Gulf Shores Vacation!

Well, we've been back from our vacation for a week already, but it feels like much longer!  For me, this was one of those trips that once we were home, it felt like we'd never left.  I don't know what that really signifies, but we did have a super vacation. :)

We started off on a Sunday afternoon...here are our FABULOUS travelers, all ready to go:

Mister Max, book and Dolphie in his lap.

Nora the clown, with Baby Elephanty (She's a GIRL, so make sure you never call her a HIM!) and her beach hat that she never wore all vacation.

Tirzah the most amazing 18 month old in the world, with her paci and beloved Monkey.  Seriously, for most of the drive down there AND back, she sat in her car seat and played with Monkey.  She completely amazed me!

That night we stayed at a hotel south of Memphis.  It had some pretty crazy patterns going on in the hallways, but the kids were so excited to get out and RUN that they didn't care. :)

The next morning we got up to finish the drive to our condo.  We had been passing cotton fields on the way down, which were pretty impressive to us mid-westerners. 

About half an hour from Gulf Shores, we saw another out of state minivan stopped at a cotton field, so we did, too!  Apparently our kids don't know what cotton balls are, but they thought the fluffy white stuff was fun anyway.

The farmer actually stopped by while we were there and answered some of Greg's questions about the crop.  Then he told us, "Take all ya want!" so we now have a few branches of cotton at our house. :)

FINALLY, we made it to Gulf Shores!  We actually stayed in Orange Beach which was a little ways from all of the touristy stuff.  As soon as we got the van unpacked we headed out to the beach.  It was late afternoon and I didn't figure anyone would actually want to get in the cold water, so we just changed into warm weather clothes and went out.  Tirzah's face in this picture pretty much sums up her opinion of the beach.  She didn't like the sand, the water, the sun....nothing.  Someday she'll appreciate the fact that we took her there, I'm sure! :D

Sometimes, once she got done with her griping, she would play in the sand (which Nora LOVED)...this was a pretty rare sight, though.

Hmmm...remember me thinking we didn't need swimming suits?  I didn't take Max into account.  He ran into the waves full force and had a blast beating them back to the shore.

  

He did slow down after he slipped and went totally under, though.  It was pretty funny...he was spitting for 5 minutes and kept saying, "Blech!  That's so salty!"

Best part of the beach was this cutie! ;)

That night for supper we ate at Calypso Joe's.  The highlight for the kids were these little rides they had there.  Max rode the dolphin and then all of the kids rode the little merry-go-round.

Didn't County Market or someplace like that have one of these?  If I had a good supply of quarters, this would entertain my kids for hours!

Tirzah especially loved it.  She really did NOT want to get off!

The next morning Greg got up early to walk the beach and take some pictures.  This is our condo and the red arrow is pointing to our balcony.  I don't have inside pictures of our place, but it was AMAZING!  A pretty open kitchen, dining area, and living room with two good sized bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a walk in closet in the master bedroom.  I would go back in a heartbeat!

Cloudy beach sunrise

We went out around 11:00 that morning to the beach, waiting for it to warm up a little.  Greg helped Max build a sandcastle.

I know I haven't been to the ocean very many times, but the waves seemed pretty big to me this day!  The tide must have been rising, too, because while we were still there Max's sandcastle got washed away.

Another rare picture of Tirzah not crying on the beach...and the only one I have of the girls in their cute little matching swimsuits.

We knew that we wanted to go on a dolphin cruise while down at Gulf Shores, so we called the place on Tuesday morning and they said they had a couple going on that afternoon.  We signed up for the 4:30 one.

We were not disappointed!  We saw quite a few dolphins and several even jumped out of the water for us!

Splash!

We have so many pictures, but they all look similar, so this is the last one I'll show.  There was no zoom on this picture...these two dolphins came right up beside our boat.  As they surfaced and sprayed through their blowholes, Max exclaimed, "Hey!  They got me wet!"  I told him it's the closest he'll ever be to a dolphin that's not in a zoo or aquarium!  He thought it was pretty funny that they got him wet. :)

The cruise was a 2 hour one and also included a 'nature cruise.'  We went back in a swamp, which was beautiful.  In the center of the picture, back in those reeds is where the alligators make their nests.  Much to Max's sadness, we did not see any alligators.

