Gulf Shores Vacation - Part 1

Early Thursday morning, we headed towards Gulf Shores, Alabama. Brian and I had wanted to take Mallory to the beach this year and we were excited when our favorite Estes family wanted to go too! It was a pretty quick trip since I only have so many vacation days so we hooked it onto a long holiday weekend and it worked out great! We rented a car to drive down and we were pretty much packed in tight with all of our stuff but we made it work!

But just 20 mins down the road, we made our first stop at Buc-ee's and Caleb grabbed three big bags of sunflower seeds to hold him over on the trip.

Being in the car for a long time makes you do crazy things

These two were close in the back seat but still had their smiles.

We were going to stop at each state line to get a picture but we were all sleeping when we entered Mississippi and we were all ready to get to our condo when we got to Alabama so we just got a picture in Lousiana.

There was a lot of coloring

And us all singing and watching Frozen.

Mallory did good on the trip but the last hour she was over being in the car. We survived and finally  made it to our condo Thursday evening.

The view of the ocean from our balcony. We stayed at the Legacy condos and it was nice! We loved our room and our view was great - as you can tell!

We put our stuff in our rooms and headed down to the beach. I was so excited to see Mallory's reaction the first time at the beach. She was so happy to see it and it was so fun to see it through her eyes.

Here we are walking on the beach for the first time on the trip

I probably took 1000 pictures of the beach but I love looking at them so enjoy

Mallory looking at the ocean. She just stood there and stared at it for a while. She was in awe and I think this picture just shows off God's creation - her and the ocean.

She couldn't wait to put her feet in the ocean and then the water knocked her over :)

So happy to be here together

The pink sky during the sunset just made it even more beautiful

Little feet in the sand

After walking around, we headed back up to our condo. This is our condo and we were on the 5th floor. We had our own pool and our own access to the beach. Very nice!

Friday morning, we woke up ready for some fun in the sun.

Mallory asked as soon as she woke up if she could get in her swimsuit! We lathered suncreen on us all so we wouldn't all burn and then headed to the beach. 

So many people said how much they loved Mallory's swimsuit. I loved it too! I got it from Target - link here.

Mallory had all of her buckets and items to play in the sand so she was set.

We are not sand castle masters but we had fun playing in the sand together

Mallory was hesitant at first about going all the way in the water but once she got out there, she didn't want to leave

She sat on the boogie board and rode the waves and enjoyed just being Brian, Uncie, Caleb and Cade. 

There were a good amount of people at the beach but it was not crowded at all. The public beach was a couple of miles away so it was just anyone staying in the condos where we were and it was great. Here is a video of our surroundings on Friday.

Relaxing

There was a man working very hard on a castle all day and this was it looked like when he was finished. Not too shabby and a little better than ours - ha!

After spending most of the day at the beach, Mallory really wanted to go to the pool so she jumped and jumped until her heart's content. 

Uncie, Cade and Brian went to pick up dinner so these two rested after being in the sun.

We did head back down just for an evening walk on the beach and because you know I'm a sucker for a beach sunset picture. Especially with my sweet girl in it.

I know all the boys love the sausage balls I make so I promised to make some while we were there. 

Since everything was packed on Friday night, they boys just picked up pizza and here they are each with their pizza. :)

Mallory and I rested on the couch after dinner and not too long after we laid down, she was out. 

More pics to come!