Lawson Family Beach Trip 2013

Day One

The trip down. This is the first trip down without somebody else in the car with us in several years. We had Lawson last year since Lily was a newborn and they would have to stop often to let her nurse. This year Courtney's family drove halfway and spent the night in Greenville because Lily is not a "good traveler".

A little funny........as John and I were passing by the Greenville exit signs I sent Court a message and asked if she wanted us to stop by and get Lily. Dave was playing a round of golf at the RTG golf course. She sent a text and said that Lily was asleep so to just go on. Later......she told me that when she told Dave that we had offered to stop by and get Lily that he couldn't believe she passed up the opportunity.....Lily really is a unhappy traveler....Dave told Courtney that he would have put Lily on his hip, jumped the guard rail and met us on the side of the road.....the guys in our family keep me laughing!!!

We always have the "Meme Mobile" packed to the roof and beyond!!!

 

The beginning of all beach trips.....stopping to get fresh tomatoes at
Burris Farm Market

 

 

Step #2 in a beach trip. Stop at Doc's and have lunch
ROYAL REDS

 



Saturday Night Super Moon

Nooo.....the super moon I am talking about is not Lily's "nekid"
little booty!!

My SIL, Dave, used my camera to make these pictures of
the "Super Moon" for me

Our condo goes Beachfront to Roadside. This is a picture of the Roadside
 the night of the super moon

 

Family Beach Picture

 

or

how to get a family picture in 5 minutes

 

 

We always make a family beach picture the 1st whole day we are at the beach. Emma, Abby and John Brady tend to get "raccoon eyes" from wearing goggles, sunglasses and sunscreen, so we try to make our picture early in the trip so they don't have to worry about it! We learned this years ago.....we had some beautiful pictures....I mean I loved the pics but the white circles around their eyes...shined!

So, we get dressed, make a picture and then go out to eat.

This day it had started raining sporadically and we weren't sure what to think except that everybody wanted to go ahead and make the picture. Pops looked at the weather map and saw a 30 minute break  so we decided to hit it. We wanted to make our picture on the rocks close to the bridge crossing over to Perdido. We got there and pulled into the parking lot and the sidewalk that we thought would take us to the rocks was closed off because of some construction. It had poured rain as we were driving there and it had stopped so we seriously needed a place to make the picture....quickly. We turned around in the parking lot and crossed over into another parking lot where the construction was and then we saw it.......a fence overlooking the ocean. We all agreed it would be a new and different background.

We ran out to the fence, got ready and took about 8 snaps before it started raining. You should see the funny ones.....the camera still snapping as we all took off running.

Pops and Brady thought it was great.....making a picture in under 5 minutes!!!!

We try to come up with something different every year so that you can glance at the picture and tell what year it was.
Kim had the idea to use these summer colors and I think it looks great!

 



Our Anniversary

 

I love the

Original Oyster House

 

We are usually on our family beach trip on our anniversary. We have just started celebrating in July after the beach trip but we always mention it and since we were going out to eat that night I said I was picking the restaurant.

 

There are sooo many new and great restaurants in Gulf Shores/Orange Beach/ Perdido but I just love something about the food and the memories of The Original Oyster House.

 

We had a long wait but we enjoyed the company.
I got my "butter pecan Mahi Mahi".
I guess everybody thought we were a really colorful family!!!



Day #2

 

Electronics Central. Everybody eating breakfast and charging their iPads

Josh and Meredith prepping to make Meredith's wonderful
chicken salad for our lunch

The kids loved the waves. We lucked up.....we had waves but nothing dangerous

John and Dave
kid watching

Turquoise Place
I could live here.....easy



Uncle Dave's Pizza Night

 

 

We stay at the beach for 7 days. Of those seven days we eat out the first full day and, if you want , the last night but.....there are plenty of leftovers if you want to sit on the balcony!

 

John and I cook one night and then each family takes a night to cook.

 

The kids look forward to Uncle Dave's Pizza Night. they help him make pizzas and us grownups get to eat them!!!!

 



My boys can cook

 

The men in our family are GOOD cooks. now, all us women can cook but just to be honest...the men should have their own show.

somehow I didn't get picture of Brady & Kim or Josh and Meredith cooking. Hopefully the girls have pictures!

John made fish tacos and Dave made his pizza

 

Brady and Kim cooked us a good old fashioned country meal. You know you need that after several days of seafood. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, and slaw!

 

Josh and Meredith made West Indies Salad, grilled fish with a greek tomato salsa topping, boiled new potatoes and corn.

 

UMMMMMMM!!!!!

Sleepy Kids

Tuesday

Lily did not like the sand or the ocean. this is a new one for us. we have never had a child or Grandchild
that didn't love the sand and ocean. Soooo.....Miss Lily sat in every available lap on this trip. Luckily....
we had lots of laps!



Pop Cooks

John cooked fish and shrimp tacos with marinated slaw and hollandaise sauce and regular tacos (for the little ones). Brady fried oysters......he is the best oyster fryer.....ever. And, we had French fries for the kiddos.

kiddos today are all about some electronics!!!

a late night swim in the lazy river

Early morning on the deck

 



Ice Cream Night

 

We accidentally started an ice cream tradition....uniquely our own! We always made homemade ice cream on one night of our beach week. Last year or the year before....it may have been the year that Grandmother died and we went down late......we did not bring the ice cream maker. So, I told the kids we would go to the store and buy whatever kind of ice cream they wanted. We asked the grown ups what kind they wanted and me and the girls took out to buy the ice cream. I let the girls each pick a gallon and we got a couple of more that the adults wanted. Obviously, the kids thought this was soooo great. They ask when we are going to get the ice cream and do not ask for the homemade!

 

The boys told us they wanted to go this year, also. So we asked what the adults wanted and I took off with 4 of the 5 grand kids. Each child picked their gallon and then we got a few more. Not sure why they get such a kick out of this but.....it makes my day!

 

Love to see those kids happy!

 

Sometimes kids can have the best fun with the simplest things. Trying to see
 how much they all weigh together....at Publix



On the beach

Dave put up a tent for Lily and luckily Meredith had this rug
that Lily played on

Brady and Kim were down next to the water.