Crazy Nora!

The kids did okay...the cruise got long for them and not seeing any animals in the swamp was not impressive to them.  Thankfully there were some snacks on the boat and about halfway through the cruise they got up and were moving around the boat a little more.  I kept thinking they were going to annoy people, but Greg said that all he heard was how cute they were. :)  Whew!

On our way back, Max even got to drive! :)

Nora took a turn, but what surprised me even more is that she actually sat on the captain's lap.

We were treated to a GORGEOUS sunset as we made our way back to our marina.  It was beautiful!

At the marina, they have a statue of a mother and baby dolphin you could take your picture with.  You can't really see it, but it's behind us. :)

For supper that night we ate at Big Fish...I thought their logo was neat.  We got to eat outside, which was a definitely plus!

Wednesday was a day we PACKED full.  (I know, surprise, surprise.)  We started by leaving the condo early to drive to Pensacola, FL to see the Blue Angels practice.

There they go!

I think the big kids liked seeing the upside down airplane.

I think this is my favorite picture...it looks like complete chaos, these 6 jets flying seemingly randomly across each other's paths, but you know it's all perfectly timed and choreographed.  Greg said that he heard a guy say that during one of their stunts, the wingtips of the jets are only 18 inches apart!  Now THAT is precision!

This was one of Greg's favorites:  The planes started out closer together and as they flew towards the audience, they split off into that fountain shape.  The middle one is still flying straight towards the audience.

I was so impressed that Max and Nora did really well...we didn't have the foresight to get earplugs or big headphones or anything since we only knew a day before we were going.  And let me tell you, it was LOUD!  Unfortunately, as you can expect, Tirzah hated it.  I just held her next to me and put my hand over her ear and rocked her the whole time.  Thankfully, part way through, an older gentleman who was volunteering offered me some ear plugs for her.  You know she was hating the noise because she actually let us put them in!  Anyway, we made it, and I did get to see some of the show.

The National Naval Aviation Museum is where the practices are held and admission is free, so we went in.  I'm glad we did...it is a cool museum!  Huge planes are everywhere!

The Blue Angel pilots also had an autograph session, which we knew about, so we waited (mostly) patiently for one of them to sign a postcard we bought.

He was super friendly and even picked up both Max and Nora for a picture!  The kids were pretty impressed to see the guys that flew the planes they had just watched.

On the way out of the naval base is a lighthouse, so we stopped.

Only Greg and Max could go up in it...Nora was too short, I am pregnant, and you are not allowed to carry anyone up the steps.  Also, flip flops aren't allowed so the boys had to go barefoot!  Apparently the Coast Guard has pretty strict rules for it.  Nora was very sad that she was left behind, but I was perfectly fine with not climbing it...after standing and holding Tirzah for the whole Blue Angel show and then walking around the museum, I was shot!

Beautiful view from the top

Cutest view from the top :)

For supper, we drove to Lambert's, where they 'throw the rolls' at you.  I'm not sure what the kids were expecting to see, but they have workers walking around with baskets of rolls and they throw them to you across the table, basically.  Max still thought it was great and caught his.  Nora fumbled hers, which wasn't so surprising.  Another thing about the rolls...

...they are HUGE!

Cuties!  Even if Tirzah has on a cranky face!

Yay, we finally ate at Lambert's!

Nora trying to eat her monster roll.  The food was pretty good, kind of reminded me of a Cracker Barrel...but all of the portions were enormous.  If I ever go there again, I would probably skip lunch!

We drove back to Gulf Shores and decided to finish the evening off at the Track.

All of the kids wanted to ride the carousel, but I knew Tirzah couldn't ride by herself.  Greg very graciously rode it with her, since neither of us were feeling that great after the huge meal we just had!  Don't worry, no one threw up. :)

Look, Mom!  One handed!

Max and Nora each rode the train ride and the swings, but their favorite by far were these airplanes.

They are the ones where you push down on the stick in front of you and they actually go up in the air.  They rode them twice that night and another time when we went back to use up our tokens!  There were also some go-kart tracks, so Greg took each big kid for a turn.

