orange beach 1

We've always driven to the beach on Sundays because everybody else goes on Saturday right?!  Well...this year we were having to make the drive on Saturday and we knew it was just going to be crazy!  So...we decided to live Friday afternoon and drive most of the way there and then make the short drive down to the beach early Saturday morning!  

R did great the entire time!  Thank goodness for an iPad!  He only took one little nap and that was all he needed apparently!  I had to teach him how to make your own pillows since he wasn't in his big carseat any more with the padded siding to lay his head on!

Fun stop at Mellow Mushroom!  I had MM for the first time during SB of 2008 in Destin, FL and had wanted it every since!  LR just got one, but I hadn't been yet...so I insisted we eat here when we drove by!  Well...food was okay and let's just say the service was BEYOOOOND horrible and I left my first "feedback" comment on Urbanspoon to let them know exxxxxactly how I felt!  ;)

Waking up and heading to the beach with the rest of the south!  :P  It was literally a RACE to the tunnel!  Craziness...if you've been there on a Saturday, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about!

Semi-healthy stop for lunch at Firehouse and R got a hat for getting a kids meal!  This is a step for us because he usually doesn't want to eat anything!  We made our grocery list during lunch so we could hit the Winn Dixie right behind us before heading to our condo!  It was so nice not having to get back out to get groceries once we got to our condo!

I had told R at home I would get him some sunglasses for our trip...well I couldn't ever find any kid ones!  Winn Dixie to the rescue!  He spotted them and I let him pick out which ones he wanted!  =)

We stayed on the bay side this year.  When we go to the "beach" we usually spend most of our time at the pool anyways...so we decided to try this out for one year and see how we liked it!  We LOVED it!  I don't know if we'll go back to the "beach" for a long time actually--maybe when R is bigger and wants to ride the waves and stuff!  But we LOVED the bay side just as much!  and especially the lazy river!

The night we got there...

The next morning...it was so peaceful and relaxing!  Not nearly as many people as there are at the condos on the beach!

I honestly never laid in a chair all week.  I just floated around that lazy river all day long and was perfectly content!  It took about 3 minutes to get around it if it wasn't crowded and six if there was a crowd!

mid week randoms

Welcome to another week of Midweek randoms!  I started my in service for my semester of student teaching this week!  I am loving it so much and can't wait to meet some of my kiddos tomorrow night at Open House!  It's going to be a great semester and I seriously can't believe that I graduate in December!  It's been a long road to get here...but I am so glad I am so close to making it!

• I'm linking up with Megan from It's a Wonderful Life...go check out all the other MWR link ups!  =)

•  My view driving to school on Monday!

•  My mentor teacher already has her room all cute and put together!  She has so many cute things that I can't wait to recreate one day in my classroom!  

•  This child is loving being back at school on a regular schedule!  He also thinks he needs to put all his tools in his "tool belt"!  Ha!  

•  ...and this is what happens when you go through all the stuff in R's closet that Mimi has gotten him from garage sales over the last year...and realize that those shoes that looked HUGE a year ago...FIT my baby!  :(  & the baseball pants...they're actually almost too small.  Where is the time going?  Any other Mamas out there feel this way!?

•  On a super salad kick right now!  The store was out of chicken so I went with salmon and it's been really good!  Avo, toms, cucs, carrots with some Italian dressing!  YUMM!

•  Driving home after getting R from school I noticed that driving down the same road the clouds looked COMPLETELY different on each side of the road!  Pretty interesting huh!?

•  I have been trying to get R to try new things and it's been a hit and miss lately....but that's better than all misses!  He liked adding a lil almond butter to his bananas last night!

•  We played a number puzzle game before taking a bath last night.  He is doing great counting, I just want him to start recognizing numbers in number form...so we're working on that!  

• and just for kicks....R loves this commercial and watches it on YouTube!  He says it all and it's REALLY funny...maybe I can try and record him soon!

Not a lot else going on around here!  Just trying to get back into our normal "school" routine and I think we are both really excited! 

Happy Hump Day Friends!  =)

lake life

We were blessed to be able to go visit Pooh at the lake earlier this summer!  This is R's third year to do so and we are so thankful we have been able to continue this fun tradition!  Pooh's parents bought a lake house earlier this summer, so this was our first chance to get to see their beautiful spot on the lake!

We went to Colton's for dinner the night we got there...and my lil man had a big time crackin' open all the peanuts!

We love Uncle Jay and he loves Ryder!  It's always good to see Caroline and Catie as well!  We have become friends with them and their Mama over the years, and it's so good to see them at the lake every year!

Trying on Papa Rick's hat!  ;)

Pooh let wild man drive the jet ski!  He loved it!  He drove a lil too crazy for this Mama on the back though! ;)

Nothin' like a little gatorade mustache!  ;)

Tired Punkin' after a long day on the water!

We went to play Putt Putt one night and this was R's first time!  He loved it and actually got a hole in one!  We spent most of our time catching little frogs though!  They are just too cute not too!

We spent some time at the pool too...

Helping Pooh drive the "big boat!"  He is just getting too big!

We love Caroline and Catie!!

HERE is us at the lake last year and the year before HERE!  So thankful for this blog and being able to look back at the years of fun in just a click or two!

Thanks for a fun weekend on the water Pooh!  We love you!  =)

paintin' pottery

R has always been my little artist!  He'll paint just about anything you put in front of him!  One day I found some old flower pots in the pantry and told him we were going to paint them!  He did a crazy one and I did his hand prints on a big one and wrote "Count your blessings!"

When they dried, we went to ACE and got some flower seeds to plant in them!  It's been fun to watch them grow from a tiny little seed through out the summer!  Baby steps in the planting and gardening department!  We'll see what we can handle next year!  ;)

This is just a random pic...I don't know what he was thinking putting all those stickers on himself!  Ha!

Happy Friday friends!  =)