Orange Beach 2014

July 19-26th, 2014

We had been looking forward to our beach trip since this time last year, so this was a long-awaited and much anticipated vacation!  Brent & I are such beach bums and we couldn't wait to turn Carter into one too.  And I think by the end of the week we did it! :)  

Brent, Carter & I left our house at midnight so we would end up making it there by around 9 or 10 AM.  Overnight car rides seem to work best for our busy toddler who can't stand to be still, and between the two of us taking turns driving it is doable.  Although, I must say, Brent drove the majority of the trip this time...probably for the best since I am trying to grow a baby here!  Carter made the transition from his crib to the truck with no problem and slept pretty much through until around 5AM when we stopped for gas.  He did kind of doze on and off after that, but he was pretty much up for the day by 6.  That is around when Brent and I switched so I could drive the rest of the way.  Brent was totally looking forward to getting a few hours of sleep at that point, but Mr. Carter was just not having that.  He kept trying to wake him up, but somehow Brent slept through it after awhile and I tried my best to keep Carter entertained while driving.  

We got into Foley around 9:30 and had some breakfast.  We couldn't check into our condo until 3PM, so we spent some time shopping at the outlet mall before we ate lunch and hit the grocery.  While we waited for the room to be ready and Brent to unload the truck, I walked Carter down to the beach where I was convinced our week would be a terrible one!  Carter wanted nothing to do with having his feet in the sand!!  As in, he cried every time I even attempted to put him down.  

See the skepticism on his face?  Then it was up to our condo we shared for the week with Brent's parents and sister and brother-in-law to unpack and get settled in.  We ordered pizza from a local place and had it delivered to our condo so we could just relax that night.  And the marbles & jokers game came along for the trip so it made an appearance that night as well!

The next morning, we got all set for a day on the beach.  It was a really pretty day besides the double red flag waves!  Thankfully, Carter got over his hatred for the sand and would at least walk across it to get down by the water.  

The next thing I knew, the people that had just set up right beside us were asking us if we had seen their 6-year-old daughter.  I had not been paying attention, so I didn't have a clue who they were even asking about.  But we still tried our best to watch for her and my father-in-law checked the pool and walked the beach.  After around 30-45 minutes, when beach patrol and the coast guard were involved, I began thinking she had to be in the water.  The waves were enough to knock me down, so I know a little girl could easily have been pulled out.  I was very emotional hearing her family next to me crying and praying out to God to keep their baby safe and I started to think that maybe I should head up to the room because I could not handle seeing them pull her from the water.  Thankfully, they found her a good ways down the beach safe and sound. She had been looking for seashells and a woman stopped her to ask her where her parents were.  She didn't know and had no idea which way she had come from, so they took off in the wrong direction looking for her family.  That put her WAY down there.  Somehow, we were able to enjoy the rest of our day, although we definitely watched Carter even closer (if that is even possible!) for the rest of the trip.

My father-in-law is not a big beach bum like us, so he was super nice and stayed up in the room with Carter after I got him cleaned up, fed him lunch and laid him down for a nap so I was able to return to the beach for a few hours.  Carter napped amazingly well after being in the sun all morning...he was usually still asleep when we returned from the beach to get ready for supper every day!

That night, we headed to Hooters for supper.  Carter was rather smitten with the waitress!! Such a boy!  Carter did so, so good there though and sat in his high chair for the entire meal.  Afterwards, we hit up a souvenir shop where Carter got spoiled by his grandparents with a huge "fishie" AKA dolphin stuffed animal.  He has slept with that thing every night since!

And, of course, when we returned we kicked back for some reading! :)  Carter did, anyways!  He LOVED this chair that was in our condo.  It was the perfect size for him and he made himself right at home with it from the very first night.

The next day was another beach/pool day for us!  It wasn't the most gorgeous day out, but we sure made the best of it.  Carter and I started by the pool while we waited for the others to bring down the chairs and other beach stuff.  Then we hit the beach all day.  Carter was really getting used to it at this point, thank goodness.

We went to Tacky Jack's for dinner that night.  There was a bit of a wait there, but Carter did awesome just playing out on the docks and on the playground.  He was not into sitting in the booster seat that night (or any of the following nights for that matter), so his Pepaw Red held him and he ate away!  He loved the fried green tomatoes!  

We had plenty of sun from the past two days, so we decided to go to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo on Tuesday.  It is a smaller zoo, but the animals are much closer to you and they can't hide as well as they can at your typical zoo.  Carter had so much fun feeding the animals.  He wasn't the least bit scared of any of them!  

We paid a little extra so Carter and I could go in with the baby kangaroos to pet and play with them.  Unfortunately, it was getting really close to nap time, so Carter was not especially thrilled with it!  He did pet them a bit, but he kept trying to run around in there and that freaked the kangaroos out, so I ended up handing him out to Brent and just hanging out with them myself for awhile longer! 

I hit the pool for a bit while Carter napped and that night, Brent's mom and dad offered to stay in with Carter so we could go out alone!!  We had a fun little date night.  We ate in peace at Toby Keith's bar, walked around the Wharf, hit up Target, and then played a round of mini golf.  

We tried for another beach day the next day, but it rained us out and instead the girls headed to the outlet mall for some more shopping.  We didn't make it back until supper time, so for supper we got Mexican to go and brought it back to the condo.  Carter was going through some serious teething or sinus/allergy mess so it was really for the best! And apparently the day passed by with zero pictures...oops!

Thankfully, the next day brought beautiful weather and we were able to enjoy the day on the beach.  Somehow I ended up with the sore throat we were passing around that day too.  It's not cool to be sickly on vacation!!  For supper, we headed out as a group to Hurricane Grill & Wings and had some yummy wings.  Carter and his Pepaw ended up sitting outside since he had an absolute tantrum when the food arrived.  

Friday was my 26th birthday and our last full day to be on the beach.  It was picture perfect!!  Carter was in love with the beach by this point and was having a blast running in and out of the waves as they crashed at his feet.  

For my birthday, my in-laws took Carter man to eat, and we were able to have a super yummy steak dinner at Diamond Jim's & Mrs. Donna's Steakhouse with my sister-and-brother-in-law.  It was an absolutely delicious meal!  I said I wanted a good steak for my birthday and I'm pretty sure I had the best of my life.  

The next day we had to check out of the condo.  But instead of leaving town that morning like the rest of the group, we stuck around and tried to do lots of stuff to get Carter man moving and worn out so we could have a peaceful drive home.  We started at the splash pad we had been noticing just down the street.  I assumed we would pay at least $5 each to get in or something, but it turned out to be out in front of a souvenir shop and it was free!  Carter loved it so much!  This is definitely something we will be doing again in the near future (closer to home, of course!).  

We ate some lunch and did some shopping afterwards and ended up leaving town around 2 or 3.  Carter was more than ready for his nap, so it worked out well because he slept until we stopped for supper and then I only had to entertain him for a few hours until he fell asleep for the night.  

It was a really good trip in all!!  I just hate how vacations always fly by so fast.  I guess it is time to start planning another! :)