Right after I left the beach {on Sunday}, I packed my bags and hit the road again for work. I drove WAY too many miles in the month of June. I worked out of town for three days and somehow managed to get my entire forty hours in before arriving home on Wednesday night. As much as I hated to leave Josh at home {again} for a few more days, he encouraged me to drive back down on Thursday morning to surprise the girls. This place was a sight for sore eyes!
I was on the road shortly after 5 o’clock and pulling into their campsite by 9:30. The girls had no idea I was coming and they were so excited to see me! It was dreary and raining, but I had already decided that even 3 more days in the trailer with a good book was worth the drive.
Sophie could not wait to tell me all about Bible School. There is a pavilion in the campground {think camp store, laundromat, ice cream and picnic tables} and every summer youth groups from around the country hold Bible study for kids staying in the campground. It just so happened that this group of kids was from a town near our own and we actually knew one of the girls who was helping out. She made fast friends with Sophie, who had a FABULOUS time making crafts and learning a few new Bible stories.
See how happy she looks?
After a lazy afternoon, we decided that maybe another trip to Scoops was in order. Remember, I told you we had ice cream for dinner more than once?! Hudson is allergic to peanuts, so we had to be careful about what he could have. Fortunately, orange push pops were nut-free and he loved every bite.
Ella is always thrilled that we are “ice cream twins” and I finally convinced Sophie that the cup was the way to go! She doesn’t like to eat the cone, but its novelty is not lost on her. After a messy encounter earlier in the week, I was glad to see she was cool with the bowl!
Friday was spent just like this. Lazy girls catching rays around the swimming pool. This was the only photograph I took the entire day! I binge-read The Husband’s Secret, ran to Books-A-Million to restock my book basket, grabbed take out for dinner and stayed up late with my nose between the pages.
<pstyle=”text-align: justify;”>And then there was Saturday. We knew it was our last day, but we tried not to think about it too much. We packed lunch and all of our umbrellas and decided to spend as much time at the beach as we could before bedtime. Sophie didn’t last long after we got there and eventually wound up on her towel in the shade. We never stopped talking or laughing and she just slept right through it all!
Then there was Ella. She was on her own, with Sophie asleep, and I worried she would get bored and be ready to leave before I was. She got really quiet once and when I turned around to look for her, she was doing some beach yoga with her eyes closed. I tried to grab a picture of that, but she fussed at me. Eventually she loosened up a bit and decided to put on a show for me {and our immediate neighbors}. She spent the next hour running, twirling, leaping and doing some seriously uncomfortable looking splits right in front of us in the sand. That was one of my favorite hours of the week!
Within an hour of leaving this beautiful place, we were showered and crammed into our car headed north. The rest of our family broke camp and came home the next day, but I decided since I didn’t have a campsite to tear apart it was better to get the girls home in their own bed and have a day of rest before we all went back to the real world!
Those two weeks were some of the sweetest I can remember. Being in my happy place with my tribe, doing all of the things we love best. I know I won’t always be able to spare that many vacation days at once, so I tried my hardest to soak it all up and appreciate every moment, even the ones where the air conditioner stopped working, or the bike tires needed inflating or the kids were in disagreeable moods. Even though next summer is a long stretch away, we’re already making plans and talking about what restaurants we’ll try next and if we can convince Ella to abandon her anxiety in favor of parasails and zip lines. Thank you for a beautiful time, Gulf Shores.
