A trip we won't soon forget

We had C's choir program at church last Sunday night. 

This was her second year in choir and she loved it!

For this program, she participated in a group ribbon dance. We were so proud of her!!! She has bloomed so much this year! Her shyness around everyone is virtually gone!

She did a great job!

When we got home from church, terrible tornados were ripping through our state. Mayflower and Vilonia took a direct hit from a large, destructive tornado. It is so heartbreaking. 

I had trouble sleeping and we were also awoken around 10:30 by hail hitting our house. 

Waking up at 4 am Monday morning was rough. We finally hit the road by 5:30 am. 

We had hoped to reach Gulf Shores by 6 pm. Our trip was going great, but we knew would be delayed around the tornado damage on I-40. The radio has told us that it would be about a 45 min delay. It ended up taking 3 hours for us to get 9 miles.

The damage was just awful and we only saw around the interstate. I know the residential areas were more heart wrenching.

Things went pretty smooth after that until we got to Mississippi. Bad storms had fired up above and behind us. We pretty much had to outrun them. These storms did develop tornados. It was scary knowing that we just missed them. We were so thankful though. After all of that, we finally arrived around 10 pm. We were exhausted, carried our stuff in and went to bed!

It was so nice to sleep in after such a long day the day before. We woke up to a very windy day with storms in the forecast. We enjoyed a leisurely morning before heading to Hazel's Nook for breakfast and then to Walmart for groceries and stuff. We spent the afternoon relaxing and them the storms started rolling in. It stormed all evening. Tim and the kids played lots of Farkle. 

It rained over 16 inches and 12 hours straight and our condo area was flooded.

Wednesday, we spent a few hours at the beach. The waves were crazy and the red flags were up, but at least there was no rain!

We had dinner at a yummy Mexican restaurant. 

Thursday was a sunny day!!!

I was quoted in the newspaper back home-

We spent the whole day at the beach.

Because of spending the whole day at the beach, we are all sunburned :-(

I feel SO bad for my babies. We are all in pain.

We ate at Louisiana Lagniappe. It was highly recommended and it did not disappoint!!!

We flew kites on Friday morning. It was a beautiful day! We spent pretty much the whole day at the beach!

I'm so thankful for my tripod. It makes me happy to capture a picture of all of us.

I don't know if it was because of the storms, but we were extremely lucky with our seashell finds this time!

Saturday morning, we left out bright and early to head back home. It was also Tim's birthday! We gave him cards and gifts before we left the condo.

We made it back really late Saturday night and we were so glad to see our beds!

Sunday afternoon, C and I attended the GA's mother/daughter tea. We had a great time and she received her 2nd charm for her GA's bracelet!

2nd grade GA's!

This morning, C Girl received her Accelerated Reader t-shirt for reaching her goal for the year! We are super proud of her!!!

Sweet, sweet summer

Our weather has been F A B U L O U S!!!  We have been having so much fun this week!  And eating dinners outside!!!

Monday, we ran errands and did some work around the house since we had been gone for awhile.  Monday evening, Tim did a bunch of yard work and we stayed outside late and chatted with our neighbor.

Yesterday, we went to church to help work on decorations for VBS and the evening consisted of putting the kids pool up and putting new flowers out and flags in the yard for the 4th.  We met a new neighbor as well and talked to him for awhile.  We were outside until 10!

Today, we went to church again to help with VBS and then we met April and Ryan at Orchards Park for a picnic.  Afterwards, we walked the Crystal Bridges Trail and visited the museum for a bit!  We had such a great time!  There is no way we would have been able to do this if we had regular July weather.  Our highs have been in the upper 70's and very low 80's!!!

I have to be honest.  I think I'm suffering from "vacation lag" (I don't think that's an actual term?)

I just today even looked at our vacation pictures!  When we got home Sunday, I loaded them on the computer and didn't even look at them.

I'm still not unpacked and the laundry is only halfway done.  We have family coming tomorrow, VBS all next week, and family coming to stay the next week.  I guess I will get it all done someday. 

I really do want to find time to edit pictures and blog about our trips. We made a lot of memories!

Here's one that we took as a family.  
Some things:  
a.) it is extremely hard to EVER get a good family photo minus using a pro. 
b.) I used a tripod and self timer. 
c.) this is like the only one that I would call a "good" one. Ha! 
d.) at least we have one! 
e.) this is SOOC because, yeah. No editing has happened yet. Actually, most of my pics are SOOC!  

 Some pictures from our week:

She shucked the corn for dinner last night!

These kiddos are SUCH good friends!

There are some beautiful flowers at Crystal Bridges and Compton Gardens!

 Making art!

I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July!

Happy 237th birthday America!!!