Homecoming!

09.14.12

For some unknown reason, Beck insisted on wearing a jacket to the football game so of course Kinsey wanted to wear one too.  What has happened to my kids?  It's not cold outside!  We appease them but after we found an awesome parking spot at the first home game which also happens to be homecoming, we tell them that they will not let us watch the game with jackets on. At this age, Beck and Kinsey listen to Mommy and Daddy and quickly took off their jackets.  Wahoo! 

We got there before the game started but totally missed the homecoming ceremony.  It was fun seeing all of the girls wearing mums...oh, how I remember those days.

I remember going to the first home game last year and thinking that the Buckeyes would have to work hard to win and I had the same thoughts at this game too!  They were down by several points when we left at halftime but they managed to win at the end of fourth quarter against Jacksonville by one point!

Beck loves getting a sucker from Pops!

Of course the halftime show was very entertaining.  Jacksonville has an awesome drill team and the Stars really shined tonight with their two-toned circle prop.

School Pictures

09.11.12

It's Tuesday morning, Beck has missed six days of school and I wanted him to wear a beachy type of outfit today (pull-over shirt/plaid shorts) but he had no part of wearing the shorts I had picked out.  I finally gave in and put on a Cars t-shirt and his most comfy shorts that he loves.  When I dropped him off at school, Mrs. Mason tells us that he needs to go to the gym for school pictures.  What?  I immediately thought of the outfit I wanted him to wear.  I wish I had known that today was picture day.  But, I keep telling myself that he's happy wearing what he had on.  And, Mrs. Mason LOVED the jar of sand and seashells we gave her!  Beck wanted to carry the jar and give it to her...aw, so sweet! 

Good-Bye Orange Beach

09.10.12

Look at this view...oh, how we are going to miss spending so much time together and it'll be hard going back to the daily routine of things.  The past two mornings, we have seen two or three sting rays swimming along the beach line!  I wanted to go down there and try to get a picture of them but I knew they would probably be gone by the time I got down there.  It was the coolest thing to see them swim so close to the edge of the water.

Good-bye Orange Beach...we sure hope to see you again next year!

We are packed and not ready to go back!

We left a little after 9am and finally reached Gilmer at 8pm...what a long day to spend in a truck!  I must also note that we stopped for an hour for lunch and dinner to give all of us a break from being on the road.  Bad news is that Kinsey did not fell well today but the good news is that she got lots of rest with her blanket and Minnie Mouse.  We are so blessed! 

One Little Fish and Mexican Food

09.09.12

This is our last full day here which means we'll have to start packing up tonight.  Boo!  But, let's focus on the bright side and spend the day at the beach!  Luckily, the biting flies stayed away from us this Sunday morning and I think it's because of all the sunscreen.

We have quite the collection of seashells from this trip!  Mrs. Mason asked Beck to bring her back a seashell so he picked up a few here and there for her.  In fact, he and I found one that was shaped like the letter "C" and he immediately told me he wanted to give it to Mrs. Mason but he lost grip of it and the ocean took it away. His response was, "Oh no, my seashell!  Now I don't have a seashell for Mrs. Mason."  How sweet is that?!  We found lots of seashells for Mrs. Mason and Kinsey got in on picking up seashells with Mommy too.  Now, I need to figure out what to do with this grocery bag filled with seashells.

Please notice that there are no waves today!  The ocean is SO calm which is extremely different from what we saw our first day here.

We like to have some sort of activity or the kids get bored so today we are filling up the kiddie pool and searching for fish!  We actually caught two and kept one outside our condo door then released it when we went back to the beach after dinner.  We told Beck that the fish was ready to see his friends again.

We didn't spend as much time at the beach today and spent more time at the pool because like I said in an earlier post, our kids have turned into fish.  We put the floaties on them and they swim around without needing any assistance which is awesome!

This is my artistic/enhanced self portrait...(by the way, I'm wearing Beck's sunglasses!)

