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Aug 11, 2015

Getting Our Learn On and HANGING OUT!

Who cares if we were on vacation?  Part of the fun of traveling is seeing many different places and experiencing all the cool things other cities and states have to offer, right?  Well, where else could we tour a battleship?  We loaded up the kids (and my dad!) and headed to the USS Alabama in Mobile.  It was about an hour drive from our condo, and Beepa happily climbed in the back, popped on our extra pair of headphones and watched The Incredibles with the kids while we drove.

This panoramic photo shows just how massive this thing was!

Now, let's be honest.  We all know I'm no history expert.  I didn't exactly love the classes in high school, but as I get older I find myself wanting to learn more and more about things with my kiddos.  So, while I may not have understood everything I saw while touring the battleship, I definitely felt smarter when I left. :)






Beepa visited the ship's Post Office while we were there.





Aunt Meggie and Uncle Kyle also visited that day and our trips overlapped a bit.  Can you spot them in the picture below?


We also toured a submarine while there, which was SO tiny.  I can't imagine being on one of those things, under the sea, for long periods of time.  Crazy.

The trip obviously wore everyone out, because there was no Incredibles watching on the way home...  Haha!


After more swimming, we all decided to head out for another dinner together.  We headed to The Hangout, and little did we know we'd be spending the next 3.5 hours doing just that....hanging out!  It was, of course, a hot night, but we had SO much fun at this place.  The have the best setup and there was so much to do while we waited for our table to be ready.  Gavin discovered a love for foosball, and Riley got rid of her grumpy attitude when Mimi surprised her with a bubble gun.





I apparently entertained myself with taking selfies... 


Riley had a special little chat with a princess, who offered her a special wand.


 Finally, our table was ready and we headed in.  As you could probably guess, there was plenty of drinking that took place while we waited, which meant Daddy ordered a ton of food!

One of the really cool things about this place is that they encourage you to dance on your chairs from time to time, have birthday dances, and the whole place just turns into one big dance party!  Gavin was a bit unsure, but we convinced him to stand up and I think he would admit he had a little bit of fun...just a little. :) 


Riley and Briana enjoyed dancing together (after we dragged Bri out from under the table) for the birthday dance.  I mean, seriously...dancing around in public is like Riley's ultimate dinner location!


And since it's a rarity that you see this guy out on a dance floor, I had to snap some picture of the whole family out there jamming to the music.  Love them.





The DJ played some awesome music, and Kyle and I nailed a duet from Grease...Summer Lovin', baby!

I somehow only got a picture of Riley, but the kids both got a chance to jump on the bungee trampolines thanks to Mimi.  This little girl giggled the whole time!


Sorry for the horrible lighting...it was so late by this time!


Despite it being WAY past our bedtime, we got home, changed into our suits, and had a late night swim with the family.  Not the greatest photos, but I had to snap a few!



What a FUN night!  Ended up being one of my favorite parts of the whole trip.  <3 font="">

Aug 10, 2015

More from Gulf Shores!

One of the highlights of our whole week was our dolphin cruise.  I saw an ad that offered a great deal so we decided to try it out.  Just as we were heading to the van to drive there, weather alerts came across the radio, talking about threatening weather and the danger of lightning.  I called them up and they said our cruise was still on as of that moment, so we headed east and crossed our fingers.  The weather ended up clearing before we got there and the cruise started!



It was a HOT afternoon, and to be honest, it didn't start out great.  The first hour or so we saw NOTHING, which made it difficult to entertain a certain someone...who was hot, tired, hungry, bored...  Thankfully, she had Baby Ball to talk to. ;)


The captains of our little boat were kind enough to come around and take some family pictures.  I love how they turned out!


And finally....we came across some dolphins, and our amazing crew knew exactly how to get them going!  I've never seen dolphins act like this on other dolphin cruises we've taken on past vacations.  They were having so much fun, playing in the waves from our boat.












On our way home, we stopped at a little diner that was recommended to us for a delicious dinner.  I was sitting at one end of the table and couldn't help but snap a few pics of my crazy family!  We are quite the site when we all get together, aren't we?




I'm not sure if these next two pics were taken that evening or not, but they came next in my folder of pics.  Another storm rolled in and Jarrod and I sat on the rooftop deck watching the lightning while we could.  Something really peaceful about a good thunderstorm!




Still not finished....more coming soon!