I wished I had taken more picture on Thursday! It started out kind of rainy but we finally got down to the sand around 10am. Kristen and her kiddos came and joined us for awhile. We spent most of the time at the pool- Lol! Kids?!!?? We ordered pizza and ate by the pool and let the kids play for a bit! Then they had to head back to Mobile for a birthday party. It’s so great to get to see them. I can’t believe how big their kids are getting. Seems like yesterday they were babies! Time sure does fly.
Last day on the beach
The condo we stayed in had 2 of these smaller rocker recliners, they were really nice and comfy and Stratton hung out in one of them a lot!
Friday we got up and packed up and headed out! We stopped in Summerdale (I think?) at the Alligator Alley. It was really fun. HOT as blue blazes, but fun. It was MUCH bigger than I thought! They have these long board walks through the swamp and there are hundreds of alligators out there! Some are huge!! It was a lot of walking, and I got tired. . .and hot. The kids loved it though! We also had lunch at a little place in Summerdale that was good. Then we hit the road again!
We got there in time to watch the feeding!
We saw all kinds of reptiles and turtles!
All that separates you is a chain linked fence!?
Walking in the swamp
Alligators everywhere!
Captain Crunch, the largest one at Alligator Alley
He was like dinosaur sized!
Arden biting her own toe?? Silly girl!
We finally made it to Madison, MS. about 7pm, after several stops. . . we had booked rooms for the night at a Hilton Garden Inn, and guess what was RIGHT beside the hotel?? A Bonefish Grill!? My favorite!! Must have been fate! Ha! We had a really great dinner there, Gigi and Pops really liked it and the kids were pretty good, considering they had been in the car all afternoon. This time we got adjoining hotel rooms, like we wanted (but it wasn’t easy! I had to have a little talk with the manager on the phone before we got there) Geez! Who knew it was such a big and hard request!
We had breakfast at the hotel Saturday morning, and while we were there Mom and Arden went to grab some more milk and mom got it and turned around to find an older lady giggling at Arden. Mom of course said Uh, oh, what did she do!? The lady told her Arden had grabbed a coffee stirrer out of the container, stuck it in her mouth and then stuck it back in the container!! Mom was horrified! She asked the lady if she thought she should just chunk the whole thing since there was no way to tell which one she sampled. The lady said something like, oh honey don’t worry about it. . .I guess the older you get the more laid back you get! Lol! It was funny!
After breakfast we loaded back up and hit the road again! This time we made much better timing!! The kids went to sleep and we kept on trucking! Stratton and Pops rode in his truck and us girls were in my car! We didn’t stop till Memphis, and that was only because we had to, I was running out of gas (I accidently stopped in the ghetto- what an experience) Then we pulled in at West Memphis for a late lunch.
“We Home!” She said when we pulled into the neighborhood!
We were all glad to be home and the kids and I were really glad to see Jarrod! Two weeks is WAY too long to go without seeing each other! It was such a good trip. The kids were crazy, and we about all lost our minds a couple hundred times, but we had fun and made some good memories! I just hope next time Jarrod can go with us! We really missed him!
This upcoming week is VBS, and I’m helping with the 2 and 3 year olds! Then we have Father’s Day and then the next weekend we go to Branson with the Staggs! More Fun times ahead!