First Haircut!

Vera had her first haircut yesterday!  She was such a big girl and Mrs. Lara was SUPER sweet and did a great job!  :)

Yeaaa!  No more raggedy ends!  She has a tiny little "bob!"

MCM visit

Our latest trip to the Mississippi Children's Museum....

Ever since the museum's opening, we have been members.  So we go alot.  As long as my kiddos still think it is fun, we'll continue to do that.  So glad Jackson has something like that for them to enjoy while they are little.  Inevitably, they will outgrow it one day.
We made this last visit mainly to check out the new Literacy Garden that we have been watching them build outside at the museum.  It was neat.  They still have not completed it, but it was "complete enough" for them to open it.  Here are some pics of the literacy garden.  It was HOT outside!  Maybe we'll enjoy this part of the museum more once it's fall and COOLER!

Vera's favorite thing was that they had superhero capes for kids to wear while they were running around the garden!

Family Beach Pictures!

I have been wanting to take pictures of our family on the beach for the past several years, but it just never worked out.  We were way too busy playing or going out to eat or whatever to get all dressed up at the perfect time of day for a photo shoot.  Anyway, Josh knew how much it meant to me and so he promised me that we were going to do it this trip!  We had packed the tripod, but ended up booking a GREAT photographer at the last minute and didn't need the tripod after all!  (Her name is Susan Harvey and I'm sure she'd be glad to book a photo session for you!  ha.  just kidding!)  We had a ball taking these and even got a few with all four of us looking at the camera at the same time!  Miracle!  

So...here are a few of my favorites...  my favorite people in my favorite place!

SO SWEET!

(Wonder how many more years I can actually get them to hold hands like that???)

Typical Vera...digging for "she-shells" in the sand!

Love Grady's face in this one...

THANK YOU, Susan!  :)

Pirate Splash Pad

As our family has grown bigger over the years, we have outgrown Mom and Dad's condo.  When we are all at the beach at the same time, we now rent a second condo.  This year we waited too late and everything at Seaside was booked.  Like I said, this past weekend was a record-setting crowd for Orange Beach and Gulf Shores.  So we ended up staying at the condos next door to Seaside.  They had this new kid splash pad that had just opened like a week before we got there.  Grady and Vera thought it was the best thing ever!  They had the biggest time and I took so many pictures, I thought that the splash pad needed it's own post!   Susan and Jon brought Will over to play one day and Pete also joined in the fun too!  We ALL had a blast playing in the pirate splash zone (and cooling off too!)

July 4th & Orange Beach

We spent July 4th weekend (and a few extra days) at the beach.  Wish it could have been longer.  We all had a blast as usual.  PERFECT weather!  Last year on the 4th beach trip, it rained every day of our vacation.  This year, the weather was wonderful!

This was the first trip in a LONG time that we decided to do very little eating out.  We stopped at one of our favorite places on the way down, but other than that, we didn't go out.  It was a record-setting crowd for Orange Beach/Gulf Shores and we knew that restaurants would be PACKED, so we didn't even attempt it with three little kiddos!  We had lots more time to spend on the beach and it was so worth it!

The water was so clear!  We saw lots of fish (mostly little ones) and tried catching them with V's little net but failed.  ha.  We found TONS of "she-shells", much to Vera's delight.  Grady and I would dig and find handfuls to bring her, and she'd just keep asking us to find more!

Vera loved being in the ocean...  she thinks she is a mermaid...  I have no idea where this came from.  Probably Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  But she kept telling everyone she was a mermaid.  ha.

 Just like Memorial Day Weekend, the water was so calm.  Hardly no waves at all.  Perfect for the kids.  I will say that one day, a little girl just down from our beach set-up found a dead baby shark.  Of course Jon and Josh went over to check it out and confirmed that it was indeed a shark.  That was pretty much all it took for me to not want to get back in the water.  Where there's a baby, there's a mama somewhere.  Freaks me out!  AGH!  Needless to say, none of us went out very deep!

Look at these three sweet smiles!  They LOVE the beach and I LOVE that!!!!

 Every year since I've been a little girl, it's been the tradition to go and watch the fireworks on the 4th at the Gulf State Park, right on the beach.  We didn't go last year because Vera was still pretty little.  And Susan and Jon didn't attempt it this year due to Will's bedtime.  But the rest of us went, and it was pretty as usual...  Something about watching fireworks on the beach on July 4th always makes me tear up.  Maybe it's the patriotic music that someone inevitably is always playing while we are watching, or maybe it's because I am always reminded of my Papaw, or maybe it's just the years of memories...but every year I cry!  :)

A quick snack break....

...and then back to building the "she-shell castle"

Grady, defending the fort!

DeeDee and two peas in a pod!

We made it home last night and I am already homesick for the beach!

This morning when I woke Vera up, I asked her if she wanted to go to the movies today.  She replied matter-of-factly, "No, I wanna go to the BEACH!"

Me too, V!