Wrapping Up Summer

I'm out of town for the night so I thought I would spend some time getting the rest of the summer pictures off of my camera so I can get back on track!

 

The kids and I met friends and went to see Aladdin at the Children's Theater. Hudson got picked to go on stage for a card trick at the beginning. He felt pretty special being up on stage and even tried to pull a fast one on the guy doing the trick by telling him it wasn't his card! It was hilarious. He is definitely not my shy child. He still says that the guy didn't get it right so who knows! Ha!

 

 I think the very next weekend Joel's mom took the kids and me to see The Little Mermaid! The boys are quickly outgrowing this stage of wanting to go to the theater, so I am taking full advantage of the time I have left! They actually really liked The Little Mermaid too!

 We had one last swim with buddies!

And I got to go out to dinner and to see Bad Moms one night! Such a FUN night out and a great movie for all you "bad moms" like me! :)

 My parents took the kids to the cabin for a few days and I met them up there for a night.

 Then we headed on to Nashville to celebrate mine and Carrie's birthdays! I am SO excited that Carrie is so close now! We have seen them more in the past 2 months than in the past 2 years.

 Carrie's neighborhood has the best park just a couple of blocks away!

 Rooney even knows who we are and talks about us all the time. It just makes me so happy! I was wondering if she would ever get to that point when we only saw her a couple of times a year when they were in California. Living across the country is no fun!

 Hudson came to work with me one day while we were waiting for school to start. I had a day full of meetings and he just stayed in my office and watched movies and was the perfect angel! Not sure how "fun" Mommy's work is anymore, but we survived!!

Now it is back to school and back to routine. Back to school pictures coming soon!

Last Trip to Sand Cliffs

I wrapped up my last vacation to Sand Cliffs in July after spending 35 years going there. My parents bought the beach condo the year I was born and I've never been anywhere else. It's such a special little place that will forever hold some of my best childhood memories, and also memories with my own kids! I hope they will remember it like I do! I remember when there was no one on our end of the beach. It was almost too quiet, and when we were young, we longed for the busy beach. Now, I would give anything to go down there where no one else is! My how times have changed. That area of 30-A has grown! The condo was so small and old, but quaint and cozy. Right outside the screen door was heaven! It was so great being right on the beach, the pool and the beach just steps away. It was hard saying goodbye! My whole family agreed though that it was time to move on to something bigger, where we could all enjoy the beach together. Mom and Dad bought a lot a few years ago down in Santa Rosa, so not too far, and plans are in the works to build a house. The condo sold the first day that it went on the market to someone that did not even need to see it to know it was the one for them! That's just how awesome Sand Cliffs is!

 

Anyway, back to our last little family vacation of the summer. Joel actually got to stay the week with us this time and for the first time in over a year, felt just about 100%! That made it all the better.

 

We really did not do anything special other than play on the beach, pool, and go out to eat! It was perfect. I read 2 books, which was amazing! That's what happens when Dad comes along too!

 

 We did go visit the new lot and these were the views from the tower in the middle of the development. Definitely not beach front, but it is in a quiet area and will be just as beautiful!

It has an area to kayak and fish, and this great little covered dock with tables that I can just imagine having a glass of wine while watching the sunset!

 

 Silly boys!

It did not rain at all where we were that week, but there were several afternoons where I sat on the beach and watched a storm come in down the beach from us. It provided a great breeze on the beach!

 And the water was gorgeous this trip!

 This was our last night. We went down to the beach for one final walk and crab hunt and we hit the jackpot on crabs. Much better than when I went down there alone with the boys! Joel helped a ton with the crab hunt! The sunset was so pretty that night!

As I am writing this, I am wishing I was back down there! Hopefully the new house will start being built soon and we can get down there next summer! Thanks for the memories Sand Cliffs! I'm quite sure we will be back to visit! :)

The Grand Hotel

Back in July, the Reed's took us to The Grand Hotel in Fairhope. It was such a fun little trip! We cannot wait to go back and stay longer. There is so much to do.

