The Beach...Part 1

We headed out super early on Friday August 2nd to head to the beach for our 14th annual beach vacation!  We went to Orange Beach this year.  We had a BIG group!  All 5 of us and Nonnie and Poppy in our condo.  Then Nana, Papa, Trisha, Alan, Malory, Austin, Patti, Dennis, Eric, Parker, Aidan, Mandy, Kip, Macy, and Dani in 2 other condos!!  We stayed at the Phoenix West again, because we just LOVE the lazy river!

This was my crew after being on the road for several hours.

 Beau really enjoyed the iPad, and his new headphones made the rest of us enjoy it too!!

 We stopped in Memphis and met Nana and Papa for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel!  These 3 were SO happy to be together!!

 After breakfast, Austin got in the car with us for the rest of the day.  Fun!!

 We stopped in Mobile for the night.  We have always wanted to eat at the Oyster House there, and we finally got to this year!  It was SO good!!

 Bartlett...Party of 20~YIKES!!!

 I had blackened shrimp and grits and I'm still dreaming about it.  SO good!!

 Afterwards we took the kids to a huge Bass Pro store to wander around for a while.  We even ran into the Duck Dynasty crew;)

 Of course, everyone had to try out all the "riding toys".

It was a really great first day!  We really liked the length of the drive, and knowing that the next morning we were already SO close to the beach.  It was tax free weekend, so we had already planned to head to Foley and spend the day at the outlet mall before check-in time at 3:00.  Good plan!