all shapes & sizes

that's what blessings come in. and it's exactly what this trip has been...a blessing!

So I have taken over 300!!! pictures in the last 4 days! Gees Louise! I kind of feel like the paparazzi running around. Little boys with sun kissed skin, beaches, & sweet moments really make for great subjects! I would like to post some pictures with details below. I don't like to post with slide shows because if I am ever blessed with the gift of my blog in book form...the slide show wouldn't be something that would transfer. I plan to do a slide show in another post and delete it later.

1st I must give you a little background on the sweet family we are here with.(little brother was at grandmas)
Many of you following us at Living to Love have seen them sprinkled throughout our blog posts. Many of you probably wonder every once in a while, why we have such a bond.

It all really started with our church. For some reason, Pam (the mom and only female of the 5) and another great friend Stephanie are really nice to lots of people and I a happened to be one of those people. It really started when I babysat here and there for her 2 boys after I worked in oldest brothers class at church on Wed. nights. Not too long after, I got engaged. Pam and Stephanie threw my church bridal shower! It was GREAT! So, Pam and I have known each other for almost 5ish years. The past 2 years though (once little brother was born) I began to spend much more time helping with the kids. It has gone far beyond helping with the kids and has developed into lunch dates, deep conversations, some of the most supportive peeps with our adoption of Harrison, encouraging one another, and still us truly loving on their kids!

...just put it this way...our families have taken a great liking to one another and that in itself is a wonderful blessing!

Pam knew she wanted to go on vacation this year close to where her mom lives in Gulf Shores, AL but she also knew that her hubby has a demanding work schedule and it would be helpful to have someone to tag team it with until he could make it! So..here is a taste of what great fun we've had this week! This post will contain yesterdays (Thursday's) fun! The big boys got here late Wed. night so we had a full day yesterday so we could make the most of their time here! 1st...we were all quite excited about "Mistah Bwandon's" arrival! We jumped right into the fun first thing in the morning!




I thought this was a classic boy photo! On our afternoon shrimping/crabbing/oystering/dolphin watching escapade, we also were supposed to see who could spot the most wildlife on our clipboards! Middle brother was some-kind-of-serious about it! P.S. I highly recommend doing this. It was AMAZING ..the boys and us adults enjoyed all that Capt. Skip told us and showed us. Dolphins followed us the whole time. When we pulled the net up for shrimp the boys got to sift out anything that wasn't shrimp (and there was lots) the dolphins hung around to partake of what we threw out! We were totally up close and personal!
We had 2 dolphin tour boats following OUR boat because that's where the dolphins were! You can see the corner of one of the boats above.

Capt. Skip and the boys right before he used that thingamajig to scrape up some oysters!
My boy...sitting back and enjoying the ride!

We topped it off by a fabulous dinner-outside-while the sun was setting!
With a little tic-tac-toe action mixed in!


That was our wonderfully full Thursday at Gulf Shores! I am going to post Wed. sometime this weekend. Brandon and I are heading back this afternoon.


P.S - I am embarassed to say how much time this took me to post with bloggers issues! It is just important for me to have these memories..cause I have yet to finish a scrapbook :o)