The Essential Alabama Beach Shopping List.

Last weekend, we took a quick trip down to the beach to visit Chris’ Aunt and Uncle, who happen to live in one of the most beautiful locations in our state. I relaxed and didn’t take too many photos – just a couple of the kids acting adorably endearing,   doing vacationy things like drinking […]

Ten Tips for Vacation Rental Owners.

1. Do not decorate your rental condo with fake fruit. Because if you do, your renter’s kids will do this.  All day, Every day. And their parents might or might not remember to run them through the dishwasher before they leave. (The fruit, that is.) 2. Even if you typically have short-term renters, do not […]

Collaborative Vacationing.

(Also known as “The One Where I Force You To Look at All My Vacation Photos.”) (You’re welcome.) It all started in 2008, as a grand experiment in co-vacationing with another family, our friends David and Ashley. We each had a baby – Ali was 18 months, and AJ was 21 months.  And they were […]

Mysteries of the Deep.

Hi! Noah here. So last weekend, The Servant Who Calls Herself Mommy and that guy she hangs around all the time took me to this weird new place. And let me just say – it didn’t taste so hot. It was kind of like the big bathtub I told you about last time, but even […]

Sleep is for the Sleepy.

First of all, may I defend ourselves… We don’t vacation an extreme amount – I promise!! We just take quite a few small, weekend trips during the summer rather than any extended trips. We actually haven’t taken a week’s vacation since…our honeymoon 9 1/2 years ago. (From which we shamefully came home a day early […]

Communal Beach Living.

I’ve realized something during our vacation this week: our society has it all wrong. We’re making this parenting thing much harder than we have to. We need to go back to the days of communal living, whenever that was. Because you know what? Parenting three children with four parents is a WHOLE lot easier than […]

The Innocence of Childhood.

We arrived at the beach today, and due to some last minute mix-ups, we ended up with a major condo upgrade, thanks to our very hard-working rental agent, who I’m pretty sure did nothing for the last 24 hours except try to get us settled. When we arrived to the 19th floor of our amazing […]

Chauffeuring Royalty.

If you can hear my gasping for breath through this post, it’s because I’m running around the house trying to frantically finish up packing because my hubby has vacation fever and wants to leave tonight instead of tomorrow (which does have the benefit of no-during-nap car rides, so I’m not complaining a bit). We’re headed […]

My One Rant of the Year, Brought to You by BP.

We live 4 1/2 hours from the Alabama Coastline. We have always adored the beach, and, thanks to the fact that we have relatives that are locals, we are fortunate enough to get to come fairly often. Alabama was not blessed with much coastline (I personally feel that is due to Florida being a bit […]

Ali’s Top 10: Vacation Edition.

10. Making biscuits with Pop.. In all shapes… Even if she DID have to share the fun with Eli, or as she named him for the weekend, “The Short Friend With the Curly Hair.” 9. Pillow fighting with Gramamma, Nick, and The Short Friend With the Curly Hair. 8. The Tide Pool, also known as […]