First of all let me say, if you've never been in a van for 12 hours with 8 kids, you should try it! The kids really did do great considering how long it took us. We arrived Saturday to the WORST traffic I've ever seen going into Gulf Shores. I've been going there for several years and hadn't seen anything like it (well LEAVING last year, trying to outrun hurricane Dennis wasn't fun). Anyway, the week was great, I'll probably remember funny stuff along the way. One funny was on Sunday morning, we got up, ate, greased up like a bunch of greased pigs, got our stuff and headed for the beach. We'd been there, oh, maybe 10 minutes when the kids started screaming, "I want to go to the pool!" My darling husband, always patient looked at them and said, "I drove TWELVE hours yesterday to get to this (pointing to the ocean). We have that (pointing to the pool) in our back yard at home. We don't have this (the ocean) in TN, so get out there and have fun!" It was definately a Clark W. Griswold moment. Andy's parents drove down from Memphis and spent part of the week with us, and his aunt and uncle brought their motor home from Louisiana and camped at Perdido Key and came over to visit a couple of times.
One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to Lillian's Pizza. Let me tell ya, you haven't had pizza til you've had Lillian's Pizza!!! I knew I'd died and gone to heaven. About four years ago, Lillian's was the first time I ever ate fresh garlic on a pizza and I'm hooked!!!
Here's a few pics...
Madie and Tilley the night before we left.
The crew.
Captain of the Kidmobile
Lunch at a rest area just outside Birmingham.
First trip out to the beach. My camera lens would continually fog up....UGH!
More pictures and video later-I need to go referee a fight!