What a Week!!

My parents are in Mexico and Belize for 8 days, and guess who's wearing the babysitting hat? You guessed it...ME! I've had my brother and sister (Anna Grace {9} and Max {almost 4}) since this past weekend and will give up my sisterly duties on Sunday when we meet them at the airport and head straight to Orange Beach for a week (with them, might I add). My step-father has a conference there all week so they invited us to tag along and we're staying at my favorite beach spot (lucky us)!

I've begged my mom for a couple of years now to cut Anna Grace's hair. She's still at the age where she's not into fixing it every morning...she's perfectly happy with getting out of the shower, brushing it, and letting it go from there. And with hair half way down your back, it can get a little out of control! After all my begging and pleading for a haircut on AG's behalf and getting shot down with every attempt, I decided to take it upon myself to cut it. My mom is going to KILL ME but it looks so much better!! The running joke is that if I cut AG's hair when she's ever with me then the next time Towns is visiting them she's going to have Towns' hair cut and add BANGS. I'll just have to take my chances...in my eyes I've done a good deed and AG loves her new look. That's just what you get when you run off and leave me in charge of your kids while you're enjoying a lavish 8 day vacation. You know what they say about payback...

Here's a before picture (you can't see her hair very well, but you get the idea)...

And here's an after (she's pinky promised to straighten it every morning)...

Maybe I should put this in a Ziploc for my mom?

Bethany was with us Sunday-Tuesday and she seemingly had a great time. She and AG get along really well and they're extremely excited to be able to spend the next week at the beach together. I'm so upset that I didn't get many pictures of the two of them at their finest while B was here, but there's always next week!

Speaking of next week...if you're looking for a super fun place to vacation (with or without kids) you should go to Phoenix on the Bay (see link at the top of this post). It's self contained entertainment...you never have to leave unless you want to eat out! And you don't even have to do that because all condos have a full kitchen. We're addicted. This will make our 3rd summer to go. I stumbled upon it 3 years ago while searching the internet for a place to stay at the beach, and back then it was a hidden treasure because not many people knew about it...but now you have to book way in advance. The only down side is if you're a huge fan of the ocean and sand because it's on the bay. I could completely do without any of that because even when we stay on the beach I park myself at the pool, so it's great for us. We make one trip to the state park beach just for the kids and other than that, they're 100% satisfied with all that Phoenix on the Bay has to offer! We never hear "I'm bored" from them which is music to our ears! We spend all day playing, go to dinner (or cook or grill out - they have grills near the putting green), and then go back for more water action until everything shuts down at 10 p.m. (obviously we get a whole lot of bang for our buck!). The place is shaped like a V with the widest part facing the bay so that every condo has a view of the bay and the pools/lazy river/slide/etc. These are pictures that were taken from the condo we were in 3 years ago....

Looking to the left from our balcony....

You can see the lazy river, the slide, and behind the slide is a secluded pool if you want to stay away from the action.

This was looking straight out from our balcony...

The pool on the right is the main pool and one part is completely covered by a giant umbrella that you can see in the next picture....the tiny one on the left is the baby wade-in pool that's only about 2 feet deep.

The main pool (the part covered by the umbrella is about 4 feet deep and has a ledge by the wall you can sit on).

This is the view to the right from our balcony...

Part of the lazy river, the view of the bay with boat slips, and the green part is a putting green.

I'll leave you with a cute picture of Max and one of AG, Max and Towns ready for bed on the pull-out couch...

We miss you Bet-ny...wish you were still here!!