McGuire Family Blog: Summer Vacation - Gulf Shores 2015 Part 1

I didn't really post this summer (mostly to laziness) but I want to have this post to remember the trip. So here goes!

This summer we returned to Gulf Shores. (Technically, we stayed in Fort Morgan, about 20 minutes outside of Gulf Shores.) Here is last year's post. We did not stay in the same house. We ended up 7 houses down the beach from last summer. This one better fit everyone. For the start of the trip, Louise and Kevin (The Original) stayed with us. They left halfway through, and then Downtown Grandma and Rachel joined later the same evening.

We stopped in Memphis on Friday night, to have a shorter drive on Saturday. I think Kevin and Louise were surprised by the amount of traffic there is going to to Gulf Shores. It is crazy. Once you enter Alabama, the road goes down to one lane, and it is pretty much stop and go until you get off the highway. It is daunting. But this year I bought a game to keep track of license plates that we see, so we had something to do along the way. Also, the kids got to choose which car to ride in at stops, and I think having that change was good for them as well.

I will do what I did last year, and tell the trip through captions.

To deal with down time, I had the kids pack toys. Here the boys are playing as we unpack in the kid room. The place was wonderful! There were 2 bedrooms upstairs, each with their own bathrooms and showers. Downstairs there was a third bedroom with its own bath, and a half-bath off the kitchen.

Playing with Pappy

The view from our dining area. We had 1/2 of the condo, and another family had the other side.

This was taken during Gwyn's nap the first day there. All the guys were in the water playing, and I was watching HGTV in the bedroom.

Many games were played! This was the first round of Wizard.

I am pretty sure he is a super hero. Apparently, one that wants to hold shovels.

Our first visit to The Track. Gwyn and Grandma rode together! It may not look like it, but Gwyn is having so much fun...

...but possibly not as much as I am.

I love this picture.

They look so serious when they drive. Colin was able to drive the bigger go-carts on his own this year! He was tall enough.

Gwyn was also tall enough to drive the small go-carts on her own! She told me "it was fun and difficult."

Watching Gwyn drive.

She also had a serious face while she drove.

This was after the boat ride, where we squirt each other with water. The kids loved it. I was wetter than I anticipated.

How can you not love this face?

Relaxing on the beach. Like last year, it is a private beach. But this house was about 5 houses from the "beach access" which people use as a public beach. So this year it really was only the people in the houses around us. And with the exception of the family sharing this house, and two days with neighbors, we were the only ones on the beach for hundreds of feet. It was quiet and relaxing. Twice we saw dolphins swimming, too!

Another summer of collecting clams. For some reason, it was much more difficult. We really didn't find much.

A game of bags on the beach.

A game of Beat the Parents. (The number was uneven, so daddy switched teams to help read the cards.) The kids won, but barely! ;) By Tuesday the kids were getting red, and I wanted a break for them from the afternoon sun. So Pappy took the boys to see Ant Man, and I took Gwyn to see Minions.

This face. Funny story to tell - Colin would spend most of the time talking to anyone. At one point the family from the house next to us were looking for fish and creatures in the water. They wandered over to us. Colin had been looking for fish earlier, so he offered his net, and told them the best places to look. Then he talked to this teenage couple for about 30 minutes. When the couple left, they asked Kevin "Is this your kid? He is pretty cute."