Gulf Shores - Part 2

Day 3 at the beach was mainly spent with Bradley as that morning, the other boys stayed home to rest, so we brought him out to the beach for a bit before naps and let everyone rest that afternoon. That evening, we had a photo session lined up with a photographer I found online. Luckily, everyone was able to power through the session even though Ryan and Charlie weren't feeling too well. I told Ryan prior to the session that if he behaved and listened well, we would get him a new Lego set from Target (I know, awesome parenting tactic but you gotta do what you gotta do). I also told Bradley we would bring him Skittles to give him periodically over the 30 minute session (which felt like 3 hours). Upon Ryan hearing the news of the Skittles, Ryan immediately came over and whispered to me "should I tell B that I am getting a Lego set??!!" As if he wanted to make sure B knew that he wasn't the only one getting a special treat. Fast forward a few hours and lots of tears from C later, we finally finished the photos and quite a few of them turned out just great (I'll post separately). Ryan could tell the session was just about over and casually walked over to us while we were finishing up and nonchalantly asks "is there a Target around here?" We just about lost it. He was hoping to cash in on his Lego set right then and there. Wes and I had a date night after pics that evening which was so nice.

The next morning, there was a bit of a rain shower and coincidentally was the morning the boys were by far the sickest. So we all hung around the house, went and caught crabs, and let the kids run around downstairs. We decided to lay low most of the day and then head up to the beach that evening. It was such a nice night! The sand, water, sky - it was all so picturesque.

                                               

Sweet brothers

This lil guy was happy to just chill in the shade with his bottle.

No evening beach excursion would be complete without an ice cream party!

B was super serious about the water in his bucket

This dude is a daddy's boy if there ever was one, and the trip made it even more apparent. He is attached to Wes at all times.

See the pure joy in his eyes? This is a face of a boy who LOVES his daddy.....and being tossed around.

A  little evening walk with GiGi to search for seashells

Poor baby just not feeling himself

The days start running together at this point, but by Thursday, Ryan and Charlie started to feel somewhat better, so we all headed back out to the beach. GiGi, Ryan, and B built a large mound of sand and then proceeded to pose like the Statue of Liberty for pictures. This was all Ryan's idea, which was pretty funny.

Bradley, of course, then had to take his turn on the sand.....

...and then try to mimic Ryan's pose!!

more long walks on the beach

Then it was time to bury Charlie. Surprisingly, he actually enjoyed it, not that you can tell by the look on his face. I promise he did!

That evening, we went on another date night out. We ate dinner at a neat place on the water, then visited the famous Florabama bar which was pretty cool. It reminded us of some of the bars in College Station with live music and a bit of a country feel.

Our last day at the beach, tear!

After a short time of being there, Ryan started to feel bad again. So, Wes took him back to the "purple house" as B commonly referred to it, so that he could rest.

GiGi stayed with the boys again, so we headed out with just B man. All of his gear made him look a little bit ridiculous. Wes nicknamed his sharkbait or "hark bait" as B called it because just about everything he wore had sharks on it (from his shirt, to his suit, and hat, and even the boogey board). When we took him out into the ocean, we made him wear goggles, a hat, and his "blue hing" or puddle jumper since the current was pretty rough.

It looks like he may be laughing, but nope, he is definitely protesting this picture.

We actually did see what I first thought was a shark. You can barely tell, but there is a girl in this pic swimming after the fin. Come to find out there were a bunch of dolphins swimming back and forth about 20 yards offshore. I was pretty nervous and waited a bit before getting back in.

I finally got some action shots of B riding the boogey board. Here he is pre-major wave.....

...during the wave.....

...and riding it the rest of the way in.

I think that evening was the first time in almost 4 days that everyone was feeling better, so we opted to all go swim in the pool one last time before the trip was over.

On the verge of crawling - thank goodness he didn't start on the trip or we would have been in big trouble

Bradley just being a ham, using the pantry as a potty as he often likes to do

the last sunset of the trip - we got so lucky with the weather. Other than one 1-2 hour little shower, it was perfect weather

That evening, Penny and Ryan flew home while we packed up and cleaned up the house. I forgot to mention in the last post, but at one point in the beginning of the week when we were talking about the drive there, Ryan chimed in on the conversation and said "it only took us like a minute to get here!" I am sure it would have definitely felt like a minute compared to what he would have experienced on the 12 hour car ride there! The next morning, we didn't leave quite as early as we did on the way there since we were afraid the boys would stay awake again. I think we pulled out around 5:30 that morning. This time, C went right back to sleep and I think Bradley did shortly thereafter.

check out those chipmunk cheeks!

We made it back to Baton Rouge before stopping for breakfast again, and stopped at an awesome tiny place called Magpie cafe. It was delicious!

C had basically not eaten anything since 8pm the night before, so by 9:30 that morning he was starved!

After breakfast, Wes was on a mission to get home (I can't blame him since he did drive the entire way both ways). Luckily, the kids were seriously angels. There was absolutely no crying this time, and Charlie would just doze in and out of sleep until we finally stopped around 1 pm to make a quick pit stop at Buc-ees to refuel and grab quick lunch to eat in the car. This time the trip was just over 9 hours and felt considerably shorter because we didn't encounter any traffic at all, thank goodness. It was such a fun week and was sad that it was over. I think the kids definitely had some post-vacation blues, but luckily for them, they had Galveston to look forward to just a short 4 days later!