 

One of the boy's favorite things was playing horseshoes! We all enjoyed it.

 

 They also loved watching the cannon being shot. Definitely a must do if you have boys! It was loud!

 We went out to eat in Fairhope at the Sunset Grill. It was good and the view wasn't too shabby!

The kids LOVED the pool. It was a really great pool, complete with water slide. Harrison wasn't tall enough to do the slide. Thankfully, he got over that quickly!

 We fished a little bit...nothing was biting though!

 Family picture!

One of the reasons why we went is because Hudson has been begging to go see the Battleship in Mobile. So, of course we did that! It was hot, hot, hot and I think we stayed for almost 3 hours. Yikes! Hudson absolutely loved it.

From there, we said our goodbyes to Migi and Pops and then headed back to the beach for one last little vacation. Thank you Migi and Pops for a great trip!

Camp Winnataska - First Sleepover Camp!

Back in July, Hudson went to Camp Winnataska for 3 nights. It was his first overnight camping experience. I will say it was a hard 3 days for ME, but for him, no big deal! He LOVED it! He is my super independent child so we knew this would be right up his alley. He went with his buddy Hunt and really didn't know any others, which to me, was great. He was forced to make new friends, which isn't that what camp is all about?!?

 

Camp Winnataska was truly the hottest place on earth!!! I'm not even going to lie. There is no air conditioning at all. I was a hot sweaty mess getting Hudson's bed made and getting him all set up! The kids could not have cared less about the heat and the counselors assured me that it did cool off at night. I think I'll just take their word for that!

Packing for a first time camper was hard!!! They have a list, but I still didn't really know what he would need. There were special night outfits that he had to bring and then it was several additional outfits for each day. I pretty much packed his whole wardrobe just in case! I put everything in separate Ziploc bags with labels for when he was supposed to wear everything and went over all of it with him before I left. Do you think he listened to any of that??? NO. He wore what he wanted to wear and threw my ideas out the window! Ha!

 When we got to his cabin, I ran into a good high school friend whose son was also in Hudson's cabin! That was neat! We had to grab a picture! Making new buds already!

 After this picture, I said my goodbyes and went home. It was so weird leaving him! He was not even sad! He was ready for me to go! I know that's a good thing, but still.

Then the grueling wait for pictures started. I checked the camp website for pictures literally every 5 minutes. I knew if I saw him smiling in a picture, I would feel better. It wasn't until the next morning that they posted pictures and this was the first one I saw...

I knew in that moment that he was just fine!!!

 

This was Indian night and we had a cute Indian outfit that he was supposed to wear. As you can see, he definitely did NOT wear it! Ha! I think that was one of the funniest things about this--I could not wait to see what he picked out to wear each day!

 





He did wear the full get up for western night! I was proud of him for that! Ha! Although he looks so hot!!!

 

 

Saturday finally rolled around and we got to pick our boy up! The first thing he said was that he did not want to come home and wanted to stay for 2 weeks next year! I think camp was a good experience for sure! Mama can't handle 2 weeks though buddy...

 

He had LOTS of favorite things about camp. He was non-stop talking the whole ride home. It was so fun to hear about all of the activities that he did. Some of the funnies--We learned that he did take a shower, but did not use shampoo or soap. He just washed himself off real quick. Which, from what we've heard from others, is good that he even got IN the shower! He did not go #2 the entire time. He said he held it because he thought his group would leave him if he took too long. That took 2 weeks to clear up. :) And, he slept in wet pajamas every night because he took the whole Ziploc bag with him to the shower the first night (which had PJs for every night) and he put it on the ground IN the shower with him, and all the contents got soaked. He did not let his counselor know about this!

He did send me a letter home and I will keep it always. No, it was not on the stationary that I sent with him, but I would proud enough that he sent one home! The letter arrived on Saturday afternoon after he was home.

It says:

To Mom From Hudson
The shower flooded and everything got wet and I know you are missing me and we've taken our swim test and I got a blue wrist band.

Love this boy! So glad he had fun at camp! We'll definitely be back next year!