Beach Trip 2015- Day 1 & 2

Jarrod wasn’t able to join us, he didn’t have his vacation days reinstated just yet, so we went off and left him at home to work! Poor guy! Just me, Gigi and the kids!

We left on Friday afternoon and drove to Jackson, MS and stayed the night. We had to make a stop in Batesville, MS to eat supper and Gigi MADE us hit up a local bakery called the Carmel Factory that made the most AMAZING cake. I think we now have a regular stop on the way to and from the beach!

We had dinner at Cracker Barrel

Let the craziness begin!

Saturday we got up grabbed breakfast at the hotel and headed to Mobile, AL. After several stops. . . .we met Kristen, Brett and their kiddos for lunch before driving the rest of the way into Gulf Shores. It was a neat place on a marina, the weather was nice but there was a little Rain storm that blew up out of no where, we got a little wet. Of course the kids loved it.

It’s impossible to get a picture of them!

We got to our condo and got unloaded then walked down to the beach for a bit.

Arden wasn’t sure about the water!

She wasn’t a fan to say the least!

Stratton, however couldn’t have been happier!

We checked out the pool and Arden had to test the water with her clothes on!

So them things went a little crazy! I left mom and the kids at the condo to run and get some groceries and grab some dinner. FYI, don’t do grocery shopping for the week on a Saturday night. I have NEVER seen such chaos. I went to the nearest Wal-Mart, mainly because we were staying in the older part of G.S. (we usually stay in Orange Beach) so I wasn’t 100% sure where the nearest grocery store was. It was MADNESS. Like Armageddon insanity. While I was dealing with that, Mom was back at the condo with 2 really really cranky kids who were starving. By the time I got back I’m pretty sure she had contemplated jumping off the balcony. I just ran through Hardee’s and got some burgers since I didn’t want to wait for something and the Subway in Wal-Mart was of course really busy as well. We got them fed and  bathed and ready for bed. While I was getting some of our stuff put away, Arden was putting her shoes away in the closet and she opened the closet door and walked away, and then CRASH! The door fell smack in the floor! Thank goodness she had walked in the hallway already! It put a big scratch on the floor and a gash in the wall! It scared me to death! I immediately took pictures and sent what happened to the owners. She was very nice about it and had a handyman come fix it on Monday.

Sunday we got up and went to church in Gulf Shores. We had lunch at The Hangout and the kids got to play. It was warm, but not intolerably hot. They also had an animal show while we were there and they got to see that. I tired to get them to let me take their picture- but nope.

After a good long nap we went back out to the beach for a little while, and swam in the pool some too.

Loving every minute!

My happy place.

Baseball Madness

It seems like when Baseball starts things just get downright crazy! There were a couple of weeks that between regular scheduled games and make up games that Stratton played 4-5 times a week! Crazy right?? They are all getting much better by now (the end of season) but Stratton has done well all year. He’s played 3rd most nights and First a couple of times. He is a Red Sox this year, and is on a team of all 5 year olds, which would make you think they’d play a little better?? Not really!! They are keeping score this year, so it’s been a little more interesting! But I’m not sure what the tally is- I’m certain that we’ve lost more than we’ve won though! We’ve had a couple of interesting moments where things got heated! But overall it’s been a good season. His last game is on June 1st. They have a couple of make up games after that but we will be at the beach, so he’s going to just miss them!

Love this boy!

Batting!

Arden has been a little bit of a handful this year. The bathrooms are a little bit of a walk and since she is using the potty now we have to go at least once if not twice a game! One night I missed Stratton bat twice!

Kindergarten Graduate!

This past year just flew by! I can’t believe it’s time for school to be out already! We had a pretty good year. Stratton did a lot of growing up this year and learned SO much! His teacher, Mrs. Rankin was on her 26th year of teaching. She is retiring after this year so it was neat that he was in her last class. She told him they were a really special group of kids.

Stratton’s Kindergarten celebration program was on May 28th. Valley View has 12 kindergarten classes this year so they had to have 2 separate programs, 6 classes at each. Luckily Stratton’s class was in the first group which got the earlier program time! But the parking was insane! There were lots of supporters at the program!! It was a really cute program. They sang and danced to several songs, which is always entertaining with a big group of 5 and 6 year olds!

Stratton had a solo speaking part, he got to introduce their class!

He did GREAT!!

Handsome little man!

Nan and Pa and Gigi and Pops came to his program and then came over for supper and cake and he had a few gifts.

Gigi made a yummy cake!

Aunt Christina made him special cookies, too!

So I don't know what's up with my blog editor, but I've been using Live Writer on my PC and it's always been great. . . until recently. I'm not sure what's going on but it won't let me upload anything. It keeps telling me my login and password are wrong?! Not sure what that is about!!

I hope to figure out what the heck is going on and get it fixed soon!

Now that school and baseball is almost over I hope things will slow down a bit for the rest of the summer! Hopefully I will have time to stay on top of the blog thing more!!

Leadership skills

I was trying to put a positive spin on Arden’s assertive nature. I think I created a monster!

Arden’s not bossy- she’s got leadership skills

Pony Hair

Arden has started letting me fix her hair a little more! I have gotten her to wear a ponytail a few times, but she calls it pony hair! As in, “Mommy, I want pony hair!”. I will gladly oblige! It’s just hard to keep her still enough to get it all in a elastic band! And she wants to try to do it herself! Her hair is still pretty fine, but it’s thickening up. I think it’s going to be a lot like my own hair, but with a little more curl. Mrs. Cindy that cuts our hair tells me how great my hair is all the time and she really thinks Arden is going to have the same thickness and texture. Thank goodness! I wouldn’t know what to do with a really curly headed kid, especially a girl! The color is lighter than it was when she was born and continues to lighten. And for the most part it looks good and I don’t have to do much if anything to it! It sure took her awhile to get a head full of hair in, but at least it was worth the wait!

 

Side pony

Low pony

Half pony

My favorite

High pony

A girl and her dog

Last night Stratton had his first Baseball practice, so Arden and I played outside with Sadey for a while. The weather has been nicer for playing outside. We’ve had quite a bit of rain, too! So Arden thinks she needs to wear her rain boots pretty much all the time. 

Notice her boots are on the wrong feet?

The kids love to play in Sadey’s pin? Sadey has to be locked up again after we got home on Easter Sunday and she was gone! She had broken a fence board and gotten into the neighbor’s yard!

We weren’t the only ones playing outside and Sadey was barking and growling at the kids down the hill!

SADEY!! Sadey Barking!

Oh yes, she’s kissing Sadey.

I think Sadey looks confused!