Our week in rewind

Sorry about some photos cut off & large. Blogger wouldn't ever upload photos from my phone to my account so I had to text them in & it cuts off some (like the loveseat which has cup holders & a storage place in the middle). Here is our last week in rewind~ Saturday (yesterday) I was looking online for foldable water bottles & came across something that said Dollar Tree has them. So Retha & I headed to Springdale to see if I could find some. SCORE I found them & only $1. They should work for any more Silver Dollar City trips we have planned. And much cheaper than the $5.99 ones at Silver Dollar City or the $9.99 name brand ones I found online. Then I decided to stop at Funiture Factory Outlet & check out prices of funiture since they were having a big sale. We need living room furniture badly. Honest, I only wanted to price check. However I left with a truck load lol. Couch/Loveseat. Recliners on ends of both pieces so the whole family has a recliner. The loveseat also rocks too. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!! We like to have never got them in the house, but finally they fit thru the door (after taking the backs off..........how nice they make them so that can happen)

Friday We swam & I finished a book from the library

Thursday We were going to take a friend of Steph's with us to Silver Dollar City however our free guest passes were for after 6pm only so I had to call & let her know. However in a couple weeks our next set of guest passes are for all day & it's still before school starts so we'll be heading back just me & the kids (with Steph's friend). Chris comped off work so he was able to go with us, he will not be going when I take the kids so that means that we will be able to go into Branson & do a quick outlet mall shopping before SDC. :) Oh and it rained FINALLY!! We needed it because we have our own golf course course looking backyard from lack of rain. It's so green where it is because that is where the water runs from doing backwashes on the pool.

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Wednesday I met up with 3 friends from highschool in Springdale for lunch. Laura is so good about setting it up every summer. After I came home from lunch we swam :) Tuesday I pinned some peanut butter cookies on Pinterest & they were GREAT!! So easy & I had all 4 items I needed to make them on hand. We swam.

Monday We swam, yes we FINALLY got our pool ready after vacation & have been enjoying the water each afternoon. Sunday Relaxed all day to recover from the garage sales over the weekend. We loaded up almost everything & Wallace dropped it off to Salvation Army for us

Our Monday (a couple weeks ago)

My car needed an oil change a few weeks ago. Good thing we brought books & the dealership has computers to use (or play games on). We were there for two hours.

Outake Fun

I know I normally only show the best of my photos on here, so I thought it'd be fun to show you some of the rejects outakes. You'd think my kids after 17 & 13 years would be used to me taking photos of them & be more "helpful". I mean for goodness sakes I even have a tag on the front of my car that says Mama-razzi.

Logan (yawn) "So bored"

I actually like this one, but they are goofing off so much I included it in this post. Steph "HA HA"

Steph "Wonder if mom will notice my hair all over my face?"

Steph "I don't mind my hair, I don't think mom will care either"

Eyes shut

Logan "Wonder if she'll go away if I pretend she's not here?"

Geez wheen is this gonna be oveer?

Steph "YIKES! What was that?"

Logan "Oh Stephanie, it's only mom taking photos AGAIN"

Beach Vacation Day 7 & 8

Day 7 (Sat) We headed into Gulf Shores to go to Souvenir City which we think is the best souvenir store in Gulf Shores. Once we got back home & ate lunch we went down to the beach to do some sand dollar hunting in the water. A couple boys were finding one after another so we wanted to get on in the action. We found some along with some large shells & a clam shell. Enjoyed reading under the canopy & round 2 of photos. This time the whole family got in on the fun.

Day 8 (Sun) Before we left everyone but me (again) saw the fox. Of course no one got a photo of it :( We left for home at 8:00am (had to stop to drop keys off at rental company & for gas in Gulf Shores & left Gulf Shores about 8:30-8:40. There was a lot of I-40 construction out of Little Rock so Chris decided to try coming home from south AR. We usually stay on interstates & come up from Mississippi into Memphis on I-40 into Little Rock. The road in south AR in the past was 2 lane & you would always get stuck behind slow drivers. Well they have changed it all to 4 lanes & we had smooth sailing & ended up getting home at 9:11. Fastest time EVER for getting home.

Beach Vacation Day 5 & 6

Day 5 (Thurs) We stayed at the house all day (meaning we didn't drive into Gulf Shores which is 22 minutes one way). We loaded up the crockpot for our pulled pork sandwiches & enjoyed the day by reading, napping, & sitting on the beach. Neighbors in the next canopy started feeding seagulls & FREAKED me out. So Chris & I headed back up to the house. Later that night Chris & I went back down after dinner to enjoy a long (mile & half) walk on the beach. We found lots of shells. Steph twisted her ankle skim boarding earlier in the afternoon.

Photo of Wallace (Chris's dad) but look at the people in the background to the left (green swimsuit) They were the seagull feeding neighbors.

Day 6 (Fri) Naps, beach fun then a break for dinner then back down to beach for more fun. Sand dollar hunting (I found 1).

Beach Vacation Day 3 & 4

Day 3 (Tues) We set up a canopy that we bought just for this trip. It was great shade & we all loved not having to lug beach chairs down/back to the beach/house every day. We left them down under the lowered canopy each evening. Not sure why it's taken us so long to get one. We stayed down at the beach from about 11:00am to 4:00pm (with a short break to eat lunch back up at the house). That evening we did round 1 of the photos with the kids. From staying at the waters edge all day & Logan hardly under the shade any he did get a little sunburned. Mainly on tops of shoulders.

These are my favorite photos from round 1.

Day 4 (Wed) Shrimp basket for all you can eat shrimp. I was the only one that had chicken strips this time. If you haven't figured out yet, I do not eat seafood of any kind. After lunch we all went to the scrapbook store that's in Foley. Retha & I have made a stop there each year for the past 2-3 years. Then we went to the outlet mall there in Foley (basically just around the corner). The guys, & kids headed to the ice cream shoppe, Chocolate Corner, on the way home. Retha & I stayed at the mall & went to a few more stores then stopped off at Walmart for a couple more things we needed.

Beach Vacation Day 1 & 2

I look forward to the month of June so much each year because once the calendar page flips from May to June it means our annual vacation to the beach is fast approaching. So this year was a little different. We didn't get the house we normally have stayed in the past years. We did find one for a little bit more & just two streets past the old one. It worked out for the best. More comfy furniture, & a couple lots closer to the beach. WAY better views of the ocean than the other house also. Downside was it was smaller & the second bathroom was downstairs by parking but it all worked out. It rented Sun to Sun unlike the Sat to Sat we were used to, however traffic was much better going & coming so that all was great too.