Spring Break 2021: Alys

Spring Break means one thing for our beach and pool girls- ALYS BEACH! We invited our parents along and headed south!

On the road

Sweet baby girl always wants to be close and is always thinking about mama

First night is always George's

Cress couldn't go to bed without having at least putting her toes in the sand

Bunk beds are such a fun highlight/ treat of beach houses. Thankfully, this house had four, so the girls didn't have to fight over the top bunk. They thought to bring their galaxy lights too and had so much fun with them, setting the mood in their room!

Breakfast of donuts, of course

Cressey's trike was such a life giver on this trip. She LOVED it, and it gave her such freedom and confidence.

We found this cool dragon at the end of the trail toward the back of the property.

"Strawberry milkshake" is Cressey's fave (virgin strawberry daiquiri) 

Dinner at Edward's

"Look, mama, I made a space to hold your drink!"

After a sunburn, we were trying to talk Cressey into liking a long sleeved sun guard with her different patterned swim bottoms. FINALLY, Cress said, "I decided I like my fashion. I'm fashionable." 

Cressey is obsessed with these turtles

Shopping with my girl for the morning...but when you bike to shop, you can only carry back what will fit in your bike basket!

Major parent fail this trip. For our first experience out in the sun, it was early in the morning and pretty breezy and chilly, so we snoozed on sunscreen. Poor babes got toasty.

A sleepy little sis

They rode everywhere together- so fun

This girl would put her shoes back in this drawer every time she came home.

A bike ride in our pajamas

Mermaid school thanks to HG

Drinks all around!

Water guns that Spiffer and GD brought were suddenly turned around and used against them!

Mermaids!

 Fondue at La Crema is a MUST

Beach hair don't care

Proof that I actually worked out on vacation for the first time ever

The Adamses came down to get donuts at Alys and told us to come on over to the donut truck to say hello. When we got there, Kate had made a new little friend in line, and she wanted to meet Kate's friend, Cressey. I said hi to the precious little girl and then turned to speak to her dad- it was Thomas Rhett! He could not have been nicer and more down to earth. I was so impressed! Always been a fan of his and am even more of one now! And then Kate caught a ride over to our house for a bit...

 

We had a bonfire on the beach one night with our friends from school. We had a very special surprise guest- Cressey's teacher, Ms. Amy! Cressey had invited her teachers to the beach with us for weeks. Ms. Amy had other plans, but when they changed at the last minute and she came to the beach instead, she reached out to ask if she could join us and surprise the girls. Cressey was PUMPED!!!

Crab hunting is AWESOME

Lunch in Rosemary

Grandma bought Cressey this mermaid tail, and she thought she was HOT STUFF in it.

Dinner at Loca

It was freezing this day, but Cress was convinced to get in that water again in her mermaid tail.

She couldn't leave the Alys Shoppe without coming out in a whole new outfit (thank you, Daddy).

I got some push back on our annual pic (as always these days).

Finally. That'll work.

Gotta speak to the fish in Florala

Cressey surprised us all by falling asleep on the way home. HG felt so bad that her head was dangling that she tried to rearrange her, but then her arm got stuck!

This is Cressey's newest celebration dance. We couldn't love it more!

Cressey's Turn to Ride

For the last few weeks, Cressey has been expressing interest in horseback riding. Since she'd never really been on the back of a horse on her own, I asked HG's teacher if she could have a quick little try to see if she even liked it before I signed her up for lessons. She graciously squeezed us in right after HG's ride one COLD day, and you would have thought that Cressey was already a master by her talk; however, she was scared stiff from the moment Large Marge moved her foot. I don't think she expected to be jostled so much. With Susan holding onto one leg and HG (who was a fantastic cheerleader) on the other, she managed to walk from the side of the ring to the middle. Then she was READY to get off, and her quivering lip exploded into a huge smile and gushes of how much she loved it. 

Not so patiently waiting for her turn

Last minute pep talk- she was still excited

And then Marge started moving- HG is on the far side

This process took MINUTES just to get to the center of the ring, tiny step by tiny step

But she was so excited!

Ok, great, now she has the bug and asks to ride EVERY SINGLE TIME WE GO TO THE BARN. But there is a long waiting list for lessons, so we just have to take a single lesson when we can. Here's her second time. She was PUMPED and was assigned to Elvis. She got to do all the tacking, and it made my mama heart so proud to see that she knew SO MANY horse vocabulary words. She's obviously been listening to her sister! Her excitement lasted until she had to throw her leg over the side of the horse. Then she panicked. Sweet Erica helped convince her that she could do it and gently lifted her into the saddle. She held her leg and started walking with her toward a letter on a far fence post, while Cress kept asking, "You'll hold me, right???" But before she knew it, she'd made it to that fence post, and they changed direction and started toward another letter. Soon, Cress got comfortable and a smile appeared. She was LOVING IT! She wasn't ready to get off at the end of the lesson- both because she was having fun and she was not happy about sliding off the saddle! She helped clean Elvis up afterward, and I had to practically drag her out of the barn. She's eagerly awaiting her next lesson!