1 More Day!!

One more day until the fourth of July weekend festivities begin! I'm so excited!! I have always loved the 4th, just keep the fireworks away from me...I HATE them up close to me....sparklers scare the crap out of me! I love to watch, but from a distance!

Almost 3 years ago our nephew Drew was born on July 4th. He has been a firecracker since day 1! He's quite the little guy and I love knowing each year we will celebrate him on the fun day. His party is Saturday morning at my in-laws' house, pool party!I'm hoping we get to see lots of friends and family this weekend too...next year the 4th won't be as long with it being on a Tuesday!!

Kody got his first paycheck yesterday and it was more than he made before so we're in the clear! We're just so thankful for this opportunity, it's been more than we could have dreamed already! Speaking of the bank, I got to eat lunch with 2 of his co-workers and 2 other friends from my EXCEL class that I took this past spring. It was a fun time. We really all hit it off well during the class and we were sad to see it end. Heather and Todd (KT's co-workers) just couldn't say enough nice things about the bank. We've made the right choice!!

I got my hair cut yesterday afternoon and it's TOO short!! I told her to cut it shorter because last time it wasn't short enough and I had to have my Mom cut it a little shorter...YIKES, I can barely get it behind my ears. I'm not liking it, I feel like there's nothing there. I am going to overdose on vitamins and hope it grows VERY FAST.

After the garage sale tonight I have to get home and pack, tidy up the house, and pack up the car for our trip east tomorrow. Hopefully I am able to find the energy to do that! Kody wants to dress in red, white, and blue tomorrow so we'll get his outfit all ready. He looks so cute each day with his dress clothes on!! What a nice change of pace. I thought the other day on my way home after getting his dry cleaning that I NEVER would have imagined picking up KODY'S dry cleaning after work...and now it's going to be a regular routine. I know I keep talking about it, but this is like the BIGGEST thing that's happened to us in a long time.

GOD is SOOO good!

Girl's Night!

Today was a good day. For the last two weeks I have spent my nights getting ready for a yard sale my mom and I are having tomorrow and Friday. We swore off garage sales a few years ago, but had so much that we thought it'd be nice to make some vacation money! I've sold over $100 worth of tvs, clothes, shoes, and picture frames at work to people! I also sold our basement couch, love seat, and end tables! Now I can bring the new furniture home!!

Tonight I got my hair cut...pretty short....but it grows fast! The garage is all set up so I ran some errands and headed home. Kody is with my dad and his friends for their "T-Bone" guys night. Kody is doing so well at work, I'm so proud of him! It's fun to drive thru and see him! I'm at the bank all the time so it's often. He most likely will move to another bank next week, but the girls where he's at now don't want him to leave! He has learned a lot from them!

I made a cookie crust for a fruit pizza I'm taking to work on Friday and now I'm relaxing and watching a movie. I'm just glad to have the yard sale stuff DONE!

What are your plans for the 4th? We are heading to see the Thompsons and celebrate Drew's 3rd birthday! I hope to soak up the sun out by the pool too!

Enjoy the rest of your week!!! This is my first post from my iPad. For those of you who have one wha do you read your blogs on? I'm having some scrolling issues....and can't find the right apps like I have on my phone. I've noticed you can't scroll on a webpage that has an internal scroll....like your blogger dashboard. It won't let me view anything besides the two newest posts. ANY help would be appreciated!

Last Full Day in Gulf Shores

Friday, June 10th Kody turned 26 years old! I joked with him last year about 25 being old, but wow 26 seems so much older! He’s still got a young wife until August…then I turn 25. ;)

We wanted to spend the whole day at the beach. I went down early after eating breakfast of about 4 of the best peaches ever. They were SOOOO juicy! I read for awhile and just really tried to soak up the last day. Everyone else joined me about an hour later. Kaci, Luke, and Erica went back to the Outlet Mall for some last minute returns. We played with Drew all morning. He had a blast!

Erica got back and she decided to bring Drake down for his first dip in the ocean. What a sweet baby!!! He just acted like he didn’t care at all! :)

We spent the afternoon at the pool and then headed up to get ready for our pictures. What a disappointment they were! I can’t remember where I put the CD that has all of them on there but once I find it I’ll put some up. She was LATE and a real poor excuse for a photographer. In exchange for that mess the owner refunded the portrait fee and sent 2 cds with all the pictures on there.

Here are a couple of pictures we just snapped behind her while she was wasting our time!!

Like I said, we were behind the photographer so nobody is really looking at us! After pictures we went back to the condo to finish packing up, eat some leftovers, sing Happy Birthday to Kody, and eat ice cream! I got Kody an MP3 player for the gym and he got bbq utensils from his siblings and new clothes from my in-laws!

