Labor Day Weekend Getaway

John has decided that we need to leave town every chance we get -- and I would have to agree! We hope to get to the beach most of the 3-day weekends and were successful in doing so over Labor Day Weekend. We hit up Gulf Shores, Alabama for the first time, along with thousands of our nearest and dearest friends!

Gulf Shores is an interesting place...a very crowded beach town with lots of high-rise condos all along the shore. John and I often wondered if these places were truly full and in use often. It's surprising to see all the condos, hotels, etc. that are along the beach, but not that many restaurants or grocery stores that can keep up with the demand. Oh well, thankfully I brought a bunch of food from home and had a little kitchen in our condo. Speaking of our condo...quite disappointing! So small, hard to move around, a disgusting layer of dirt, dust and grime, and brown water out of rather old pipes (which thankfully cleared up after a while). Thankfully I was able to over-look all that after a while...especially when we were stuck inside most of Sunday due to the rain.

It was a nice treat to be away from our "norm." I think we all needed a break and an opportunity to just hang out as a family. It was also great to be at the beach again! The boys certainly loved it! John said it seemed that Luke forgot how much he liked the beach. The boys certainly played to their hearts' content in the sand, building castles, destroying castles, pushing around trucks, running, finding sea shells, etc. They even got into the water! By the end of the weekend Luke was standing on his own in water up to his waist while laughing as the waves came crashing in. Paden, being the little guppy that he is, wasn't content being in Daddy's arms, he'd much rather be on his own swimming -- crazy kid, doesn't he know he's too small?!

Needless to say we had a lot of fun!

Paden's first taste of a fried-pickle...

Rainy day activity -- Luke giving John a manicure!