Busy Blessings at the Beach

Having lived in the Sunshine State for the past 5 years, we have never really done a "beach vacation." Well we did do a trip to North (or was it South???) Carolina 2 years ago......but that was for a family reunion. So can it really count as vacation? :) Back to living in Florida.......anytime we were in need of a beach "fix" we could go over to either coast for the day.

Seeing that our summer of 2008 was totally consumed by:
a) Philip graduating from pharmacy school
b) having twins
c) moving a family of 6 (which included 2 week old babies) 900 miles away and
d) Philip starting a new job, we didn't seem to fit in a vacation last year.

So this summer, I wanted to go somewhere with ALL 4 kids. I started looking at options that were a few hours drive away such as Kansas City, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, etc.. but they would all require that we do extra "stuff." (museums, zoos, etc...) So I decided the beach was the best choice. The only problem......now that we live in Arkansas, the beach is a mere 12 hour drive.

It took about a month to convince Philip why we should go to the beach....my commercial to him was this, "Once we get there, we won't have to do anything else....just the beach and the pool. I'll stay with the boys while they nap, you and the older kids can play in the water. Then , when the boys wake up, we'll join you in the water." His answer went something like "I'm not worried about that part. Its the getting there w/ a 12 hour drive that I don't like." But, being the accomodating wonderful husband that he is, he gave in!

So on August 9th, we headed to Orange Beach, AL. The drive there and back was thankfully, uneventful. Everyone did great! And boy was I glad. Cause you know if the boys had been awful I would've NEVER heard the end of it!

Here are Zane and Zander playing in the sand....


and then out in the water with Philip....

I know Zane looks unhappy in the picture below. He wasn't unhappy. This is just his look when he's not sure about something. He was never fully convinced that he loved the ocean water. Zander however, wanted us to NOT hold him and just let him play in the big ole ocean by himself....

Eli enjoyed flying a kite....

The picture below shows Eli's kite flying in the air. You can also see Philip pushing the boys in the stroller. The silver/greenish building on the left is where we stayed....

Emma Kate having fun on the boogie board....

I was hoping we could take a family picture on the beach. My professional photographer friend Mindy, suggested a color scheme of white, khaki, blue, and green clothes. So I packed the appropriate clothing for the beach pictures, but they never happened. :( We just didn't have enough hands to go around! Philip said that along those same lines, the one thing he would do differently next time, is bring a helper or another family along.

Here is the only picture we managed to get. I asked a random dad out on the beach to take it....

We ate breakfast and lunch at the condo everyday but went out to eat at night. No one in my family, except me, had ever been to Lambert's, so we went there the last night of the trip. I LOVE that place! Such good Southern cookin' and friendly people. That sounds exactly like something my Grandmother would say!

Here I am with the boys waiting outside for our table....

These boys are really very good babies. (It's just often that no one notices how good they are since there are 2 of them!) The whole trip they stayed on their same eating/sleeping schedule. Here's a look at what I got to see every morning at 7:00am....

The last morning as Philip was packing up the car, he brought a luggage cart up to the condo. Apparently it looked like fun because both boys climbed on....

More beach posts to follow later.