Point Clear, Alabama....2009

Vacation 2009....we loved every minute of it and did not want to come home! Pensacola Beach was first and then on Thursday of the week we headed to Point Clear, Alabama. On our way, we stopped off at one of our favorite spots....Foley, Alabama. They have good outlet shopping and of course....race car tracks. We knew that this year, Samuel would be tall enough to drive his own car....on the circle track of course. He got in line and did it one time and did great. Big laughs all the way around. Then Anna decided that she would like to give it a try....needless to say, JT and I were both shocked that she would want to do this. Below you can see both of the kids in their cars......

Samuel had a fast car....JT figured out which 2 cars were the fastest....leave that to a daddy...and then he told Samuel and Anna which cars to get into....

Anna was quite the aggressive driver! She would try so hard to pass whoever....and then look back at them when she did it....it was hysterical! She was very serious about this....

Then on we went to our next destination....Point Clear, AL. It is close to Fairhope....which is where my aunt and uncle used to live. Anyway, we knew that this place was going to be a little on the fancy side....we were just the right rednecks to hit it wide open! As we pulled up the enterance gate, the man asked for our names for check in....he told JT to follow the road around to the front. As we pulled 15 seconds away from the gate and to the front, there was a man standing waving to us...."Mr. Taylor, we have been waiting for you!" This blew Samuel away that we had not even told this man who we were!!!! JT parked the truck while another man took our luggage up to our room, and even offered to unzip our suitcase! Talk about being treated right....we were so out of place....but loved it for the 2 nights that we were there!

Then of course, the kids could not wait to get to the pool....to be honest, JT and I couldn't either. We had seen pictures....but pictures just do not do this place justice. The pool was amazing! Water fountains, water falls, water slides....there was even an adult pool and you had to be 21 years of age to even go into that area. You can see a small picture of the pool below....

Then we walked out the gate of the pool area and to the ocean, which was just steps away. The kids liked that there were no big waves....but the water was not clear....we were in the bay area. It was breath taking though....

Oh....this was the view from our balcony in our room....2 rocking chairs on the balcony....isn't this amazing?

On Friday, we got up and hit the water! Samuel really wanted to go kayaking....so that is what we did first. This was all apart of the hotel stay and experience...all right where we were....no payment for any of this....it was awesome!

Then Anna went out with Daddy. She could barely see over her lifevest...

Then Samuel again...he really got into having his own paddle. I was afraid he was going to whack JT with it....but he never did!

Then to the pool for the next 4-5 hours. Waterslide!!! Okay....so this waterslide was pretty big. Samuel went down by himself, but Anna wanted me to go with her....I was totally fine with that! She sat in my lap and down we went....it was so much fun! After that, Anna decided that she could go by herself....well with Samuel in front of her of course. SO...JT and I sat on the edge of the pool (3 feet deep) and watched them walk the steps to the top, then down each one came. They would swim to the side and go up again....literally, this went on for at least a solid hour. It was neat to watch them be so grown up....yet I wanted Anna to ask me to go with her again...just so I could down again! JT and I laughed ourselves silly when all of a sudden we spot two heads turning the curve of the slide into the pool....and Anna had come down in Samuel's lap!!! He was holding on to her.....it was so funny and others around us got a big laugh as well.....

Anna would hold her nose until she got to the water...and then let go before she went into the water. I think she had seen some other girls doing that....so she gave it a try.

We even ate lunch at the pool. Talk about service. These people would walk around and take your order...then bring it to you. We decided to eat under one of the table umbrellas as to get out of the sun for a bit....so I went and ordered and within 5 minutes our food was on the table. The server told me not to walk away from the food because the seagulls would dip down and get it if no one was sitting at the table. There were seagulls just perched waiting to eat. We ate our lunch...and then back into the pool. After another couple of hours, we made the kids get out for a break and we had some fruit and a lemonade. Talk about refreshing.

So after about 5 hours of outside, we pulled the kids out of the pool and headed back to the room for a lay down time. We loved walking into the room...beds all made, towels freshly stacked....and the housekeeping had arranged the kids fuzzy friends on the bed so cute....see below. In this first picture there's Pink Rabbi, Piggy, Pink Bear, Benji, and Puppy.

In this picture there's Jaguar, Pink Rabbi #2, Blue Bunny, and Ninny.

Then all of a sudden we heard a band playing?! We look out the balcony and here comes this band holding the flag. Each day at 4pm, this band plays and marches and then they fire the cannon into the ocean!

After short rest, we headed out to have dinner and then came back to walk the property some. They had small little ponds everywhere and fish jumping, fountains, and ducks. The kids really tried to chase the ducks....here they are trying to sneak up on some ducks.

They are precious...most of the time....

This is Samuel taking a picture....he did pretty good!

Me and the kids....

Anna taking a picture of Samuel and Daddy....

From 8pm-10pm, the hotel would arrange for everyone to come out and make S'mores. They built a fire in the pit and roasted marshmallows....of course, our kids do not eat those. Samuel only eats the chocolate. Anna eats all the ingredients of the S'mores but separately.

We absolutely had a wonderful vacation and made lots of memories. We are already looking forward to our next adventure together....hopefully to come sooner rather than later. Thank you to JT for working so hard so that we can take vacations....we are proud of you and love you bunches....