Soakin' Up the Sun...

From Left to Right: Cecily, Hannah, Chelsea, and Ariel. Upon our arrival to Gulf Shores. My girls were very excited about this trip and were thrilled to get here. And I have to say so was I. Because it finally gave my girls something else to talk about besides which one of them is Mrs. Lisanka's most favorite (outside of her own children, of course). I don't even remember how that all started, but for about the last week and a half my girls have been fussing about it. Today, I secretly told them both (individually) that they were the favorite, but they could not tell the other because then they would lose their favorite position by default to the other. I think it worked!

So, my post title says we were SOAKIN' UP THE SUN: Yeah right!! More like freezing our you know what's off --but we still managed to get sun burnt, so I guess that does qualify us as soakin it up! Spring Break would not be Spring Break without hitting the beach. Therefore, today we went with one of my best friends, Lisanka and her two daughters Chelsea and Hannah. Actually, we probably, in all honesty, would not have gone if it was not for my friend Lisanka telling the girls she would take them, and if you can't tell already, they adore Lisanka and take her word as gospel, well almost. At first I was not for going b/c 1) IT WAS COLD, and 2) I still had not bought the girls new swimsuits for this year. But like I said, the girls were like, we have to go, Mrs. Lisanka said so. Have you ever had two girls bug the stew out of you? If you have, you may know why I said what I'm about to write. So we went, and I have to say that I am 100% glad we did. It was an all girls day! It was also the girls and I first trip to the beach this year and even though it was FREEZING COLD, we had a blast. It really was a great day. I spent just about the entire time under a towel shivering. (I now know that I can never live anywhere that has snow! This is cold enough for me.). It was fun watching the girls have such a great time with their friends. Ariel told me this morning before we left, that she likes being around Chelsea because Chelsea is like a big sister to her. She is a good girl that she can look up to. I thought that was really sweet, and Chelsea is that.

Here are some pictures. Yes, can you believe it, I remembered my camera. Yeah for me! But let me forewarn you, when I have a camera, I kind of go a little crazy, b/c I never know, it may be another year, before I take another set of pics. So here are a bunch!

Here's me freezing. My lips were chattering and I was shaking trying to get sunscreen on the girls. As a side note, my vanity almost did not allow me to post this picture, because it makes me look like I am 1,000 lbs., but I just have my legs up in the fetal position as much as possible trying to warm myself. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Ariel trying to get warm by being buried.

Here's Cecily. I wish ya'll could see her purple lips.

While at the beach Cecily, Hannah and Ariel (a little bit) decided to make a huge hole. When I got home and started looking at the pictures; I think they might have been trying to build a sand jacuzzi. Lisanka and I noticed Cecily working VERY HARD trying to fill the hole with water. Here are some pictures of her efforts.

Ariel, Cecily and Hannah building their "sand jacuzzi".

We forgot to bring sand buckets and shovels, so Cecily tried to fill her "jacuzzi" with water by using her hands. When she realized that wasn't going to work, she became a little more inventive...

She got her pink croc! Bless her heart, by the time she got to the hole, the water had mostly seeped out of the "holes". We have to give her an "A" for effort though.

So much for Hard Work!

While Cecily was working on this with Hannah, Ariel was off trying to "Catch some waves"!Ariel riding a wave out! She had a blast. There was a red flag today, so there was A LOT of waves and rip current, but Ariel took it on.

Here are some pics of Cecily, Ariel and Hannah that I liked:

Hannah posing for the camera.

Cecily and Hannah hamming it up for the camera.

Ariel and Hannah posing for the camera. For some reason, call me crazy, but this picture reminds me of the closing credits of Little House on the Prairie where Laura and her sisters are running in the field. I know, I know...CRAZY!

Ariel said to me when she saw me posting this, "I hope no one can tell that it says: "KEEP OFF"! I think it will be okay, Ariel. LOL.

As for the next few pictures, I just loved them. Maybe it's because of the people who are in them. I realize I took a lot more pics of Cecily. I think it was b/c I was freezing and Cecily was close to me for most of the day, so I did not have to move much!

It appears as though I'll be hitting the beach again sometime soon in, what I hope will be a warmer future. I told the girls that the next time we go, I promise that I would get into the water. But today, it was just to cold. Here's to soakin' up the sun!