Matthew West - We Need Christmas (Official Music Video)

I just love Mathew West and his style of writing.  This is a new release and I really like it a lot. It's the start of the Christmas Season and I love to share Christmas songs - new favorites like this one and old favorites too! 

Weekly Menu

 I have no new and interesting highlights for this week other than we are beginning December.  I'm not even sure how that happened HA! Shoot, I haven't even made my December menu as of yet! 

Friday - We are heading back to my mom's for round too!  Yes - leftovers for the win!!! 

Saturday - Amish Breakfast Casserole, fruit, and asparagus

Sunday - Since we haven't had our "take out" this weekend yet, I'm thinking that grabbing food on the way home is nice (we did it last weekend and it was great!) Plus, we have different schedules leaving church right now since Nate and I stay for choir.  

Monday - Chicken and Dumplings and Salad

Tuesday - Chicken Drummies, crash potatoes, and green beans

Wednesday - Tacos!!! :-) 

Thursday - Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and Yeast Rolls

Kind of an easy cooking week to kick off the last month of the year.  I do need to get my December plan in place this week though as we have a busy month and I want to make sure that I don't have an excuse to just "grab pizza" too many times (or at all!!) 

Matthew West - Gobble Gobble (Official Music Video)

I shared a "Thanksgiving" Song earlier today that was a little more serious as we gather to give Thanks for all God has done.  

Well, now that we are all getting ready to eat I thought this was a much needed song as well :-)  Enjoy one of our favorites!! 

Happy Thanksgiving -- The Thanksgiving Song (Official Video)

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving Day.  With family near and far may it be a blessed day. 

Gulf Shores Alabama - Part 3

 Wednesday - As we did every day, we started out our morning on the balcony enjoying the view. :-) 

Once we left our hotel we headed on a road trip towards Pensecola Beach.  We stopped for lunch on the way at Bubba's Seafood House.   For me, this was my least favorite place.  Darryl loved his gumbo though and ranked it as one of his top favorites. 

It's kind of fun being so close to Florida :-) 

We enjoyed exploring in Pensacola - Something we didn't get to do in April because the bridge was out.  This was a Fish Market I had read about.  It was pretty cool - cases upon cases of fresh fish coming in on boats from the Gulf!  

We stopped at this neat park and saw this boat named "Jacklyn" - sure it isn't spelled the same but it was still cool.  From there we found a place to get a coffee drink before heading to Pensacola Beach. 

Remnants of the old bridge we think.  The bridge from Pensacola to Pensacola Beach was closed in April as it had been badly damaged in the last hurricane BUT it was finally opened again!! 

We snapped this photo heading into Pensacola Beach for the kids to see!!  I guess I didn't take any other photos!  We spent most of our afternoon out on the beach enjoying the sand and the water.  It was such a relaxing afternoon.  

We stopped for dinner at Carver's Steakhouse  in Orange Beach on the way home - it was our "fancy dinner" for our anniversary.  I loved my steak - it was amazing!  Darryl got prime rib and he's had better.  BUT, it was still fun to go out to a nice steak restaurant! 

Thursday - was another day of exploring! 

We started our day with lunch at King Neptune's.  We ate here in April when we came to Gulf Shores for the day and loved it.  It was really good but we both agreed we got better food for less cost elsewhere. 

We then went to Pirate's Island Mini Gulf .  This was a fun place that we really enjoyed and would do again! 

From there we took off exploring until we ended up in Orange Beach at a place called "The Wharf" where we found this great coffee shop called The Southern Grind .  It was hot and humid out!!  I got this amazing frozen drink instead of a hot drink and it was so chocolaty and good!  

We also picked up some sweet treats that were super tasty too.

We headed back to our condo for a while before returning to the Shrimp Basket for dinner since it was overall our favorite food.  

Every night we would see people on the beach with flashlights so we decided to go exploring too.  This is our condo building at night from the beach. 

There are these little crabs that come out at night that you can catch for fun.  Don't worry, you let them go when you are done! 

 These were photos I took earlier in the day of the birds "fishing" for dinner.  I just love the ocean and all the wild life that it brings. 

Don't worry, we aren't done yet!  There is still more vacation to share! 

Gulf Shores Alabama Trip - Part 2

 Monday - We started our day out on the balcony of our condo enjoying the view! 

Eventually we headed out for some adventure.  Our first stop was lunch at Sunliner Diner which was a fun looking place with what we hoped would be good food.  It was very good - huge sandwiches and great fries!  

After lunch we took off to check out Fort Morgan which was at the very end of a long strip of land.  I'm not going to lie - it was hot.  Really hot.  But we still got out and walked around the fort. 

