The Wilsons: July 2009

We enjoyed our 6 days in Orange Beach. Each day, we hit the beach early and stayed until lunch. These mornings were filled with building castles in the sand, collecting shells, riding the waves, and looking for fish and jellies. Judd became a champion net fisherman and spent many hours trying to catch those slippery little suckers! We would then switch gears and go to the outdoor pool where we would swim a little before eating lunch in the condo. Soon after lunch, we headed back to the beach and stayed until late afternoon. We made it over to the outlets in Foley one afternoon. Cole was as miserable as could be having to shop, so we tried to make it as quick and painless as possible. We still made it back to OB to get some beach time in that afternoon. I think the real reason Judd liked Foley is because it had a Milo's restaurant! We always made a stop to the indoor pool before going back to our condo. This was as much to wash off the sand as it was to relax in the hot tub! Getting ready to go out was always so much fun- washing away the sand, salt, and sunscreen. We each had sunkissed faces and brown bodies to show for our day in the sun.

Days at the beach...

Ready to swim!

Building the fort

The MCM Fort, complete with moat!

Daddy's catch

Back to work

Looking down at the gang from the condo

The Phoenix V pool

Our view of the beach from the 15th floor!

An aerial view of the fort (in front of our umbrella and chairs)

No trip to the beach is complete without a few pictures

Enjoying snowcones poolside!

Helping Daddy fish

Cole's method of building sandcastles from start to finish

A joint effort

One night, we went to the Track, a place to drive gocarts. It was girls versus boys on the "Wild Woody" wooden track. As Mary Conlee can attest, the girls beat the boys, however the boys are claiming disqualification. We'll just let them keep whining...we know the truth!

Another night, we ate dinner at Calypso Joe's. This was located on the marina in Orange Beach and we saw many nice yachts and fishing vessels as they were coming in from a day at sea. The hermit crab races were fun at CJ's- but mainly because the kids both won! Thanks to our friends, Causey and Bounds, for the great tip to go there. We will make that one of our usual spots. We headed over to the Wharf to ride the ferris wheel. To put it mildly, Judd didn't enjoy the ride too much. This made the kids and I laugh because he would have never made it on the parasail.

But our favorite nightly excursion was to go "crabbing." We brought flashlights and nets, but the water was much too rough to catch the blue crabs that are found at the shoreline. However, we found a much better kind of crab--the sand crabs. These white creatures built their shelter in the sound and were spotted by the whole that they made with their bodies. A hole in the sand was a good indication that a crab was hiding there. We found two the first night, but it became harder to spot the next few nights. Judd was convinced that the moon was partly the reason. The first night, we had a full moon. But the rest of the time, it must have been a "new moon" because it was nowhere to be found. I need to go "Google" his theory!

One night, we went to Pensacola for dinner at the Wilson's. Mama Charlie fixed the best pot roast and veggies for us. We enjoyed time with the cousins and brothers/sisters-in-law. The last night we were in OB, Bob Bob and Mama Charlie came over and we went to LuLu's in Gulf Shores. The owner, Lucy Buffett, is the sister to singer Jimmy Buffett. The hour-long wait was definitely worth it because our table was right up front near the stage. Judd especially enjoyed the live entertainment by island local, Brent Burns. We had a great time visiting with family!

Nights on the town...

Getting ready to eat at Calypso Joe's

Feeding the fish in the marina

Getting ready for the crab races

Game on!

Do you think Santa would bring us one of these?

The Wharf

Waiting to ride the ferris wheel

Having fun at the Wharf

What is she thinking?

For some strange reason, Judd never let us go to the infamous FloraBama...but I did get my photo!

Playing games outside LuLu's

Mama Charlie and Bob Bob made a trip to Orange Beach

Enjoying the music of Brent Burns

Looking for blue crabs

We loved crabbing until 10:00 at night!

For our last day in OB, we went to the beach before coming home late that afternoon. As much fun as we all had, the kids were ready to come home and check on Brody. We think he missed us, too. We are already talking about all the fun things we are going to do next summer. But Judd says that parasailing is still out of the question. We'll see...

Picking up Brody from the vet

So excited to have him back with us!

On Thursday morning, we packed it up and headed to Orange Beach. The kids were so excited to play in the waves, the sand, and most of all to stay in a condo, or "combo" as Cole calls it. As soon as we checked in and unloaded our things, we ran straight for the beach. It was late afternoon, but we just had to get some sand between our toes. I love the ocean, but I am on constant "jellyfish patrol." Apparently, I must have had a traumatic experience with one as a child.

First view of the beach from the balcony

We brought nets to use for catching fish by day and for crabbing at night. As soon as I began wading into the ocean, I spotted my first jellyfish. I made a quick run for the shore and grabbed a net. Now I won't go in without one. I must catch all the jellyfish and rid the ocean of these stinging beasts. I caught several small ones and Judd said they were of the "nonstinging" variety. Is there such a thing as a jellyfish that doesn't sting? After we had caught 3 or 4 of these, Cole braved it and stuck his hand on one of them. Daddy was right...they have no tentacles, so they don't sting. Cole and Mary Conlee thought it was awesome to hold a jellyfish, so we spent the remainder of the day catching them. You can imagine the spectacle it caused when bystanders heard the kids yelling about jellyfish. We stayed to watch the sun set over the beach. It was breathtaking!

We woke up this morning to two very excited kids ready to go. I asked Cole what time the alarm clock said when he woke up. He said there was a 5 in the front. I bet! We got to the beach by 9 and rented chairs and an umbrella for our trip. This is a must! I began my quest to catch jellyfish. Cole was the first one to spot one and as he grabbed it with the net, he also caught a very small fish. He and MC had fun creating a habitat for them in a bucket. We then found a larger jelly and Mary Conlee had the most fun keeping it company. The kids were more excited to build sandcastles than swim in the ocean. Judd stayed in the water the whole time!However, I did spot a large jelly with extra long tentacles that hung out of the net. After scooping that one right up, we took it over to the sand and gave it a proper burial. MC and Cole said they chopped it into a million pieces.

