Pa-Sticks Vacay 2018: Part 1

It’s that time of year again- VACAY! The Pa-sticks (Pate plus Bostick) adventures continue and this year we headed to Orange Beach, AL (though I kept saying we were headed to Florida, oops!). 

For those of you who remember, we went to the beach two years ago and Grady refused to let sand touch him, haha. So we were eager to see how this would go. 

We left after church on Sunday, and it really was an easy drive down. The boys did great in the car! We played car games, they played with Lego boxes I made, and we sang and danced of course. We stopped at the rest area with this rocket- which I have always wanted to do! Yay! 

They are starting to look like such little men! How is it happening so fast?! 

We stopped for dinner in Montgomery I think (or Birmingham? Not sure actually! Haha) at a Greek place called the Purple Onion. It wasn’t as good as I had hoped, but I enjoyed it more than fast food for sure. 

We got to the condo around 9pm-10pm and got everything up to the room. We were beat and convinced the boys to sleep, haha. 

The next morning we got up and made a food plan. Then we all headed to the beach for a minute. I wanted to see their reactions and how they did. Our condo wasn’t beachfront this time, so we could see it from a distant corner view on our balcony. It was less than a 5 minute walk though. 

And they were both fans this time!! Hooray!! 



After a few minutes, Jenn, Katie and I headed to the grocery and left the boys to play. They played a little and explored a little while we were gone. Once we got back we all had lunch then headed to the beach for actual swim time! 

We brought this boat, and it was great for the waves!!! Griffin loved it, Grady liked it for a minute then whined anytime we put him in afterwards. 

The boys and Katie did a small sand castle with a moat that day, and Grady let us take him in the shallow part of the ocean. 

We went up to the room and napped, then cooked a delicious dinner in the instant pot! It was a seafood boil and it was sooo good guys! Then we went down and took a walk on the beach. It was gorgeous! 


Anytime I get in the picture my children lose the ability to smile and become weirdos! Haha... 



A little Yoga on the Beach... 

After a delicious breakfast (that’s one perk of a Pa-stick vacay, the Bostick’s make delicious breakfast every morning!) on day two, we headed down to the Beach. Our setup day two: 



Their shell castle creation: 

We hit the pool up after that, then rested/napped. Then we got ready and headed to Lambert’s for dinner. We tried to get there very early so we could avoid the wait, but it was still an hour wait. But we played a game on our phones called Psych, and it was really fun and made the time pass so fast. Plus the kids played on the train they have out front: 



The food was good and we all ate too much. It wasn’t my favorite place ever, mainly because I don’t eat most of their pass around sides, but I enjoyed the roll throwing! Haha! 

We went back to the condo, and the boys went down to the beach and caught a crab!! 

Jenn, Katie and I ended up needing to go to the laundry mat because of a laundry malfunction :-) Oh the joys of traveling with kids, right? 

To be continued... 

4th of July Louisville Style

We headed up to Louisville Tuesday night for a little 4th of July fun. Grandma’s pool was bath water warm and we ended up swimming for a few hours that night! So much fun with the kiddos. 









Grady even got off the steps and started “swimming” around with his puddle jumper, something he has not wanted to do all summer so far. Yay!! 

Daddy worked with Griffin on learning to dive, which still needs work but is a bit better. Grandma had these glove/fin things and he wore them all night, haha! 

Shelby even got to come over and visit with us. No swimming for her yet because she is still healing after a major hip surgery, but it was great to have her there hanging out with us. 

Wednesday morning we had breakfast with Pappaw and just played for awhile. 

Then we swam and ate a delicious feast for dinner! 

We played a little baseball after dinner while we waited for it to get dark for fireworks. 

Grady actually stayed out and listened to fireworks this year! Hooray! Last year he cried a ton. 












After fireworks we drove back because I had to work this morning bright and early. It was a quick trip but a great one filled with laid back fun!  

I do have to say, going to Louisville on the 4th but not going to Lisa’s just felt so off. I sure do miss her. That might be a whole other post, but especially this holiday that we always celebrate with her at some point. Glad she is with our Savior, but miss her sweet spirit here. ❤️

More Beech Bend Adventures

Knekne and Peeps decided to be out of the box this week and rent an RV?! Ha! So it came this weekend and they are “camping” at Beech Bend! We played most of the day Saturday at the Park in the water, then the boys stayed the night in the RV while we had a date night kid free! Woo hoo!
The boys loved how small and different the RV is. Tons of fu for them! They got to sleep “on the kitchen table”, which turned into a bed. Haha! They headed back to the park after dinner for some rides before bed. They were in heaven. 

Mimi, Livvi, and a few of her friends came up for some fun on Sunday. It was HOT, but we did rides first anyhow. 



The girls were great sports and even rode the elephants for Grady :-) 





One of Livvi’s friends, Aspen, was terrified of rides but rode anyways. Sure made for some fun pictures! Haha! Sorry Aspen! 

Knekne even rode this spinning ride with Griffin! I was so surprised- she never used to ride anything. Grandparents will do anything for their grandkids, haha. 

The guy actually stopped the ride because he thought they said “pineapple”, which was the safe word to get him to stop. But they didn’t! Haha. 









They swam pretty quickly because it was then time to go. It was a hot but fun day!