No Way, It Can't Be

Sorry, but I'm just not believing the calendar says tomorrow is August 1st. There is NO WAY it can be this close to the end of summer and beginning of another school year. Where has time gone?

I've had one heck of a fun summer and I sure don't want it to end. Our weather has been very nice for laying out, going to the beach, swimming and other fun outdoor stuff. It's hard to believe leaves will be falling soon and I'll be back to wearing shoes and socks. Wait, NO.....I refuse to think about that quite yet.

Our vacation this summer to Gulf Shores was the highlight of June. My sister-in-law from South Carolina just left after visiting for a week. That was our highlight of July. I'm anxious to see what the highlight of August will be for the memory book.

What about you? Have you had an enjoyable summer? Are you ready to move on to cooler temps or are you wishing Summer would last forever? Regardless, I hope it's all good.

A Chance to Win!

Have you ever read Megan's blog "In this Wonderful Life"? She's got a great giveaway going on right now. Click here and find out how you can possibly win.

Good luck!

Saturday and Sunday Stuff

Boy do I have a lot of stuff planned for Saturday and Sunday to get ready for company that comes on Tuesday. I always tend to wait til the last minute. I guess you could say I work best under pressure.

I'm super excited because my sister-in-law from South Carolina is coming for a week long visit. Normally it's a family trip, but this time it's just Terry. I'm super duper hyped about it. I'm going to take Wed, Thurs and Fri off work to spend quality time with her.

What do we have planned, you ask? Well, not really much of anything except for Wednesday. We can come and go as we please. Olivia may choose to join us or not.

On Wednesday we will be going to a HUGE outdoor flea market in Shipshewana, IN. It's only open on Tuesday's and Wednesday's during the week so the timing is perfect. We'll leave in the morning and come home mid to late afternoon. I didn't go at all last year, so I'm anxious to go next week.

Back to this weekend: I have cleaning to do. You know, the normal before company arrives. I need to sweep, dust and clean the bathrooms. Terry will be staying in Olivia's room so Olivia has a job ahead of her this weekend too. Her room is a P-I-T pit!

I'm hoping to get most of my chore list accomplished Saturday so I don't have to do much to do on Sunday. (It's my birthday). Then I'll just do last minute stuff on Monday and Tuesday after work.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

It's Picture Time

Here are quite a few pictures from our trip to Gulf Shores. I had some trouble putting them in order. Ugh! Rather than mess with it any more, I figured I would just publish this post and be done.

No doubt about it, we had a great time. I can't help but smile when I look back at all the pictures I took. It's a great trip down memory lane.

Our Vacation in Gulf Shores, AL

Hey, guess what? I'm finally take some time to blog about my vacation to Gulf Shores, AL. So, without further delay, here's how our trip went down:

Day One: Friday, June 15th - We left home about 6:30 am and caravaned with my brother's family south to Alabama. Late afternoon we arrived at my uncle's house in Huntsville where we would be spending the night to split up the 15hr drive and visit with them.

Day Two: Saturday, June 16th - We finished the trip south and arrived in Gulf Shores (Orange Beach) later afternoon. Our condo that we booked online DID NOT meet our expectation so with the help of the property management, we found another condo to suit our needs. The problem was we would not be able to check into the new place until the following day. Knowing we wanted to spend as little time as possible in the condo, we headed out to eat while they sent a special cleaning crew in to re-clean the unit.

Day Three: Sunday, June 17th - Knowing the new condo wouldn't be available until mid afternoon, we did what all vacationers do....we headed for the pool. The weather was perfect so it was the right choice. We did NOTHING but lounge and swim until it was time to move. Upon entering the new condo, we were more than pleasantly surprised. It was AMAZING. Way beyond what we expected. Everyone (9 of us in our group) was over-the-top thrilled. After our shock of the new place wore off, we once again got into our bathing suits and hit the beach (we were gulf front) and the pool. Since it was Father's Day, we went out to dinner and celebrated when we got back.

Days Four, Five,Six and Seven: June 18th thru 21st - Honestly, these days of our vacation were spent relaxing. Our biggest decisions of these days was whether or not we would go beach side or go pool side. Oh yeah, and where would we go eat dinner. We enjoyed the gulf and the pool and split our time between both. I just can't put into words how peaceful and relaxing this was. We did manage to hit up some of the souvenir shops which was super fun too.

Day Eight: June 22nd - This was a sad, sad day. It was the day we left. Rather than split the trip home in two days, we made the drive straight through. It was a long day, but we were glad to get home and have 2 days before our work week started.

It may seem to some like this was a boring vacation, but let me tell you, it was EXACTLY what we all needed. A bunch of nothing. We are so happy with the way the week turned out that we can't wait to do it again. It was an unbelievable fun time.

I have a ton of pictures, but I think I will save those for another post within the next few days. I can't wait to share them with you. I love looking at them and have done so over and over again since we've been home. I smile real big when I do. Gosh, it was such a memorable time.