Our Beach Vacation

This year for our family vacation we went to the gulf shores in Alabama. What a great week. So relaxing and fun for all of us. Grant and Liz( Da's bro and wife) and little baby Hallie met us there. It was so fun to spend a week together. Our first full day was a Sunday, and the only day it rained. Grant got a little restless and kidnapped Maddie and decided that they would play in the rain. Sa rain and got her swimsuit on. (smart girl)
Running through a HUGE puddle.
By the way, after this day of rain, we had perfect weather. About 90 degrees every day, sunny and beautiful, with a coastal breeze. Maddie against her will. She put up a very small fight at first and then realized this was going to be fun.

Da and Liz even took a small turn out there.

That night it stopped raining and we took our first evening walk on the beach. Something we did many nights that we were there. It was probably one of the things that I enjoyed the most.

Da and I with my prego belly! Yes, I realize I am huge and that I have still 10 weeks to go in this picture.

The kids had so much fun running in the waves and looking for shells.

Aunt Liz and Sadie checking out a crab hole. They spent most of the walk the first night checking out every one they saw( and there were a lot!)

Jack and Sadie finding some shells

The kids loved spending time with their baby cousin. They adored her! The girls loved holding her and mothering her to death. She was a good sport, and seemed to like them too.

Jack loved her and is still talking about her daily, even though we have been home for more than a week. He is smiling in this picture saying how excited he is that they are holding hands.

And giving her a kiss. Such a sweet little guy

I see so many similarities in these two girls. Hallie reminds Da and I of Maddie when she was this age. She did this Christmas when we saw her too. They look a little alike, and she has the same temperament that Maddie had too. It was fun to play with this cute little girl.

We had lots of time for beach swimming too. Though I don't have many pictures of the kids swimming. Mainly because we were always swimming with them. So much fun. Jack loved the waves the first day until he was knocked down a few times. After that he had a little more respect for the water.

My cute little girls played together this entire week, every second. I love that they were able to have this time to spend together. I hope its a time they always cherish.

Grant, Liz and Hallie enjoying a swim!

Da took turns taking the kids out deeper. They all loved this, even Jack who said he liked the "soft waves" not the splashy waves.

So the first day we went out to swim on the beach( Monday), Da and I thought we probably wouldn't need sunscreen. We loaded up the kids thankfully, but we paid for it the rest of the week. Lets just say Da got the worst sunburn of his life. Of course I have been burned so many times in my life, this one wasn't that bad. Still it kinda sucked! Da wore a shirt most of the week after that.

Da and Grant helping the girls jump over the waves

We built so many sandcastles too.

A cute picture of my girls.

One evening we went to Fort Morgan, a battery. It was used in the civil war and world war II. It was pretty interesting to walk around.

Maddie thought that we should take a Campbell girl picture. Though Grant said that Kevin is in the pic too. :)

A big group shot. By the way, Da is fighting off some fire ants in this picture, they were biting him like crazy. :(

Cute little Hallie

I thought this was a cute picture(please ignore my wide backside)

The kids sitting in the battery.

You can see part of the bunkers in the background.

Our final night, we bought the kids some nets and took them crab hunting. Some friends of ours recommended we try this. It was so much fun. The kids ran around with their nets like crazy. It took a little bit for the girls to get the hang of it, but they both ended up catching about 10!

Maddie with her proud first crab.

Sa with the first crab she caught.

You can see the little crab in the net. They were little baby ones, and were they ever bugger fast! Those little guys can really run.

What a fun week! We loved every minute of this trip, it was so relaxing and a great time to spend some time together as a family. Hopefully we can go next year, and hopefully we can talk Grant and Liz into coming again!