Phoenix V condos

Our setup for the trip!

Dad waving from the top

A running start!

Loving the beach

Catching jellies

MC loves the waves

Catching a jelly

MC loved holding the jellies

Building a castle

Judd learned to float like this from his mom

One of the jellies and the little fish Cole caught

Cole is excited about the habitat they created just for jellyfish

After coming back to the "combo" to eat lunch, we decided to make reservations in Gulf Shores for parasailing. Ever since Cole's friend, Woody, came back from the beach telling his tales of parasailing, that is all Cole and Mary Conlee have wanted to do. They were determined to parasail the minute we arrived. I went parasailing on our honeymoon in the Bahamas. I was the brave one and Judd "supported" me from the boat. He likes to call himself the photographer so he won't have to go up. Luckily, they had a triple harness, so the kids and I could ride together. Our condo is on the top (15th floor), but we would be going much higher than that.

My original plan was to go the minimum 400 feet in the air. But as soon as we reached the Parasail Tiki Hut, the workers had me convinced that we wouldn't be able to see much at 400 feet, so I got suckered in to going 600 feet. That was my limit. Judd was none too happy about my change in plans, so we decided not to tell the kids. We suited up in our life vests and waited for our turn. We rode a banana boat, which was a huge tube towed by a Sea Doo. This transfer boat carried us out to the boat that would take us up. As we reached the boat, Judd said, "Oh my goodness." What was it? The name of the boat was High Anxiety. This couldn't have been more perfect. This is exactly how he felt. He couldn't believe the mother of his children would do something "so wreckless and foolish." He said his job was to stay on the ground and carry on the family name, whatever that means! We climbed into the boat and went away from the shore. They slipped each of us into a harness. It was basically a seat belt for your legs that went behind you and attached your life vest to a cable. The "captain" asked if we wanted to go 800 feet instead of 600. Absolutely NOT! I did use a little good judgement! Cole, MC, and I moved to the back of the boat where our harness was latched to the cable. We sat down on the back ledge. As the boat went forward, we started going up backwards. I could hear Judd and see that he wasn't watching us. I think we got several feet up before he began his photography. It is a very smooth and slow ride. At first, we all loved it, but the higher we got, Cole kept saying that he was going to get sick. "Don't look down," I told him. But that is exactly what he did. He kept asking if we were all the way up. I told him that we were nearly there, knowing that we had so much higher to go. It was fun looking down at the ocean, over at the shoreline, and into the clouds. Luckily, we didn't see any sharks in the waters below. Mary Conlee loved it so much she started waving her hands in the air. She said she was flying. And indeed we were! This annoyed Cole and he told MC to keep still. He was the nervous one, although he didn't cry or scream. He was the voice of reason...the voice of Judd in the sky. "Please, rope, don't break. Don't break, rope," he chanted. MC said she loved how her feet looked like baby feet hanging down. Our entire experience was no longer than 8 minutes. Cole was relieved when I told him they were bringing us back down. As they were reeling the rope in, they dipped us in the water. Of course, Cole and MC were worried about sharks nipping at their toes. We made a running landing on the back of the boat. Even after we were unhooked, in our seats, and safe...Judd was still pretty shaken. A friend of mine likened it to watching your whole family dangling from what essentially is a kite. He agreed with that. And after we were down from our flight, I found out that Captain flew us the 800 feet in the sky, not the 600 feet we requested. After a quick calculator conversion, I found out that 800 feet is the same as 73 stories...wow. Cole was glad to be down, but MC said she would go again right now and would like to go "ten hundred" feet the next time. Judd said she might look just like him, but she acts nothing like it. I agree fully! When I asked Cole what his favorite part of parasailing was, he said going down. When asked if he would go again, he said "yes." Now, the hard part...getting Judd to go with us!

On our way up

The captain doing his job

I'm surprised Judd was able to film this!

Here we are, even higher!

800 feet of line

Proof we did it!

Coming down

He dipped us in the water. Watch your toes!

We went back to the beach for an afternoon swim. By this time of day, many beachgoers are in a really good mood. They have been sitting on the beach all day enjoying themselves a little drink. There was a big group of teachers from Louisiana next to our chairs. They seemed pretty tame this morning when we left for lunch. Upon our return, they were dancing with walkersby and started their own rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama" with some college boys. MC was fascinated by this and wanted to know why they were yelling "LSU" and "Bama" back and forth. We combed the beach for some shells and decided to go to the indoor pool. It had three hot tubs and the kids went from pool to each of the hot tubs.

Back at it again!

Aww, how sweet. "I miss Brody." That's our Mae Mae

Swimming in the indoor pool

Taking a break

We went to Gulf Shores for dinner. Afterwards, we went to The Track for some racing...girls against boys! We rode double karts on the wooden track. In the end, the girls won, but Judd said he slowed down to let us win. I don't believe him and neither does Mary Conlee! We came back to the hotel, which was after 9:30 by this time. We got our nets, buckets, and flashlights to go crabbing. Most nights at 10:00, my kids have been in bed for over 2 hours. But not on vacation! We enjoyed fireworks that were being shot off from the beach. The waves were too rough to find any crabs along the shore, but we did catch two ghost crabs in the sand. As soon as we took pictures and let them go, they would begin to scurry sideways and the kids would scream with excitement. What a great day we've had and we are looking forward to more adventures in Orange Beach!