Gulf Shores getaway

The week after my parents' memorial, we took the family on a much needed little vacation.  Only 3 days...just enough time to dip our toes in the water and get a little sun on our shoulders.  (Why is check in at 3 and check out at 10 now?  That doesn't seem right....ya know?)

We didn't have more time to spare because we had to cram it in between Dean's work, the kids' work and Matt's college week...oh and school!  Kaela starts back to school THURSDAY!    

We went home, picked up two more kids, packed back up a few days later and headed back out.  I was super excited and even repainted my toes for the big event.

Okay, so Dean LOATHES feet on the dashboard.  I did this to irritate him but when he mentioned how hard it is to walk on the beach without toes, I took them down!

We stopped in Fairhope for lunch....

And then off we went...and we didn't stop until we got to our room.  Well, that isn't true.  The traffic was horrendous! It took us almost 2 hours to go 14 miles.  Being a Florida girl, I always hated tourists.  Boy, it's tough BEING one too!

Not a bad view huh?  We woke up to this every morning.  Matt and his girlfriend were either on the beach or playing board games the entire time we were there.  

The weather was perfect so the girls got a lot of sun bathing in....
  

A little aside:  I have to be a beach snob now.  Sorry guys, but the beaches from P'City to P'Cola are da bomb compared to Gulf Shores in Bama.  Too many shells in the surfline...but that won't stop us from going back.  For all I know, that was some weird event.  Maybe that isn't the norm.
Back to it:

I enjoyed margaritas...

and wine...but not together.  That would be bad, right?

Dean took the girls to a water park one day.  They apparently stopped at a sno-cone stand too...

I burn too easily so why pay to go hide at a water park?  (Sun screens are only so good and not worth the worry at my age.)  

Instead, I plopped on a big hat and went to the pool.  I took a book and read a few chapters between dips. 

I tried to take a selfie for this post but decided y'all didn't want to look up my nose.  (This begs the question...How DO you take a decent selfie and how do kids constantly take good selfies when they aren't even trying?) 

Instead of looking up my nose, you can look at this cute bookmark Missy sent me in a swap a ka-zillion years ago. I used it at the pool.  Her head got wet and is now a little warped.  Like me!

Overall, we simply had fun.  It was well needed and totally appreciated.