4th of July Weekend

My long-time Gilmer friend, Leigh, recommended that I take the kids to this place located about 10 miles outside of Gilmer towards Pittsburg called Efurd's. She said it's a really neat place that Beck would enjoy seeing, we could get some great pictures and they have the best peach ice cream. So, on Saturday, July 2nd, we ventured out to find this place and boy was she right!!! We did get some great pics, Beck loved seeing the old tractors and the peach ice cream was to die for!!! Brent made a very good choice in getting the peach and banana ice cream and it was even better than my peach ice cream! I can't wait to go back!

You will notice within this collage, a picture of T.O.E. Jam (tangerine, orange, elderberry)and FROG Jam (fig, raspberry, orange, ginger) which I thought was very clever.

Be sure to check this place out the next time you are in East Texas! I highly recommend it!

4th of July Weekend

It's Friday, July 1st and I was able to talk Melissa into picking up Casey at noon today so we could take off to Gilmer before rush hour traffic. Brent went in Thursday night because he wanted to talk to a couple of former co-workers on Friday. One works in Tyler and the other one works in Longview. We've been wanting to get back to our old stomping ground for some time now (actually, since Beck was born). A few months ago, I mentioned to Brent that we should really make it happen before Beck starts school. We'll see if anything comes out of this and if it doesn't then we'll just keep trying. The kids are sporting their air-brushed t-shirts today.

Beck and Kinsey attacked the stuffed tiger as soon as we got to Pops and Kiki's house. Kinsey LOVES the dogs!!! She gets excited when she sees Willow outside and she especially loves to try and touch Badger. I also caught her playing peek-a-boo with the green blanket...so cute!

We ate dinner at the Mexican restaurant on the square...

and of course we had to take the kids for a ride on the golf cart!

Back to Work

It's back to work and Brent and I are trying to get back into our normal daily routines. Luckily, 4th of July is coming up so we'll have a 3-day weekend. Marcus wore his air-brushed t-shirt so I snapped a few pictures of the kids having fun at Bishop Playhouse...Enjoy!

Orange Beach - The End

All good things must come to an end. We had such a wonderful week and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the family! Jeff, Jill and Marcus took off first because they are driving back to Dallas in one day. I actually had tears well up in my eyes when we got on the elevator to leave for many reasons...

I didn't want it to end

the special moments Pops and Kiki had with the kids

watching Kinsey try to grab a fish

watching Beck play in the sand even though he was profusely sweating

watching Marcus play in the water with no fear

and many, many more good times!

We took our time and left around 9:30am then stopped in for lunch at McDonald's. Not sure how I feel about this but this particular McD's did not have the typical play area. Instead, it had air hockey and video games. Brent and Beck played air hockey with a stranger and it was cracking me up. He seemed like a nice kid and then he played with a girl he knew and I overheard her saying that he's a cheater. Kinsey enjoyed climbing the rubber mountain. The best part about this stop is this...Brent and I wanted Taco Bell so we got our food there and brought it to McD's. As we were about to hit the road, we decided to fill up our cups. So, here I am with a big Taco Bueno cup filled with Root Beer (my favorite, caffeine free of course) and I knocked it over with the diaper bag right in front of the guy that was already mopping the floor!!! I was mortified!!! Brent looked at the guy and said, "I can't take her anywhere!" I quickly picked up the Taco Bell cup and threw it away!

We arrived at Baymont hotel in Alexandria, LA around 5:00pm and we were ready to eat dinner so we checked in to the hotel, put our stuff in the room then headed to Chili's. (On a side note, this is the same hotel we stayed in when we went to the beach with Beck three years ago!)

