Orange Beach - Day Five

Pops starting the morning off right by getting Crispy Creme donuts! Yummy!!! Beck enjoyed eating one and he was nice enough to give Pops a bite. (That's my sweet boy!)

Brent and I got to spend some quality time with Beck on the beach since we had baby-sitters in the condo which was really nice!

We ate dinner with Kiki at Jake's Grill...I finally got some seafood!!!

It's the middle of the week and we decided that this would be the perfect time to get our family beach pictures. Kiki (our photographer) did an awesome job and I'm so happy that the kids pretty much did a great job! However, it didn't get off to a good start...Beck wanted to wear his floaties from the condo to the beach so we let him. He got really upset when we asked him to take them off for the pictures. He sat on the stairs and pouted. Once he was done pouting, he managed to turn on his charming smile then we let the kids get in the pool with their clothes on! And, to make Kinsey happy, I gave her one of my bracelets and it worked! Sadly, she lost it in the sand towards the end of our photo shoot.

The countdown has started...only two more days at the beach.

Orange Beach - Day Four

Breakfast of champions...pancake and sausage stack!

Today was beach day for Wes and I'm not sure he enjoyed the bags being piled on his lap but he sure enjoyed watching Beck bury Brent in the sand and Brent burying Beck in the sand.

We really enjoyed the kiddie pool...

Then, we finally got in the hot tub after it had been cleaning for several days.

We found a really long public pier and saw many people fishing and Beck was fascinated with the whole experience. He is ready to go fishing! I wish we could have stayed longer but a storm quickly rolled in and we had to run to our truck!

Tonight was burger and hot dog night. Beck liked the hot dogs so much that he ate them for the rest of the week which made us happy that he ate food!

Good Times!!!

Orange Beach - Day Three

The men went golfing and the ladies hung out at the beach/pool with the kids today. Kiki took Beck to the beach with Jill and Marcus. The boys had fun playing in the sand.

Kinsey and I joined them as soon as she woke up from her morning nap.

After we cleaned up, Beck and Marcus watched Dora the Explorer on Jill's phone.

Deep thoughts by Kinsey Faith Bishop...I love, love, love this picture!

We all headed to the place that has the best food in town for dinner...Lambert's Cafe! The best part is that we didn't have to wait too long to get a table but they did have to split us up as you can tell from the pictures. Beck enjoyed the wooden train as we waited to eat and a giant lizard ran by Kiki's feet. Kinsey ate just about everything I put in front of her including the fried okra! That's my girl!!! Brent tried to teach Beck how to catch a giant and delicious roll. Our waitress tried to play and trick on me but I wouldn't do it so she got me back by rubbing a piece of fur on my arm while I was talking. I screamed SO LOUD because I thought a creature was crawling on me! Ewww! They have a new gift shop which opened up more seating in the restaurant where the old gift shop was located. They also posted a map on the outside wall so guest could put a pin on the city/town where they are from and it was interesting to see the majority of guests that visit this location is from the east side of Texas.

After dinner, Brent and I took the kids to the Wharf shopping center to ride the ferris wheel. I remember going to this shopping center when we last came here three years ago and it was a packed, happening place. However, this year it was dead...hardly anybody was there and we were the only ones on the ferris wheel. The operator decided to ride it with us which made me really nervous. How was he going to get off? What if something went wrong? How would the attendant stop it? Yep, a million questions started popping into our heads when we saw him in the cart behind us. He finally hopped off and then I was able to relax and enjoy the ride. I think the kids enjoyed it...I know I did.

When we got to the condo, we put bathing suits on the kids and headed for the pool. It was our goal to get as much pool time as much as possible! Brent thought it would be fun to spray the kids with the water gun. Beck and Kinsey didn't seem to mind as you can see the big smiles on their faces. Beck also enjoyed riding on Uncle Jeff's back in the pool.

Another successful day!

Orange Beach - Day Two

Happy Father's Day!!!

We gave Daddy his gift before we left to go on our trip because it was too heavy to bring with us. I went to Michael's and got a stepping stone kit then I helped Beck and Kinsey make it. The instructions said to mix it in a bucket but I couldn't find a bucket with a smooth bottom so we used my biggest mixing bowl. We put the powdery mixture in the bowl with water and mixed it to a concrete-like consistency. Kinsey kept sticking her fingers in it. We poured the mixture in a square plastic mold. Kinsey didn't mind sticking her foot in it but Beck did not want to so he reluctantly stuck his hand in it. Then we used letter stamps to spell out, "#1 Dad, Beck (by his hand print), 2011 and K" (not enough room to spell out Kinsey by her footprint). We also added colored stones and Beck really enjoyed this part. As you can see, this was something that had to stay in Plano as we already had a fully-packed truck not to mention this thing being super heavy.

We surprised Pops with a brand new set of golf clubs and he loved them.

Beck, Kinsey and Marcus start the day somewhat early so we spent the entire week hanging out on the balcony every morning watching for dolphins and the guy setting up beach chairs/umbrellas.

Brent, Beck, Kinsey and I went to the beach and this is the last time you will see this brown floppy hat. Kinsey and I only stayed for about 30 minutes then I took her up to the room for a morning nap and I worked on the blog. When she woke up, we joined the boys at the pool and headed for the lazy river which was not Beck's favorite thing to do. Brent warned me that the tubes were hard to get on but being the hard-headed person that I am, I jumped on it and immediately flipped over!!! Not only was the hat ruined but I quickly discovered the bottom of the lazy river is VERY rough and scrapped the skin off of one knee! (I have a scar to prove what happened.) The lazy river was really cool but I don't understand why the bottom of it had to be so rough. Then, we checked out the inside pool and it was really nice. There was a step all around the pool and Beck enjoyed walking on it, the temperature of the pool was nice, it was quiet, not crowded and here's the best part...two very large hot tubs that had smokin' hot water in it!

We cooked spaghetti that night and it looks like we'll be eating that for days because there's so much left over!

After dinner, we all went to the beach so I took advantage of the situation and dressed Kinsey up in hopes of getting some cute birthday pictures. It took many, many, many shots but I think I have one that can be printed on canvas to go on the wall with Beck's football shot when he turned one. She was not happy!!! Brent got very frustrated with the whole situation but she finally turned that frown upside down and gave us a really cute smile.

Jeff and Jill got this really neat backpack to carry Marcus in and Beck wanted to test it out. Ha!

While I was messing with Kinsey, Beck played in the sand and was very happy doing his own thing. Pops and Kiki socialized with everybody on the beach about the jellyfish. It was so weird to see nobody in the ocean! I noticed the older kids were on a mission to catch as many jellyfish as possible then they would bury them in the sand. Yuck! I just hoped Beck didn't dig one up while we were there.

Marcus had a blast on the beach! He enjoyed every minute of it and wasn't afraid to get in the ocean.

After spending an entire week in Orange Beach, this is the ONLY group picture and we are missing one person...the photographer...Kiki.

We had to rinse off so we went to the pool...Beck and Kinsey got in the pool with their clothes on just like the night before...

After getting the kids cleaned up, Jill and Kiki watched the Miss USA pageant and Beck and Kinsey played on the sofa bed in Pops and Kiki's room. It was really cute/fun to watch them play together! Another fun-filled day!