It's not WHAT you know, it's WHO!

One of the best appeals for us to go to Orange Beach on vacation is that Jonathan's dad and stepmom live in Foley...which is just minutes away. Since we rarely get to visit with them, it's always a priority to catch up with them while we are there. This past visit was no different. On one of the evenings down there, we went to The Warf because Mimi (Sonya-Jon's stepmom) was working at the Ferris Wheel. Since she works there, she gave us "The Mimi Special", which means we ride for free!!! Here's a couple of photo's:

The ferris wheel is so pretty all lit up at night.















Waiting to get on and full of smiles!









Ryan didn't like waiting in line-he wanted to get on NOW!








Last friday was Jonathan's birthday and he shares that day with his Dad as well. We made plans to celebrate the two guys' birthdays on Saturday, and what better opportunity for Lou (Jon's dad) to put his connections in place! Since living down there for the past 3 years, Lou has met many interesting people. One couple he knows owns a condo at the Caribe resort which is a fabulous place! We were able to visit the resort to swim in the pools which was a welcome retreat considering that's what the kids were missing most-swimming! The Caribe resort has HUGE pools, with large areas for kids to play. There is also a lazy river (sooo cool!), and waterslides! I was really surprised at Ryan and how eagerly he took to the waterslides. He tends to be a bit timid when trying new things and my first impression was that he would be too scared to go down...or that if he did, he might panic when he hit the water so quickly. Well, as you can probably guess, I WAS WRONG. He was down that slide before I could completely walk over to the pool and the first thing I heard him say after he was in the water was "THAT WAS AAWWWSOME! I GOTTA DO THAT AGAIN!!!" And he did it again. And again. And again! He had the best time and I was sooo proud to see him doing it. Megan had a great time too. She loved swimming and juming and sliding all over the place. It was a great place to go, and even though I am sure I could never afford to stay there, it's great that we were given that chance on Saturday.



The pool with waterslides









The kids with Papaw. (Ryan's being goofy...as always)













Megan on the lazy river









Ryan and Mimi on the lazy river.




So like the saying goes, "It's not WHAT you know, It's WHO you know". Free rides on the Ferris Wheel...thanks to Mimi! (And she let us use her exclusive restroom in her ticket booth, so we didn't have to go hunt it up in one of the shops). And a fabulous day at the Caribe Resort...thanks to Papaw!

It was a great trip and we would love to do it all again...SOON!

An interesting June, to say the least...

Yeah, I know it's about time I updated this blog...however, between a weeks worth of VBS, a camping trip to the beach, swim dates at Nana's house, several trips to the library, and the occasional bum day at home, we have had quite an eventful month for the first of the summer. Here are a few highlights...some with pics:

Vacation Bible School: A week of exhaustive fun!

The second week of this month was dedicated to VBS at our church. The kids loved it! I signed up to help out with registration...which basically means I am a wimp and couldn't handle being stuck in a small classroom full of rowdy church kids for a week of my life. Yeah, I know, it's ONLY a week and it is pathetic of me. But I wanted my kids to go and experience it. It's so much fun for them. Here are a few pics of the fun:




BFF's! They were so happy to see each other every day.











Ryan won a Tshirt at Family Night on Wednesday














Megan and Chloe with their VBS teacher

























Ryan loved the "jumpy things" that were available on Family Night.

Camping in Orange Beach-not so bad.

When Mom and Dad invited us to go with them, I had to eat my words. I can't tell you how many times I would pass those camp grounds down there and say "Why on earth would you want to come to the beach and camp...especially when you aren't even on the beach!" Well, since we had already taken a couple of trips to the beach, we treated it more like a camping trip than a beach trip. We had a blast! First off, the camp grounds were immaculate! The bath house was very clean! It even smelled clean when we went in! And every day, I watched a van load of park employee's pull up and 4 would get out and go inside to clean. I never saw scum on the tile walls in the showers, the toilets were clean, the sinks were clean...everything was clean. I was very impressed, because there is nothing worse than going camping and having a nasty bathhouse to use.
Anyhoo-there were lots to do...the public beach was only 2 minutes from camp but we only spent one day there. The jellyfish were in the ocean during this trip, and even though we only saw a couple, Megan had a panic attack when she thought one had stung her. It turned out that all she felt was a rather large school of small fish swimming around her legs. But it was enough to send her into a panic screaming rage! It was quite comical, really...but don't tell her I said that.
The other fun thing we did was ride bikes. We took the kids bikes with us, but Jon and I don't have them (yet). Nana and Papa let us use theirs and there is a nice paved bike trail that takes you all into the State Park. It was really nice,and Megan had a great time. So now, I have to have a bike for the next camping trip. Jon and I have already begun to think about where we'll go next and what bikes we want. Here's a slide of a few pics of our camping trip:

One more beach trip memory...

