Rolling Waves, Sand Between Your Toes, & Wind in Your Hair

I love Gulf Shores!  I had a great week at the beach with family.  I always especially enjoy spending time with my older brother, Bruce.  He won our annual Backgammon tournament this year...it's always pretty even.  We also played Mexican Train Dominoes and Skipbo with everyone.  Since he has been battling fatigue recently, I did a lot more cooking than usual by preparing all his meals.  Thankfully, he worked up the strength to join me walking on the beach and floating in the ocean almost every day.

Playing in the sand...

Next weekend I'm crafting all weekend with my stamping friends at a local craft retreat.  Life is good!

Happy Stampin'

“Shore” Enjoyed the Beach! – Gulf Shores, AL 2012

For quite a while, my dad has been renting condos or a beach house in the Gulf Shores/Perdido Key area for the extended family to enjoy.  I love this area…the beach is big and clean, the waves are great, and the rentals are nice.  We are big game players in my family, and I managed to play all my favorites at least once with various family members: Mexican Train Game dominoes, Racko, Skipbo, Wii bowling, Wii Pictionary, Jenga, and Backgammon.  We even did a Murder Mystery game one afternoon.  My big brother and I swam in the ocean every evening when the sun got lower.  I just had to bring my Stampin’ Up! beach towel!  Every year we get some cool logo items we can buy.  I’ve had this towel for at least a couple of years.

There were more than the usual nests of loggerhead turtles this season.  One was bound to hatch the week we were there, and sure enough it did!  The volunteers dig a trench for the turtles to travel to the waves from the beach nest.  It’s a long trek for a little turtle.  There was even a fox on the beach waiting, but he left because we were there lining the trench.  The turtles get confused by the lights on the houses, so the volunteers use red flashlights to lead them to the water.  I was honored when one of the volunteers asked me to take over her flashlight to lead the turtles.  She needed both hands to turn around the confused ones heading back to the nest.  I got to control the flashlight for quite some time and wound up crawling along the path leading what was left of the 118 baby loggerheads to the waves awaiting them.  I saw it through start to finish which was about 90 minutes long.  They journey to feeding grounds with lots of floating seaweed before returning as adults to lay eggs of their own.  Here’s the trench the next morning.

The beach house was big and every bedroom had its own attached bathroom!  The fenced private pool made all the kids happy…but  I prefer the ocean.  Here’s a photo of the house and a photo of me and my daughter on the balcony.   We’ll be back next year according to my dad!  Yay!

Notice the “Stampin’ Up!” logo on my sleeve…I wasn’t even trying to get that in the photo…happy co-inky-dink!