Gulf Shores...

After the long bout of sickness that our family has endured this winter (remember stomach virus, flu, ear infection, upper respiratory infection, the diarrhea that wouldn't end?) we decided on one day's notice that we were going to spend Spring Break at the beach...any beach....somewhere that wasn't here in the wet and the cold and the snot and the well you get the picture!

We called Sunday evening and found a condo in Gulf shores that we could check into on Monday. We loaded up the van along with Nana and Papa and off we went at 5 am! The kids actually did relatively good on the 9 hour drive. The just got a little crazy the last 30 minutes or so.

Anyway we finally made it...and this was the view from our beachfront condo...

LOVE IT!

Anyway, we shopped for groceries on Monday night (eating out with the kids on vacation is pretty much limited and out of the question...) Then by Tuesday we spent the rest of the week doing a whole lot of nothing. I mean nothing that had any schedule or planning. We played on the beach, hunted for shells, watched Papa fish off the shore, and I managed to get a little reading done while the kids napped each day. It was so nice to not have any place to be but relaxing.

Fast forward to Wednesday...Nana and Noah were up for another full day at the beach, and Travis volunteered to occupy Lil in the condo so I decided to sneak off to the outlet mall for a little while, and I had one destination in mind....Strasburg Children's clothing. You see I had packed up my camera equipment and had my mind fixated on a portrait of my children holding hands walking along the beach like the little angels that they are in my daydreams. Well I find Lilly two perfect outfits and I disregard the price of them, I mean it's an investment in my photography endeavors right? (Nod here to make me feel better...) I had already bought Noah's beach outfit and so the next day we waited until sunset and off we went to the beach to capture my picture.

Oh but wait...I forgot to tell you that our little diva HATED the sand and really wasn't fond of the wind or the water either. She is basically a little pampered princess and really doesn't like anything grimy or dirty or gritty and I'm pretty sure she thought the sand was one big dirt pile and she was highly offended that we dared to plop her precious little naked toes in it. So me and Nana and the love of little Diva's life (aka Daddy) decide we can make this work. To no avail, we beg, we plead, we threaten, we bribe, there was no getting Lil to stand and look happy...heck I gave up on happy...just not look mad... At the Strasburg store the tagline on their door and ads and such said "Strasburg....in the business of dressing angels..." Oh no strasburg... not this time...

Notice her highness is much happier when her shoes prevent that offensive sand from getting to her feet...

So we gave up that night....and I (being a glutton for punishment) decide that I am not giving up. I dress them up again the next day and parade them back to the beach...now they're both mad and Travis wasn't too happy either at this point. Long story short...there is no fairy tale picture of my kids strolling by the sea shore. We however did get a lovely one of Noah dragging his crying baby sister across the sand kicking and screaming. I'm pretty sure I should have it enlarged in canvas to hang on the Wall...Oh wait I get to see that in person every day!

After I gave up my pipe dream of creating the perfect beach portrait the rest of the vacation was great. Stay tuned for the next post about the trip home...it's a story in itself! And I got over being upset with the contrary little princess who ruined my artistic vision...I mean who can stay mad at a face like this? OK maybe she is an angel after all...and alas, the perfect beach portrait can wait until next year right? Hellooo Travis...right?