More of Orange Beach...

We stayed at The Turquoise. It was huge (plenty for our gang) and was very nice! When we arrived, Dad and Clark went to the grocery store and everybody else hit the lazy river. If you notice in the picture, Elizabeth is the only one wet! She's the only one because as she was climbing in hers flipped over--it was hilarious!

The first night we made fish tacos. I'm going to include the way my sister does them, because they were SOOOO good!

Get tilapia or a similar fish and coat it in olive oil and blackened redfish seasoning. Grill it about 5 minutes on the first side and 3 to 4 on the next. Pull it apart in chunks when done. Put it on a tortilla with shredded cabbage (or lettuce), white cheese, and guacamole. It was supposed to be served with rice and black beans, however, I put both of these things on my tortilla.

For the black beans:canned black beans, rinsed. put them in a pot with a little water and a couple of tablespoons of chopped cilantro and 1 1/2 teaspoons of cumin. (both my kids loved them)

Guacamole:2 avocados; 1 tomato, seeded and chopped; 2 tsp garlic; 1/4 cup of so of cilantro; 2 tsp cumin; pinch of salt; juice of whole lime; mix and chill

My May and Bo Bo took the kids to the beach at 7 a.m. every morning. Soon, everyone else would straggle down. (notice they are in their pjs still)
After beach time, we hit one of the pools. Here Bo Bo and Baby Leigh are getting in some good snuggle time while watching the older kids!

The second night we ate a Lu Lu's. The food was good (don't get fish tacos--make them--Elizabeths are much better) The kids had a blast dancing and playing in the sand.
They had a great park on top of the 4th floor. All the kids had fun!
This was so funny...Leigh was sitting on the raft and would kick her feet as hard as she could. Then, she would pick her feet up and look at the bottom. And laugh and laugh...
We got to see Justin, Rebecca, and Graham for a few minutes! I'm so glad they were down at the beach and had time to come over! It was fun to catch up!
Since we didn't go to Atlanta for Katie's birthday this year, we celebrated again--a little late!
Leigh's favorite thing was jumping off the side--I wish I counted how many times she did this! Gotta be in the hundreds!

This was the slide at the indoor pool! I have no idea what changed in SB, but she became quite the swimmer! She raced down the slide and swam under water and had an absolute blast! So glad I paid for those "swim play" lessons!
The third night we went to Calypso Joe's--another good place to take kids! My oh so neat SB got very dirty! She thought it would be a good idea to jump over a puddle--well, she didn't make it! Fortunately she acted very mature and didn't freak out--she just wanted her hands clean! I'm glad it was on her backside where she didn't have to look at it the whole time!


Calypso Joe's has a great place to look at boats and feed the fish! Here the fish were getting some leftover coleslaw--yummy!
The last night we got steamed shrimp from Lartigues--delicious! They did a very good job seasoning them. I ate at least a pound myself! We also had all the usual things with a shrimp boil!

Anyway, so much fun...can't wait for our next family vacation! Mom, Dad, and Sara (who aren't used to daily chaos) may not say so, but I thought it was kind of relaxing--even with 4 little ones!