The next morning we left the condo around 7 and went to Hazel’s Nook on the way out of town for breakfast. Before we left I snapped these few pictures of the beach before anyone got there!!

We drove without many stops and made it to Memphis by 4:30. We thought we’d treat ourselves to the Rendezvous for their world famous ribs and then head home. We were in and out of there in 30 minutes and had excellent ribs! MMMMMM!!!! We made it home about 8:30 that night, not bad for stopping in Memphis and Jonesboro….for ice cream! :) The boys were thrilled to see us and we were glad to see them! Nothing like getting away but coming home!

 

Heaven is a little closer, in a house, by the sea.

Gulf Shores—Day 5

Thursday Kody and I got up early and went to breakfast at Big O’s. It was really good!! It was a neat little place right on the highway that had been there for years. Locals really like it and they have regular vacationers who visit each year.

After breakfast we headed back to the Outlet Mall. We had gotten Kody a ton of clothes for his new job, but they were too big so we headed back to trade out. We thought we’d only be there a couple of hours but were there the majority of the day. We had a good time though. He got a new pair of leather loafers and Bass had a sale where you could buy 1 pair and get 2 free…he let me have the 2 freebies, I got some navy and gold deck shoes! They’re very similar to my Sperry’s.

We got back to the condo around 2:30 and had a late lunch. Kody’s 26th birthday was Friday (the next day) so we decided to celebrate Thursday night and be able to pack up on Friday…plus our pictures were rescheduled for Friday. We got ready and took some pictures at the condo before we left. Erica and Kyle celebrated 6 years of marriage on Saturday, June 11th. We celebrated that Thursday night too!

Kody thought we needed to go to the Hangout, which was right down the road. What a COOL place! If you are in Gulf Shores GO THERE!! Great food, service, and place for kids. They had a huge sand mountain and a sud machine for kids where it was like a huge bubble fest. Drew had a BLAST!!! But so did Kody, Kyle, Luke, and myself. We all ran up and down the sand mountain numerous times. Since it was his birthday they had all the birthday people get on a table and dance to a song…the winner won bragging rights and I’m pretty sure he won!!

These were taken on top of the sand mountain….you could see all over!

Kody thought we needed to go to the Hangout, which was right down the road. What a COOL place! If you are in Gulf Shores GO THERE!! Great food, service, and place for kids. They had a huge sand mountain and a sud machine for kids where it was like a huge bubble fest. Drew had a BLAST!!! But so did Kody, Kyle, Luke, and myself. We all ran up and down the sand mountain numerous times. Since it was his birthday they had all the birthday people get on a table and dance to a song…the winner won bragging rights and I’m pretty sure he won!!

We ended our night on the patio talking for a good while. Wish we were still there!!!!!!

Gulf Shores—Day 4

On Wednesday we spent the majority of the day at the beach and the pool. We watched Drew play and play and play and play. He loved running in the sand and when the waves crashed in he would just laugh and scream, he was very excited!

I drew Drew’s name in the sand and had him pose by it. He thought that was the coolest thing. Then I wrote Drew loves Ashy (that’s his little girlfriend) he loved that too! He is so tiny for almost being 3 years old. He had a hard time keeping his swimming trunks up…you’ll notice in the pictures.

John and Kody built a pretty fancy dolphin named Wilburn in the sand. We had people pass by all day comment on it. Kody really gets into his sand creations and I can see where he got it…John was into it too!

Luke and Kaci enjoying the beach!

Notice the picture with all the umbrellas? Ours is the black Mizzou one in the back and the multi-colored one. We called it Fort Thompson, we had quite the campsite. Drew even had his own picnic table and umbrella…that he never used! Luckily we could leave it at the beach every night.

Wednesday night we were scheduled to have pictures taken on the beach. It rained a little and they cancelled on us, it was a sad deal because the replacement they sent on Friday SUCKED!! Since we were all dressed up and raring to go we went to Orange Beach for dinner at Tacky Jack’s. It nearly took an act of Congress to decide where we were going to go, but we all loved it there. I would HIGHLY recommend Tacky Jack’s in Orange Beach. It’s great for large parties too. We didn’t have to wait at all. Prepare yourself for picture overload now, we decided to have a photo shoot and get new pictures (Kaci and I decided…)… And some of these pictures are crazy, there’s never explanation for time well spent with the Thompsons…including the oyster shooting pictures…YUCK!

   

The bridge in Orange Beach, this was part of the view at Tacky Jack’s.