Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

After the recent events to our house, we decided to get away for a few days and take an extra long weekend vacation to Orange Beach, Alabama. We were skeptical about leaving one hotel and going to another hotel but the change of scenery definitely made a difference. It was a very real vacation and a much needed one at that.

Jay and I decided to wake up at 3:30am and get a head start on the drive while the kids slept. Jay was so excited that he woke me up an hour earlier than planned and we hit the road! The kids did great and slept quite a bit. Here they are once they woke up in the car:

We stayed at the newly opened, beach front Hampton Inn. Our view was spectacular! The temps were perfect and many times we left our back door open listening to the waves.

We brought some kites with us (birthday gifts from Aunt Shelly) and they loved it. At one point, Jay and I just sat back and watched them. It couldn't have been any better. Look at that sky! AHHH!!!

We saw many, many jelly fish towards the end of the day. The kids loved poking them with sticks.

Daddy loves his babies! Nothing better than this.

Kelsey loved jumping the waves! So fun!

This is one of my favorite pictures. Kelsey dragging Brady on the beach in true big sister form.

I like this one, too. We soaked up every waking minute we had on the beach.

Brady spent hours (not minutes but hours) throwing sand. It was pretty funny how entertaining something so simple was to him.

Doing a little gymnastics on the beach...isn't that what everyone does at the beach?

They had to cover Mommy with sand. :)

Sand angels.

Cargile Family Fall Break 2011 :)

I love her!

She loved writing in the sand, too!

More throwing sand, lol.

Our hotel had a pretty awesome pool. Part of it was covered and then there was the hot tub. We really enjoyed spending our entire days going to the pool*beach*pool*beach. We couldn't ask for more!

I love my boy!

It wasn't long before we made friends. Jeff, Ginger and their son, Daniel, hung out with us. It was pretty fun watching our kids play together. Here is Jay and Jeff playing with the kids in the pool. Oh and Brady was notorious for finding older boys to pull him around the pool. This kid made friends with every single older boy at our hotel. It was cute. They were all so kind to Brady and loved playing "big brother" to him.

Brady with another buddy he made in the pool. :) It was so cute. They started talking super heroes and the boys found a friend for life. lol Before long they were giving him footballs to play with and keep, chasing each other on the beach and pulling him around the pool. lol

More beach time! We never got tired of this. From sun up to sun down: this was our day.

I thought this picture was sweet of Jay and Brady.

If there was a dog on the beach, my kids would find it! lol

fun, fun and more FUN!

Our favorite restaurant was Calypso Joe's! We loved it so much we went back a second time.

Our last night, we went out to dinner with our new friends to Rotolo's Pizza Restaurant. It was within walking distance to our hotel. The pizza was excellent and we enjoyed a last night out with our new buddies.

Kelsey, Daniel and Brady saying goodbyes (sad face).

We loved getting away from everything going on at home and I really think it was *just* what we all needed. We can't wait to go back one day. :) We found our new favorite time of the year to go to the beach. The weather was absolutely PERFECT. It wasn't too hot or too cold. It was warm enough with a constant breeze without the humidity. Loved it!