First Day of School!

Yesterday was Ava's first day of second grade!  

She was sad that summer ended but about a week ago she told me she was getting excited and ready to see her friends.  We had play dates with friends from school over the summer and she's playing soccer with five girls in her class so I think she just feels at home now :-)  She woke up ready for the big day!

She put her backpack and lunchbox in her locker, (yes, her LOCKER!) chatted with her teacher and waved goodbye as she sat down at her desk.  She is so excited about the locker.  We ordered fun accessories to decorate with next week.  Here's a pic from meet the teacher on Thursday night...

She said it was a great day but I didn't get many more details than who she played with on the playground and sat with at lunch.  She did say she really likes her teacher!

And today was Keegan's first day of his last year of preschool!  

He's been ready to go back for about a month so he was all smiles this morning :-) 

(All summer long Keegan has told us that he will be a lifeguard when he grows up...just like the ones at our pool.  Ha!)Presley is in his class this year and he's so excited! 

He walked put his backpack and lunchbox in his cubby and walked in with confidence.  He said it was a good day, he ate all of his lunch and got to play on the playground twice ;-)

Here's a pic from his meet the teacher on Friday night....

I'm so thankful these kiddos are so excited for their new school year!

Gulf Shores/Destin 2015

We packed up the night of Ava's birthday and left at 6am the next morning for Orange Beach.  We vacationed in Destin a couple of years ago and decided to give the Alabama coast a try this year.  The drive was exactly 11 hours with one stop in West Monroe and another quick stop in Hattisburg.  We arrived at our condo at 5pm and quickly changed to head down to the beach!

The sand was beautiful white powder that Keegan at first thought was snow.  Unfortunately we were greeted by hundreds of jellyfish that were washing up with the tide.  We certainly weren't expecting that!  Purple flags flew all week warning of the massive amounts of jellyfish. 

We walked the beach for shells, watched the sunset, then headed to buy groceries for the week.  Everyone we talked to that night said there were very few jellyfish in the mornings before noon so we gave Orange Beach another try after breakfast the next day.

Keegan was much more fearless than Ava as you can see!  There weren't as many jellyfish but we still saw quite a few and it was so stressful worrying about the kids getting stung (which inevitably Keegan did.)  We left around noon and had lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool!

After dinner we decided to walk the beach and watch the sunset.  Ava made a friend and they caught so many jellyfish!

We decided after they caught at least 30 that we would be making the drive to Destin the next day.  We drove to Henderson State Park Beach and had the best day!  The water was tropical blue.  The crowd was light and there were no jellyfish :-)  I had forgotten how beautiful Destin is!

The kids were so excited to be able to play in the water!

The drive to Destin from our condo was an hour and forty-five minutes but so worth it!  We decided we would drive it every other day and find fun things to do in Orange Beach on the other days.  It worked out nicely given the circumstances.  Our days in Destin were so fun.  We would stay all day and eat dinner there before heading back.

We took the kids to Adventure Island to play arcade games and putt-putt.  They were surprisinly really good at putt-putt!  This was our first time to play with them and we had the best time!  I was expecting to make it through all 18 holes but they loved it :-)

We loved going down to the beach at sunset and staying to walk for sand crabs.  

Our condo at night

Ice Cream Sandwiches on the patio

Monopoly on the patio

Lunch Break :-)

My silly crew is obsessed with bunny ears lately

Cheesy but Sweet ;-)

Crabcakes and play at the Crab Trap!

Another fun family vacation in the books!