Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope everyone is having a great week! I know so many of you have sent kids back to school in the past week or two and are adjusting to new schedules. We don't go back until the 28th and half the time I can't wait and the other half...well, I start to twitch just thinking about everything that comes along with it.
I hate waking up early. And I hate homework. #justsayin
But to keep the summer vibes going, I have the final 2 days of our vacation to wrap up today!
You can find the other posts here:
So onto Day 6!
Day 6 was our final full day at the beach so we wanted to take advantage of it.
Every year we have at least one day where we stay out on the beach until the sun goes down. Those are my favorite days. Everyone around you starts to pack up and head back to their condos, the heat of the day is gone so you can scoot your chair right up to the water's edge without worrying about the blazing sun giving you heatstroke or a sunburn and just enjoy some major relaxation.
So we decided that today would be our day to do that but we also knew that we wanted to do a few things before parking ourselves in the sand.
We've never been to The Wharf for whatever reason on any of our previous trips but knew it had a big Ferris Wheel there along with some cool shopping places, an arcade with laser tag, and fun restaurants. So that's what we decided to do first.
We got dressed and headed out around 11. Starting the second week of August, Gulf Shores clears out pretty drastically so it was so nice not to have to fight crowds everywhere we went and the Wharf was no exception. There was hardly anyone around.
We pulled in and immediately drifted towards the Ferris Wheel! But everyone was starving so we decided to eat at STK Burger right next to it first.
I'm happy to say that our food was yummy and the onion rings Craig ordered were some of the best I've ever tasted!
I ordered a salad because my body was kind of over all the heavy food.
I snapped a pic of Craig's onion rings before he finished them off. They tasted like funnel cake!
After we ate, we jumped on the Ferris Wheel. We were the only ones on the entire thing.
After our ride, we went across the street to the Arcade.
We had this place to ourselves too.
The boys were all about winning tickets so they could trade them in for a bunch of prizes.
Matthew decided to give this thing a try. Put in 2 tokens, give it a spin and whatever number it lands on, that's how many tickets you get!
And wouldn't you know it! Matthew hit the jackpot! 500 tickets!!!
Craig took this next picture. Matthew was PUMPED!! Mason on the other hand, was not. #poutyface
So although we knew the chances of hitting a jackpot two times in a row was just pretty much impossible, Mason gave it a try himself.
This is what Matthew's jackpot looked like. The little red arrow almost went too far but it landed on 500!
And then Mason gave it a shot. And LOOK HOW CLOSE HE GOT!!! He was one tiny little notch away from 500 but ended up in the yellow "3" area instead!! Poor kid!
Matthew graciously volunteered to split his tickets with Mason though and Mason perked back up. They ended up choosing an inflatable tongue (?), disappearing ink, and candy. Score.
And I'm really bummed we don't have any picture of this, but we also played two epic games of laser tag. Having the entire laser tag room to ourselves was awesome and I think it was one of our biggest bonding moments of the whole trip. The guy who worked there gave us a second game for free since we were the only customers. I had no idea laser tag could be that fun!
After we were all gamed out, we were ready to get back to the condo and hit the beach for the rest of the day.
Just a few more random pics because this place was so pretty and we heard it gets pretty cool at night with light shows and stuff. We'll have to make a point to get there at night next time.
After a quick change, we were back on the beach!
After awhile, the boys wanted to go back upstairs to the condo. They got some snacks and watched some TV for about an hour while I read on the balcony and then we were ready to go back down.
By this time the sun was starting to get pretty low in the sky and people were packing up for the day. I had just sat down in my chair when it dawned on me.
I had locked us out of the condo.
I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I had locked the door manually before we left and both sets of keys were right there on the counter.
To make a long story short, one phone call, 15 minutes and $50 later, I had a spare key in my hand and all was right with the world again.
Needless to say, it will cost you to get someone from your beach rental property to hook you up with a spare key after hours. #lessonlearned
Once we had that behind us though, we focused on important things like playing in the waves, trying to scoop up tiny fish and watching the sunset.
I was so close to being finished! My poor book had taken a beating by this point!
"Look Mom, I'm a pirate!"
"Hey, I can do that too!"
Mason gets bored easily and ended up making up his own little game of throwing sand into the net.
I love the beach at dusk so much. I had my chair close to the water, I was at the best part in my book and the waves were just crashing away in front of me.
Craig ended up taking the boys back up to the condo after awhile but I was still holding out until I couldn't see the words in my book anymore. I was so sad when it got too dark to keep reading!
When I got back upstairs, the boys were in their room with the lights off, TV on and half asleep already. Craig was watching TV in the living room so I headed out to the balcony with my laptop and caught up on Big Brother.
Day 7. Goodbye beach!!
The next day we woke up early so we could get packed up to go home!
We were sad to see it end but secretly happy that we would be sleeping in our beds soon.
We truly LOVED our Beachcomber. It was a great purchase and we will absolutely be using it on every beach vacation from now on and probably for some sporting events as well. We saw several people with the wagons with the skinnier wheels and they all had a much harder time pulling it through the sand. I ALMOST bought one with skinny wheels before I saw a review saying it wasn't meant for sand. So I'm glad I got this one instead.
Matthew was giving the counter a little hug goodbye. Haha.
I am happy to say that our trip back to Mimi and Paw Paw's in Louisiana was uneventful and all I wanted was to shower and crawl into bed to finally finish my book! And that's exactly what I did.
These two were so happy to get to spend the night at Mimi's again and see their buddies from down the street. They went to bed wayyyyy later than I did.
Before we left the next morning, Paw Paw took the boys on a quick boat ride around the lake in their backyard.
Then we packed up one last time and headed home. This time I drove. Everyone else slept. And nothing flew off my car. ;) Success.
And that's it!
This year was pretty darn perfect and we made so many great memories, which is really what it's all about.
Random things from the trip...
Calories don't count on vacation. Enjoy!!!
I learned that my boys (all 3 of them...) think everything should be a race or a competition. I probably said, "It's not a race!" twenty times a day. But it's a losing game. So fine. It's always a race. #boymom
At one point we heard sirens going down the strip while we were out on the beach and Matthew said, "I guess there was another shark attack."
Turns out, he had been thinking someone had been attacked by a shark every time he'd heard sirens all week long! And we heard them at least a couple of times every day. Bless his heart. I was happy to set things straight for him.
Dramamine is your best friend if you or your child are prone to motion sickness.
These backseat organizers were amazing. Highly recommend even if you aren't going on vacation.
Dependable wi-fi and Direct TV is priceless.
Carpet in the bedrooms kept sand out of our sheets.
We didn't see a single dolphin this year which was disappointing but we also didn't see any jellyfish either so we'll call that a wash.
If you have any questions, tips or comments about the trip or Gulf Shores, sound off in the comments!
And just a reminder that the shop is now open and back in full swing! I'm gearing up for a busy fall and Christmas season! The sooner you get orders in the better because it is going to get super busy in September and October and then crazy starting the first week of November.
Here are some of the orders that have shipped this week!
Lots more shipping out by Friday!
To see more of what I offer in the shop, follow me on Instagram @thatinspiredchick and find the shop here.
You can also follow my personal Instagram here @amandanall.
See you back here on Friday for this week's favorites!
This seriously looks like the perfect beach vacation!
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