Orange Beach-Day One

We left this morning for a trip down to Orange Beach in Alabama.  We invited my mom to come along with us.  My dad started a new job about a month ago and couldn't take time off so we left him at home to be a bachelor for the next five days.  :)  Ava has been so excited about this trip.  It is her first trip to the beach and she has been asking to pack her suitcase for about a month now.  Mom came over early this morning and we got loaded up in the truck to go.  I laughed as I looked at our luggage filling the back because it looked like mom and I were having a contest to see who could bring the most Vera Bradley patterns.

Mom and Ava are all settled in the backseat and ready to go.

Ava and mom had a great time hanging out on the way down there.  They watched Despicable Me and Tangled and danced to the songs on the radio.  We stopped at Chik-fil-a for lunch and to stretch and then got back on the road again.  Ava did really well--it wasn't until we were about 3 hours into the trip that she asked when we going to get there.  Fortunately right after that she fell asleep for about an hour or so.

She only asked one more time before we got here so she did an awesome job and was a great traveler.  I think it really helped that she had her Neena back there to visit with her.  Finally, we are here!

Our condo is amazing!  We have a large balcony with views of both the bay and the ocean.

The condo itself is fairly large for condo standards--about 1500 square feet and very nice.  Looking from the entry way into the condo.

Living Room

 Kitchen

 Master Bedroom

 Master Bath

Mom and Ava's Bedroom

Out to the balcony from our bedroom

 We explored around the building for a while and found a huge, multi-level pool with 3 water slides, hot tubs, fitness room, sauna, arcade, deli, another huge pool, and a lazy river.  We decided to drive around and look for somewhere to eat.  We ended up over by the marina and ate at Tacky Jack's Tavern which is on the water.  While we were waiting on our table, Kevin and Ava went down to the dock to look at the water.  Ava got sand in her shoe and took it off.  Kevin asked her to give it to him before she dropped it and she handed it right over.  Kevin promptly dropped it into the marina.  We saw him walking toward us carrying Ava who was now wearing just one silver sandal.  Ava was not too happy because this is a pair of shoes that she likes to wear often.  Kevin ended up finding a man that had a pool skimmer and fishing her shoe out of the water.  After dinner, we came back to the condos and Kevin and Ava got ready to go swimming.  Mom and I went to watch them swim and plan out the rest of our trip.  We closed down the pool at 11 and Ava and mom have spent the rest of the night coloring.  It is 12:30 am and Ava just passed out.  That little girl is like the Energizer bunny!  We have a lot planned for tomorrow so I guess I should get to sleep too!