Gulf Shores Vacation

We set out on our drive to Gulf Shores on August 7, and went as far as Baton Rouge before stopping to spend the night. You can easily make the drive to Gulf Shores without stopping, but after we had Nolan, we started breaking it up a little bit to make the trip easier on him. So, it's about 8 hours to Baton Rouge from Dallas and our kids are such great travelers that we only had to stop one time for a lunch/bathroom break. The joke is that I am more likely to need to stop than the kids are!

We spent Thursday night in Baton Rouge visiting an open-air mall and having dinner. The cooler weather there was a nice surprise from what we had been enduring at home and the kids were so happy to be out of the car (so was I!)

On Friday, we ate breakfast, filled the car up, and left to finish the drive. We were about two miles from the Louisiana/Mississippi border when Farrel asked if we should stop at the Stennis Space Center and tour it. He thought it would be a nice surprise for Laiken. Well, most of you who know me know that I don't do a lot of spontaneous events. Since the NASA welcome center is located right on the Mississippi border, I had about 5 minutes to decide and I did something very uncharacteristic and just went with it. I'm so glad we did. We have made that drive so many times and have never taken the time to stop. The people at the visitor center were so nice and gave us refreshments before loading us on a bus to take us into the space center. Stennis is where all of the engines are tested for the NASA program. If you visit at just the right time, you can sit on bleachers and watch as an engine goes through a test. We did not get to see an actual test, but we did get to tour the facilities and see some other cool things. There are 10 NASA sites in the U.S. and Laiken is determined that now we need to visit the other 8. I'm not thinking that I'm going to be planning my vacations around NASA sites... well, maybe to Florida....

Riding the bus to Stennis:

Posing by a real rocket engine:

Laiken pretending to walk on Mars:

We got settled into our condo on late Friday afternoon and the rest of the week is a sandy, sunny blur of water, more water, lazy days, and fun evenings out. Here is a sampling of how we spent our week--

Plenty of pool and beach time:

Waiting to ride the ferris wheel at The Wharf (At this point, Nolan was not so sure that he was going to ride--notice the look on his face!)

And here he is, a few minutes later, very happy to be riding!

Eating at the marina that same night:



After long days in the sun and water, the kids would wind down with a movie and popcorn. You will notice that there are three twin bed across this one room. We had booked a condo that had a kids' bedroom with two twin beds and a little bonus room with a twin bed in it for Laiken so that she wouldn't have to room with the boys. Well, the first night, we spent part of our time moving her bed into the boys' room so that they could all be together. I was a little aggravated, but also a little happy that she was realizing that things did tend to be more fun when they were all together.


Carson and Laiken begged us to let them go parasailing. We finally consented, thinking that they wouldn't really do it. Of course, they did it. Farrel and I only let them go up the minimum height of 400 feet and they were able to go tandem, which for some crazy reason made us feel a little better. Carson said next year he is going all the way up--800 feet. He has no fear and I'm not sure that's a good thing. They loved it and couldn't quit talking about the view!

Mid-week, after a fabulous dinner at Lambert's (seriously, if you are ever in the area, you have to go), we made our visit to The Track. Nolan was old enough to ride the go-carts this year and we convinced him to go, despite his aversion to loud noises.

He acted like he liked riding the go-carts, but I think he preferred the little kid rides much better.

Carson was a trooper and volunteered to ride the little train with Nolan so he wouldn't have to ride by himself.

I don't love miniature golf, and usually, I will let that be an activity that counts as a Daddy/kid event; but, I went this time and we laughed so hard watching Nolan that I was so glad I didn't miss it!

We spent several nights at the water's edge catching the crabs. We caught some of the big Blue ones, but Nolan loved getting the little Ghost crabs. They brought these up to the room before taking them back down to release them.

And the trip ended with the obligatory visit to the souvenir shop. I'm not sure how many years we have to travel to the same place before we can skip buying souvenirs, but we went again this year and I just cringed at the boys' purchases. A side note to this story--

Before I was a mom, I had this list of things that would not happen when I was a mother. One of the mandates was about toys. I had decided (pre-children, remember) that my kids would not have gender-biased toys. My girls would have fire trucks and my boys would have dolls and, naturally, because I presented them with a spectrum of playthings, they would love all their toys equally and not be tainted by society's perceptions of their abilities, likes, and dislikes based on nothing more than their genders. Furthermore, there would be no toys of violent nature in our home. Now this included, but was not limited to, guns, knives, arrows, and violent video games. I think that Carson was about 2 when he first put his index finger out and made a shooting sound at me. I was shocked, horrified, and scared. "Where would he get that?? Why would he want to shoot me? We don't shoot at people! He shouldn't even know what a gun is!" I spent a lot of time wondering where I had gone wrong and my parents and Farrel laughed at me, happy that Carson was going to be normal despite my best efforts (in their minds) to seriously mess him up. He did have a doll that he liked for a little while; but, mostly, he liked his "boy toys." So, back to vacation...

Carson bought himself his first toy gun at the souvenir shop when he was about 3. He used money given to him by his grandparents. Laiken was 5 that year and could not resist a pretty pink gun that came in a holster that just fit around her tiny little hips and so she purchased that one for herself. (Don't miss the irony here--my daughter bought a toy that was not in any way gender biased, but bought it in pink--apparently, I was 1/2 successful in my madness.) That is the only time Laiken has wanted a gun, but Carson has bought one for himself every year we have gone to that souvenir store. Like some weird rite of passage, Nolan was ecstatic to use his money this year to buy himself a gun. It just warms a mother's heart....

It was a fabulous week and, as usual, we were not ready to come home. The kids said we need to stay two weeks next year. Twist my arm!