Brent will tell you that I'm a horrible traveler and I'll be the first to admit that I hate being stuck in a vehicle for long periods of time...it drives me crazy to be confined to a tiny space! And, what's worse is that I can't do anything in the car such as read a magazine, check Facebook, etc because I get car sick! With that being said, you can imagine how happy I was that we were able to relax in a hotel for the evening. We put Kinsey's pack n play in the bathroom which is what we should have done at the condo but I'm not sure it would have fit and we all got a good night's sleep. We ate breakfast at the hotel then hit the road a little after 9am. We ate lunch at Burger King in Longview because they have Transformer toys in the kid's meal. (I tried to get Neena to meet us but she didn't get my message until the next day.) Beck was in heaven with his new Transformer toys. We arrived at our house around 3pm and again, I was excited to get out of the truck! I had to get ready for the kids to come over the next day so I had to get busy unpacking, laundry, clean the house and go to the grocery store. Yuck! But, it was all worth it!

We made many memories on this trip and I'll cherish them forever!!!

Orange Beach - Day Seven

This is our last day on the beach...Boo-hoo! But, this was the best day to get in the water because the jellyfish finally left. Wahoo! Brent caught a tiny fish and all of the kids touched it except for Beck. Then, Brent caught another fish (larger than the tiny one) and we put it in a bucket. Kinsey really wanted to touch it and Beck just wanted to throw sand in the bucket.

After leaving the beach, we noticed an activity set up at the pool for the kids...water balloons! I talked Beck into throwing it at Daddy and he got so excited! It was cute watching him throw the water balloon at Daddy.

We went back to The Track to use up the "ride" credits we had left from the day before and I was dying to ride the go carts. I am so proud of Beck for riding it with me! Then, he rode the train and airplane again. Afterwards, we went inside and Beck spent the majority of the time playing the Deadstorm Pirates video game which was pretty impressive. We ended up with enough tickets from playing the video games to get a tiny plastic man as a prize which was lost before we left the next day. Beck was so upset and we practically turned the condo upside down trying to find that tiny little guy. The things we do for our kids.

We stopped at the souvenir shop to get air brushed t-shirts for the kids and had to go back later that evening to pick them up. While we were there, we had fun looking around and trying on things such as the fun sunglasses you can see on Kinsey. I also bought some yummy salt water taffy. So tasty!

Brent and I love driving around looking at real estate and I found my future beach house (smile!)...

For dinner tonight...shrimp night! As you can see, Kinsey really enjoyed her meal and the oh-so delicious watermelon!

Brent and Pops had to rush down to the beach to take down our tent because a massive sand storm had blown in and it already tore up several tents. Jeff and Jill wanted to do family pictures tonight and they got pelted with the sand. I watched it from the balcony and it was wild seeing the sand blowing so hard across the beach.

We spent the rest of the evening packing up so we could leave the next morning.

Orange Beach - Day Six

What I'm about to tell you just proves that little Miss K is working on becoming a future Diva! We filled a bucket with ocean water to put under out tent for the kids to rinse off their sand-covered hands. But, Miss Kinsey thought the bucket was her own personal pool! She was cracking us up! The kids have really enjoyed playing on the beach and we only saw two jellyfish in two hours which is so much better than when we first got here. Beck also learned about "dribbles" from his Florida-native Aunt Jill. Dribbles - mix sand and water then fill the shovel with this mixture and let it slowly dribble to make a dribble castle.

Now this picture just warms my heart...a father/son moment on the beach...

One more rendezvous with the lazy river and the indoor pool...I wish I had got in the hot tub more than I did on this trip. I loved the size of it and the temperature was perfect...so relaxing!

We definitely wore ourselves out in the heat...and, poor Brent suffered from several migraine headaches on this trip.

Our little family ate dinner at CiCi's then we took the kids to The Track. Of course the first thing Beck wants to do is ride the train then he rode it again. We talked him into riding the airplanes then the little ferris wheel. He rode everything all by himself and we were so proud of him! He almost had a major meltdown on the ferris wheel but he cried a teeny, tiny bit. After that he just wanted to go inside and play video games. Luckily for us, he can sit at the machine and he thinks he's playing but we don't insert any coins. We will go back tomorrow since we didn't use up all of our "ride" credits.

Only one more day at the beach...Boo!