September 27, 2020-Happy 9th Birthday Keaton! and Day 2 of Camping on the Beach

(click here for today's pictures)

We all slept great last night-you probably tend to sleep better when you are exhausted. Robby and I did keep waking up, but still felt rested and were always happy to see how much more time we had to sleep. He was worried about over sleeping so he woke up more often.

Our alarms went off around 6. Robby had a shower and then checked everything outside. Soon Wes was in his car, and we were pulling out of the bumpy casino parking lot. The parking lot was full of potholes-so most of the kids did wake up as we were pulling out.

I had already hung a birthday banner above Keaton and blew up a few balloons. Campbell and Anderson were awake next and helped blow up some more balloons. Our space is tight anyway, but you can barely walk with all the balloons filling the floor. 

Keaton was pleased with her balloons and sign. She was also pleased with her gift from Campbell-a new pink watching. Campbell also bought herself a matching one. Not too much happened this morning-the kids did some school. We watched the church house for a little bit.

Robby was about to have to switch driving with me at a stop light because he needed to go to the bathroom. Now, this means that he really had to go since I have never driven this thing-not even an inch. I offered a few times and was about to put on my big girl panties and drive this 40+ feet rig (camper and car). Thankfully for Robby and me, and everyone else on the road, we soon stopped at a gas station for a fill up. 

After the gas station, there was some more church watching and a short nap by me. My eyes have been killing me for weeks. They did in the spring too-they itch so bad I want to claw them out. Usually they get better in the morning, but I struggled with mine all morning long!

Keaton and Graham had a nap this morning. I think that I even did too. One thing that I did this morning that you can't do on a normal car trip, was clipping Reagan's toenails. Gracious me-those things were freakishly long. I'm not sure why I am still clipping my 15 year olds toenails, but at least it did pass the time for a bit.

Soon we were driving through the tunnel in Mobile. I guess it had been a while since we had been through the tunnel because I sure thought that it was much longer that is actually was. I mean, the kids couldn't hold their breath while driving through it, but it wasn't as massive as I remembered when I was a kid.

We picked a different toll lane than the Heltz and passed them the last few miles of the trip. We pulled into Camp Gulf just a bit before they did. We had to drive to a straight stretch to take the car off. We did pretty good doing that-of course all of this does involve Robby crawling around under it usually twice because we usually forget a step.

Then we had about 5 campsites to drive up before we made it to our site. There we took off the car dolly-again lots of rolling around under the camper for Robby. We shoved the car dolly into the grass before Robby had to back the camper in. It didn't take him any time at all to back in. We were in the perfect spot so he was able to turn down a side road to back up easily.

After we parked, we got hooked up and by then the kids were anxious to get their bikes and leave us. They soon found the Fergusons and the Heltz. Since they were all gone, only coming back occasionally to grab their swim suits, Robby and I kept working. We were doing good until I banged the mess out of the back of my head. I was under the camper mirror and stood up and soon saw stars. I can tell that I have a knot back there now!

That slowed me down a little bit, but soon we had most things set out. Then we walked to the beach. The beach was full of grassy stuff plus the water was a murky brown. That didn't stop my people. They love the beach and the water. I do believe that everyone enjoyed playing in the sand.

Personally I thought that the air was a little bit cool. It was actually nearing sunset when we were there so it was windy enough that I was shivering some. After about an hour, Reagan, Anderson, Graham and Keaton were ready to go. So I stayed for a bit longer with Whitman who was sad that we are not staying here for a whole week.

Everyone took a shower at the bathhouse. We didn't have little soaps and shampoos to carry over, but the kids still needed a good rinse. The bathhouses were super nice-though I am not a fan at all of the waterfall shower heads. I am not sure how I could ever get the shampoo out of my hair,

Once everyone was cleanish-we hung the lights around our tent and started cooking chili. It helped that I already had the meat ready so we just really had to heat up the chili. We ate and by the time we finished eating, the others all walked down here.

We used that as an opportunity to let Keaton blow out the candles and eat the cupcakes from Nonna and Pops. She was super proud that her birthday celebration lasted all day long. The Ferguson's even had her and Charlotte a present! They all stayed and ate cupcakes with us!

Then we stayed out for a while just sitting which I do think is the best part of camping. After all of this, we headed in to bed down. The kids were a bit tired tonight so we didn't have to ask twice for folks to lay down, I am going to take my shower now-nope, I am not going to the super nice bathhouses even though they are right across the road.

I plan to take a super hot shower with super great water pressure in my camper. But first I am going to take my contacts out-and put in more eye drops. Hopefully, what ever I am allergic to at home, is not here and my eyes will improve!





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