Orange Beach - Day One

It was very interesting making this long drive with a 3-year old and a 1-year old but I am so grateful that we broke it up by spending the night instead of making the drive in one day. That's just too much car time for me and I'm sure the kids would have been sore from sitting in a car seat that long! We left Plano at 5:30pm Friday night and arrived in Jackson, MS at midnight. That was Kinsey's longest car ride. Our hotel had two king-size beds and the plan was for me to sleep with Kinsey and Beck would sleep with Daddy. However, Kinsey was ready to party by the time we got to our room! I could not get her to go back to sleep. Poor Beck was exhausted because he could not get comfortable in his car seat and crashed as soon as his head hit the pillow. Luckily, Brent rocked Kinsey to sleep and we all got a good night's rest.

Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel (waffle, muffins, biscuits and gravy) then took off for the rest of our journey. Kinsey wore her birthday shirt and a bow that Aunt Jill made for her. We ran into some traffic and finally arrived at the condo at 3:30pm. I was so ready to get out of the truck!!! Our room was being cleaned because the people that rented it the night before had really trashed it! They told us to not get in the hot tub for four hours. (I wish I could have seen what they did to the condo...the cleaning lady said there was stuff on the walls! Yikes!) So, we checked out the lazy river and the kid's play area which could be seen from the window right outside of our condo. The play area was really hot...not advisable for afternoon play and the lazy river looked very relaxing! I'm predicting this is going to be a great trip.

Our condo is absolutely beautiful!!! It is 3 bedrooms with 3.5 baths and a hot tub on the balcony with the most spectacular view! Positioned on a metal stand in the kitchen was a la Madeleine cook book which is very hard to find these days. The family that owns this condo is from the DC area so I'm assuming they purchased the book many years ago. I was able to get my hands on one of the last available cook books when I started with la Madeleine seven years ago.

Our room is the lavender room and has a tiny bed on the left side which was PERFECT for Beck. He loved sleeping on his tiny bed but fell out of it several times the first couple of nights and it never phased him. He didn't wake up or cry!!! We heard a thud and put him back in the bed. We got smart and put many pillows on the open side of the tiny bed and that seemed to help keep him from rolling off. We put Kinsey's pack n play on the right side of the room...we had a full room but it all worked out.

The cart is always a hit with the kids...

For some unknown reason, Beck thought he needed to push the dining room chair in the living room and put it in front of the tv...I still don't know why he did that but it was funny.

Pops, Jeff, Jill and Marcus went to the grocery store to get some food for the week. Brent and I were hungry so we grabbed dinner from Guthrie's. I ordered chicken wings thinking it came with something such as french fries but it was only five wings. Bummer! After I placed my order, I noticed this place had a shrimp sandwich but I knew Brent would kill me if I changed my order. After seeing the five wings in the to-go box when we got to the condo, I was very disappointed in my selection.

The condo has a total of five "pools"...two big pools facing the ocean, one kiddie pool on the street side, one inside pool with two giant hot tubs (my favorite!) and one very rough lazy river (I'll explain that later). Our first evening, we had to check out the pools and the kids LOVED the kiddie pool! I loved it too because Kinsey could get in and walk around without me worrying about her getting in deep water. It was great! This pool was in the shade for the most part of the day which was nice if you needed a break from the sun. It was HOT!

Then, we headed to the beach and Beck thought it was a giant sandbox! He loved it! Kinsey, on the other hand, is not a big fan of the sand but hopefully she will by the end of the week. We also discovered one big problem with the ocean...jellyfish!!! And, they were BIG as you can see from the picture with Brent's hand by it. This could be a big problem with our kiddos.

Kiki and Pops surprised Kinsey with a birthday cake and she LOVED it! I remember when Beck turned one, he didn't want to eat his cake but not this girl...she dug in and devoured it!

The kids had so much fun taking a bath together! It was funny to see Beck get mad when Marcus splash him...he finally figured out that he could splash back.

We collectively took a little over 2300 pictures so I've got my work cut out on narrowing down what I want to use. Also, this will be the last time you see my hair straight...Brent said he likes it curly and it will be easier to leave it curly versus fighting to keep it straight. And, I recently discovered that sea salt is a great styling product for curly hair...so, this is perfect!