May 17 & 18 - Orange Beach 2013

We finally made it to the beach after two days of travel!  WooHoo!  Technically our "Day 1" of vacation was spent in the car on the way to Orange Beach, but I'll blog about those anyway.

We left our house Friday morning.  

 Annabel had these stickers ALL over her and the car, but I wasn't complaining.  They kept her happy.

We stopped for lunch in Little Rock at a CFA for some playtime to stretch our legs.  Annabel decided it was the day she was finally going to go down the slide.  She loved it!

We made it to Pearl, Mississippi around dinner time Friday.  We let the girls jump on the bed a few minutes before going out to dinner.

We stayed at a hotel in the parking lot of a Bass Pro, so we walked over there after dinner to run around and look at the fish.

Funny story!  I've recently become a huge Duck Dynasty fan.  I'd asked Jon a week or so ago how long it would add to our trip if we drove through Monroe, LA on our way to vacation.  He looked it up and said it would add about 40 minutes.  I decided it wasn't worth it to just look at a building.  I said, "it's not like we'd see one of the people anyway."  So, we go on about our route as planned.  As we were walking through the parking lot from the hotel in Mississippi we walked past a black suburban with Louisiana plates and a tiny little duck sticker.  It didn't say "Duck Commander" or "Duck Dynasty" or anything.  Just a picture of a duck like their logo.  I said, "Look, Jon!  Ducky Dynasty is here!"  He laughed at me.  After looking at the fish, we walked upstairs to see the animals.  As soon as we got up there I saw John Luke & Lil Willie!  I said, "Oh my gosh, Jon!  They really are here!"  They weren't doing any kind of promotion.  Just shopping.  There was hardly anybody in the store.  I asked John Luke to take a picture with us after he took one with someone else.  I asked him if his parents were there.  He said just his mom.  I told him we watch their show all the time and he said, "thanks."  As we were letting the girls run around Annabel ran right up to Korie and I said, "hi, Korie" like a big dork.  She said, "Hi.  How are you?"  So nice and down to earth.  As we were walking back to our hotel we walked past them again while they were loading up their car.  I hope they didn't think we were stalking them, hah!  For those who may be wondering, Korie is a lot taller and skinnier than I thought, and John Luke isn't as tall as I'd imagined, but he did smell really nice.

We slept in a room with two queen-sized beds that night.  Jon slept with Adeline, and I slept with Annabel.  I use the term "slept" very loosely.  I think the girls were the only ones who got any sleep.  At one point, Annabel fell completely out of the bed onto the floor and never woke up.  Maybe I should have just left her there so she wouldn't have been able to kick me in the face anymore!  :)

The next morning we met up with my parents and were back on the road.  Annabel finally ran out of stickers and decided to take a nap.

When we pulled into the condo parking lot Adeline was screaming, "We at the beach!"  Annabel didn't care.

We ran to the beach as soon as we got our bags in the condo.

We quickly changed to swimsuits when it was obvious we couldn't keep them out of it.

It wasn't long after these photos that Adeline was stung by a jellyfish right on the inside of her thigh and crotch area!  She immediately started screaming hysterically and my mom ran out in the water to get her.  At first I was thinking she just got scared by a wave, or stepped on a sharp shell, but when she wouldn't calm down I knew it was something else.  She was pulling at her swimsuit and I quickly ripped it off her, but couldn't see anything.  Some ladies nearby brought over some meat tenderizer and said they figured it was a jellyfish sting and to put the tenderizer where she was saying it hurt.  It took her about 15-20 minutes to calm down and a nice bath, but then she was perfectly fine.  Of course Google had me convinced she needed to go to the ER, but the pharmacist at Walmart where I went to get some benadryl cream said just to make sure she could still pee.  As long as she could do that and wasn't having any difficulty breathing, she was fine.  She kept a little rash there all week, but didn't complain of it hurting anymore after the first night.  Praise the Lord! 

