Delightfully Tacky, Yet Unrefined

Here I am - a 30 year old woman, having just returned from a four day Vacation at the beach with her husband, son and best friends in the world - and I must tell you that on Friday, while taking a break from the sun of Gulf Shores, I had my very first eating experience at Hooters. I am not sure exactly what I expected, but I certainly didn't expect all the stories of, "Really, Hooters is all about the food!" or "Seriously, the wings are so good, you don't even notice the scantily clad women serving them to you!" to actually be true. But they are. My Cheeseburger? A solid Nine. Our server on the Voluptuous Scale? Negative Two. The eating experience was, in fact, so pleasant that Jenni and I walked away with our very own T-shirts. Nice.

This past Thursday afternoon, Phillip, Jack and I (along with Grandma Dee Dee, who had been staying with Jack and me for a week while Phillip was out of town) packed up the Explorer and headed to Fairhope, Alabama - Phillip's picturesque hometown and about a 40 minute drive from Gulf Shores. Following closely behind us were a very Jake-less Phillip and Jenni Denny. (Jake stayed home with Jenni's parents for some spoiling.) Before I dive into all the stories and pictures from our wonderful trip, let me just go ahead and happily announce that even though Jake stayed in Nashville, The Denny's were not baby-less on this trip. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Denny's are expecting BABY #2!! Woo-Hoo!! If you know the Denny's at all, then you know this is good news...these are two people who should definitely continue to pro-create. We are all thrilled, and can't wait for February when BD2 is scheduled to arrive! (I think it's a girl, so I'll let you know when they prove me right.)

Needless to say, we were all ready for some relaxation, so on Friday morning we left Jack in the capable hands of Dee Dee and Grandbuddy and the four of us headed for the beach! We decided to add a little excitement to the trip by wearing co-ordinating sunglasses from Dee Dee's Ginormous Lens Collection, Circa 1972. Our trendsetting style and all-out coolness will no doubt be heralded by beachgoers for years to come:



I am happy to say, however, that despite the above photo, we did actually clean up pretty well for dinner that night at Gambino's - a little "family" owned Italian place on the Bay.



And as you can see, as the four of us were out galavanting around town, Jack was having his very own relaxing vacation without us:

He even made a new friend at GrandBuddy & Dee Dee's house, a seemingly close relation to our very own Stewart the Wagon. This tiny fella has come to be known as "Stewart Little".



One of the coolest parts of our vacation occurred on Saturday and Sunday. One of Mr. Duncan's co-workers graciously offered us the use of his pool while he and his family were out of town. Let me just say that it was paradise. The weather was gorgeous and the pool was just luscious. The nicest pool I think I have ever seen. It was a saltwater pool (I didn't even know they existed), and it was so nice to be in the water most of the day and not smell like chlorine! It really was fantastic spending time in such a relaxing, beautiful place with such special, beautiful people!

But - the action really got underway on Sunday afternoon when Jack stopped by to play. He LOVES the water:



He also posed with his Daddy:



And then posed some more:



Wow. It's hard to believe that our trip has already come and gone. We really crammed a lot into four days - playing in the ocean, swimming, soaking up the sun, eating Oreo Delight, going to see Batman Begins (which was fantastic), drinking lots of coffee, throwing the frisbee, staying up really late, missing Jake, doing a little cruising around town, shopping (just Jenni and me), eating some more, the boys boxing on the PS2, laughing, talking about stupid stuff, talking about really important stuff, eating again and perhaps a little sleeping here and there. Each moment is forever seared into my memory. Thank you, Lord for my precious husband and son, for my wonderful in-laws who treated us all like royalty, and for the Denny's - our sweet and treasured friends who really aren't just friends because they're family.

And more to come on Spencer's birthday weekend, which I promised - like, last week.