Gulf Shores, AL

We had a great week at the beach in fact Christian dubbed it the best vacation ever.  After checking in to our condo the boys could not wait another second to hit the beach.  I let them change into their suits and we went down and got our feet in the sand while Chad took a short nap!  The boys ran immediately in to the ocean and starting pulling each other on the boogey board, while I took a deep breath and enjoyed the view.  That is until we felt a few sprinkles that immediately turned into a torrential downpour and I got soaked!  We ran back to the condo and spent the rest of the night getting settled in and running to the store to get our snacks for the week!  We picked up pizza around 10:30 on our way back and made our way to Josh and Lexi's room for dinner.  Evidently a pipe in the condo they checked into had leaked so to my surprise while the boys and I were on the beach, they had to go through the hassle of changing condos.  On the flip side they were moved into a 3 bedroom so they called Craig and Carla who left home at midnight and got to Gulf Shores around noon on Monday!  FUN.

Monday morning we woke up early for our first full day on the beach.  The weather was beautiful and we wanted to take full advantage of this day.  The week before the trip I casually decided to check the forecast in Gulf Shores, but to my surprise I found that it called for rain every single day!  I was a nervous wreck and spent time each day checking different sites to see what the rain percentage looked like...30%, 40%, 60%.  How could this be?   I have never had a rainy trip to the beach and I sure as heck did not want to start now.  We had waited all summer for this trip and I was bound at determined that we would not let it ruin it.  Anyway, the sun was shining and there we all were enjoying the beach!  Wade and the kids built elaborate sandcastles, the boys tossed the football back and forth, but mainly we all took our turn riding in the waves (which I was horrible at).  I don't know if I was not timing it right or what but finally Hannah guided me through it by telling me when to take off.  I never went quite the full distance as everyone else but at least I traveled farther than where I started from!  It was a GREAT day!