Birthday/Vacation

Last Friday we left town to head to Fairhope for a minivacation & my birthday! My parents went too to try to learn some more about our family history. While we were there, we visited my great Aunt Florrie.

Madelyn had fun in the rocking chair!

Before doing some shopping at the outlets in Foley, we had yummy Shrimp Basket! I had a lovey cuddle bug.

After getting some good shopping in, we went back to Fairhope & spent some time on the bay. Seriously people, one of the most beautiful places ever.

I think we wore my dad out! I told him it looked like he was the memorium the bench was for...

MJ & daddy

We could see a cruise ship leaving Mobile bay.

*as a side note, I had to edit what I just typed. I actually typed cruise "chip" - then realized that I have been around kids with articulation problems for FAR too long!

Madelyn enjoyed playing & running around in the grass!

A half-way decent family pic.

After being horrified of the fountain, Madelyn realized there was water in it & it wasn't so bad. Then it was hard to get her out!

Pretty flower in the garden

For dinner we went to Old Bay Steamer - yummy again! Madelyn was fascinated by the giant shrimp outside!

Sweet girly had to get some energy out when the day was over. This is her doing the crane pose from Karate Kid.

Sunday was my birthday! After an awesome morning at Celebration Church, we went to lunch with Tim, Ashley, & Kennedy. We snapped this picture as we were leaving - it doesn't get any sweeter than that!

Madelyn liked playing in the air conditioner & turning the knobs...

...and "drinking" mommy's Sunkist. No, she is not actually drinking it, the top was on.

Monday we went to the beach. We got a picture of Madelyn's little foot compared to daddy's.

We also saw a helicopter fly over head!

You can't really see the look on her face, but the object of Madelyn's affection at the moment was...

...a bird! Which of course she kept chasing saying, "Bird! Bird! Bird!" Poor birdy...

She was still ok with the sand, but I think she played in it more than before. No texture issues there!

It was a pretty day, even though the yellow flags were out. And by the way, if you go any time soon and don't stay ON the beach - now ALL the beaches are pay beaches (although I'm not sure how they enforce it). On the opposite side of the road, however, it is free parking.

Exploring in the sand

And found her first shell on her own! A pretty one too!

Taking a walk on the beach. It was far too cold to get in the water!

We thought we would at least try to stick our feet in. After that happened, she ran to daddy!

We tried to get some pics of her in the sand...I didn't bring the dress I wanted, and basically she just wanted to run around, but some of them turned out ok.

After the beach and lunch, we went to the park in Fairhope on our way back home. This has to be the hugest, coolest park ever! Madelyn liked walking on the rubber thingy.

And the swing is always a favorite.

I know the look on her face is one of being horrified, but she really did love the slide! It was long, and thankfully blocked in, so about halfway down I let her go & she slid, smiling all the way, down to daddy.

Here is half of the park. There is more behind us. Even still, you can't see all the obstacle courses & swings & slides & everything else.

This picture is totally unrelated to our trip, but I thought it was adorable anyway. I was cleaning up the other day after getting home, and turned around to find my sweet child feeding her puppy by hand. You can also see the other toys she was trying to get her to play with before hand. Madelyn knows she isn't supposed to play with the dog bowl when there's food in there, so I guess she figured if she fed it to Daisy then she could play with it! She loves her puppy!

Currently, I am sitting here listening to David trying to teach our daughter a new word - Yahtzee. She's gotten the first half! Now she is saying kitty kitty kitty. She has learned tons of new words lately! My favorite of her new words - lunch!