Our 4th of July Vacation Week

The week before the 4th, we decided to go visit our friends Steven and Jessica in Gulf Shores. I wasn't too crazy about this at first just because of how hot it is here in Alabama and how much Bryson hated the beach the first time we went; but since we haven't seen Steven and Jessica in a while, I decided to go. We headed down on Sunday the 3rd and made great time! We were greeted by both of their dogs Blue and Butter that Bryson fell in love with. He would follow Blue around the house and give him hugs and kisses and try to ride him like horse. It was so precious.

Ironically, Robert's sister Amy and her family were also in Gulf Shores for the week so we spent our time at the beach with them. They had a tent set up at the beach so we wouldn't be in the sun all day long. We tried to get their early so that Bryson would still have his daily nap.
I was so shocked at how much he loved the beach this time compared to last time. I guess in April he just wasn't old enough to enjoy it but he had a blast this trip. He went in the ocean a few times with Amy and Robert and really seemed to like it. He also played in the sand some, but still hated walking in it. Since their beach house was on private property, there were a ton of seashells all over the place. Bryson ended up with a pretty big collection over the week.

The night of the 4th, we headed to the beach to watch the fireworks. It was one of the best fireworks shows I have ever seen. Way better than the one's in Birmingham. Bryson loved the way they looked but was scared of the loud noise they made.

Tuesday was another day spent at the beach. Surprisingly it wasn't very hot so we stayed out a little longer than I thought we would have. That night for dinner we went to go eat at The Hangout where Steven is a Chef. Our dinner was wonderful and Bryson and Coby had so much fun playing afterwards. They have a huge sand mountain and sand area for the kids to play in and a bubble machine that Bryson loved. The funniest part was when this little kid (maybe a little older than Bryson) walked up to Bryson and put his hand on his shoulder. They just stared at each for a good 5 minutes. We couldn't stop laughing. We didn't have our camera but thankfully Steven did and he was able to snap these funny pictures.

We had originally planned for Wednesday to be our last full day and to come home early Thursday, but Robert decided he wanted an extra day. Thankfully his job was totally OK with him taking Friday off and since I'm not working, I didn't have to check with anybody. It was nice to have the extra day because it was more time with Steven and Jessica, more time with Robert's family and we got to see Carl Joanna since they came down late Wednesday. We found a little ice cream shop to stop at on Wednesday night because what's a beach trip without ice cream, and Bryson loved it. He acted like a nut and Robert was able to get some great pictures.

On our way out Thursday we stopped at Souvenir City to pick up a few small things, and to let Bryson see the big shark. We thought we were making good time since we left around noon. We had planned to stop and get gas, run through a drive through and not stop until we got home. Well, our car battery died and wouldn't you know that nobody at the gas station had jumper cables! Not only that, but the gas station didn't sell them. But lucky for us, there was a small Sears store within walking distance so Robert ran and bought some jumper cables to get us jumped off. Thankfully we had rolled the windows down and Bryson was asleep so he had no idea what was going on.
We really enjoyed this trip down since Bryson was old enough to enjoy the beach this time. Hopefully we will be able to head down again one more time before it gets too cold. Here are a few more pictures of our trip.

Mother's Day and Father's Day

I'm a little behind on my posts and since we didn't do much for mother's day or father's day, I'm going to combine them into one post. For mother's day this year, we went very low key. We had dinner with Robert's family at Amy's house on Saturday night then had lunch with my family on Sunday at Cracker Barrel. We knew that the wait would be a while so we were all able to sit around outside in the rocking chairs and my parents got to spend some extra time with the boys. Robert did the same thing he did last year. I woke up to a home cooked breakfast, but no gift, but that's only because it came a few days earlier. I couldn't think of anything else that I wanted except for a new diaper bag/purse. Since we don't carry that much stuff for Bryson anymore, I'm so tired of toting around that massive backpack and just throwing my stuff in it. I found several brands of diaper bags that look more like purses. It was a toss up between a Ju Ju Be and an Oi Oi. Both look just like a purse but with extra pockets like a diaper bag. I found a great deal on an Oi Oi diaper bag from www.babysteals.com so I decided to go with that one since it was 1/2 price. Since I love the Ju Ju Be products, I added a new wallet from them called the BeThrifty. I love having my own space back again, but my next diaper bag will for sure be a Ju Ju Be. Here's a little picture of what they look like. (It's not the best picture because it was taken from Robert's ipod)

After lunch, I decided to use some of my mother's day money to go buy one of the season's of The Office. We are huge TV on DVD people and so far have the complete series of Lost, Flash Forward and all the seasons available of How I Met Your Mother, ER and several others. So we basically spent the rest of the day being lazy on the couch watching The Office. Bryson loves the theme song and every time it comes on he tries to sing along with it. It is the cutest thing ever!

Father's Day was also pretty laid back. Robert woke up to a home cooked breakfast and his gifts. I made him another calendar like I did last year with pictures of Bryson throughout his 1st year and a big DAD picture with Bryson holding each letter of the word DAD. It turned out really cute. Here's what it looked like.

For lunch, we at at Outback with Robert's family, then came home for a few hours to be lazy before going to eat dinner at my parent's house. Robert really wanted to go swimming with Bryson like he did last year, but since he had an ear infection, we decided it probably wasn't the best idea. It's so hard to believe that this was our 2nd mother's and father's day. We have been so blessed with the best child in the world!