Formal Beach Pictures

One beautiful evening we went out for more formal pictures and we had a fun time with it. Here are a few of the better ones out of a ton. I will have to post some of the really funny Eden expressions and poses sometime. She really isn't into having her picture taken but she did relatively good that evening with a little bribery=)

Eden sitting on a swing that was right outside the condo overlooking the ocean. She loved to swing on this swing all week long.

She was turning around to say something sassy and I got this.

I loved the sunset that night. It was gorgeous!!!!!

She is such a mess. She pulled this pose out over and over again. She cracks us up!!!!

They had a wedding on the beach earlier that evening and Eden even got to see the bride and flower girls. She wanted to sit in the "pretty" chairs.

Dolphins

Tuesday afternoon we went for a dolphin tour. If you know me at all you know I love dolphins. I did a huge research paper on them and always wanted to be a marine biologist growing up. Eden was really excited about going to see them and excited about going on her first boat ride. The tour was an hour and a half and we saw lots of dolphins. With this tour you go with another boat so when you come across the dolphins, the two boats increase their speed and create a huge wake behind the boats that the dolphins love to play in. It was so much fun and Eden loved it so much. It was actually really, really reasonably priced and so worth it for us. It was a perfect afternoon and the dolphins really showed off for everyone.

Michael and Eden as the boat was pulling out of the marina.

Eden and I enjoying the breeze on the back of the boat. I told Michael not to go to the front of the boat because I knew the dolphins would be jumping in the wakes behind the boats. So we had excellent viewing=)

Some of the wonderful dolphins showing off for us.

Love this picture of these two jumping together. If you notice their bellies are pink, apparently dolphins bellies turn pink when they are excited, and playing and jumping excites them.

Eden standing on the side watching for dolphins. That's the other boat behind her. Ours looked just like it.

Love this picture. They are so cute together=)

Eden driving the boat. All the kids got to take a turn. Our deckhand, Tom, was very good and was great at explaining things and making sure the kids could see and were having fun.

The three of us on the way back to the marina.

I have some great video of the dolphins too but I have not uploaded those yet so I will post those at a later date. All three of us really enjoyed this activity and Eden LOVED her first boat ride. She already says she wants to go again=)

Eden Jumping into Pool

After many, many days of Michael and I trying to get Eden to jump into the pool she finally decided to do it for him towards the end of the week. The pool we have by our house for some reason does not have stairs so you have to jump or be lowered into it so Eden has jumped a little bit to me but Michael has never seen her. Well the pools at the condo all had stairs so she refused to jump in until the very last two days. I think she only did it to impress a little teenage boy that was being really nice to her and she wanted him to watch everything she did. It was so cute and he was so friendly to her and us. He actually got her to put her head in the water too=) Here is a picture of her jumping and a video.

One night after swimming and dinner we went to hunt for crabs on the beach with our flash light. This was a popular activity for after dark with the kids. Lots of people were out hunting too. We finally found a little one and Eden loved it. She kept saying it was the cutest thing.

You can barely see the white crab. It's trying to climb the bucket.

Night swim. Eden loved going down at night.

Beach Vacation 2011

Michael and I decided to take a beach vacation this year with just the two of us and Eden before we have another little one. We went to Ft. Morgan which is right outside Gulf Shores. We had never been there before but we had heard it was nice and we loved it. Our condo was great and the weather was perfect. We never had rain during the day, it only came one night and we had the most awesome lightning storm with it. The whole week was pretty lazy. We got up, ate breakfast, went down to the beach for several hours then came back up for lunch and then headed to the pool for the afternoon. A few nights we went out to eat and other nights we ate in and went swimming again at night. Eden could not get enough swimming in for her taste. She would ask at any spare second if she could go back and swim. She only took one nap the entire week we were there. She slept great at night in her bunk bed. We had the absolute best time. I have a ton of pictures so here are just a few.....

Eden building a dropped wet sand "sand castle".

Our last days sand castle.

Eden playing in the sand the first day. She kept herself entertained great this year. She played for hours in the sand and just running in and out of the water. It was wonderful!

Michael and Eden the first day, actually on Father's Day (a nice way to spend a Father's Day is at the beach).

One of her favorite things to do was to get water in her buckets and run it back up to the drier sand and wet it or pour it on herself.

First sand castle of the week. Nothing really, just tiered.

Eden chillin' in a chair, taking a break from the sun.

Eden begged for us to bury her everyday. Our Little Mermaid the first day.

She liked for the little waves to get her. She did not like it in her face or to taste the salt water=)

She also enjoyed laying down and letting the tide wash over her. She thought it was so funny.

Carrying her bucket again. She seriously did this over and over again.

Michael's turtle sand castle on day two.

Eden modeling her hat.

Buried again and wearing a dress this time.

Of course we had a little melt down. She dropped her bucket in the surf and it was washing away from her. She completely lost it and of course daddy rescued the bucket=)

Sand Castle number 3. Actually a castle with a bridge.

Getting braver and braver. She really enjoyed the beach and the ocean this year. Last year she hated it and only wanted the pool.

A little hermit crab Michael found out in the ocean. Eden loved seeing all the little critters running around there. She also loved to hunt for seashells and of course collect them ALL.

Eden finally let Michael take her out in the waves. She didn't really like it much because she would get splashed and have to taste the salt water.

Eden trying to pose beside the sunset. I really enjoyed the beach on the evenings we were out there.

Another shot of Eden on the beach. She was so cute in all her swim suits and she got super dark while we were there and her hair got lighter and lighter.

We had a terrific time and it was such a good relaxing trip. We were never rushing off to anywhere and loved all the time we had with one another. What a blessing!!!!!