Saturday and Memories

Lately I have been thinking about how to spend the holidays. I LOVE this time of year and want to spend every day immersed in the holiday spirit. However, I will talk about this more in a future post. Thinking about making memories led me to read some of my old journals and I wanted to share some of what I wrote here. I think my parents will get a kick out of reading it. I left out the more serious and inappropriate stuff lol. Still excuse some of the language. I was anywhere from 17 to maybe 22 years old.

First of all, here are some pictures from Saturday. Naia had her end of season softball tournament and we visited with my mom. The weather has been cold!

Ade had to work on Saturday, but I still got all of the kids out to the field by 8:00 am! I thought about skipping a few times.

 Naia was very excited to get her very own medal after seeing Eaden get so many in gymnastics.

 Naia's team lost the first two games in their tournament (yes!) so we went to visit Grandma.

The kids found a frog smushed under a log.

 They collected grubs, worms, and slugs.

 Played nerf gun war.

Mirek is attempting to walk on the "bridge."

 This picture is from today, but I'm unloading the camera so here it is. In the 30's!

 And a few excerpts from my journals.

I was going to try to put them in order, but it is proving too time consuming.

This is from a journal I kept while visiting Banff in Alberta. I went there for a hockey camp when I was 17.

This is from my countdown to Alaska journal. I was about to move to Alaska without ever having been there before. I thought this was funny because of what I wrote about my mom.

In Alaska.

 

9-11 happened while I was living in Alaska.

After moving back to Texas, I saved up to take a backpacking trip in Denali.

This next part is for my mom. Sorry it is a little blurry.

This is from when I went camping at Big Bend by myself.

Here is a bit from my journal when I was working at the cannery in Homer. I was staying with a friend and working crazy hours. Pretty much from 6am until whenever we got off. Lots of overtime and a ton of entertaining characters!

Keep diaries! They are so fun to read later on.

Traveling the Gulf - New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulf Shores, and Pensacola

This past week my parents, sister, and I drove along the Gulf of Mexico from Houston to Pensacola. We stayed in New Orleans for one night and then in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

For a family of 6, we spent under $500 for the entire trip! My sister and I split gas and hotel costs. 

Everything about the trip was perfect. The drive was not bad. It is 6 hours to New Orleans and then 3 hours from there to Gulf Shores. It is less than an hour from Gulf Shores to Pensacola. I was worried about the 9-10 hour drive back home, but it went quite smoothly!

Just last week there were red flags all along the Gulf, meaning no one was allowed to swim because of dangerous rip currents. However, it was nothing but green flags while we were there. There was a 40% chance of rain everyday, but we only saw rain one night after being at the beach in the sun for the entire day. The rain was the perfect excuse for not having to swim in the hotel pool which is what our kids were begging us to do. If we were hot a cloud would come and cover the sun. Serious. Everything was perfect.

 We stopped in Beaumont on the way to see the house where my mom grew up.

 After checking in at our interesting (polite) hotel in New Orleans we started walking. The good thing about the hotel was that it was downtown.

 We had lunch.

 The restaurant was right on the Mississippi River.

 We took the streetcars everywhere.

 Here is a video of a street performer the kids enjoyed.

 We just happened to be right at Bourbon Street as the sun was setting. Par-tay!

 The kids got an eyeful for sure!

 A band made up of youth making money on Bourbon Street.

 We drove through the cemeteries.

On our way to Alabama, we stopped in Biloxi for lunch.

 This is what you call a Mississippi mustache.

As soon as we arrived in Gulf Shores (Alabama) we unpacked the car and headed to the beach.

Every beach we went to was very different. This one had really neat shells and a brutal wave that landed right on the shore.

 My sister's ass was in the air the entire time.

The next day we drove to Pensacola Beach. This was the prettiest beach we visited, but it also had small stinging jellyfish. Most everyone, except Mirek and I (and maybe my parents) were stung. It was only a short burn that went away after applying some sand. No big deal.

 Abby needed a break.

 My Dad found this snail on the bottom of the ocean.

My parents and husband had to leave the next day, but my sister and I were able to stay longer.

We went by Gulf State Park and then to Orange Beach.

 Apparently, in Alabama, they domesticate possums.

Orange Beach had the best waves and the kids had a ton of fun there.

We ate lunch at the Flora Bama near the Alabama Florida border.

After resting at the hotel for a bit we went back to the Gulf Shores beach that evening. This beach had a lot of jellyfish, but luckily, they did not sting!

 Here is Abby after catching a jellyfish with her bare hand. She was very excited.

 These guys were also catching jellyfish and offered to give some to Eaden.

Bathroom stop on the way home.

We had such a great time and the trip cost so little money that we plan on doing it again (with a few twists) next summer!