*Dauphin Island Trip 2015* {Part 1}

I am going to blame my Meema and Granddaddy for making me such a beach baby. They took me to the beach (sometimes with the rest of my family and sometimes without!) every summer from as early as I can remember. Summer really isn’t summer without a trip to the beach! My aunt and uncle manage the fabulous rental company on Dauphin Island (check them out at dauphinislandbeachrentals.com!) so we tend to make a trip down to that particular stretch of beach every couple of years. It is the first beach that Noah ever went to. The babies did go to Charleston in January, but the water was too cold for them to get the sand and ocean experience, SO I considered our DI trip to be their first beach experience too! I love making these memories and I am SO VERY thankful that my parents and siblings agreed to make the trip with us. Tommy was/has been studying HARD CORE for his written boards so I would not have survived this trip with my three crazies without the help of my parents, brother and sister (of course, we missed you, Christopher!) My aunt and uncle and cousins were also down on the island at the same time so it was a great time visiting with them on the island as well.

The first half of the week, we stayed in a townhouse on the bay side of the island. It was very convenient to the bakery (yum!) and Ship N Shore (the island equivalent to Walmart– higher prices but they have almost everything you would need!) with a swimming pool and sidewalks for those brave enough to run while on vacation (not me, but my mom and dad rocked it!)

As always, I like to tell our stories through TONS of pictures. Enjoy 🙂
Indian Bay Yacht ClubThe heart/center of Dauphin Island, as seen from our townhouse.The view of the bay from our townhouse. We had a great time playing at the pool with family! Our boys always enjoy swimming more than Emry Jane.

My aunt and uncle own a house in the middle of the west side of the island. They also have a swimming pool and their boat in the canal behind the house. The boat trips were so fun! Noah loved tubing from the boat. We also waded in to the part of the island that is too narrow for houses. We saw sting rays and crabs while we were wading. Our second trip on the boat, we saw a HUGE ray resting in the water very close to our boat! My parents even saw dolphins from the boat the day before we got there.Before our first family boat ride at the beach, with Nana and Savannah and Uncle David (our captain!) Of course, Mary and Montavius came too. The dark in the middle of the picture are actually big rocks to fill the hole that Hurricane Katrina created in the west end of the island. My oldest beach baby looks much too grown-up in this picture.  While Daddy and Noah were riding the tube, Emry Jane pointed, waved and shouted “Dada.” My tubers coming in so we could get out of the way of a pop-up storm. It’s so blurry because I was zooming in as far as I could from the boat. (No LifeProof case on my phone– I was not taking chances with it in the water!)Wading around the uninhabited (at least by people) part of the island, we had to shuffle our feet as we walked along so that the sting rays (if there were any) could get out of the way. Once we made it to the beach (to the left,) we saw multiple sand-colored sting rays, right at the shoreline. Glad we were shuffling our feet!! On our way to the boat, Tommy carried and swam with Noah so his feet weren’t touching, just in case. Savannah and Eli watching Tommy and Noah tubing on the way back to the canal. While the twins and Noah were napping one afternoon, I wanted to go to the East End rocks and look for shells, BUT there were these HUGE black, creepy-crawly bugs with LOTS of LEGS climbing all over the rocks closest to the sand where I was, so NO THANK YOU. I am not going. Tommy went to explore the rocks for shells for me. I found sea glass and small shells in the bug-free zone. He returns from the rocks with this big one. He says “I only found this one.” I get REAL close thinking that it is empty… and LEGS POPPED OUT! It had a crab inside it. He didn’t tell me that!! I jumped at least a mile away from him. Crabs are the spider of the sea. Scary, scary, scary.
The only fishing pole my husband entrusts me with. I don’t blame him.
Dalton and EliSavannah and Emry Jane– I know it’s blurry but that face. Love.A stealer of sister’s pacifier. Always.Our first walk to see the ocean, at sunset. Thank you, Alabama, for putting those oil rigs so close to the shore. Not.  That’s a little shark. “It won’t hurt nobody” according to this man. He caught a bigger one the night before. Don’t go into the shark’s house or you will get ate up!Eli waving “hi” while on his walk with Papa!Just melt my heart. Noah with the shell found and the crab he caught!
How did I get this LUCKY?! These four are MINE. God has blessed me beyond measure.

Continue reading {Part 2} by clicking here.