July Beach Vacation

 July meant it was VACATION TIME and we had been waiting an entire 12 months for this one. A whole year ago before COVID and lockdown and masks and social distancing and quarantine we booked the same gorgeous beach house that we vacationed in during the 4th of July holiday last year and we began making plans for our annual family trip...10 of us in all! We had no idea that we would be in the middle of a global pandemic by the time our plans finally came to fruition. Thanks to quarantine it had been 6 months since we'd seen our family which is by far the longest we've ever been apart. We were so happy to be reunited in our own little slice of paradise where we would spend the next week relaxing and making sweet memories together.

Matthew, Kyndall and I had the longest drive--making the trip from Dallas to Fort Morgan, Alabama all in one day. We were able to catch the fairy from Dauphin Island which saved us about an hour of drive time, plus it was a pretty cool experience!

Our home away from home for the week!

I'm not sure if this is innovative or just plain lazy, but this is the method they used to unload all of our luggage!

Kyndall and Wyatt were happy to be back in "their" room!

Dinner on the patio

After dinner the ladies headed to Publix to get groceries for the week

Crab hunting on the very first night! It's always a tradition!

Aunt Kelly isn't afraid of those creepy crabs

I only like the itty bitty ones

The next day was the 4th of July and I can't think of anything more American than a day spent with family on the beach, burgers on the grill, ice cold watermelon, obligatory coordinating red/white/blue outfits, fireworks at dusk and sparklers in the driveway before bedtime. It was the perfect way to spend one of my favorite holidays!

Poppie had just had his hip replaced two weeks prior but you would've never known! He needed a little help getting into the edge of the water and G-Daddy assisted him which made for a funny picture!

While we were floating Kyndall yelled that she had just lost a tooth! Upon further investigation I realized that it was her very last baby tooth. This was definitely a memorable way to lose her very last tooth.

G-Daddy was the grill master for our 4th of July dinner and this shirt that we gave him for Father's Day was perfect for the occasion.

After dinner we got dressed and headed down to the beach to watch the fireworks

The moonlight over the ocean was so gorgeous

Once you've watched fireworks over the ocean, you'll never want to watch them anywhere else! After most of them were over we headed back to the house to do some sparklers and small fireworks of our own because is it really the 4th of July if you don't set something on fire??

We spent the next week relaxing, enjoying family time, sleeping late, eating lots of junk food and just taking it easy. I took a ton of pictures and most of these will be out of order but I still want them all here so that we can always remember this trip!

When you gotta go...you gotta go. Even if that means off the balcony of the beach house. Boys!

Kyndall always makes friends wherever she goes and on this particular day she was excited to see a new friend who had on a matching swimsuit!

We had perfect weather all week long with the exception of one rainy morning. On that day we enjoyed a movie until the sun came back out.

On that same morning we heard the familiar sound of the ice cream truck which sent Aunt Kelly, Kyndall and Wyatt running through the rain to catch him.

Success!

This is my dream house! Each year we walk down to admire it.

Easton hated the sand and refused to put his feet down!

Aunt Kelly's hair salon

Each year while at the beach we celebrate Wyatt's birthday a little early since we have the whole family together. He requested pizza at the beach house for his special birthday dinner this year.

One of Wyatt's birthday gifts was a cool new frisbee so after dinner we took it down to the beach to try it out.

In years past we have eaten out at restaurants for dinner each night but this year with the virus and so many places being closed or at half capacity, we decided it would just be better to cook at the house. But we did get dressed and venture out one night which warranted some pictures.

For dinner we returned to one of our favorite places in Gulf Shores, The Sunliner Diner.

Always rescuing some sort of critter

Doing some shopping after dinner

This is what souvenir shopping looks like during a pandemic. What a time to be alive. 

On our last night at the beach we snapped a few informal family photos

Before we knew it the end of our vacation had arrived and it was time to make the long drive back to Texas.

We were able to catch the ferry again 

2020 has stolen a lot from us but I'm so thankful that it didn't steal this special time and these precious memories. Vacation might have looked  little different in some ways, but it was no less memorable! We have already started planning our annual beach trip for next year. Here's hoping we will not be wearing face masks or be worrying about a virus by then!