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Hey! My name is Hillary and I live in Texas! I am a teacher turned stay at home mom with my 3 year old daughter! I also have a 7 year old son! I love doing fun activities with my kids, helping other teachers and spending time with my sweet husband!

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Gulf Shores


Well if you know me at all...you know I am...what is the word...high strung? Yeah. That's me. I worry about everything, plan out things almost TOO much...and live by a schedule! When Randy told me we were going to Gulf Shores with his wonderful family this summer...the normal part of me was SO EXCITED! The high strung part of me just about panicked! With a baby? How? Well...this has been the best thing for me! I have learned to cope, go with flow, and know now that things will not go as planned, babies DO cry and everyone lives through it! Lol. So here is a play by play of our wonderful trip!! 

Day 1: We drove 4 hours (hoping to break up the trip in the car for Olivia) and stayed in Clinton, MS overnight. Olivia cried in the car, a lot...and in the hotel, a lot. But oddly enough slept the entire night. I think shaking her bottles to mix the formula right before feeding her was a HUGE mistake. But...we survived! :) 

Here is the car before we left...yeah...two kids equals a ton of stuff! 


All ready to go...


But had to do a U-Turn for Rex's Elephant "Poonut"...Thank goodness we were just right up the road. 


Olivia had to eat in the car...she took it like a champ though! We stopped and ate a McDonald's around 5:30. Olivia screamed the whole time which ended with the boys eating inside, me changing her in the car then walking around outside. Rex brought my happy meal to me though and I ate on the road. But I survived...


We made it to the hotel by 7:00 and Olivia cried until she fell asleep like this. But...we survived. :)


Rex was great, but exhausted. A baby crying for hours can do that to a brother. We all slept great! 

Day 2: Olivia starts crying at breakfast. We get on the road again, thinking we made a huge mistake and being prepared for a doctor visit in Alabama. Rex was not thrilled. 

Olivia slept ALOT on this 6 hour stretch though and only cried when she was awake. Lol. (I make light of it now, because we just know now she hates the car) We stopped for lunch, she was super happy the entire time. Another change in the car, a few more bottles...and we were there!!

Gorgeous! 


She looks relieved huh? Lol. Our Condo was still being cleaned so we camped out for a few hours in Jake, Angie, John and Kelly's Condo. (Family of Randy's). 


Here are the kids on the trip, minus princess Kiser. :) Rex is the only boy cousin. Does he care? No way. Our Condo was cleaned and ready and we moved in! Literally. We have so much stuff, it's crazy. 

Rex hit the pool (in his regular shorts) while daddy moved us in! Olivia hung out with Aunt Angie and me by the pool too! 


Rex's first sighting of the beach! He was amazed! Then he jumped in the pool again. Lol. Well the shallow part anyway. 

We finally got to our room (Randy had everything moved in) and Olivia cried...a lot...more. Poor thing. But...we survived. She went right to sleep. 

Huge mommy victory for me...I was worried about her in the pack n play. She slept great. Woke once to eat at 2:30 AM, then back to sleep until 7:00. Rex slept with us in the king size bed. All of us slept great! 

Day 3: We started with a quick breakfast!


But we wanted to show the kids the beach, first thing. 


Rex wanted to play, not pose...stinker. 

Seeing the beach with the kids was wonderful. I realized then...no matter how stressed I had been, it was worth it and we would no doubt survive. :)

Next up was pool time. Olivia was great, she sat with me then fell asleep. Rex swam for hours. 



He was a little scared of the water the first day but he was great after that! 

He also helped Gam cook in the kitchen! She brought his apron and chef's hat so he was official! Lol. 

Olivia took lots of pool naps! 


Day 4: Livi hung out with daddy that morning. 


And I took Rex seashell hunting, he found some great ones! 



After that, we went souvenir shopping! We loved the Ron Jon Surf Shop. They loved us too...lol. We spent a pretty penny on shirts, etc. we had fun though!!


