Beach, Camping, Flower, Slide Oh MY!!! (Part 2)

Addie's first time Relaxing by the Fire, while camping................she was VERY SLEEPY!So we got back from the beach late Sunday evening, had a regular week and went camping Saturday! We have had our camper since late February and haven't had a free weekend to go, until now. And this wasn't the most wonderful weekend to go either. We did have fun though. With it being a holiday weekend it would have been hard for us to find a site at the campgrounds around here so we decided to go to Graham's parent's property close to Crossville. Dottie and Bobby have camped all their lives, the gradually upgraded from a tent to a pop-up (when Graham and Sam were little) to a BIG camper, which they still own. They found this campground that you actually buy the lots and you can leave your camper there. It's very nice, they have I think 5 lots so there isn't anyone very close to them. They have build a huge roof and porch over their camper, nice stone pathways to and around the firepit and they have a boat that stays there. It really is a campers dream. It's very quiet and peaceful there, I love it! We sat up our pop-up on one of their sites and Addie was in heaven. She walked around the property, picked up sticks and played all afternoon. Since she missed her nap on the way up she was pretty whinny after dinner and we put her to bed. Shortly after that, while we were all relaxing by the fire it decided to rain. We went into Dottie and Bobby's camper and played cards until bed. It was so much fun!

Here is our First offical Pic of Camping in our camper for the FIRST time. (it's really not as small as it looks in this pic!)

Mee-Mee playing with Addie while mommie and daddy got the camper all set

The next morning we got up, had breakfast and took Addie to the little playground. She is so fearless, we put her on the top of the slide and before I could get to the bottom to catch her she slid down all by herself. When she rolled onto the ground at the bottom she started laughing and saying, "gin, gin". What a cutie! We had to leave by lunch-time Sunday because Graham needed to finish school, and I had big plans for planting flowers on Monday!

Here is FEARLESS Addie going down a big girl slide!

Monday was a good day, I planted flowers (with Addie's help) in all our flower beds. Now we have to go get some bushes, which we say we are going to do every year and haven't, for our big flower bed. I LOVE sitting on my front porch and looking at the flowers, maybe this year I will keep them alive!

Tuesday Graham had a minor surgery and had a cyst removed from his neck. It took all of an hour and was pretty neat to watch. I took my sweet but big baby of a husband home and we watched movies and napped all afternoon. It was wonderful, we haven't had a day like that since before Addie was born! That evening, before getting Addie from Dottie's, we headed out to Red Bank to pick up a little tikes slide. I have been looking for outside toys forever and finally found this slide really cheap on craigslist. I didn't want to pay full price, of around $65, for a toy that she probably could only use this summer. So when I found this for $25 in great condition, I had to get it! Addie Loves it! She climbs up and slides down over and over and over and over and over!

Thursday, my mom got Addie a castle playhouse. Addie has really racked up this week! The castle is really neat though, it has a slide and a tower that you can poke your head out of! Addie only got to play with it for few minutes last night but she loved it also!

(I don't have any pics of it right now, I will get some soon!)

Beach, Camping, Flower, Slide Oh MY!!! (Part 1)

May has been a VERY busy month for us! We started out by going to the beach for a few days with my family. This was Addie's first beach trip and she LOVED it to say the least. After a LONG car ride we arrived in Gulf Shores at about 7 on tuesday evening. After checking in, unloading all our Crap ( I pack entirely too much!), and letting Addie run off some energy in the condo we headed down to the beach to show Addie the ocean for the first time. By the time we got down there it was dark and Addie was very very tired so when Graham tried to put her down in the sand she screamed bloody murder. After a few seconds of that we took her back to the condo, I didn't want to tramatize her just yet :) That night, after a quick trip to walmart on my part and alittle school on Graham's part (did I mention he is working on his MBA online??) we sat on the balcony, had a glass of wine and relaxed! It was perfect! This is my FAV thing to do at the beach :)

The next day went alot better, after breakfast, alot of suntan lotion, and alot of packing we headed to the beach for a second time. She LOVED it! She screamed really loud when we put her down in the sand, she was very excited. She ran straight for the ocean! That was it, my baby girl was HOOKED on the beach! She played in the sand, sat at the ocean and let it splash on her (even her face!) and just hung out. She was a perfect angel.

We got there on Tuesday evening then Thursday around lunch Miranda, Ali, My mom and dad, and Cale came down. Then Friday Manny( Miranda's husband) was able to come down. It was very nice to have a few days just me, Graham and Addie. We (Graham and I) have always cherished our vacations alone, don't get me wrong we Love our families, but we like making our own memories that don't include everyone. Anyways, our days were filled with eating (on Addie and Ali's part), building sand castles, playing in the ocean (only Addie, Ali was alitte scared), swimming, and napping ofcourse! We had a blast, we haven't all been on vacation together in a long time and let me tell you it sure was alot easier having my mom and dad there to help with Addie. Kids on vacation is HARD, fun but hard.

Here are a few pics from the beach:

Preview of Addie's First Beach VACATION!

Two LONG road trips, alot of sun, some swimming, some sandcastle building (and destroying on Addie's part), the ocean on our toes, alittle biting, some WONDERFUL memory making and LOTS AND LOTS of pictures (courtesy of my WONDERFUL digital SLR camera)!

Here are a few pics until I can post tonight about our wonderful trip!