Raining

So, on Saturday night, all the kids needed to shower. Jack went first - then Kade and Grace - last, Josh. Josh had been in the shower upstairs for about 20 minutes (can we say Hollywood shower) when I thought I heard rain downstairs. I went to check out my washing machine but that wasn't it. The sound was coming from the downstairs bathroom. I thought maybe one of the kids had turned on the downstairs shower so I went to turn it off. It wasn't the shower - it was the ceiling. It was raining in my bathroom. I yelled for Tom when then pounded on the locked door upstairs for Josh to open the door.

Apparently, Josh likes to have a full tub of water when he showers. The water was almost to the top of the tub. The water was going in that round metal thing on the tub. I don't know if it is an overflow thing or what but apparently ours isn't connected to a drain. I don't know if it's supposed to be, but it shouldn't rain downstairs. Now I have to find a plumber to come tell me what's wrong with my tub.

The amazing thing was that after 20 minutes of bath/shower, Josh didn't even have wet hair. I doubt he touched the soap either.

Spring Break at Gulf Shores, Alabama

Since we aren't going to go anywhere this summer, we decided to take our big vacation over spring break. A lot of people had told us that Gulf Shores was the closest beach to go to so we decided to check it out. We had such a fun vacation. This is the view from our house of the water. It was so cool. I'd never been to Alabama before so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was beautiful.

Here is the house that we rented. The boys loved sleeping all by themselves on the bottom level. We had a 5 bedroom house and all 3 boys were sleeping in the same room. Go figure.
I've never been to a beach on the east coast, but this is how I imagine it - with the boardwalk and sea grasses growing in the white sand.
Go Carts and Golfing

Tom and Clark took the boys to race go carts and also did a round of miniature golf.

Kade wasn't tall enough to ride by himself so he went with Tom.
Are we having fun yet?



Playing at the Beach

It's a nine hour drive (including stops) from our house to get to the beach so we didn't get there until the afternoon. We went to check out the beach, but Grace wasn't in her swimming suit. She got soaked in her clothes.

Look at that. No cell phone and no computer!



OK, I hear there were a lot of requests for what I look like now. Here it is. Tom's other pictures were all from the rear and I'm not putting those on this blog. (We are having a baby in June. I don't know why I haven't put it in the blog yet. I'm sure most of you reading this already know that.)



The waves weren't very big. I would call this a mother's beach back in California, but the boys still had fun in the water.



Kade liked boogie boarding until he flipped head-first two times in a row. Then, he decided that playing in the sand was more fun than boogie boarding.


I love this picture, even if Grace's hair is totally crazy.



Tom and his mom.
Tom buried Grace and Kade in the sand.

The Pit

The boys spent two days digging out a pit in the sand. The sculpted seats for themselves and holes to put their feet in. They also collected driftwood to make a railing at the entrance and hat racks. Then, they invited us all in to join them. On the morning of the third day, a loader came and filled in their hole. They were pretty devastated.

Tennis

There was a tennis court where we were staying so the boys played tennis everyday. We had to make sure that Jack and Josh were on the side of the court closest to the swimming pool so that they wouldn't hit the ball over the fence and into the pool. Grace wanted to play tennis too but her version didn't include a racket. She just wanted the balls. Here they are playing tennis in swimming trunks and flip flops.

Kade had a hard time at first hitting the ball but after a day, he was pretty good at getting the ball over the net.

Look at that shot.
Kites

Cala and Clark bought the kids some kites.

Grace had a little butterfly kite. You can see how little it is in this picture. It was the perfect size for her. She ran all over the place with her kite.
Sand Castle

After their sand pit was destroyed, the boys built a sand castle and sand pyramid.

Grace was good at destroying what they made.
Well, that's our vacation. We had a blast. I would love to go back again sometime. The weather was in the mid to high 70s all week. The kids all got burned. Kade looked like a raccoon and Josh looked like he had vampire eyes. I wish I would have taken a picture of that. It was nice to not be in cold weather. I know this post is loooonnng. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.