Mid-May Catch-Up

We are getting ready to leave for vacation tomorrow, so I wanted to get all caught up on the blog before the daily vacation posts I hope to write.  Many pictures headed your way!

I've been helping with Puggles at church on Wednesday nights.  It's the toddler version of AWANAs.  Last week was our last week before summer so I let Annabel hang out with our class so she could go outside with us.  I think she thought she was as big as all the other kids in the class.

One day last week we went to the park and Adeline got sand in her hair.  I gave her a bath when we got home and put her down for her nap with wet hair.  I love these curls!

That night the girls made paper plate crabs while we cooked dinner in preparation for our trip to the beach.

Annabel got a little wild with the marker.

Adeline really relishes her role of Big Sister, but I'm thinking it won't be long until Annabel at least catches up in size.

I've been beginning my mornings this way since January.  It's an even more beautiful sight now that my flowers are blooming!

Friday night we ate dinner at Shane & Juliet's and enjoyed their new deck.  Adeline found lots of caterpillars.  I'm so glad she's not scared of bugs, yet.  I used to be the same way as a child, but somewhere along the way that changed.

Then Uncle Shane showed all the girls how to play the ukulele.

Saturday we went shopping for my Mother's Day gift.  I was in desperate need of some new sunglasses.  They go with everything I ever wear since all I wear is blue..hah!

Annabel woke up with the craziest bed-head I think I've ever seen on Sunday.  Still gorgeous, though.

She found this bath mitt that her Tiny made and she calls it an "uppet" and insists on sleeping with it and carrying it around the majority of the time.  Yesterday the girls found some bobby pins and pretended to "knit" them like Tiny does.  Precious!

Some Mother's Day outtakes.  The girl who made me a mommy while Annabel was refusing to be in the picture.

 
And this is what happened when I forced her to be in the picture.

We tried to go out for lunch that day, but the restaurant was so crowded we couldn't get in.  That night we met the Lieuxs at Grub's for dinner.  Adeline was playing with my phone and unbeknownst to me, taking pictures.

I love this series of pictures.  Watch as Annabel tries to do everything her big sister does.  So sweet!
1) What are you doing with your arms?
2) Is this right?
3) Ok, got it!
4) Oh gosh!  You changed again!

And again trying to be just like Big Sis.

I was at the computer the other day and Adeline said, "May I please sit in you lap?"  Be still, my heart! Don't ever stop asking me that, sweet girl!

Yesterday both girls woke up in the throes of drama.  Nothing was going how they wanted.  This was Annabel after every bite.  Screaming, tears, the works because her waffle bites kept falling off her fork. I just had to laugh.

The girls started gymnastics yesterday.  While I was chasing Annabel around in her "Mommy & Me" class Adeline was taking pictures of her stamps on her knees.

Annabel found a new place to perch last night.

And nothing's better than the excitement of a child.  This is her happy dance when she realized she only had two more loops on her paper chain before we go to the beach!

I told my friend last night that this is the first time I feel like she really gets something enough to be excited about it.  It must be something that hits at 3.5 years. She wasn't even this way at Christmas. Every day she tells EVERYBODY we see that she's going to the beach.  She wants to look at pictures from when we went to the beach two years ago, she looks at her swimsuits every day, and talks nonstop about it.  It's so much fun!

Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!

Philippians 4:4

Happy Mother's Day

Thank you, God, for bringing these two precious girls into my life and making me a mom!

I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in the truth.  3 John 4

I came across this verse the other day and I love it.  I hope I bring this joy to my earthly parents and to my Heavenly Father and I pray that this can be my joy someday as well.  Lord, help me leave a legacy of faith!

Singing in the Rain

We were playing outside yesterday when it started raining.  We weren't about to let that ruin our fun.  I always loved playing in the rain when I was a kid, so I'm going to try to pass on that fun to my kids.

It went from a few sprinkles to a down pour, so then we had to break out the rain jackets.

I think they liked it!