Day 188/365 - July 7

Look what I noticed this afternoon.

And Wes says I never see these type of things :)

Oh, not only was it noticed but I also removed it them.

Day 187/365 - July 6

I'm just a little bit late, but I finally got "most" of the paint from All-Stars off my windows tonight.

Looks like I still have some scrubbing to do. Maybe by Halloween...

Hey, better late than never, right?

Day 186/365 - July 5

Is it really time to go home?

We got up this morning, cleaned, and let Avery swim in the pool for about an hour before heading out around 2:00 this afternoon.

I finally managed to get a picture (actually, Wes got the picture as I was driving by) of this awesome shop that we passed several times. I planned to stop and let Avery take her picture beside the van because she loved it so much, but traffic was WAY too heavy today to even consider that option!

Then, I noticed this license plate on the van in front of us.

How cool is that? Guess Avery is out of luck!

Day 185/365 - July 4

Isn't it great when your 9 year old rolls out of bed and asks, "does it always feel this bad when you drink?"

"Yes Avery, but it usually feels worse. At least you aren't throwing up," is my response.

Seriously, NOT a conversation I expected to be having at the ripe, young age of NINE!

After getting past the fact that my sweet baby never wants to drink again, Wes headed out to meet Jeff Stevenson for a round of golf. All the rest of us packed up and headed to the outlets for some retail therapy. We did some damage too!

We even managed to take a break long enough to grab lunch at Lambert's - "home of the throwed rolls" in exactly those words. It was our (the Golden girls) first time and WOW, what an amazing meal!!!

Take a look at these drinks and the HUGE rolls compared to the mugs! Yep, they toss those suckers across the restaurant at you and you better be ready to catch because they will take you out otherwise!

They were deeee-lish too!

We all headed out for putt putt golf and the BIG go cart track later in the evening.

 

We didn't play the full 18 holes since we needed to head over to the go cart track and make sure we had time to grab dinner and make it back to the beach in time for the fireworks show.

What a wonderful day and night!

Day 184/365 - July 3

Can't believe I didn't include any pictures of the beach yesterday! The water is not clean at all. Full of oil which is washing up on the beach and leaving tar balls and residue. These pictures are straight out of the camera with no editing at all.

Tractors come by every hour or so to plow it up, but it's still there under the surface.  Words can't even begin to describe how sickened and angry I am to actually see our beaches look like this. It was one thing to read about it, watch the news, but to actually witness it with your own eyes...the white sandy beaches, crystal blue waters that you grew up with. They are gone and for what? The greed of a company that has already made unimaginable amounts of money from consumers? I go back and forth between anger and queasiness...it's just not right!

Since the beach is out of the question (there are signs that specifically say "do not get in the water due to chemicals treating the oil per the EMA") we decided to head to the water park for the day.

We arrived right as Waterville U.S.A. opened and planned to make a day of it. The girls had a blast in the wave pool.

Josie, Avery, and Wes all tried the Flowrider, a simulated surfing thing. Wes actually did pretty good until he tried to do a trick and wiped out.

We headed over and rode go carts and the roller coaster (MANY times).

Wes and Seb headed back to the condo leaving the girls to finish playing. We did a few more water slides, the lazy river, and the wave pool before calling it a day.

After getting back to the condo, we all showered and got ready for dinner.

Before heading out, look what we noticed right off the balcony.

Isn't is amazing how close they were? You could seriously reach out and touch them!

While waiting for dinner, the moms each ordered a daiquiri and the girls each got virgin drinks.

Or so we thought. Pretty sure the order got mixed up and Avery and Josie had alcohol in their drinks.

Why?

Well, let's review their symptoms:
*within 30 minutes of drinking, both had the hiccups
*Avery immediately had a headache and thought she was going to puke all night
*Josie was silly and giddy - wanted another drink RIGHT then
*Avery lost all color in her face
*Josie couldn't hold on to anything - dropped something that was placed right in her hands

Yep, once again it has been verified...we are A-MA-ZING parents!

Day 183/365 - July 2

After a super late night of washing clothes and "attempting" to pack, I was up bright and early this morning. Wes wanted to be on the road by 7:00 and our track record is not usually too good! Imagine my excitement to see this as we backed out of the driveway!!!

After dropping the dogs off at the kennel (WAY out of our route), we proceeded south but not really in the right direction for where we were heading!  We were on Hwy 231 South and needed to cut over onto I-65 South. After a little investigation on the map, yep a good ole paper map, we decided to hit Troy and cut over.

No trip would be complete without a little surprise though. A light popped up indicating Wes had low tire pressure, so we stopped in Pine Level to add some air. Just a few miles down the road, we stopped again and it was still leaking.

Avery said I had to take a picture since the store was "my name" - even though it's not spelled the same :)

Luckily, we found an auto repair place that was able to get us right in and fix the tire - valve had to be replaced.

We were on the road again heading west towards the interstate...so we could head south again :) It wasn't long before we noticed Avery had fallen asleep in the backseat - this doesn't happen very often!

We are officially heading south on the interstate!

Once we arrived in Gulf Shores, Avery was ready to swim with Josie.

They didn't last long in the outdoor pool though, the water was pretty chilly. We headed to the indoor pool where they had a blast!

After swimming, we headed over to The Wharf to check out the shops and ride the ferris wheel.  What a great time!

For dinner, we stopped in at The Hangout. The food was great and Avery and Josie had so much fun playing outside!!! They enjoyed the sand pile...

the bubble machine (and the balloon man)...

playing ping pong...

and playing foosball.

Whew...talk about a fun, but exhausting day!

Day 182/365 - July 1

A few weeks ago, several friends planned a girls night out dinner for tonight. I had to bail on the last one due to All-Stars and knew I couldn't cancel again tonight even though I needed to be home washing clothes and packing for our trip. What's a girl to do?

Follow through with her commitment, of course :) I went to dinner and had a GREAT time catching up with some friends I hadn't seen in a while - Kelly, Beth, Rachel, and Ashley.

Of course, that meant I was up washing clothes and packing ridiculously late but it was well worth it!