Beach Trip 2016 Part Five! Sailboat and Sunsets!

We had a great visit with Andrew and Taylor and Mr Precious.  Andrew made French Toast one day for us. Stuffed French Toast- it was all outstanding.  I liked the Nutella/bacon the best.

Sweet Adeline Rose loves to be read to.  I had that joy often.

It is always wonderful to have Fairest around.  Sweet Pandi needed a nice place for her morning nap and Fairest was happy to oblige!!

Mr Precious was up early as was Gpapa.  They are watching all the trucks go by the condo.

Carl and William went fishing with Alec and Sonia one morning.  Carl caught this beauty but had to throw it back because it was out of season.

William had to throw his great catch back also.  They had a great time and hope to do this again.

We had supper at the Brown House.  Carl and Alec grilled on a salt block.  Yum Yum.  We all enjoyed it.  We had lots of fresh veggies from Bob's garden.  Outstanding!

Sweet ARose.  She needed her baba for comfort and her mama's hand to hold.  Going to the beach is hard work for a 2 year old!

Mr Precious loved the beach.  When he sat on the sand for the first time and a wave came up to him and got him wet, he smiled and said "Again!"

Fairest read lots to Mr P.

We went on our second sunset cruise with Alec and Sonia.  It was beautiful.  We went all around Ono Island.  We saw dolphins, lots of fun houses, and some beautiful boats.  As the sun was going down I handed my phone to Sonia to get a shot of the sailboat.  She got this great shot.  I am still so impressed.  I even got cards made with this on the front.  I may even write you a note soon on one!


We had a great week at the beach thanks in great part to Alec and Sonia.  I told Carl that I am ready to stay two weeks next year!

Beach Trip 2016 Part Four- Lulu's and Lambert 's

We had a great time on Tuesday. Ted, Tina, Tanner, Tatum, Tessa, Bob, Alec and Sonia came and spent the day with us. We did the beach, the lazy river, more of the beach, lunch at Lulu's and supper at our condo but most of all we laughed!!!

 One such laugh was a lady, who, using two huge inner tubes, blocked up the lazy river as she floated by in oblivion. It was pretty impressive. I was sitting on the side of the pool at the time and was watching. Alicia saw it too. She was ready to get in and turned to me and winked saying that she should do a cannon ball just past Miss Oblivious!! Me, being the terrible roll model said DO IT!!!!! Alicia just eased herself in the water.  Soon the log jam was broken by someone else and the lazy river was flowing freely soon.

Here is Tatum with Pandi.

Waiting for our lunch that day at Lulu's in Gulf Shores. Always good.

On Wednesday we headed to Foley to stimulate the economy a little.  Sweet Gpapa and William watched the little girls so we three could shop til we dropped!

Before we went shopping there was some hair fixing that happened.

We had some laughing and loving as we waited for our number to be called at Lambert's.  We even ran into The T Monroes there.  It was great to hug them again.

As I was taking this picture Pandi grabbed a frog leg off of Alicia's plate and almost got a bite!!!

That evening Fairest took 6 month pictures of Pandi.  Isn't that a doll?!?

Kaitlin got some amazing pictures!  Don't you love how the bow matches the blanket?  Pandi is a great model!

After Kaitlin was finished with her pictures, Adeline Rose got her own camera and put her baby in the same place that Kaitlin had Pandi in!  We thought that was so cute!

Later on Wednesday night Mr Precious and his parents joined us!!!!   What fun!

Beach trip 2016 Part Three First visit to FloraBama

Monday was another beautiful day at the beach!

Here is the lazy river.  It was fantastic!!!!

We had the pool to ourselves in the morning but in the afternoon other folks felt the need to join us.

William and Alicia brought a baby bath tub down to the beach each morning.  Pandi slept in it, rested in it, and they filled it up one day and she splashed around in it.

We had a great porch with these wonderful sofas on them.  Carl and William enjoyed a nap one day out there.

One day on the beach these two crazy girls gave me a beach massage.  They used the sand to exfoliate my feet and legs and hands.  They had all the spa talk down and kept me laughing.  I had to slow Alicia down because she was about to take off all the skin on my leg but it was sure smooth when she was finished.

One of my goals was to eat at the FloraBama yacht club twice.  I love their smoked tuna dip and their fried shrimp- the breading is light and the hush puppies are wonderful!  We sat outside and had our usual laughing good time.  After supper Tanner and Kaitlin and Tatum were goofing around.

Here is our crew minus Tina who got this great shot!

After supper we went on the first of our two sunset cruises.  We went around the Island and then out into the Gulf.  It was just beautiful.  Tina got this shot of us on Alec's boat as their were riding on their boat.

I got a shot of all the T's on their boat.

The last picture is our our whole group from Monday.  Almost everyday our group changed and so did our adventures.  I could get used to the Salt Life but I would want to do it with these people!

Beach Trip 2016 Part Two- Full Moon

We began everyday down at the beach!

 When we went to the beach when our children were young Mrs Monroe's way of preventing sunburn was to entice us in to the beach house from the beach with a big breakfast/ brunch about 1030/1100AM. My children would wake up early and look out at the beach to see if they were related to someone on the beach, if so, they could gently wake me up and let me know they were headed out.  Carl and I soon joined them.   When the children were young after they ate they often were ready for a nap.  We were encouraged to stay in until about 4 pm.  My family never had a sunburn!  I seriously thought everyone did this and was stunned when I was told other wise!

We have adopted this plan.  So far so good. Carl, Kaitlin and I were at the beach with William and Alicia and their daughters, ARose and Pandi.  William is our nephew and his daughter ARose is the same age as Miss Adorable so we do lots of things together and our families vacation well together.  Andrew, Taylor and James surprised with a visit later in the week.

There were several other Monroe families at the beach with us too.  Carl's has a brother who lives in Orange Beach- Alec and Sonia, Carl's sister and her family- Marian, Sherrell, Meredith and Alan were in a different condo. Nephew Charlie and his family stayed with Aunt Marian too.  Ted and his family were staying with Alec and Sonia.  We met up everyday at Alec's house.  They also came to visit us.  We all weren't able to spent the whole week together but had several days with us all there.

ARose and Pandi were up early so we made a banana/peanut butter/honey/oat/milk smoothie, jumped into our swim suits and headed to the beach.  We usually were the first one on our beach and greeted the man setting up the cushions and umbrellas.  I never got his name but he sure had lots of hustle!  He made sure I had complete shade as long as we were out there.

After the beach we went to the lazy river that our condo had.  I told Carl I needed one of those!  Pictures tomorrow on that!

Often Pandi baby would fall asleep and I got to hold her.  One of my favorite jobs!

In the afternoon we went to The Brown House- what Mr Wonderful calls Uncle Alec's house- and ate and visited and laughed.  Here is the shrimp boil with corn, potatoes, onion, sausage, and carrots.

Sonia, Grandma and Alec on the back porch.

Aunt Marian and Kaitlin

Sarah and Kaitlin

Carl and Gma

Charlie with a fun group in the hot tub!

We saw a beautiful full moon.  Great ending to a great day!