: This was the day after the Chickfila appreciation day organized by Mike Huckabee for Christians to show their support for Chickfila's CEO who publicly announced his support for the biblical definition of marriage.  I had hoped that it wouldn't be as crowded the day after the support day, but it was still pretty crowded.  Of note, I felt like Chickfila support day was a huge failure by Christians, but that's neither here nor there. 

After lunch we started our final leg (only one more hour!) to get to Fort Morgan.  Two and a half hours later, we FINALLY arrived.  Traffic was horrible from Mobile to Gulf Shores and we were in and out of thunderstorms the whole way.

But alas, we arrived and once we did vacation officially started.  Below are some pics of the kiddos playing in the condo before we went out to the beach that afternoon.

Morgan is ready for the beach.

 Our beach house:

 Short walk to the beach:

Vacation Day 1

On Wednesday we made the long drive from the lake house to Hattiesburg.  Dad and I drove the UHaul (to bring a few leftover items from our Texas house), Mom and Ellen drove the Honda, and the Wieds took the Wiedmobile.  We actually didn't caravan with the Wieds because they were driving to Jackson to spend some time with Phillip's cousin.

We had a pretty uneventful trip to Hattiesburg.  Once we got here we picked up the twins from school and then the fun began.  It was so nice to see Mom, Dad, and Ellen get reunited with Carter and Olivia.  Though the twins don't have a good enough memory yet to recall their relationships with their extended family, they warmed up quickly.

After dinner they enjoyed storytime with Grandmommie.

Olivia got some loving from Grandmommie after bathtime.

Later that night (well after the twins had gone to bed and Mom and Dad and I had made our Wal-Mart run) the Wieds finally arrived.  Morgan and Caroline were totally out of sorts since it was well past their bedtime and they had slept during the car ride from Jackson.  Still, Liah insisted that they have a bath because they were filthy from their road trip (they made a couple of play stops at parks).  So, they took a swim in the jacuzzi tub in my bathroom.  These girls had so much fun in the tub.  They splashed bubbles all over my bathroom, but it was worth the mess.

Of note, this day was also Forrest's 34th birthday.  I had gotten all of the ingredients for a red velvet cake and Mom made it for him when we arrived in Hattiesburg.  It was yummy!

Sunday best

This beautiful dress was given to us by our friend Ann Loiselle.  Isn't it adorable?

Dun gave Carter this outfit several months ago, and this for sure was the last wear that it got.  Carter nearly snapped the buttons off.  He's getting so big!

Yardwork

Just a Saturday afternoon helping Dad with the yardwork.