After his nap, Rex had some great swim time with Gam! 


That night we hung out at the othe condo for burgers and such. The kiddos played bean bag games, we ate and had a 
blast. 



 Livi actually socialized for a while (let others hold her) but then about 7:30,  she wanted that bottle and bed. 

Randy took Rex to build sand castles and such with the other cousins! 


He of course loved it!! He didn't come to bed until 10:00! He was so excited! Lol. This time with family for him is priceless! He loves his Gam and Paw and I believe Aunt Missy is definitely a favorite!! Lol. 

Day 5: Time for go cart, arcade and water boat fun! 


Rex LOVED this time with his daddy! 


Olivia waited patiently! Lol. And cried some! 

But when I held her, she was happy as could be! 


We also did some acrade games! Rex loved those too! 

Last up was water boats with daddy! They squirted me, Rex was so proud! Lol. 


After a few dramatic meltdowns from both children, we came back to the condo and all took about a 3 hour nap! Everyone was happy when we woke up! 

We opted to have a little family time that night and go out to dinner! We went to Bubba's Seafood House. It was great! Even better...Olivia let me eat! Lol. She was so good! 




We had a great time! Oh and Olivia still hated the car. Lol. 

Later that night we went to meet up with our family and ate homemade ice cream! They were having a contest! So we ate a lot of it! Lol. 


Can you say YUM!? OMG, good stuff! 

Of course Olivia hung out for a bit, but then had to go to bed! 8:30? I know! Night owl! Lol. Randy took Rex with the other cousins "crabbing." He didn't get pictures because it was dark but we got some Go Pro videos! Rex had a blast! 

Day 6: Randy and I left the kids with Gam (Randy's mom) and we did a walk on the beach, and a little more shopping! 

We had a nice relaxing afternoon by the pool (all 4 of us with the whole extended family!) then a great dinner at the other condo! I love the way we do dinner on this trip...each "family" takes a turn making dinner one night for everyone (all 21 people!) Its great!! 

Day 7: Rex and I started the day with some Poptarts and some beach time! We built some sand castles and played in the ocean!! 

When we had taken in enough of the beach we went to the pool at our condo! We spent a while there while Olivia was sleeping. Then we came back to our room! Rex loves the water, that's for sure!

We had a relaxing afternoon (naps for the kids) then more swimming for Rex! 

Later we took a huge family picture on the beach! 

Then we went to The Wharf that night! It was great! We just took Rex and left O with Gam! We ate a place called Baumhowsers! Poor Rex was so tired though!

He had fun though! Then we looked at the shops and took Rex on a giant Ferris  Wheel! 

He loved that! We ended that little trip with some Dippin' Dots! 

A bathroom break and some time in daddy's shoulders! Lol. He was too tired to walk to the car. 

The night was a big success! 

Day 8: (our last day) Started with a lovely morning on the balcony. Rex eating breakfast and Livi chilling outside with the family! 

Then we went to the pool to let Rex swim and Livi nap! 

Rex has become a good little swimmer! He can jump off the side, climb out of the pool and swim to the side. All with floaties but we have come a long way! 

Back in the room we had some lunch and a little chill time! 

Randy and his sister when zip lining! They said it was awesome!


Later that night we took a few pictures on the beach! And I snapped a few in the room of our kiddos! 


And after some packing up...we were ready to leave. 


I say ready...but mean prepared. We did not want to leave, this trip was amazing. As stated above, this trip was a huge learning experience for me! I feel I learned to be more flexible and learned to relax and enjoy my family! All of them! It was a blast!

Most importantly!! Thank you so much to Randy's Mom and Frank for inviting us! Thank you so much to his whole family for putting up with us! Lol! Can't wait for the next one! 

Disclaimer #1: Missy...I stole some of your photos. :)

Disclaimer #2: I have over 200 photos, so if you aren't on here I am soooo sorry! I just chose snapshots of the trip! I tried my hardest to make sure everyone was included! I love you all!!