Anytime we visit one of these amazing forts I'm always humbled to think about the men and women who served and worked on these groups so long ago.  Sure it was hot the day we went but it was nothing compared to the conditions those soldiers served in years ago. 

When we were leaving the Fort we happened to be able to catch the car ferry over to Dauphin Island. 

We were the last car to get on the ferry.  

We were able to get out of our vehicle and stand along the side of the Ferry to get some great photos. 

We wanted to tour Dauphin Island because it looked really cool.  Some of the attractions were closed or by reservation only thanks to Covid but we still enjoyed our drive around the island. 

That is all sand.  "Snow drifts" of sand.  It was crazy.  We aren't 100% sure but we think some of it this happened recently due to the most recent hurricane that hit but as we drove out to the end of the island we were amazed at the way the houses are just built on the sand right next to the water.  

The bridge from the Island back to the Mainland.  I'm not a huge fan of bridges in the gulf HA! 

We ended our long day of exploring with dinner at LuLu's.  Lulu's had everything from beach volleyball to benches by the water to wait until your table is done.  It was an hour wait which wasn't too bad since we could enjoy fun outside. 

Darryl tried his hand at a game outside for a bit until our table was ready. 

Now, I totally get that service is slower but we waited over an hour from the time we ordered until we got our food.  Our waiter was great though and we both got a free dessert due to the wait.  

I ordered shrimp and grits and it was really good.  I was impressed with the flavor and would order it again.  

BUT - this was probably the most amazing thing I ate the whole trip.  Lulu's famous homemade Key Lime Pie.  It was to die for - I would go back to Lulu's and wait an hour just for another piece of this pie!  

We finally headed back to our condo for the evening.  It was a great first day in Alabama! 

Tuesday - We enjoyed a quiet morning at the condo before heading out for coffee and breakfast.  I found a neat looking place in a tourist magazine called BuzzCatz that got really high reviews and had been featured on Good Morning America.  I got a piece of quiche and a cinnamon roll while Darryl got just a cinnamon roll.  He enjoyed a coffee and I got Hot Chocolate.  It was nice that we could sit outside as well.  The food was ok - not great but still enjoyable.  It was kind of a drizzly morning so enjoying our sweets and hot drinks on the porch of the cafe was really nice.  

After leaving Buzzcatz we stopped at Publixs to pick up some groceries before heading back to our condo.  We then relaxed all afternoon.  I kicked back in the recliner where I could enjoy the ocean views while reading but . . .it enjoyed an amazing nap instead.  Talk about a great vacation!  We did wonder outside eventually when the rain let up and walked down to the water.  We got to see schools (pods?) of devil rays swimming along the shore.  Finally we headed to dinner at the Shrimp Basket.  Talk about amazing food!  I got a seafood queso (that I shared with Darryl) and coconut shrimp.  Yum!!  Once done with dinner we wondered through some souvenir shops that were right next door before heading back to our condo for the evening. 

Our trip is really a much needed break from the reality of life and we were thankful (and are still thankful) that were able to do it!  More to come soon! 

2021 Weekly Photos #36

 A look back at our week! 

Saturday - I was able to enjoy a much needed scrapbooking retreat.  It actually started on Friday night but was only 15 minutes from home so I was able to come home to sleep :-)  

This was the view for the entire weekend.  It was so calm and relaxing! 

Nothing better than working with photos.

Sunday - We started with snow!  Then we had church and Nate had an event at his youth group. 

Darryl joined our praise team at church and it was such a blessing to hear him play again.  Since leaving Alive and losing his hearing in one ear, he hasn't played as much.  This was a great opportunity for him to step back into it again. 

Monday - School!  Nate also got to go to a birthday party with his best friend.  The benefits of homeschooling - you get to have over nighters during the week! 

Tuesday - Nate was at his friends for the morning still.  Then came drum lessons and piano lessons! 

Wednesday - Nate got to go with his youth group to deliver things that were collected for Treasures for Troops. 

Thursday - Just school.  

Friday - Our final day of co-op AND our presentation night AND Josh had a youth activity!  Pretty busy day.  

Nate took this fun shot in one of his classes today :-) 

 This was one of the speakers from last week in Nate's class that he really enjoyed. 

Our presentation night is a great way to showcase the work the kids did in class: 

Josh worked on this Dotz Art in his Art class with my mom.  All of her students loved her and her class. 

This was my Landforms class. 

And my Simple Machine's class

Josh loved his knitting class.  Actually I think all of the students loved it! 

Josh and Nate were both in Outer Space.  

The whole group on stage singing the semester song! 

Josh actually skipped Presentation Night because he had a guys youth activity.  They went out to Culver's for dinner and then did an Escape Room.  He said he had a great time :-)  

There's our week!