Getting to the Gulf

I'm a terrible wife. I must admit, there are times that I nag my husband. One of the things that bothers me the most about football season is the lack of a fall break. Everyone else in the county seems to head off to an exotic local over fall break, but not the Allens! NO, we stay home so that the football team can practice! THIS year, however, we actually took fall break. Brent was able to reschedule the game over fall break which actually fell on the other team's fall break too. I was SO excited, especially since we weren't able to take a vacation this summer due to Bennett's birth. So, on October 2nd, we packed a very full car and headed south.

I have always wanted to stop at Mayfield Dairy on our way down 75. You'd think with all the many trips we made back and forth to Georgia that we could have found the time, but they're closed on Sundays, our most frequently travelled day. This time, we made it all the way to the middle of Tennessee before Bennett woke up for the first time. We figured it was a good time for lunch and some ice cream! We had a nice picnic on the beautiful grounds and then walked up to visit this cow. She was very understanding of my children's' need to climb!

Maura loved the rocking chairs on the porch. Am I the only one who remembers Edith Ann from Sesame Street? She reminded me of that skit!

We all chowed down on some seriously delicious ice cream and I even got to "help" Tristan keep his cone from dripping. It's a hard job, but someones gotta do it!

We actually spent the night in Columbus Georgia, our old stomping grounds and attended church at Chatahochee Valley, our Georgia church family. They had a wonderful potluck that day and we had such an awesome time catching up with our loved ones. I could kick myself for not taking any photos, but we were just having too much fun visiting. We spent a good portion of the afternoon there, then piled into the car to visit my sister at college on our way through. We loved meeting her dog, Toby. We loved visiting with Aunt Emily! We hadn't seen her since the first of August, so it was great to visit with her and visit her little home. The kids sure do love their Aunt Emmy!

Aunt Emily fixed up a little picnic snack for the kids and snuck in some Bennett cuddle time before we had to leave. It was nice to see the campus and Emily's home and to see that she's made a home away from home for herself.

That evening, we finally made it to the Gulf!! We chose to stay at Gulf Shores, Alabama. With the recent oil crisis, tourism is really down in the area and we got a great rate on a two bedroom condo. Unfortunately for us, though, that two bedroom condo hadn't been cleaned before we got there, so we were temporarily homeless until the owner of the condo agreed to book us another condo for the night. Long story short, we had somewhere to lay our heads and we were at the beach, so all was well. We woke up bright and early the next morning and headed out to the very cool beach. The kids could not have been more delighted if the weather was a balmy 85 degrees. They just loved the sand, the seashells and the water. I am SO, so glad that they had a chance to experience the beach. They loved it so much.

Even Bennett got bundled up and enjoyed a beach stroll. He still loves his Moby wrap and just enjoyed watching the big kids and strolling with his mommy.

Below: Maura and Tristan loved playing with Daddy in the sand and the surf. Maura had an unfortunate run in with a super sized wave and got a bit damp on this chilly breezy morning, but that was the only mishap that we had.

This is the condo where we spent our homeless night. It had bunk beds for the kids in the hallway. Maura slept on the top, which worried me a lot, so we took all the pillows off the couch and laid them on the floor covering the hallway. I don't thing anyone fell out of bed and they loved their bunk beds!

Below: Killing time at McDonalds until we could FINALLY get into our condo.

Sweet Bennett boy. He's a roll with the punches kind of guy and has just learned to nap on the fly. I'm not sure how much longer that's going to last, so I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts!

Below: My three crazies in a cage. It would be handy to have one of these at home!!

My good friend Hannah was actually in Gulf Shores with her mom and kids the same weekend as us. Since we rarely get a chance to hang out, they met us at our condo before they headed back to Florida. It was so great to catch up and see each other's kids. It seems like they grow by the feet between visits. The kids loved seeing Miss Patty, who is their preschool director and teacher. It was almost like they couldn't place her because they were seeing her out of context. She loved loving on them though! Below: Anna Kate, Carrigan, Wesley, Patty, Bennett and Tristan. Maura was taking a marathon nap in the next room and almost slept through their whole visit!

Hannah and Carrigan were preparing for their long car ride home while we were preparing for our relaxing vacation!
Below: Where did all these kids come from?? It wasn't that long ago that we were two carefree couples who went to hang out and eat out at a moment's notice. I spent lots of time at Hannah and Michael's townhouse when we were all young married couples. Now, our visits are a lot more chaotic, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!! Each and every one of these young lives is a sweet blessing from the Lord!! More to come on Gulf Shores soon!