I am back posting and back dating these posts, but I’m D.E.T.E.R.M.I.N.E.D. to document this spectacular family vacation. I snapped this photo while lying on the bed early this morning AWAKE again at my regular alarm time of 5:30 a.m. Oh well, at least everyone else was able to sleep in LOL! This shows you though just how close our site was to the beach! We could hear the ocean waves at night when the rest of the world was quiet. So relaxing!
On Day 2 at the beach and, the Prez and I had the lunch making down to a science. Reduce, reuse, recycle lunchmeat containers complete with names written in sharpie!
I saved the sandwich list from the first day and made modifications as requested on my iPhone List app, so it was easy-peasy. The Prez and I decided to make the sandwiches all week and delegated other jobs out. It worked efficiently and we {mostly} enjoyed doing this task each day. We have found in our large family that dividing and conquering is most effective and continuing with the same tasks each day usually lends itself to efficiency as well! Speaking of efficiency, I can’t say we pack light but we are PACK MULES. If you can carry it, you can bring it. Bigger items go on the Little*Tikes wagon, which as I said before has been on family beach trips since 2001! We received quite a few compliments from fellow beach-goers on our efficiency and ingenuity in packing and hauling effectively.
The theme of this day was PLAY ALL DAY and that we did. Li’l Bit LOVED digging and immediately coaxed one of her big brothers into helping her get her hole started. She is telling him just how deep she wants him to dig it. Um … yeah, she gets her way a lot. She’s the baby, what can I say?!
Li’l Miss and Li’l Bro loved playing in the water’s edge the most, but they did their fair share of digging along with their next two big bros Mo and Larry. The Prez and I tried to sit a spell and soak in one another ‘s company as evidenced by the next photo.
How’s that for a selfie! TMI? I’ sorry, but it was too sweet not to post. We really did enjoy connecting again in a non-stressed environment and just loved every minute of watching our children along the water’s edge and playing right alongside them too in the sand the surf! I am S.O. B.L.E.S.S.E.D. to have an adoring husband who loves me so much and loves our children for who they are, and he works SO HARD so we can take trips like this to get away from the everyday stresses and enjoy one another in a relaxing environment.
We have a tradition that dates WAY BACK maybe even before we were married. I can’t remember but for sure it was PK (pre-kids). My Mom and Dad usually supply the worms and bears, but they decided to diss us on this trip (we missed them a lot!). So I came through with enough worms and bears for us to have several bags a day. I know it sounds like a lot, but really it averaged to usually not more than 20 bears and 10 worms each!
One particular worm partaker evaded my camera, but he definitely didn’t miss out on the sour gummy worms. I have to say I loved feeding the sand-covered babes worms and bears! They loved it too! These are a treat that usually appear only for vacations and/or camping trips.
We had the beach nearly to ourselves and one of the highlights of Gulf State Park is the fact that you see NO HIGH-RISE hotels in either direction for miles. I love that!
Could the water be anymore crystal clear and inviting?! The weather was perfect too with no wind and 80 degrees on this day!
We played some football, built some sand structures and just enjoyed a spectacular day on the white sandy beaches at the edge of the Gulf of Mexico! Here’s a few more glimpses in a collage of our day at the beach!
After a long day at the beach, it is SO NICE to come “home” to our camper with a crock-pot of cooked chicken and another of baked sweet potatoes. All I needed to do was cook some Uncle Ben’s wild rice and lima beans on the stove to complete the meal. We all enjoyed and to our surprise the Lord painted the most beautiful sky we’d ever seen along the Gulf as the sun set. Even the locals were all talking about the rarity of this the next day!
Mo loves to go crab hunting at night when we’re at the beach. It seems like we always say “we’ll do it before we leave” and then before we know it the week is over and we haven’t gone. I was determined this week to be sure and not wait, so after we cleaned up dinner dishes we packed up and headed to the beach for a fun time of crab hunting. We don’t keep them but the kids had so much fun with their head lamps and running after the crabs. Daddy helped some younger ones catch the fast critters. Mo caught the biggest crab of the night. It was big enough to cook, but we let it go! Here’s a glimpse of the big one along with a lot of smaller ones along with a collage of this memorable beach moment.
You can read about Day 1 and Day 2 if you’d like!