On Thursday morning we went to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo.  I honestly wasn't sure what to expect since I knew it was a smaller zoo, but it was really nice.

There were some ducks wandering around when we first got there.  They soon discovered that we had bought some animal food and followed us for a while!

I didn't get any amazing animal pictures, but I thought this one of everyone looking at the lion was cute!

Tirzah LOVED these little deer-like animals.  I never did find a tag or sign saying what they actually were...but she loved squatting down on the ground and trying to pet them.  Just her size!  As we were looking at these animals, Max and Nora were of course keeping up a running commentary about everything. All of a sudden I heard a new noise and turned around to find (I think) a cockatoo in a cage behind us that was imitating Max and Nora's voices!  Then Nora told it, "Hello," and it answered her back.  It was so funny!  I think Greg got a video of it saying, "Hello," on his phone.

Not surprisingly, Tirzah loved these big deer, too!  I love how the one's tongue is sticking out in this picture...she just couldn't get enough of watching them.

Good thing this little break in the boards was just her height!

Boo!  It was definitely the week before Halloween...here are our ghost and skeleton we brought to the zoo.

After the zoo, we ate at Lulu's.  We were told about this place from some friends (thanks, Jamie!) and we LOVED it!  The food was super and there is a humongous sandbox and fountain for the kids to play in...Tirzah never liked the fountain or sand until about 10 minutes before we were ready to leave. 

Doesn't that look like fun?

Nora and Max had a ball...they would go play, come eat when their food came, and then go right back out to the sandbox.

That evening, we all got dressed up and went down to the beach for some pictures...but you will have to wait for a Christmas card to see that! ;)

On Friday morning, Tirzah inexplicably woke up at 6:00 or 6:30 or some super early time like that.  Knowing she wouldn't last the whole morning, I put her back to bed at 8:30.  Greg took Max and Nora out goofy golfing, and I had a wonderful quiet morning at the condo to start packing things since we planned to leave early the next morning.  I loved it. :)

They played a round at Pirate's Island Adventure Golf and had a great time, or so I heard.

Greg had really been wanting to get to the State Park that was down the road from us, so on the way back they stopped at the Gulf State Park Pier.

There was a fisherman catching flounder and Max got to hold one!  What a funny looking fish!

After lunch, we all went down to the beach/pool for one last afternoon.  We had already decided to go back to Lulu's for supper, but Greg wanted to go see Fort Morgan so we left a little early and drove waaaaay out to the end of the Gulf Shores peninsula.  We got there only about a half an hour before it closed, so there were only a few other people there.  Perfect!

I didn't know what to expect when we got there, but it was pretty neat.

If we didn't have the kids with us, I would have loved to have read more about it and understood more.  As it was, the amount of time we had there was just right. :)

Cutie pie on the fort!

It was a little scary being up there with the uneven bricks and those railings that the kids could totally slip through, but I made it!

For some reason, it's hard to get a clear picture of our kids...hmmm...maybe something to do with them never being still?

Here are Max and Nora with a cannon outside of the fort.  Apparently this is a running joke in Greg's family, since many of their family vacations included going to war monuments and such....which resulted in many, many pictures of the Beutel kids and a cannon.  So, Dad Beutel, this one's for you! :D

After another delicious supper at Lulu's, we went to the Track one more time to use up the rest of our tokens.  The kids rode the airplanes again, and then we heard about their 'Wild Woody' track.  Greg asked what was special about it, and the answer convinced him we should try it...it's a 3 story go-kart track!  Max and Nora each got a turn with Greg, and from what I could tell watching, they LOVED it! :)  After the exciting go-karts, we headed back to the condo to pack up the van and get totally ready for the next morning.  Our organization must have worked, because we were in the van headed for home at 5:30 AM!

Our route home took us right by Athens, AL, so we called up cousin Susan to see if she was available to see us at all.  As it worked out, she was open for lunch and we were going to be right in her area around lunchtime!

Thanks for meeting us at Sarge's Shack, Susan!  It was good to see you, even if only for a little bit!

Anyway, after driving for what felt like forever, we made it home around 8:15...oh, did our house look good!

We had such a great week in Gulf Shores, but once we started for home, we were all ready to get there! :)