Happy Monday and back to reality day!!! Last Monday we paaaaacked out the car and headed to Orange Beach Alabama for Gulf Shores! It was our first time visiting this beach and we will most certainly be going back! This year we also brought along a friend for the first time! RyAnne’s bff Airyanna joined us! It was so wonderful having her as a part of our family for the week!

The last time we went to the beach, in October of 2017 for Fall break, my PPD (postpartum depression) kicked into high gear. It was one of the worst trips to the beach I’ve ever experienced. As you can imagine just coming out of my PPD and being away from everything “normal” and all of my routines, I was a nervous wreck that it would hit me again. I prayed SO much about it leading up to this trip. I prayed that God would just prepare me in every way possible for this vacation that there would be NO way I could be depressed!

And guess what?! I felt SO prepared and ready and thankfully, even with the challenge of an infant on the beach, I had an amazing time with my family!

Our first day of our trip was spent at the beach ALLLL day long! I didn't take any photographs that day. I just sat on my beach chair and took it all in! It was glorious! The water was the perfect shade of emerald and the sand was so pretty and white! While it was a tad bit chilly it didn't stop of from having a blast! The next day we headed to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo. We saw lions and tigers and bears!!! They didn't make any photos BUT I did find some pretty birds! lol The peacock and swan made the cut!

Right about here is where things got interesting! And funny! I laughed SO hard. The girls are having a blast in the water and jumping waves and then they got really still. I could tell they were trying to focus on something in the water. . .

They RAN out of the water screaming "SHARRRRRRK!" OMG! I calmed them down quickly before any of the beach goers got too nervous!!! It was a sting ray! A bunch of them! They were happily ridding the waves with the girls! 

Rocco did really good this trip! While it was challenging keeping him from eating the sand that he wanted to grab at, we took turns holding him and keeping occupied!

You might have to look hard on this next set of photographs but you will see in the distance a dolphin jumping straight out of the water!!! Olivia was completely oblivious!! We saw dolphins every single day!

We visited the Gulf Shores State Pier on one of the prettiest days! We also visited the Gulf Shores State Pier. While walking out we saw a dark mass swimming around a fisherman's line that was in the water. I asked him what that was. . .He said, "It's a shark trying the eat the fish I'm catching!" Gulp! We saw several! 

And just in case you ever wondered how close a shark will get to the shore. . .with people in the water. . .That dark mass, yep! That's a shark!!!

In the photo above, Rocco was so tired but was fighting his sleep! There was too much to keep up with for him to sleep! Although that boy did take some awesome beach naps in his daddy's arms!

On our last day, I was looking out the window and all the sudden I see a FLOCK of birds show up and they are squawking so loud! Then I started to see them going after something in the air! Our neighbor below us had a bag a Tostito's and was launching then in the air for the birds to catch! lol Naturally Trey had to get a part of this action too!!!

I'm so thankful that my family and I got to take this trip and have some "down" time! I'm also thankful to be back in my daily grind!! I think when you get to take a break every now and then, you appreciate your daily routine so much more and you're given the opportunity to reflect on how you can make it even better!