Gulf Shores, the seven child odyssey (or oddity, depending on who you ask)...

WHAT WAS I THINKING????

I wanted a nice, calm, relaxing vacation to the beach. I wanted to feel the warm sand in my toes and hear the roar of the ocean waves...what did I get?

(In the house b.v. (before vacation officially began)...

"stop eating all the food...I bought it for the trip!"

"get your laundry done or you aren't going to have any clean clothes!"

"clean your rooms, we don't want to harbor pests or odors while we are gone!"

"pack!"

"yes, you do have to brush your teeth when you are on vacation. With toothpaste!"

"yes, you will need underwear and lots of it..."

"shampoo, soap still needed."

In the car:

"are we there yet?"

"how long before we stop to eat?"

"I'm bored!"

"roll the window up!"

"roll the window down!"

"seatbelts!"

"when's dad coming?" (Paul had to stay behind to wait for Kat to get out of school, Stephen also chose to stay behind, so I really only had five with me for the drive down).

I should have chosen the sleeping site better, yes, we had a washer and dryer and were on the ground floor, however, it was a dump! Clean but, well, dumpy. The curtains were threadbare and didn't keep the sun out at all! We finally hung towels over the curtain rod and put the beach mats in the windows to help us sleep just a little better. It was cold and windy, so having the indoor pool just 20 ft away was nice, but the arcade was a nightmare as the kids quickly found the candy machine and hung out there gorging themselves on sweets until they were near a diabetic coma!!! Of course, there is never a vacation for mom, it is still cooking, cleaning, wiping of snotty noses! Add to this having to watch Kimberly as she'd broken her arm the week before we left. The break is too high for them to set and the bones weren't "off" so the doctor just said to immobilize it for three weeks...ha, ha!! It was easier when she wasn't moving it, but now she is moving it, just not putting any weight/pressure on it. I was so worried she'd fall on the sand and hurt it more! We all had to watch and help her a lot. All and all it was a good trip, just exhausting! I'll try to get pics on as blogger allows...