A Day on the Water

I think the first line on the website that I read was something like this: "Have you ever heard a dolphin breathe?" Given that this was the kayak rental website, I was thrilled that I would get to hear many dolphins breathing along side our kayaks as we slowly paddled through the calm, salty bay waters of Gulf Shores. We were excited about this vacation. We are staying in a part of the Alabama gulf that we've never stayed at before. A quieter little neighbrhood away from all the spring breakers. There are more "Snowbirds" (a term we've just learned this month as we've searched for condos, all rented monthly by these, um, more "seasoned" vacationers) than families with young kids and it's wonderful. The pools aren't crowded and the beach is even less so. You look to the east of our beach and there is literally nothing. Just sand and water and slow rolling tides and splendid dunes. Given that we've spent a lot of time in long-sleeves and swimming in the indoor pool, we looked forward to golfing, kayaking, and visiting the cutest little zoo in the world in Gulf Shores. So, anyway... back to that day on the water...

The part of the website we MISSED: "backrests available." Yup. That would have been nice to know. My lower back is surprisingly working this morning. The fact that I can even type is even more surprising. As we paddled for nearly 4 hours, I thought for sure we'd be spending the day inside today, nursing our sore muscles. And those sweet little dolphin breaths? Yah, that never happened. Never saw as much as a fin pop up out of the water. Our backs hurt, our hips hurt, our arms hurt and our rears REALLY hurt. I have this weird splotchy sunburn on my shoulders and the kids are each burnt in one small spot under their left eye? Go figure. We saw a few fish pop out of the water and we saw seagulls. Lots and lots of seagulls. That was it. That was all. But you know what? It was the BEST part of our vacation so far. The kids never whined and were so happy the entire time. It was a glorious day!

We stopped for sandwiches along the way at a dock under a restaurant. We "had" to buy candy at a candy store so we didn't feel guilty using their bathroom.

Greetings from Alabama!

Winter Who?

So, we may have seen a few flurries the other day and I *think* I remember several weeks ago going to bed hoping for the couple of inches they were calling for (it never happened), but for the most part, this has been quite a mild winter. Safe to say, we have seen more days playing outside after school than any other winter before, many of which were even without jackets. So to the winter of 2012 the Webbs say "THANKS" and "Come back any year you want." I can survive a winter like this with little problem and it doesn't hurt that without any used snow days, the kids get out of school earlier in May. =)

So, I finally got my camera out for something other than a photo shoot for the first time in 2012, I think. The kids discovered our hill by our driveway was useful for something other than riding tricycles down at rapid speed towards the neighbor's fence.

I think I literally took 40 pictures before this one. It's probably sweeter if I didn't tell you that.
Hmmmm. It's SO weird that people think that these two are twins. Odd...

Hopefully he continues to think riding down this "hill" is super awesome for many years to come, rather than discover how kind-of not awesome it is, which I see coming sooner rather than later and being replaced with something far more dangerous and horrifying to me.

Kendall looked at this picture over and over and over again. She loved her facial expression and was giggling uncontrollably.

They had a little bit of fun rolling down the hill. Just a wee bit.

Golly, I think they're cute!

There have been a few people I know making reference to how the winter of 1993 in East Tennessee was just as mild as this one, which then led to the Blizzard of '93. I was "stuck" in Orlando during that blizzard and finally made it home a week later to nothing but piles and piles of black, dirty snow on the side of the roads. I was extremely disappointed that I missed all the fun. Make no mistake about it, if it decides to snow that much while we're gone on Spring Break, I will retain none of my youthful immaturity. I will simply make reservations for another week until the grass is greener and the snow is 100% melted. I ain't named Summer for nothin'. ;)

Happy SPRING y'all!