Family Beach Pictures

Before heading to Gulf Shores, I begged Neal to let me drag us all out to the beach for some professional pics!  I researched area photographers and found one that I really liked, who was reasonably priced and did photos on CD (since I didn't really want to deal with purchasing prints from a distance.) After booking Leslie Davis at Freshly Bold, we then found out that she had done wedding pics for a friend of Neal's the summer before and they gave her a glowing recommendation as well.  I was definitely not disappointed!  Plus, she even put up with us dragging Piper out onto the No Dog beach for a few shots!  Here are just a few highlights - I could have posted about a thousand of them, but these will have to do! 

Beach Time

The finale to our family trip was a few nights at the perfect little beach condo in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Nothing makes me happier than time at the beach - especially when you include the people I love the most!

Meredith was super quick to want to be buried in the sand

We played lots of inflatable baseball on the beach

Our main beach didn't allow dogs, but we spent one of the days in at a beach that did so Piper could join us.  She was super happy we made that choice!

Digging in the sand was a definite highlight

Tired pup

Even though Piper couldn't join us at our normal beach the other days, we still had lots of fun!

Meredith and Daddy were very successful with our kites

I got my wave jumping time too - the girls aren't 100% sure of the waves just yet, but I got a little time out of them at least!

Jillian would have been happy to just play in the sand all day!

The girls got fun hair braids one night - they were the hit of the summer!

Neal and I loved our days with the girls but each night we so looked forward to a little time out on our porch enjoying a nice breeze and some much needed grown-up talk!

More Alabama fun

After our time at Lake Martin, we headed to Anny Annie's house!  The girls love being with her!

Lake Martin Getaway

To kick off a summer of fun, we loaded up the van with all 5 of us (yes, even Piper!) and hit the road for Alabama!  We were able to spend a few days first at Neal's aunt and uncle's home on Lake Martin.  Their son, Winston, is just a few months older than Meredith, so it was so much fun!

There was lots of time in the boat and on the lake of course!

Our first trip out was on Father's Day - we took the boat to church!

This was slightly more fun than our typical church commute!

And the view at church was pretty amazing too!

Later, we took the boat out for more typical lake activities, including tubing!

Jillian loved helping Uncle Ken drive the boat

Piper was an excellent skipper

Hanging out with Bubbie who came down to spend some time with her whole family!

Jillian was practicing her "thumbs up" to get Uncle Ken to go faster while she tubed.  Her uber careful sister didn't do this motion as much as Jillian did!

When we weren't in the boat, we just played in the water!

 So much fun swimming with Jilly Beans

 They could have jumped off the dock for hours!

The backyard was also lots of fun!

 Stargazing with Aunt Mimi

 Waterballoon fights!

Piper was in heaven!  I think she was hoping we would move in! She was really good while we were there and could run around the non-fenced yard and without a leash just having a blast.  But one morning I went for a run and turned around to find a little follower.

So, there were lots of times when Piper looked just like this - pooped on the porch!