The Gulf Shores

For our 2nd Anniversary,

Chris and I took a vacation.

We scheduled the whole week off of work, packed our bags, and hit the road for the Gulf Shores.

For this vacation we took our whole Connell family...

Our little furball, Macy!

We were a bit concerned about how she'd do with a 9 hour car ride, but we couldn't have asked for a better passenger.  I think she was just glad to be with us and that we hadn't left her at home!

and, yes, if you're wondering, that's her car seat.  Safety first, my friends!

This allows her to see out, which prevents her from running back and forth on the seat and jumping up to look out the windows.  Worth the investment to us!

The Gulf is beautiful.

Our trip couldn't have been timed any better.  The weather was in the high 70s, low 80s the whole time and there was hardly anyone on the beach.  We went in mid-May, which is prior to school being out and before peek travel time.

You can imagine we did a great deal of relaxing on this trip.



Macy loved burying her face in the sand. 

I would try and wash it off, only to have her do it again and again. 

So, sandy face it was!

See those oil rigs out there?

I was a bit surprised you could see them as well as you can, but Chris said that was pretty normal.  They're really far out - the flatness of the ocean is deceiving. 

There didn't appear to be any effects of the oil spill that I could visualize.  However, I did find little stains on the bottom of my feet after long walks.  After examining it, the stains did appear to be oil that had mixed with sand.  It wasn't bad though and it wouldn't prevent me from going again.

Family picture taken by self-timer on someone else's beach chair on one of our long walks

We all loved our long walks down the beach.  It was peaceful and quiet.

Just one thing:  I love that man.

and I really love holding his hand walking on the beach.

Chris and I looked at all the beach houses
and imagined what it would be like to have one of our own.

Macy just ran around, smelled everything, and loved the wind in her hair.

One tip for my manually shooting friends:  Increase your aperature for sunbeams (as compared to a sun blob).  The higher your aperature, the more prominent your sunbeams!

The furball.  Running in the wind. 

And in just about all of my pictures because she loves running ahead.

That picture above is the only evidence there were other people with us on the beach.

See the tent?  Those people caught a shark in the water on our first day.  A shark!  About 4 feet in length which they caught from the beach.

I was shocked.

Luckily, one of the wives assured me that the bait was at least 300 yards away.

THE BAIT?

That was the beginning and the end of my ocean swimming adventures.

I chose to be more of a land girl for the rest of the week. 

Macy agreed.  She didn't want to be mistaken for shark bait either.

Can you spot the little black dog?

I know I jokingly told you about our beach bungalow here.

It was such a good place for us to stay!  We rented from Harris Properties.  They were very efficient and helpful  The house was just liked it appeared to be in the pictures from their website.  It was clean {that's the important part to me}.  In reality, it's the same size as the blue on the on the right.

This one has this lovely porch:

Right on the beach!

We just loved it!  Overall, we were very pleased with our cute beach bungalow.

Last, but not least, the morning at the beach:

My aperature was set lower, so the sun gave off more of a warm glow rather than beams.

Beautiful the glow was...

...especially as it glistened off the water.

I'm leaving you for now with that picture of Macy and her beloved ball. 

We had left it outside overnight and she found it as soon as we went for our walk that morning.

I'll be back though with more vacation pictures very soon!

Vacations with those you love are priceless.

xoxo

PS:  Say one big prayer for my cousin, Jenny! 

She delivers her third baby tomorrow.