Sunday, September 29, 2013

Sunday


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"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace."

~Romans 8:5-6

Saturday, September 28, 2013

The Outings

We packed way more into this vacation than we did the last....not having a brand new baby made that a little easier. On the way to Gulf Shores we stopped at the USS Alabama in Mobile.

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And, we explored the submarine docked next to it. The kids would have spent their whole day on the submarine if we had had the time. Everything was pretty much kid sized inside, and they were totally enthralled.

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Can you spot what's off about this picture?

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My dad went to trim his beard the morning we were leaving, but he forgot to put the guard on. He ended up accidentally shaving it off....for the first time in my entire existence. I wasn't the only one thrown off by his beardless face. It took Lillian most of the day to get used to his new look.

While we were in Gulf Shores we headed for Fort Morgan.
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The kids were pretty smitten with it.

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They were also intent on scaring the pants off of me.

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Here they are coming down. It apparently took both Stephan and my dad to keep Sophia from attempting the descent all by herself. And, there's Levi shouting down to me, "It's O-K, Mom! I'm fine. I can do it ALL BY MYSELF!!!" I closed my eyes shortly after taking this picture.

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Afterlight

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The apples apparently don't fall far from the tree around here.

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On one particularly gray day we headed for Foley, Alabama. It's not far from Gulf Shores, and they have a miniature train exhibit as well as a couple of other small museums.

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Needless to say, the kids were riveted.

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We saved the zoo for last. The Gulf Coast Zoo is small, but so very charming and well kept up. It was actually the perfect size for young children.

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During the summer months they have Animal Encounter exhibits, so we got to pet some baby kangaroos! They were so cute and soft.

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 That pretty much wraps up the vacation pics. Now if only I could wrap up the laundry it produced!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

At The Cottage

We stayed in the cottages at Gulf State Park...the same ones as last year. They are new and nice and on a lake, so it's like having two vacations in one. The cottages have lots of space for playing outside, and the kiddos were more than happy to take advantage of that.

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Levi made up his own game called "Bingo Golf".

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You line up your sticks, pick up your "golf club", and yell "Bingo!" every time you hit a stick.

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And, then you start over....of course.

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Stephan and my dad took the big kids fishing at the pier a couple of times.

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They both enjoyed it and came back with the kind of fishing stories where the fish grows in size with each telling.

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It turns out that Levi loves to fish, but not for the reason you might think. The actual act of fishing pales in comparison to . . . care to take a guess?

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Fish inspection.
The boy seriously loves to just look at the fish...in a very hands on sort of way.

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While they were fishing they met "Sam", the pier pelican. They even got to pet him.

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I'm pretty sure that Sam was Sophia's favorite part.

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On one afternoon, we hit up the docks for some fresh shrimp and crabs.

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Then our chef cooked up some pretty fabulous dishes. I am one spoiled lady. Stephan is excellent in the kitchen.

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If it was just us grown ups we'd likely opt for just shrimp and maybe some oysters.

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But, Levi insists on crabs. After everyone was long finished with supper, he was still sitting at the table investigating every last crevice of the final remaining uncracked crab. Can you tell he likes science?

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Just to prove that I was indeed on this vacation...

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More pictures to come tomorrow. Ha! You didn't think this was it did you? ;)

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Beach Bums

A week ago we headed for Gulf Shores (again) with my parents and discovered the joy of going to the same vacation spot twice. With kids in tow familiarity can be such a nice thing.
The weather was a little iffy the whole time we were there. Thankfully, there were no torrential downpours, but the water was too rough to really play in. That certainly didn't stop us from having fun, though!

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The kids were mostly content to spend their beach time digging and drawing and rolling in the sand.

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Are these not the cutest beach babes ever?!...

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We did let them get in the water with us for brief moments. Somehow I only managed to get pictures of Sophia taking a dip, but Levi and Lillian had their turns too.

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Sophia actually slipped out of Stephan's arms at one point and went totally under the water.
Scared. Me. To. Death.
These pics are of her grinning right after that. Sheesh. This girl and her fearlessness. You know what she said when she got back to shore? "I wuv diving!" Really?!!!

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I was looking at pictures from last year, and oh. my. goodness. My babies! They've grown so much.

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Anyway, enough of the reminiscing. My mascara might start running.
There are, of course, loads more pictures. I'll post some tomorrow....hopefully. Since the water wasn't ideal on this trip we found plenty of other stuff to do....like fish, and pet a pelican and some kangaroos, and hit the docks for fresh shrimp and crabs. We had just as much fun off the beach as on.