One Love: Gulf Shores 2010 Part 2

We had a blast at Gulf Shores this year. Ellie absolutely loved the beach!! Last year we couldn't even get her to stick her hand in the sand. This year... we couldn't get her out of the sand!! In fact, we had to promise to buy her a sand box for the house just to get her in the car to leave and come home!! Wow. Is she spoiled or what?

Let me set these pictures up for you. On Tuesday, the girls didn't play until late that afternoon so we had all morning to play in the sand and in the water. Josh was feeling under the weather, so Ellie and I couldn't help but go outside on such a beautiful day. I hated leaving him behind, but it gave him much needed peace and quiet. Anyways, there wasn't hardly a cloud in the sky! It was probably 70 degrees or better and the wind was somewhat calm that day. In front of our condo, we had these tiny tide pools that built up when the tide came in over night. This was just perfect for Ellie to play in by herself. Most of it only came up to her knees, but some parts came up higher. The water was freezing to me, but Ellie never skipped a beat. She just walked through it like she was walking through air. She also made friends with some college girls that said in our condo building. Apparently we haven't stressed "stranger danger" to her yet. Anyways, she walked up to them and said "I'm Ellie. Ellie the princess." They laughed and she started to pick up sand with her shovel. Knowing what she just did to me (pour sand on me with her shovel) I quickly told her "NO NO". They talked to her for a few minutes and Ellie tried to talk back. She was so excited about playing in the sand, she could hardly talk straight. It was really cute. Well, let me just get to the pictures. That's what you really want to see anyways.

Daddy and Ellie on the balcony.

Ellie playing in the sand

Finally a picture of her face!!

Digging for something

Here is where she is pouring sand on me and the camera. I, of course, didn't realize that was what she was going to do until she already did it.

She finally discovered the water

I guess she was hot and needed to cool off

Just playing around

Just walking up and down the beach

Her favorite spot!

That night in the room watching her DVD

Well, the next day the girls lost out in the first game of the tournament. So we had most of the day to play in the sand. It was really cold because it had rained all night and morning. We really wanted to get her out again since that was our last full day there. We bundled her up in her sweats and us in ours and we ventured out. The wind was cold and so was the water. Again, that didn't stop Ellie. She acted like that water was bath temp. Josh and Ellie built a sand castle and had such a great time.