Toes in the Water, Toes in the Sand

We just returned from our annual beach trip down to the gulf coast.  I grew up going to the Alabama gulf coast from the day I was born until Katrina.  It took our family beach house at Dauphin Island and since then we have started venturing to the Florida gulf coast.



This was our third year for my family so I guess now it is our family tradition.  However this year was a little different because we went with 5 other families with 12 children between us all, and it......was......a.....BLAST!!!! 

















Lots of laughing, sand castle building, napping, kite flying, sea shell finding, corn hole playing, fishing, reading, and swimming, swimming, and more swimming.








My kids LOVE the beach although Miss Lucy wasn't too thrilled with the waves.  It didn't help that on the first day one knocked her over face first.  So, she kept her safe distance, playing in the sand and eventually warmed up to the idea of chasing waves or better yet them chasing her! 












And Landon, well, this boy has loved the beach since being a baby especially the waves!  You can rarely catch him out of the water when at the beach.  This year you could only find him body surfing which he really got the hang of this trip.  The waves were perfect for that the first few days we were there and one wave he rode about 50 feet!







And Miss Lynlee was quite the handful on the beach.  Sometimes she loved it and other times she hated it.  But every single time we were out there it wore her out!








We made our way to the beach nearly every day.  But our house also had a pool so when we were tired of the beach that was our next escape.



I don't know about you, but the beach worked up our appetites in this group. Oh my goodness, I'm not sure I have ever eaten so good and am hitting the gym extra hard now to pay for it.  Each family took a night to make dinner for the entire gang and then clean up afterwards.  It worked out perfectly and every meal was delicious.   Ash and I cooked a shrimp boil the first night we were all there and it was the perfect way to kick off a week at the beach. 



No recipe is really needed for a shrimp boil, just go buy a box of shrimp boil seasoning and follow the directions.  :)  There is a trick to get it all perfectly although I'm not sure what that trick is.  But Ash did a great job...everything was perfectly cooked and seasoned. And from there the meals just kept getting better and better. I definitely have some new meals to add to the rotation and plan on sharing those soon.  But I'm running late as usual and have to run for now.  Will be back soon with more beach pics...have a great Tuesday!