Vacation - Day 3

Finally, trying to catch up on our vacation posts, ha!

What a week! My one goal was to make some lasting memories for my kids, memories like I have of summer vacation spent in Pensacola. I truly think this goal was achieved. Our day-by-day: Day 3

Monday, July 2, 2012 was our first vacation day with David...and when the Daddy comes there will be…fishing…fishing…fishing…and more…FISHING! Austin Kieff was ready to see his daddy, but he was even more ready to go fishing. Daddy went to McDonald's for breakfast platters. I had had intended to cook breakfast, but the kids wanted McDonald's so we obliged…after all we were on vacation….Picking up breakfast allowed David the opportunity to pick up some live bait as well.

 

After breakfast Caroline and I enjoyed a little picnic in the Florida room with Maggie and Ariel while the boys gathered their fishing gear. It was to be a day of swimming and fishing fun! We started out in the Braithwaite Bayou before heading over to Big Lagoon Park later that afternoon.

Big Lagoon Park was a big hit and definitely somewhere we will visit again. We drove around to an area that had restrooms, a playground, picnic tables and of course beach! The boys fished while the girls searched for hermit crabs. There really wasn’t a whole lot of searching…hermit crabs were everywhere! We even had a little hermit crab race thanks to Grandmomma’s suggestion!

After swimming, fishing and crabbing, we cleaned up and let the kids play on the playground for a bit. By this time we were all hungry and decided to check the GPS for restaurants in the area. I read from the list and both kids agreed on the same restaurant…at the same time. So, it was an easy enough decision to pick where we were eating. What was not as easy was the wait once we got there! However, I definitely recommend a visit to Tacky Jacks if you are ever in Orange Beach.  We explored the various decks of the restaurant, watched people feed the fish and visited the gift shop.  The kids were never too restless because of the scenery.  We even enjoyed a little fireworks show!

Here are a few pictures:

She spread out her "blankets" and had her guests seated beside her.

She is not choking Maggie

 

Skittles, such fancy food and she brought out the good china

Swimming with Daddy

Discovered this...LOVE it

So much fun

This bird was thinking about biting David

Let thr race begin

The big catch

The playground was fun...but not as fun as fishing with Daddy

Our view from the upper deck of Tacky Jacks

Beautiful

Souvenir...that is now broken, but she loved it for as long as it lasted!

Vacation Day 1

What a week! My one goal was to make some lasting memories for my kids, memories like I have of summer vacation spent in Pensacola. I truly think this goal was achieved. Our day-by-day beginning with Day 1:

Saturday, June 30, 2012 we left Jack, Alabama bright and early to make it to Pensacola prior to Aunt Sue’s and Uncle Bob’s departure for the airport. The kids were hoping to see their plane take off, but with security the way it is now we thought it best not to take them to the airport if we weren’t actually flying out. So, we arrived at the Braithwaite Bayou House about an hour before Aunt Sue and Uncle Bob had to leave. We went over a few housekeeping items and then spent some time chatting prior to Aunt Sue’s best friend Renee taking them to the airport. We (read I) unloaded our bags and put everything in our bedroom for the week. Caroline and Austin Kieff wanted to go straight to the water, but I had a few errands that needed to be ran.

First on my list was a trip to Life Way. I wanted to pick up the Frazzled Female bible study. The study I am going to attend actually started the week before, so by the end of our trip I was two weeks behind, but that’s okay! However, this Mommy had a surprise; Kazoo was at a local car dealership. For those of you who do not know, Kazoo is the mascot for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos. The kids enjoyed meeting Kazoo in a less intimidating environment than game day (hundreds of fans swarming and or yelling) and even met some of the baseball team and obtained their autographs! Fun start to our vacation!!

 Note:  Caroline is still apprehensive of some mascots...make that all mascots with the exception of

Big Al!

We did knock out item one and having the memory of an elephant (so I thought since I did navigate us through Mobile, Mt. Vernon, McIntosh and Sunflower the weekend before and was feeling pretty confident) I felt like I could disregard the directions of the GPS and skip getting back on the interstate to find 9 mile road to accomplish the next item on my revised list.

Second on my list was a little shopping for strappy plastic footwear, but two very tired kiddos nipped that one in the bud. Instead, we decided to head to the Cock of the Walk for lunch. Back to that memory of an elephant…boy was I SO wrong. The kids lucked up with a trip to the airport anyway and even saw a few planes in the air. Depending on what time the actual flight left it could have even been Aunt Sue and Uncle Bob’s flight! Well, after two other almost right treks I decided enough was enough and listened to the GPS. We did find 9 mile road, but much to our disappointment, the Cock of the Walk serves supper and doesn’t start serving until 4:00! Chick-fil-a to the rescue!! Grilled chicken nuggets, an ice dream and a cursory perusal of my Bible study later…I mean two 6 counts, fries and a half hour in the play area later…we decided to run into Target prior to heading out to see our Nanny.

Me and my silly kids at Chick-fil-a

Now, remember my errand of wanting to shop for strappy plastic footwear? Well, we did shop and find strappy leather footwear for Caroline…so technically I guess I could cross that off my list, ha! We finished the day with a visit to Nanny and Papa John’s pizza…and cheese bread…and bread sticks. Nanny wasn’t feeling very good so we did not stay too long. Austin Kieff slept through supper, but enjoyed a late night snack when we arrived back at the Bayou House.