We had talked about getting steamed shrimp for dinner tonight but ended up eating at a Mexican restaurant recommended by a friend and I'm so glad we did because it was delicious!  First of all, our meal came with Mexican soup which I've never had before and I loved it!  We started with chips, salsa and the best tasting white queso I've ever had!  I ordered a cheese and shrimp enchilada and Brent ordered a giant burrito and we totally scored...so yummy!!!  Plus, we got to check out the view from the deck.  What a great way to end our beautiful beach journey!

We talked Beck into releasing the little fish that we kept in a bucket outside our condo door all day but he was reluctant to go back to the beach tonight for fear of the biting flies.  Urghh!  Look at the water...it is just amazing how calm it has been today!  Wow!

The flies did indeed attack us so we went to the inside pool and let our little fish swim until they wore themselves out.

Family Beach Pictures

Tonight is the night to do our family beach pictures and in true Bishop style, we showed up late to the party and to make matters worse there was a gigantic dark cloud hovering over us.  As a picture aficionado, you would think that I would have purchased a brand new $10 memory card for this very special, once in a lifetime moment but no...I used the same memory card that I've used for the past two years!  After seeing the pictures, I started thinking to myself, "What happened?  These pictures should be much clearer."  That's when I realized that I've never changed the memory card in a long, long time.  I also wonder if the focus was in the wrong position.  Aye carumba!  Needless to say, I am totally bummed that these pictures are somewhat fuzzy but the most important thing to remember is that this was the best trip we've had thus far!  I know it will only get better from here!

This afternoon, I went to a store next to the the grocery store and a fly kept biting my leg.  The lady working at this little store whipped out a fly swatter and killed it then she commented on how these pesky little flies can be so vicious.  Well, about halfway into our photo session tonight, the flies came out and started biting Beck's legs.  Actually, they were biting all of us but Beck was the most dramatic about it and that pretty much ended me getting any more pictures of him smiling...this is him screaming because of a fly biting his leg.  Daddy tried to comfort him by putting water on him but nothing worked.  Beck made it very clear that he did not like the flies. 

Just like last year, the kids jumped in the pool with their clothes on!  I think it is so funny that they do that! 

But, the flies found us there too so we went to our room, changed into our swimsuits and hit the inside pool.  Beck and Kinsey turned into little fish tonight!  They were swimming all over the pool with their floaties on their arms!  I hope you have enjoyed looking at our family beach pictures.  It sure is a lot of work but totally worth it.  I'll cherish them forever!  Tomorrow is our last day at the beach and then we make the long drive back home on Monday.

The Track

09.08.12

We took a break from the beach this Saturday morning and went to The Track to let the kids have fun on some rides.  We started with the go-carts and I am completely and utterly shocked that Kinsey rode it!  I really and truly thought she would want out of the cart once we started going around the track.  I think it also helped that we were the only people on the track.  By the way, Beck was not happy that his seat was hot.

Then, we hopped on the bumper boats and taking my fancy camera on this little ride was not a good idea since the boats shoot water!  But, we all had so much fun on these boats!

Next stop...Kids Kountry!  This is where it got a little tricky because Beck and Kinsey did not want to ride the same rides at the same time and we only had one card with "points" on it.

We quickly ran out of "points" so our time ended when Beck and Kinsey rode the carousel together which was so cute! Actually, Kinsey was riding it by herself and then Beck joined her when he finished with his ride.

We went inside to play games for the second time on this trip and Brent won many tickets but not nearly enough to get Beck another stuffed animal which is exactly what he wanted.  He was so upset that he would not stop crying so we offered to buy the leopard that he really wanted but the girl told us that she couldn't sell it.  This super sweet girl gave Beck the stuffed animal even though it was 650 points and we only had around 250 points and Kinsey already used 100 of them on a super small bottle of bubbles with horse head on the cap.  We could not believe she was so generous.  We all thanked her numerous times.