In celebration of my birthday and as a family vacation, we spent the week at Dauphin Island, Alabama. It was a wonderful week!! I love the ocean and the beach. There is something calming, exciting, spiritual, mysterious and other worldly about the vast seas. The kids had a fabulous time too!! The last time we went to the beach David was around three years old. He was afraid of the water. This time he loved the ocean! It took holding Grand-mama’s hand the first time to get him used to it, but then he loved it. Just like David was the last time we took him to the beach, Emma loved the sand, but was unsure of the water. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because the only water they are really around is their bathtub, but they are both afraid of deep bodies of water. Neither one of them cares to go swimming in a swimming pool. I see swimming lessons in the near future for both of them. 🙂

Sunday night we spent the night in Jackson, MS and then drove the rest of the way on Monday. We stopped at a local grocery store in Mobile before crossing over the bridge to Dauphin Island. We rented a condo with Andrew’s dad and mom, and needed to have some groceries for breakfasts, snacks, and a few meals to cook in. The pictures below are from Monday afternoon after we arrived and settled into the condo. “Us kids” couldn’t wait to get down to the beach! 🙂

On Tuesday morning I took the kids down to the beach and we played in the sand, caught some crabs, and looked for sea shells. There was a tide pool between the sand and the beach, and we were walking along looking. Suddenly we saw some saltwater catfish. There were about four of them and they were pretty small. David was playing around in the water chasing them. He did so for quite a while. Suddenly he started screaming. He had been poked by one of them on the hand. It didn’t even cross my mind that he would actually be able to get close enough to touch them, but he did! Poor thing screamed and cried for quite some time. I know that it hurt, because my dad has been poked by freshwater catfish before and he says it hurts! Once David finally calmed down (When David gets hurt he can become hysterical and often overreacts. My sympathy for him sometimes only lasts so long, due to the fact that he needs to learn how to handle these situations better on his own), and the sting went away he was ready to go back to the beach for some more action. He just didn’t mess with those fish anymore! 🙂

On Wednesday the ocean shared some unique treasures with us! Jelly fish were washing upon the shore! Most of the moon jelly fish we saw on the shore were without tentacles, and we were able to touch the tops of them. Then we tossed them back to sea. We also saw another unique kind of creature called Blue Buttons. They were very unique and pretty, and for some reason I didn’t get a picture. There were tons of them washing upon the shore! Emma loved collecting them! We called them sea buttons. She would say “sea button” in her cute little voice. 🙂 We also saw dolphins out farther from shore that day, but I was unable to catch that on camera!

Thursday was technically our last “beach” day, and so we made the most of it! We made sand castles, buried the kids in the sand, and just had a relaxing time. The ocean was more unsettled and we didn’t really see too many creatures. I took a lot of pictures! I love how cute the kids are in their beach clothes, sunglasses and hats! Too cute! Sorry for the overload of pictures, but I can’t help it. 🙂

The island didn’t have a ton of restaurants to choose from, but we did try a few of them. They all had really good food, it was cooked “southern” seafood style. My favorite was the Islanders restaurant. Andrew and I went on a date! It was great to have Jim and Alesia there to take care of the kids for us that evening! The restaurant had a great atmosphere and the food was amazing! I actually had their steak special instead of seafood and it was amazing! My date was pretty great too! 😉

We took David out crabbing a couple nights in hopes of seeing one of the big blue crabs, but we were unsuccessful at spotting one. However, it didn’t affect the amount of fun that was had. David and Emma decided to lay down on the sand and make sand angels at night. 🙂

Like all vacations they have to come to an end. On Friday we packed up and checked out of the condo. We did stop in Mobile, and Andrew and David toured the USS Alabama. Emma and I hung out on deck, as neither of us really could climb up and down tiny steps and passage ways. 🙂 David loved it though!! He loves ships, planes, and anything that shoots! 🙂 We made it home today, unpacked, and Andrew went grocery shopping for me! We are feeling thankful and blessed, and hopefully ready to get back to reality this week! 🙂

PK