Last week was a pretty normal week. For the upcoming Labor Day weekend Ryan and I were planning on going to Lincoln for a few days. I had to work on Thursday and Matthew had baseball practice Friday so we were planning on leaving early Saturday.
I was trying to figure out what to do with Peanut while we were gone. Ryan pulled me aside and said that our plans weren’t exactly what I was expecting so I didn’t need to worry about Peanut. Then I found out that he called the office that I was working at on Thursday and told them that he had planned a surprise trip for me and asked them to find someone to work for me. Then on Thursday he told me to pack my bag for warm weather and include a swimsuit. He came home early Thursday afternoon and I found out we were going to start our trip to Gulf Shores!
He had made arrangements and worked out all the rides for the kids activities while we were gone. Ross and Lauren helped out a ton with getting them to school Friday and watching them the rest of the weekend. I have heard great things about Gulf Shores and mentioned that I want to go there sometime so Ryan rented us a fun little condo right by the beach. We packed up and headed for Alabama.
Thursday we drove a few hours and actually had dinner with a work client of Ryan’s that he has become friends with. After a nice dinner and visiting for a while we stayed the night in West Plains Missouri. Ryan woke up early the next morning and packed the car back up and we continued on our way. We drove his Tesla, so when we stopped to charge we went on a walk or shopped a little or grabbed something to eat. It takes about 15 hours of driving to get there plus charging time. I enjoy a road trip so I am glad he decided to drive instead of fly. I was able to see two states that I had never been in before as we drove through them-Mississippi and Alabama. Ryan said he was excited to get there and get checked in so he wanted to get to a fun recommended local restaurant by six Friday night.
We talked and listened to music, napped, and enjoyed the scenery while we drove. Sometimes when we go traveling I like to send pictures to family or friends and have them guess where I’m at. I asked Ryan if he had told any of my family and he said no, so I started sending them ‘picture clues’ of where we were going. They had some good guesses but no one got the exact spot. Once they had figured out it was on the coast in Alabama we were just pulling up to the restaurant where we were going to eat so I sent them a picture of the sign, ‘Lulu’s’. After they sat us at our table Ryan went to the restroom, I was looking at the menu and I got a text on the family thread I had been on. I looked to see and it was a picture of me sitting in the restaurant. I thought Ryan had sent the picture for some reason but then I realized the sender was my sister Sherri. I looked around and sure enough her and Kenny were sitting at a table across the room. I was pretty surprised! I usually figure out surprises before they happen so it was fun to have no idea where I was going on my trip until we left and then have one of my sisters there as another surprise. We joined them at their table and I was happy to find out that they were there for the weekend too and were going to stay in the same condo. We talked and enjoyed the rest of our dinner then went to check into our place.
These are some of the pictures I sent my family so they could guess where I was. 
This is the picture Sherri sent me of myself to surprise me.
The town motto at Gulf Shores is, “small town, big beach”. It fit perfectly. They have done a great job at keeping it a smaller, family friendly, laid back little beach town. The houses were bright pastel painted colors like a lot of beach towns. They were also up on stilts. Kind of different but the ground floor on all the houses was just support beams and the house was up in the air. The underneath area was used as a garage. Our condo was down the main street kind of separate from the main tourist area, surrounded by houses. It was on the far side of the road from the beach so we literally had to walk across the road and we were at the beach. We were up on the 17th floor and had a gorgeous view of the beach and town.
The view from the balcony. 
This is what I saw when I walked out of my room in the morning. So pretty!
I had never been to a beach at night so I wanted to check it out. It was so dark we could see the Milky Way Galaxy and a ton more stars than usual. We had a hard time finding the stars and constellations we usually could because there were so many more.
Night walk on the beach 
We had a very relaxing nice weekend. We tried out some local restaurants, slept in, napped, read a book on the patio, walked on the beach. We tried an Escape Room. We technically didn’t pass it due to a glitch in a door. That was not our fault and we would have finished in plenty of time if it had worked so we counted it as a win. I finally talked Ryan into trying a pedicure, all four of us got one together. Ryan was not a fan, Kenny loved it. One of the nights we ordered a pizza from a local place and watched a bunch of Friends reruns. The beach had a flag up for moderate waves, and jelly fish. There was a hurricane on its way in from the Bahamas so the usually calm gulf waters were not so calm. By moderate they meant 8-10 foot waves. Ryan and Sherri did some body surfing. We were all amazed at how fast it wore you out just to stand in the water. Ryan and Sherri were stung by jelly fish, they were just little ones that felt like a little sting or shock. They left a red mark but it wasn’t to bad. Sherri and I saw a few of them along the beach, they were only 1-2 inches wide. We also saw a sea turtles nest and lots of crabs. I collected a few shells to add to my collection. I now have a little jar with shells from Florida, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and Gulf Shores.
Jelly Fish Sting 
There was a strong rip tide that also exhausted you quickly. 
body surfing 
huge waves 
Getting ready for his first ever pedicure 
Found a “poop” donut for Allison. He didn’t taste very good though. 
Kenny told us if we saw a Bucee’s we had to stop. It is the biggest gas station ever basically. There are over 100 pumps for gas too.
Ryan had gotten an air mattress that fit in the back of his car. We decided to start heading home late Sunday when Sherri and Kenny went to bed then just stop and sleep in the car while it charged when we got tired. We also wanted to stop at a place called Mammoth Springs, and not get home to late so we could see the kids.
Ryan sleeping on the air mattress in his car.
Mammoth Springs is a huge natural spring-almost 10 million gallons of water per hour come out of it. The water is a really pretty blue, and the whole area is pretty. It is speculated by some that this area is the place that Alma baptized and hid with people from King Noah in the Book of Mormon. It seemed like a plausible theory to me.
This is where the water is coming from, it is so deep that you can’t tell though. 
They built a damn and had an electric generator working for many years. 
I thought the mattress in the car wouldn’t be that comfortable but it actually was. We took turns sleeping for a bit then we both slept for a few hours. It was pretty handy. The Telsa keeps the A/C going too so your comfortable temperature wise too. Ryan was pretty happy with it. In fact, there is a camp out with Matthew this weekend and the two of them decided to sleep on the mattress in the A/C cooled car instead of taking a tent.
It was a very nice weekend. It was good to see the kids when we got home. I started planning out a family trip to go back there this summer with the kids. I think we will stay in the same place and have lots of beach time. There were a lot of things we didn’t get to that the kids would enjoy too. There is a battle ship and Ferry crossing and some other fun stuff. There are lots of different ice cream shops we need to sample still too. Ryan did a good job surprising me for my birthday.