Boxes, Boxes, and More Boxes

Moving Day is fast approaching, which means that the preparations are in full swing. We've switched the utilities, scheduled the satellite company, and reserved the movers. The tile flooring should be finished today, which means we'll be moving on Saturday. The only things we still have to do is paint the master bedroom and the baby's room (we haven't finalized his colors yet). The garage is now overflowing with boxes, furniture, and other random stuff for the movers to pick up. We have a few more last-minute boxes of our daily stuff to pack, but other than that, we're ready to go. The movers are super-fast, so hopefully we'll be starting to settle in on Saturday night!

There really is a method to this packed-up madness!

Our New Home

Yesterday we closed on our new house! It's been a long search to find the right one, but we finally found the perfect house for us! It's in a great small neighborhood in Gulf Shores, and is located right down the road from the Target and new Publix shopping center. It's a 3/2 with a great kitchen and open floor plan. The back yard is fenced and has a covered lanai, which we can't wait to use for outdoor living!

We're doing a few projects before we move in, like having the floors tiled and painting several rooms, which will start Monday. We're planning to be moved in by the first weekend in August, so we better get packing!

We'll post more photos along the way, and we'll give you the "grand tour" once everything is in it's place. We're so excited & can't wait to show it to you!

The new Howard House (the cars belong to the super-nice previous owners)

Dinner With Friends

We love it when friends come to visit!

The Hobbs family are down on vacation for the week, and we couldn't miss an opportunity to catch up with them! They were the best neighbors, and we love hearing about what's new in their lives. The whole family came this time, and it was great getting to meet Wesley's new wife.

We ate at the new Wolf Bay Lodge, located in the Zeke's marina. You may remember from an old post of ours, but the original restaurant burned in December. They've moved to Orange Beach while they finalize plans to rebuild at the old site. The food is still just as good, and the new location is much easier to find!

It was so great catching up with them over dinner. The most exciting news was that Wesley has written a novel! He has just finished it, and has promised to provide us with signed copies once it's published. How fun is it that we'll be able to say we knew him when? Maybe we'll have more details the next time they're here!

Babies R Us

Since we're almost 6 months pregnant, we've put the baby preparations into high gear! The crib we ordered just arrived, we've bought our strollers, and we've finally picked out all the other "baby stuff" we'll need when he gets here. Now we've got to start buying diapers like they're going out of style. It's really starting to feel like "Babies R Us" around here!

Seaside

One of the most fun things about living at the beach is being able to day-trip to all the other great beach towns, too!

Since Sarah Neil & Sam were here, we decided to visit one of our favorite little beach towns, Seaside. They'd never been there, so we thought they'd enjoy the trip. The drive on 30A is so pretty and peaceful, and of course, it is so much fun browsing the quaint shops in town. The temperature was in the mid-80s, making for great strolling weather. Plus, no trip is complete without chicken salad at Bud & Alley's!

After getting the best parking spot ever, we hung out on the rooftop bar (one of the top-rated by Coastal Living magazine), wandered around town, pet the local cats, shopped, and enjoyed cupcakes from Queen Bee Cupcakes, which is located inside an Airstream camper!

As always, Seaside made for a great, relaxing day. I'm sure we'll be heading back soon!

View of Seaside from the rooftop bar

Tanner & Sarah Neil enjoying the cool breeze at Bud & Alley's

Bo & Sam chilling at the cupcake stand

Queen Bee Cupcakes, located in the Airstream. So cute!

Sarah Neil & Sam

This week, we've been having fun with our friends Sarah Neil & Sam. They are moving to east TN at the end of the month for Sam to start medical school, so they decided they could use a quick getaway. We were excited that they decided to come visit us!

We've seen the Blue Angels flying, visited Seaside (more on that later), eaten at great restaurants like Calypso Joe's and The Crab Trap, taken lots of photos, and mostly just goofed off.

We really enjoyed seeing them and we wish them all the best with the new adventure and their new house! We can't wait to visit with them again over the holidays!

One of the pics that Bo snapped while they were here.

Bo needs to become a beach photographer!

Dueling Fireworks

The best part of being at the beach on the 4th is all of the different fireworks shows you can go see. This year, we decided to watch 2 of the best shows in the area and they did not disappoint!

Friday night we enjoyed the fireworks put on by the Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach. We sat at our favorite beach and listened to the live band while watching the show. We got there early so we could enjoy the awesome weather and watching the boats before the show. Afterwards, who could resist late-night ice cream at Brusters? We spent Saturday shopping, had our holiday lunch at Big Daddy's, and then rested up before the big Gulf Shores fireworks display. The crowds were huge, so we decided to head to a local park on the lagoon to watch the show. Not only could we see the big show, but we could see all the different fireworks all over the beach. It was a totally different view than from the beach, and it was awesome! Plus, we didn't have to sit in stand-still traffic!

We hope you had as much fun this holiday weekend as we did!

Perdido Beach Resort Fireworks Display

Boats lined up to watch the show

Happy July 4th

Have a wonderful and safe Independence Day!

Gettin' Fed at The Shed

Coastal Mississippi has a lot of neat things to see and do. There are the casinos in Biloxi, the National Seashore, the cute shops of Ocean Springs, and more. However, one of the most famous places is The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint in Gulfport. This hole-in-the-wall shack has won several awards, been featured on Food Network, and they are currently in the semi-finals of the Regis & Kelly grilling contest. Since we love BBQ, we had to try it!

Even though it was a sweltering day and almost 2pm, the place was packed! Once we tried it, we found out why. The BBQ was great, the famous sauce was smoky (you can buy your own bottle), and the baked beans were wonderful. There were people from all over.....one lady was even from Ireland! If you're ever on the MS Gulf Coast, make your way to The Shed. It is definitely worth the trip to "Get Fed at The Shed"!