Orange Beach--Day Four

We slept in this morning and when we got up, Ava decided she wanted to wear one of her new outfits we bought at the outlet mall yesterday.

We spent the morning at 

where we rode go-karts, bumper boats (Kevin is hunched over in this pic because the kid behind him kept following him around and nailing him with the squirt gun--ha ha!),

watched Ava on some rides,

and played skee ball.

Between the four of us, we earned 307 tickets which Ava redeemed for some panda bubbles and neon bracelets.

After The Track, we enjoyed ice cream at Scoops.

We came back to the condo and went down to the beach.  We haven't spent much time on the beach at all.  The jellyfish are absolutely EVERYWHERE!

I also am very anti-sun exposure and am not interested in just laying out on the beach.  Our resort had such amazing pools, slides, hot tubs, and the lazy river so we had plenty of time to relax in the water.  We worked on building some sand castles until a storm started brewing.

We got ready for dinner and went to 

We had crab cakes, parmesan baked shrimp, and cheese grits and the entire meal was delicious.  Kevin and Ava had fun while we were waiting on our table.

Mom and I had fun shopping in the stores along The Oyster House's boardwalk.  This one was my favorite--so much cute stuff!

After dinner it was pretty late so we went back to the condo and planned to do some more swimming.  By the time we got up to the door to go in, Ava was passed out.

She woke up long enough to get her pj's on and blow some of her new bubbles with her Neena on the balcony and then it was off to bed after a long, fun day!

Orange Beach--Day Three

Shopping.  Lambert's.  Swimming.   Sleep.  

Orange Beach--Day Two

This morning, we all slept in and then got ready to go exploring.  It's been years since Kevin and I were last here and my mom has never been so we needed to get acquainted with the area.  We ended up heading over to Lulu's for lunch.  We didn't have a long wait but Ava did have time to play in the sand and water before we ate.

Time for lunch!  My "cheeseburger in paradise"--if you don't know, Lulu's is owned by Jimmy Buffett's sister.  It was delicious!

They do hair wraps and braids at Lulu's and I just knew Ava would want one.  Well, she didn't.  When we told her to pick out a Lulu's shirt to buy, she said she didn't want one.  Oh, well--I guess it's saving money. :)  After lunch, we came back to the condo to swim.  Ava absolutely loves the water and she loves swimming.  Mom and I spent the majority of our time floating in the lazy river, lounging, and reading.

This afternoon, we went on a dolphin tour.  Here we are waiting for the boat to pull out of the marina.

Going out to open water to watch for dolphins.

Unfortunately, the dolphins were not being very cooperative.  We did see a few briefly and at a distance.  I was so disappointed that none were close enough for us to get a good picture.  Maybe next year.  I did take a couple of pics while we were out on the water.  We passed a barge.

Our resort at a distance.

We were out on the water for quite awhile and even though we didn't see a lot of dolphins, we enjoyed being out on the boat and seeing the sights.  Ava ended up falling asleep for about 45 minutes of the cruise.

We came back into the marina at sunset and it was beautiful.

After dinner, Ava wanted to do more swimming before bed.  So we closed down the pool  at 11.  Kevin and Ava had a good time going down one of the slides.

So another late night, an early morning, and busy day ahead of us tomorrow.  We're going to need a vacation from our vacation!

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!