Alabama - Part 2

After the Baby Shower, we gathered some things and headed down to the beach to do a little night crabbing.  I know this is a common pastime for beach vacations, but we never did this when I was a kid.  During our trip to the Outer Banks for Meg's wedding, Phyllis introduced the family to this fun activity.  Mimi took Gavin along and we stayed behind with a sleeping Riley, but he apparently had a blast.  This time on our beach trip, we made it a family affair.  

Mimi had fun splashing in the waves with the kiddos!

It's pretty awesome how much fun you can have when you're armed with flashlights, a few nets, and Beepa around.  He was catching the crabs and letting them sit in his hand and crawl on his arms.  Brave man!

Whew!  What a jam-packed Sunday.  On Monday, we were excited to head to the beach and get some sandcastles built!  We loaded up with our beach umbrellas, a cooler, the toys, and trekked it down to the beach closest to our condo.

Riley doesn't remember the beach from Megan's wedding, so this was kind of like her first experience.  As a parent, it's amazing to get to see the world through the eyes of a child.  I loved listening to her squeals and she and Gavin ran toward the water and sat down to build castles.  The sand was beautiful.  

The ocean, however, was a different story.  Everyone we've talked to says this was very unusual, and we honestly don't remember anything like this from the night before, but as we ventured closer to the Gulf, we realized that the waves were bringing in tons of broken shells, making it nearly impossible to walk into the water.  It was about ten feet out before the bottom smoothed out, but by then, it dropped off drastically and became too deep for the kids.  Quite disappointing.

But, trying to keep a positive attitude and a smile on my face for the kids, I gladly scooped Riley up when she asked me to and we walked over the broken shells into the waves.  She was excited to experience this for the first time, afterall.  Well, a big wave came, and being the good mom that I am, I lifted her up trying to keep her safe, but the wave knocked me down to my knees, right onto the broken shells.  Cue the scrapes, and the blood.  No bueno.

Though disappointing to us adults, it wasn't a huge deal for us because the kids prefer the pool anyway, and after just a short time at the beach, they were ready to head back to the condo to swim.  Maybe they'll love the beach more next time...

While we were swimming, the aunts went up to turn the baby shower decor into 4th birthday party decor!  A month early, but we were able to celebrate little Miss Riley's birthday with family while in Gulf Shores.  So fun!

She loved her presents!  She received a cash register, a coffee maker, and some make-your-own-headbands.  She spent the rest of the week making everyone go shopping in her grocery store and serving up coffee.  

She also received a really special gift from Mimi and Beepa.  How awesome that not only did my mom keep Briana's flower girl dress from our wedding, but that it fit her rather well considering she was a few years younger than Bri was in our wedding!  She loved it.  She saw herself in the mirror and said 'I look so pretty I could just cry at myself.' 

We finished up the night with some more vacation shenanigans....NIGHT SWIMMING!  One of my favorite things to do and something I have such great memories of as a child.

Another perk of being on vacation - NAPS!  The kids both ended up napping almost everyday, which is just unheard of these days.  But the best part was that Riley wouldn't just lay down and fall asleep most days, so she let me rock her on the rooftop deck, with the ocean breeze blowing.  Can you just imagine how heavenly that was?  My baby girl.

More pics coming...we're only up to Monday!  What a great vacation we had.