Beach Vacation Part 1

We left for Gulf Shores on Sunday morning when I got home from work. The drive took us about six hours which wasn't to awful bad since we were traveling with a one year old. Thank goodness for the DVD player Bryson got from his grandma for his birthday. All I can say is LIFESAVER!!! I really think he enjoyed being able to watch his DVD's in the car. Of course once we got down there if was pouring down rain. We were so afraid that it would rain the entire time but luckily - the rest of our trip was a blast!
Once we got into the condo and unloaded our stuff we headed to Bahama Bob's for dinner. Y'all if you're ever visiting Gulf Shores, you've got to eat there. And if you like crawfish or shrimp, their crawfish po-boy is amazing and so is the coconut shrimp. It was SO good! And what's a trip to the beach without visiting Wal-Mart. We headed there after dinner to pick up stuff for lunch and snacks for Bryson and a beach chair.

We didn't have such a great first night. I had been up for over 24 hours from working the night before and then for some reason Bryson woke up around 12AM and was awake til about 3:30AM. I don't know if it was because he was in a strange place, or that he hated sleeping in his pack-in-play, or that he was cutting a few more teeth, or all three. Needless to say we all didn't wake up until after 10AM. So our first day was mostly spent in the condo. Clay and I were both afraid that Bryson might be like this for the entire vacation, but we ended up having alot of fun the rest of our trip.

That night we headed to Bubba's Seafood House for dinner. Clay and I had been there once before when we were on vacation with his parents and sister's right before we got married. I was afraid that after the night we had Bryson might have a meltdown while we were there - and I was right. So Clay and I ate our dinner pretty quickly so we could get out of there and let the rest of the people enjoy their dinner without our child having a complete breakdown.

This was the real reason for eating at Bubba's! Y'all they have the BEST fried pickles I have ever had in my life! They were so yummy!

This was before the meltdown. Bryson was really studying those goldfish. This was the first time he's ever had them and of course he loved them. I snuck a few for myself and had forgotten how good those little fish were! Ha!!!

We finally made it out to the beach on Tuesday! Yay!!! We didn't stay out to long because I was so afraid Bryson would get sunburned even though I kept tones of sunscreen on him and we were under the tent.

This beach trip was unlike any other one I have ever been on. Normally I would spend the entire day relaxing out on the beach laying out on the chair and reading several books. On this trip I didn't do any reading and not alot of relaxing. But being able to watch my son play in the sand and spending our first beach vacation as a family was worth every second!

I really think Clay enjoyed playing with Bryson in the sand. Even though Bryson wasn't too sure what to make of it all - I think my boys had a great time! And I know next year will be even better!!!

Bryson had his fair share of tasting the sand. He would just take handfuls of sand and eat it up like it was candy. I didn't freak out too much. What's a little sand for a mid-morning snack. lol!

For dinner we decided on Lambert's! It's Clay's favorite place to eat when we are in Gulf Shores. They do have some of the best Southern cooking I've had besides my grandmothers.

Here's Bryson trying to catch him one of those rolls. Hahaha!!! I think he really enjoyed eating there as much as Clay and I. He would shove handfuls of black eyed peas and pieces of roll in his mouth constantly. I think he gained about 5 pounds while we were gone.

My favorite thing at Lambert's are the fried potatoes and onions. They are so yummy!!! And they are really good the next morning chopped up like hash browns with some ketchup on the side. YUM-O! Out of all the places we ate I think this night was my favorite. We had such a great time.

Wednesday morning we woke up and went to Tacky Jack's for breakfast. My parents go there just about every day while their down there and as long as I've been going to Gulf Shores, this was my first time there. Clay wanted to sit outside which I was not looking forward too but in the end I'm kinda' glad we did. I heard that you can't visit Tacky Jack's without getting there HUGE pancake. Clay and I both ordered one which was crazy of us when I saw the waiter bring them out. Y'all they covered the entire plate!

Of course Bryson enjoyed his bites of pancake and bacon! They had the neatest highchair like seat. Those metal bars in the picture clamps on the table and then he just sits in this mesh like seat and then you can pull the the big chair underneath him. I thought it was just the coolest thing. It's funny when you have kids what gets you excited!!

We headed to the pool after Bryson took his morning nap. The condo had one of those zero entry pools and I think he liked being able to walk all around. Clay and I would take turns walking him from one end to the other. It won't be too long before he's walking on his own.

Bless his heart, the sun was so bright and he refused to wear his sunglasses or his hat so he spent most of his time walking around squinting his eyes!

Since we went out for breakfast that day we decided to eat our leftovers from Lambert's for dinner and just hang out in the condo and relax and not have to worry about getting ready to go out for supper. We played a game of Scattergories and I watched SYTYCD. Great ending to the night!

Will post the second part of our trip tomorrow!