One more accomplishment from our trip a few weeks ago is Ryan's new love for swimming...under water! I had to be the mean mommie and limit his trips down under because he has tubes in his ears and we didn't have ear plugs for him. I never thought to bring ear plugs because he'd never had an interest in going underwater before this trip...so basically, he grew a little more right before my eyes in just these last few days. I am so proud of him. He learned about kicking his legs to get back up to the top, and he was fearless! Of course this means I will be keeping another cautious eye out for him all summer, but I always have, so that is really nothing new. Here's a quick couple of video's of our fearless, brave and handsome little fish:

(the lines on the video are the sun reflections on the pool)

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN, JIGGETY JIG!

Well, I must say, I am so glad to be home! I wouldn't have thought so when we first left for the trip last week, but if you read my former post, you would probably agree with me, that our trip turned out to be more like the Griswolds vacation! We made it through with no more injuries, other than a slight sunburn. The kids and I are going down again in a couple of weeks with Nana and Papa so say a prayer that we can make it without any other drama's! As for Megan's finger, she's doing better with it, but she won't make a fist with that finger curled up, so we are going in for a recheck with our doctor tomorrow. She's probably fine, but the nail is still an ugly deep purple...she may still loose it, we'll have to wait and see.





Here are a few of my favorite photo's we took over the last week:



This pirate was outside a Piggly Wiggly in Port St. Joe...ironically, he looked like a former hairdresser of mine...haha













getting ready for our "family movie night" by watching a movie via Daddy's laptop.









The kids attacked Daddy and buried him!










The carnage continued...by piling seaweed on his head. The look on his face is his reaction when I told him that's the most hair he'd ever had on his head! LOL (good one, jen!)







We finally got to building that sand castle!

What kinda vacation IS this?

I'd like to write and report that we are on vacation, at the beach, having a lovely time building sandcastles, and swimming in the pool. I'd like to...but I can not. First off, this is a working vacation for Jon. The origional plan for this "vacation" was that we would leave on Saturday, go to Mexico Beach, and Jon would report to work on Monday through Tuesday, and we return home on Wednesday...but as it always does, plans change. Alot. A WHOLE lot. As a matter of fact this trip in no way resembles the itinerary that was origionally intended. On Thursday of last week, he was told he had to go to Orange beach THAT NIGHT because he had to be on a job site at 6am Friday for an inspection at 8am...which would in theory mean he'd be back at our hotel by 11 am and we'd spend the afternoon together. But, as it turned out we didn't arrive in OB until midnight Thursday, he got on the job at 6am, inspector didn't show up until 4 O CLOCK that day, and the kids and I had spent an entire day at the hotel alone, without food and drink (until I decided (with kids in tow) to cross a busy four lane road to a BP station to find something to eat!! The kids did eat a decent breakfast in the hotel cafe, but I elected to skip breakfast thinking Jon would be back soon, and the fact that the restaurant was pretty pricy-$18 for the kids alone!) As you can imagine, we were all irritated that things worked out that way, but we decided to believe that things wouldn't get worse than that. HA! We laugh at that thought now! We spend an entire day driving to Mexico Beach on Saturday and got turned around a bit...thus eating up our beach time. But, that's ok...we'll make the best of it. We get to our new hotel, get checked in, and the kids and I go up to the room. We are not in the room for more than 5 seconds and I hear Megan screaming to the top of her lungs! As I am still trying to get stuff into the room, they have gone and opened the balcony door, which caused a huge wind draft with the hotel room door still being open...the balcony door has slammed shut on her fingers and she is in a complete panic! I finally got her calmed down after about 10 minutes, and realize after inspection that it's just one finger...she may loose the nail on this one. I thought that would be it. Well, at about midnight last night, she is writhing in pain in the bed with me, kicking me and screaming in her sleep. I got very little sleep all night with her being in pain, and me not having anything to give her...no tylenol, no ibuprofen, nothing. After Jon get's up, I inform him that we are not going to the beach immediately but we need to get her finger checked...it could be broken. Well, since there is absolutely NOTHING in Mexico beach, we had to drive 30-40 minutes into Panama City to find a doctor...and after a 3 HOUR WAIT we discover that she has a hairline fracture in her finger, and they want to "evacuate the fingernail" because there is a blood clot under it...they do that by heating up a needle, and poking a hole in the nail to drain the blood. Yeah...discusting and painful as it sounds, it pretty much was. But she was a real trooper and didn't cry one bit. They put her finger in a splint and told her no swimming today.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

We are at the beach, yet we can't go to the beach because we're in the doc office for 3 hours, and add the hour traveling time, and now she can't swim today.

What kinda vacation is this?

Quite simply one we won't soon forget!

Megan is doing fine...proud of heself for being such a big girl, as are her proud and exhausted parents.

Jonathan reports to work tomorrow and Tuesday.

Hopefully we'll get some fun outta this trip! Tune in to this blog, for there may be more drama to report. Until then....here's a picture of our wounded hero: