Beach Trip, Part 1

WARNING: There are a ton of pictures in this post!

I look forward to our family's annual vacation to New Smyrna Beach each year. This is a long-standing tradition in our family, and everyone tries really hard to make it down, at least for a few days. We were missing a few people this year, but we think there were 59 of us. So much fun! Most of our days were just spend hanging out on the beach, wading in the ocean, cooling off in the pool, eating and napping. What a wonderful way to spend a week. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Our family.

Granna and Papa with their grandkids.
Meme with her three boys and their families.
The big group!
Lily talked for days about building her sandcastles. She couldn't wait! She had a blast digging in the sand, finding shells to use as windows and making sand accessories (turtle farms and whale farms for example) for the castles with her sand toys. She also liked making "muts" (aka: moats) around the castle. She would often tell me which Disney Princess she was making the castle for too; we would have one for Cinderella, and a few feet away, one for Ariel. It was lots of fun to watch her imagination coming out as she made these.

Taking a quick break to snap a picture with Meme.

My niece, Molly, enjoyed sitting in the surf.

Papa with my nephew, Zac.

Papa managed to get Mia to sit still long enough for this picture; that's quite a feat because she just wanted to run everywhere!

Lily with one of her shells. She was fascinated by shells this year and wanted to look for them everywhere.

Meme and Mia taking a break to watch the rest of the action.

Having fun in the sand!

Trying to hang out with Mia for a minute.

I love my Meme!

Zac showing off the jellyfish he had collected.

Isn't Karson precious?

Molly, McKayla, Averie Ann, Ella, Finn and Reed on the lifeguard stand.

Francie is adorable.

Reed was having a great time!

Mia was pretty sure she was ready to try a boogie board.

I gave her a little help.

Mia loved the ocean and beach! She wanted to be in the water pretty much the whole time. We had to be very mindful though because many times she wanted to chase the waves back out; she didn't understand they would come right back in! Our little fearless one was so happy to be in the ocean!

Mia giving Zac a big hug.

Daddy and Mia in the ocean. She loved it when one of us would help her jump the waves.

Ready to hit the pool!

Lily absolutely loved the pool! She stayed on the steps most of the time, but she had such a great time playing with various toys we and other family members brought. The biggest hit was Francie's swimming Ariel doll which Francie was very kind to share for a long time with Lily. She also enjoyed the little net and fish that you can see in this picture.

Mia's checking out everyone in the pool.

Having fun with a water ball.

Granna and Zac having a good time together.

Getting a lift from Daddy.

Mia had a great time when Ryan would toss her into the air!

Such sweet sisters!

"I wonder if I can slide down that pole?" If she could have reached it easier, I'm sure we would have gotten our answer!

Lily loved jumping into Ryan or my arms!

Look at how beautiful the water, sand and weather were!

A little afternoon family volleyball game.

Enjoying a watermelon break.

After-nap bedhead cracked me up. Both girls took great naps every afternoon. They were worn out from having so much fun in the sun during the day!

Watching a few cartoons together.

Such sweethearts!

I love this precious picture.

Meme and her three boys making breakfast for her family on Monday morning. This is such a special treat. They each have their own special tasks to get the meal ready, and it's a competition to see who can make their part the best; they have a lot of fun getting it together. They make biscuits, gravy, eggs, bacon, sausage, grits and cantaloupe. Wow, it's delicious!

My favorite day of the year is Hot Dog Day. I look forward to this day all year, probably a little too much so! I honestly don't know why Meme's hot dogs are so much better than anyone else's, but they really and truly are! Meme makes enough hot dogs to feed everyone (as I said above, that's 59 people!), and she makes an awesome fruit salad that has fresh pineapples, peaches and cherries in it. We also have chips, dips, salsas, chili (that we may or may not eat on our dogs) and cookies. I eat way too much this day, but it is so worth it! Here's a picture of the first two trays of hot dogs; each row is two dogs high. Seriously, these are the best hot dogs you could ever eat!

Everyone enjoying their hot dogs.

Meme with Molly, Zac, Mia and Lily at the start of our hot dog lunch. I can tell this is the beginning of lunch because none of the kids' clothes have ketchup on them yet.

Averie Ann, Ella, McKayla, Sam, Bo and Russ enjoying their time together after finishing up their lunch.

On Tuesday night, my mom and I took Lily, McKayla and Molly out for the evening. We stopped at Aunt Catfish's restaurant so M&M could have their portrait drawn by the artist there. They turned out really well. While we waited, we enjoyed listening to the musician who was playing some Jimmy Buffett music. Lily also had a good time playing with this alligator. She kept putting rocks in his mouth "because he's hungry."

After the pictures were finished, we headed into Daytona for Bubba Gump's restaurant. I absolutely love their fried shrimp and strawberry lemonade and make this special trip (about a 45 minute drive) each year, so I can enjoy this restaurant. By the time we got there though, we had almost an hour wait. Since we were all starting to get hungry, we decided to have dessert first. Cold Stone Creamery is next door to Bubba Gump's, so we all split a vanilla ice cream with sprinkles mixed in. As we waited, we saw a lady with two parrots; she would let you hold them and take your picture. The girls really wanted to do this, so we let them. McKayla held a very colorful parrot on her arm while Molly held a beautiful all-white parrot on her arm; Lily stood between them both. It was a pretty cute picture, but I haven't scanned it in yet, so I can't post it here. The picture below is of the three girls waiting (very patiently I might add) for our name to be called. This dinner was wonderful, and I'm so glad we made the special trip! It was so fun to hear Lily interact with McKayla and Molly too; she absolutely adores them, and she just wanted to be a big kid like them. She is growing up so fast!

So that's the majority of our trip. I will put in a Part 2 to this entry later that tells about a special side trip we made on Wednesdsay. This week was wonderful. We didn't see a drop of rain the entire time; it was beautiful. It was great to catch up with lots of cousins too. We are so fortunate to have such a big family that actually enjoys going on vacation together!

So Descriptive

Lily cracks me up with some of the words she uses. She usually gets them in the proper context too which is cool. A couple of my recent favorites:
1. Mommy, these gummy snacks are marvelous!
2. The ocean is spectacular!
3. Hmm, that's strange.
4. Oh you startled me!
I love hearing her vocabulary grow. She is so big!

Remember: Wash Your Hands

We got back from our beach trip Saturday evening (I'll post details and pictures in the next couple of days). Since we had absolutely no breakfast groceries in the house, we went to J. Christopher's for breakfast on Sunday morning. Lily of course needed to go to the bathroom towards the end of our meal; she is something of a potty connoisseur these days. As she was sitting on the potty, she looked up and saw a sign that said "Employees must wash hands before returning to work" and had a picture of hands with soap on them. Here's our conversation about that sign:
L:Mommy, that sign tells us to wash our hands after we use the potty.
M: That's right.
L: I didn't wash my hands after I used the potty this morning.
M: That's gross. You are always supposed to wash your hands after you use the potty.
L: But I didn't have a sign to tell me to!
M: Do you really need a sign to remind you to wash your hands?
L: Yes. Let's make a sign to tell me to wash my hands after I potty. That way I'll remember.

Alaska Vacation

After our mission trip, Ryan and I were lucky enough to stay in Alaska for a few extra days.  This may be our only chance to visit Alaska! We all arrived back in Anchorage on Friday evening. On our way back we had an amazing view of Mt. McKinley that simply couldn't be beat.

We stayed again at Calvary Baptist Church, and Global Mission Partners allowed us to use one of their vans to drive around Anchorage and site see. We saw a moose!!!

Saturday morning, Ryan and I headed to the train depot where we boarded a Princess train (the same company that operates several Alaskan cruises). We had an 8 hour train ride up to Denali National Park. The ride was beautiful! The scenery was ever changing from huge mountains to lakes to tundra to taiga to little villages. We loved it. It was a very comfortable ride too. The seats are on the second level (dining in on the first), and the train cars are all glass dome tops. You had huge views wherever you looked. It was amazing!

Upon arrival at the Princess Denali Wilderness Lodge, we walked into our room, dropped off our things and headed out to explore. We took the little shuttle into Denali National Park and hiked down to Horseshoe Lake. We didn't see any wildlife, but we did see a beautiful forest and lake.

By this point, the last shuttle was about to leave, so we hiked back up and took it back to the Lodge. We enjoyed a delicious dinner on the back patio of the restaurant which overlooks the Nenana River. The views only made the dinner better!

The next morning, we enjoyed a quick breakfast and then got ready for our excursion tours. Ryan was so excited to take a small plane over the summit of nearby Mt. McKinley. Unfortunately, it was drizzly outside and not safe for the planes to go, so his tour was cancelled. He ended up being able to watch the World Cup final instead, which he enjoyed. Of course, his tour was cancelled about 10 minutes after I left for my tour. I went to a dogsled camp! Even better, I was the only one on the tour so I got to ask questions that interested me. It was awesome!

The first part of the tour was spent with a young guy who is a trapper. He traps with his grandfather each winter, from October through January. They trap foxes, wolves, mink, wolverines and beavers. He showed me how the traps work, and I got to feel each of the animals. It was really a very interesting lesson. While there, they served me hot chocolate and fry bread which is basically a big doughnut without the hole. Yum! When this part was over, I got to go outside to pet and feed their pet reindeer whose name is Red. He was very friendly and cool to see.

From here, we went to the dogsled camp. The musher is named Bill Cutter and his assistant, Emily, was there too. Bill has run the Iditarod 20 times; to date it has run 38 times so he has competed in more than half of them. He said his first race took him about 19 days and 8 hours to complete, but his best time was just over 9 days. I was amazed you could cut that much time from this race! All the dogs were so excited to see me there because they knew it meant it was time for a run. They were jumping all around and barking. They got them all ready to go in front of this big cart (it would hold about 9 people - obviously not a real dogsled) and off we went. It was awesome! We just went around the block, but I loved it! When we returned, I watched them feed the dogs (for insurance reasons, visitors aren't allowed to touch or play with the dogs), and then Bill showed me all the stuff he uses for the Race. I saw the boots he wears (they were incredibly thick), gear he takes and the sled he uses. He has used the wooden looking one that you probably think of if you think of dogsledding, but a few years ago, they all moved over to acrylic sleds which go much faster. This was really a fascinating tour, and I am so glad I was able to do this.

When I returned to the Lodge, we had a quick bite to eat and then we traveled by bus to McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. This lodge sits about 40 or so miles from the base of Mt. McKinley, the tallest peak in North America. It's 20,320 feet tall - whoa! However, it was so cloudy when we arrived, you couldn't even see the mountain existed which was crazy. We had a delicious dinner and walked around the beautiful grounds for awhile before turning in for the night. However, we had signed up to receive a "mountain call." This is where Lodge staff call you if the mountain becomes viewable. Well, at 1:15 in the morning, we got the mountain call. I was utterly exhausted and decided not to go down to see it since we had seen such an amazing view of it on the plane ride back to Anchorage. Ryan was very excited though so he headed on down and got some good pictures of it.

Our wake-up call came about 6:30 that morning so we could ready and have breakfast before our excursion left at 8:00. We drove down to the river and got ready for our float down the Chulitna River. It was about a 17 mile float that took about 4 hours. There are no rapids at this part of the river, so we were able to bring our cameras and just enjoy. We saw a couple of eagles which was awesome. The mountain ranges were pretty visible most of the time too which we loved.

When the float ended, we were in Talkeetna which is a cool little town. We had lunch at the West Rib Pub which we had seen on Food Network's "Man Versus Food" show. Ryan had a caribou burger and I had a salmon filet; both were delicious. After this, we were able to just walk around town and do a little souvenir shopping.

About 4, the Princess train stopped in Talkeetna and picked us up for a 4 hour ride back to Anchorage. We enjoyed more beautiful scenery along the way. Ryan was even able to walk outside to the back of the train a few time to snap some pictures. This train still had the glass dome tops which was great, but we were assigned to a table instead of chairs. There we met Danny and Andrea, newlyweds from Missouri. We really enjoyed talking to them and getting to hear about their trip. We arrived in Anchorage Monday evening and checked into the Marriott (courtesy of reward points). We found another place featured on "Man Versus Food" called Humpys. At this pub, we enjoyed listening to a live band while we ate dinner. We picked up some cupcakes for dessert (you know I cannot resist cupcakes) and headed back to the hotel.

On Tuesday, we slept in and then thought we would take Danny and Andrea's suggestion to rent a car and drive down the Alaska Highway a bit. Unfortunately, Hertz was out of cars, and we didn't want to spend all day trying to find one, so we decided just to hang around town. We went to the Glacier Brewhouse for lunch. This was my favorite meal of the entire trip. Salmon encrusted with crushed macadamia nuts, an orange rum glaze with sweet cilantro infused oil and a mango ginger relish; put the julienned vegetables and jasmine rice on the side and you have a meal fit for a queen! Ryan really loved their delicious ribs too. We went to several art shops and saw amazing photographs and paintings of Alaska which we loved. By this point, the rain was starting to come down pretty hard, and we really didn't want to get drenched before our flight home, so we headed back to the hotel, hailed a cab and went to the airport; we had about 4 hours to kill but that was fine.

Our plane left about 7:30 on Tuesday evening, and we arrived at 6:45 Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, neither of us slept on the plane, so we were exhausted. We're still trying to catch up! The girls were so excited to see us when we got home. We arrived at the house about 7:30, and both girls were already up. As soon as the key clicked in the door, we heard Lily start running towards us saying "Mommy! Mommy!" Mia followed right behind her yelling "DaDa! DaDa!" They gave us huge hugs and were so so excited. It was great! Liz went out to get us Chick-fil-a while we gave the girls their presents and simply enjoyed being with them again. As great as this trip was, it was wonderful to be home.

Ryan and I are so glad we had the opportunity for this trip. We owe a humongous thank you to Liz who stayed with the girls the entire time we were gone. She had some weekend help from the rest of the Birmingham family and some weekday help from my parents. We thank you all so very much. We will never forget this trip, and we could not have done it without your help. We learned so much while we were gone and feel like our eyes were opened quite a bit. What an amazing world we live in!