Orange Beach

 We decided to give Orange Beach, Alabama a try instead of fighting the crowds in Florida. 

I had a perfect view of the kids playing from the front porch. 

But Jason and I spent plenty of time under the tent watching them too.

They did lots of boogie boarding 

And the day the double red flags were out we went and played mini golf.

For archival purposes for when we get in a big family fight in a few years about our mini golf ability on this day: 

1. Jason

2. Sean

3. Reed 

Middle of the road in 4th place was me!

5.Kyle

6. Finn

And the person who claimed he would win because he was wearing "Tiger Woods red" 7. JR

People that Aren't JR or Me

 So what was the rest of the family doing while JR and I were traveling The South looking at schools?

Kyle got his stitches out early (because going on vacation is more important than waiting the full 10 days to have them removed).

They ate crawfish (which I was happy to miss)

They fished

And they played lots of spike ball

The Pounder

 Even though the lemonade was super famous, JR was way more excited about completing the "pounder challenge" at Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger. 

All he had to do was eat a pound hamburger, and he got to put his picture on the wall of fame.

The hamburger

He took the first half down fast, but he definitely slowed down on the second half.  He got it all down and received the "honor" of having his picture made with a stuffed hamburger. 

His official picture

Proudly placing it on the wall

Really Famous Lemonade

After Ole Miss we headed over to Auburn.

Our hotel was so cute!

The campus is beautiful and JR was super impressed with the size of the football stadium. 

We had a campus tour and a private tour of the business school, which I thought was more impressive than the stadium. 

We also had the very famous Toomer's lemonade which was ranked number 1 in Esquire’s "162 Reasons it’s Good to be an American" and Southern Living’s "Top 100 Things to Do Before You Die".

Oxford

 We had a great time in Oxford, just like the last time we visited.  

We went to an Ole Miss baseball game (they lost) 

and ate lots of yummy food on the square.  

We loved the tour of the college and felt right at home! 

JR Found his People

 JR and I added a little pre-trip on to our family spring break trip this year.  We left a few days early and found ourselves off a dirt road in Mississippi at the Lynyrd Skynyrd memorial.  JR was definitely surrounded with "his people".   

The memorial is just a few yards from the band's plane crash site, and the "tour guides" are guys who led the rescue efforts the night of the crash.  JR loved talking to them, and I'm pretty sure he could have spent longer than the quick phot-op stop I was up for.  

Basketball Pictures

 I quit buying the kids "professional" sports pictures long ago, but I guess with the stupid 'Rona I've gotten softer and I decided I should buy Reed's basketball picture this year.

I went back and found the first year he played basketball (and I took his picture).

And now he looks like this! 

One thing that hasn't changed...his shorts are still too big for his skinny waist!