Thanksgiving Family Vacation

Have you ever just gone away for the holidays? We usually have three family stops to make on Thanksgiving day, but this year we decided to take a family vacation. My dad got us all a condo on the beach for the 4 days, and it was glorious! Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing our families for Thanksgiving, but it was so nice not to have to stress about all the places to go. I’m thinking about asking my dad to do this every other year!! 😉 Our girls loved it, too!

I use to live by the beach, and every Thanksgiving my dad would vacation down by us (he lived in Illinois and we lived in Alabama). He would get a place on the beach, and we’d spend a few days with him walking on the beach, collecting seashells, and looking for crabs at night with flashlights. Those are some of my favorite memories with him. And I was able to relive that on this vacation, as well as start memories with my girls. It was a beautiful thing.

Our condo was right on the beach; our balcony overlooked the ocean. We stayed at The Turquoise Place, and if you ever stay in Orange Beach, AL, this is the place to stay! It was perfect! The condo came with everything we needed and even had a personal hot tub on our balcony. While the girls napped, I spent my time in the hot tub with my sister… perfect sister bonding time. (My poor hubby had a terrible cold so he spent nap time sleeping with the girls!) My sister and nephew live down in Alabama so we don’t see them much. This was the perfect vacation to spend some time together!

The condo also included some outdoor pools (it was too chilly for the kids to do outside) and some indoors as well. There wasn’t a kiddy pool so we didn’t do much in the pool (our girls aren’t big swimmers yet!). There was however a steam room and sauna for the guest to use. My hubby and I would sneak away each night after putting the girls to bed and have a little us time. We spent some time relaxing in both. Oh the perks of having grandpa and auntie on our trip! One night we went for a moonlit walk on the beach … it . was . glorious !! And so romantic lol. Seriously though, it was a perfect night with my hubby.

My dad is an amazing cook … I’m realizing I get my love of cooking from him! Besides the beach, it was the one other thing I was looking forward to on this vacation. I requested my dad’s pancakes and breakfast skillet he used to make over the campfire while camping when we were kids. So . darn . delicious! He also made my absolute favorite dish in the whole wide world for Thanksgiving – green bean casserole. My dad’s green bean casserole is out of this world! … so is his stuffing, and ham, and turkey …. pretty much everything lol. He made a delicious Thanksgiving dinner!

We also had to try some delicious seafood. There were a couple great restaurants we went to. Fish tacos at Lulu’s are always a must when visiting the Gulf Shores area. (Lulu is the sister of Jimmy Buffet – so it’s like Margaritaville in a way). We also tried Fin and Tuck in Orange Beach … so delicious! And my drink of choice when down south is a bushwacker …. so good!

On Thanksgiving day, we were able to actually relax. We cuddled up on the couch and watched the parade for the first time with our girls (we’re usually not able to watch it much every year). I took the girls to play on the beach while my hubby watched the Bears play. Then we ate a ton of food, took naps, and lounged the rest of the day. We ended it with a family movie night watching The Christmas Chronicles. If you haven’t seen this one, you need to! It’s on Netflix, and it’s super cute! We all liked it!

One other thing I was looking forward to on this trip was that we would be able to take the girls to where we got married a little over 9 years ago. Our oldest was super excited to see where our wedding was. We took them and showed her where we did everything. She was so excited! I even had to show her our wedding album when we got home. She loved it. It was also a sweet moment with my hubby and I to return to those memories. My hubby was super sweet and even asked to recreate one of our wedding photos … without me asking!! Totally his idea. It was the sweetest thing!

Our family vacation, although it started out a little stressful for me and my hubby got a cold, was absolutely perfect. We enjoyed our time together, playing on the beach, eating delicious food, and just relaxing.

And here are the rest of the photos I took…

Much love,

Chef Charley