If you follow me on social media, you already know our crew spent last week at the beach.  My soul was made for the beach, but any day I get to spend unlimited amounts of time with my people is a good day!  (Obviously, Jase really enjoyed our beach photo sesh!)

The weather was really nice for our trip–a few rainy mornings but it cleared up by lunchtime every day.  The water was also really calm for the gulf, except for our last day. (It got SUPER rough on the last day!)

We drove down on Saturday and traffic was horrendous.  Seriously, I’ve never seen it so bad.  What normally takes around five hours turned into NINE by the time we reached the beach.  Insane traffic.  Saturday evening, we got settled in our room, picked up groceries for the week, and had dinner at Bubba’s Seafood.  (The crab legs there were the bomb.com!)

On Sunday, Justin went deep-sea fishing with some friends on a charter through Zeke’s Marina.  The rest of us ventured on down to the beach for the day.  Justin got back around 2:00 with his share of red snapper and we spent all evening on the beach.  Jase was set up quite nicely with his tent and two fans–he loved it!  For dinner, we picked up cajun steamed shrimp, corn, crab legs, and red potatoes from Lartigues Seafood. {We always pick up food from here at least once on vacation.  And we almost always pick up more to bring home with us!}

Almost every day included snorkeling, boogie-boarding, net-fishing, and absorbing as much salt water as possible.

We all spent a good bit of time digging holes in the sand.  Don’t ask why, because I don’t have an answer.  Apparently, it’s the thing to do at the beach?!?

Some of us worked on our tans…..

…while others caught up on naps.

Several nights were spent crab hunting, and boy oh boy did we catch some crabs! HUGE ones, too!

Jase LOVED the beach, and the ocean, and the pool…..

..And napping in the lazy river 🙂  The lazy river was NOT my friend.  I was a nervous wreck–Libby got caught between a float and the side of the pool and couldn’t get her nose/mouth above the water.  Luckily, Hannah was there to rescue her within seconds but it was WAY too close for me!

After dinner one night we drove to The Track for go-cart riding.  The girls LOVED that they had these mini-carts they could drive all by themselves!

Gra-Gra and the girls built a mighty impressive sand kingdom.  And several of us took turns being buried in the sand and made into mermaids, but I missed the photo opportunities on that.

We stayed at the Phoenix West II, which I very much recommend.  Dining locations I also recommend:

• Sea ‘N’ Suds.  Other than the amazing fish sandwich, I love that this is a low-key dining place.  You can walk up from the beach in your suit and a cover-up and have lunch or dinner.  Really convenient on those days you want to stay longer on the beach.
• The Original Oyster House.  Great seafood but also has an awesome salad bar.
• Doc’s Seafood Shack.  The original is better than the new one in Foley, but be prepared to wait if you go there.
• Lamberts, because THROWED ROLLS, ya’ll.

On our last day, the waves were really big (thanks to an overnight storm) and the water was the roughest I have ever seen it.  The red flag was out, but as always, people were swimming anyways.  This happened:

They found the little girl in the room.  Her dad had to be rescued by one of the lifeguards–the water was so rough and he was out there for a solid fifteen minutes looking for her and his muscles just gave out.  It was seriously one of the scariest things I have ever been through.

Scary moment aside, we had the best trip. Our family is so close and everyone gets along really well–it makes traveling such a fun experience!

Kyndall’s favorite part of vacation was catching fish (as always).  Libby’s favorite part was, and I quote, “Spending time with the whole family in the den and the go-carts.”    I am so thankful my girls get to make these memories!