Our 1st Family Vacation {Gulf Shores, AL}

On Friday, June 16th we embarked on our first vacation and road trip since having Jonah. The van was loaded down with a weeks worth of clothes and survival gear (for Jonah) and my sister rode with us (thank goodness). We drove to Birmingham the first night and got a hotel. We made the rest of the 10 hour drive on Saturday to get to the Gulf coast. It had been 8 years (our honeymoon) since I had seen the ocean and it was a beautiful sight!

There was actually a big group of us all staying in a condo together. It was our family of 3 and my parents, my sister, my Granny and my Uncle Bobo. We actually had plenty of space and the condo was really nice, except for the mattresses. We were across the highway and a short drive to the beach but it worked out well.  The place we stayed was a collection of small duplexes that all shared a great pool. We got a lot of use out of it when Jonah didn't care for the beach.

We had a lot of relaxing time (as much as you can with a toddler) and some fun too. We were there for 7 days so we really got settled in and felt like locals.

We went to some great seafood restaurants too: The Original Oyster House, Mikee's, Ribs and Reds, and Tacky Jacks. I love eating out for seafood because I rarely if ever cook it at home.

I will fill you in on the rest through the pictures.

This is the main room of our condo. 

 



Our bedroom



Eating at Tacky Jacks at the marina



Our cool dude at the pool! He loved running in and out.



First visit to the beach. It was so windy we did not stay long.



We visited the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo and it was awesome!
The zoo was small but it had a ton of neat animals and bunch
that you could see up close and pet.



Bengal Tigers



Between Dad, Bobo and I, there were lots of cameras and Jonah wanted to take pictures LOL

 Our best of the beach family pics.

 Jonah was not a fan of the beach at all except for this one evening that we all went to take pics. He loved it and
ran in and out of the water and didn't care if the sand got on him. The next morning we tried it again and he was back to hating it.

 Jonah and Dada having a big time!!

 Look at Jonah's funny face!

 Here I go again!

 Sweet boy!!

 It's a big world out there....

 that was fun Mama!


We had a great trip overall and made a lot of fun memories that will last a lifetime. :)

Beach Vacation Book

We were at the beach all last week!! We had a great and relaxing time with family and got some great pictures too. I will do another post about the whole vacation but first I just wanted to share the Shutterfly book I made of our trip with my favorite pictures.

I hope you enjoy and stay tuned for more information on our trip.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a wide range of artful designs and embellishments to choose from.

Jonah Second Year Book

Excuse me while I pat myself on the back......LOL

I am pretty proud of myself for finishing up Jonah's second year book before his second birthday!! I wanted to be able to go ahead and order it and have it at his party this year for everyone to look through. I had it done through Shutterfly (my eternal love) and I can't wait till it arrives in the mail! Until then here is the electronic version you can check out. I made some of the pages using PS elements and free templates I found online. The other pages were done in Shutterfly. They have a full custom way to do the books now where you can switch between the different themes and embellishments to get the look you want.

I am also very proud of the amazing deal I got on this book. I pulled the trigger and bought it while they had all their photo books 50% off and I had just got a free shipping code in email because I shared a free photo book with 5 friends. I just love their promotions!!

Hope you enjoy!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly offers exclusive photobook layouts so you can make your book just the way you want.

Crazy Summer....Here We Come!

Well this summer is shaping up to be our busiest ever. I cannot ever remember a time when we had so much planned and going on and a long list of to-dos. I am not complaining at all, it's just unusual for us to be so busy. So I wanted to jot down the many things and events coming up.

1. Vacation to Gulf Shores, AL - we leave a week from today!!! Yay! So excited to get away for a few days and just have some fun. The down-side is packing for us and a busy toddler and prepping for the trip. I have been pinning several ideas for the long car-trip down. I just want to be as prepared as we can for any bumps along the way. We plan to leave Friday evening and drive until about 10 and then get a hotel room. Then get up and make the rest of the trip on Saturday.

I need this!!

2. Our 8 year anniversary is June 12th...next week! We are planning to celebrate formally while we are in Gulf Shores. We don't do gifts for anniversaries and especially not this year with the vacation. We will probably just go out to eat that night and take Jonah with us. Hard to believe it's been 8 years that we've been married and over 10 years since we met. I will do another post on that day.

One of my favorite marriage quotes, Via Pinterest

3. In July we have the holiday, then I'm hosting a lingerie shower for my future sister-in-law, Mandy. Then we have VBS starting that weekend. I am sure I will be helping teach the nursery class for that too.

4. Then on July 21st it's time to celebrate Jonah turning 2!!! I still have nothing bought for this. Ugh! I'm starting to stress about that!! This birthday party may or may not come together.

Love this cake idea.

5. The following Sunday (the 22nd) is our big wedding shower for Kyle and Mandy at our church. I've got lots of gifts to buy in the next months. The budget is screaming.

6. Then we will all go into wedding mode to get to the finish line of August 11th when my little brother will marry one of my bestest friends!! I am so excited and I am a bridesmaid as well. The jury is still out on whether Jonah will be in the wedding party. Oh and also they want Michael to perform their wedding ceremony! He's never done it and he's not ordained.....minor details. LOL


Whew! I'm tired already just thinking about all this but i makes me feel better to get it in writing. There are some other exciting details thrown in the mix of all this but they cannot be revealed at this time. :)

Do you have a busy summer too?