5 J's and Lulu: Our Big Beach Vacation

We officially drove out of the driveway and said goodbye to our house at 11:03pm on Friday, July 31st. Jonah was already asleep and successfully transferred to his car seat from our bed. Journey Kay was awake with us helping her Dad pack the Yukon. He is the best packer. You couldn't fit a slice of paper between those cracks. I was driving first so I pulled outta there and we were in Gulf Shores, AL by noon on August 1st.

Activity packs I made for them for the trip. Worked great!

We've Arrived! It was a 2 bedroom duplex and my parents and Josh were arriving later that night so we got a blow up mattress for the kids to sleep on in our room for a few days. They LOVED it!

Pretty Dakota Jane has made this trip with us 4 times now. She's an old pro and loves it here.

Had so much fun with mom, dad and Josh while they were with us.

Me and mom took a bike ride down to Fort Morgan

This was our home away from home. We had our house about 300 meters away and then this was our house when we were on the beach.
So glad we got this tent. We wouldn't have been able to stay on the beach near as long without this. It was HOT and the sunshine was plentiful.

My favorite spot was right here in this chair letting the waves crash over me. I could've stayed for days.

My beach babies!

Pirate's Island Miniature Golf

Funny story..we got to Pirates Island (a 30 min drive from our house) and went to get the kids out of the car and realized Jonah wasn't wearing shoes. We had to run to the nearest grocery store and got the only shoes I could find. Water shoes..but they worked fine!

The kids did really well and loved it. We were all dripping sweat the moment we stepped out of the car till we got back in. The babies were too. They don't usually sweat so I knew they were hot. We drank lots of water and all 8 of us played 18 holes of mini golf in about 45 minutes.

Finished! And so hot

Our view from the porch. We just had to walk down that road and we were on the beach.

Night walks...one of the favorite things we did. On days that the kids would nap and could keep their eyes open past 7pm we went on night walks on the beach. We all had flashlights, drinks (water for kids, cocktails for me and Justin) and we would walk the beach and look for sand crabs. We founds tons and really it was just fun walking up and down chasing them. They are fast!

The Little Zoo That Could

This was super fun and the only thing Jonah said we HAD to do. He was so excited and wanted to go the day we got there. We held him off a whole week and finally took him to his happy place.

We held lemurs!!! One especially, named Moby. I swear this was probably the highlight of the trip for me. I had no idea how much I would love this. She held my hand the entire time. They were like tiny human baby hands. It totally rocked my world. We got to spend about 10 minutes with her and big props to Jonah because he brought these colorful binoculars which kept Moby entertained while we held her and gawked over all her awesomeness. She stayed right by Jonah and held my hand. She never left our side, even with the other people in there with us.

Where's Jonah and Journey?

Matching monogrammed swimsuits!

I would tell her to smile and she would do this.

Always the opposite. Always difficult. Always gorgeous.

My handsome fella looking for shells..

We caught 12 jellyfish during one beach day. We were keeping them out of our swimming area and away from the kids. Happy to report no jelly fish stings!

My future home... :) We called this the princess house and couldn't believe no one was staying there. It was vacant the entire time we were there. We were old hacks by the time we left. We had 4 different neighbors.

The Track

Jonah drove the bumper boats and go karts all by himself!!! How big does he think he is??

Flipper's Dolphin Cruise

I got some great video of the dolphins but couldn't get a picture. They are so fast! They jumped and played right beside us. It was really cool and the kids loved it.

The kids were playing Paw Patrol and got hurt on a mission. Each had broken arms so I had to cast them. They're healing fine!

The Sand Castle

We worked hard on this.. hardest part was keeping the kids interested long enough to not destroy it. It's all they wanted to do once we got the foundation ready so after we got the picture they took turns stepping all over it.

These sweet babies had a blast. We were there for 13 days and by day 10 I was ready to go home. The last 3 days were fun though and spent mostly on the beach or relaxing at home. The kids would just pass out whenever they stopped moving and would go to sleep every night watching Home.