Our First Rolling Beach Trip as 3!!

Our first official beach trip with Mary-Ross was a success! My mom, Mary-Ross, & I left on Sunday to kick off the Rolling beach trip! Justin had to stay behind until Tuesday due to work reasons! The trip started off perfect! Our little one was an angel the entire car ride down to Rosemary Beach. She slept the whole time except for when she woke up to eat and then went right back to sleep again! We are so thankful she is a good car rider, at least so far she has been. After we arrived to Rosemary we did encounter a few problems but we did get our issues fixed rather quickly and even received a gift basket for our troubles! How sweet! Ha ha. I had already warned the guy working the desk at the rental company that if they did not get our issues figured out before my husband arrived on Tuesday that they would be hearing from him and that it would not be pretty. I think he thought I was joking but unfortunately Justin decided to go ahead and call them and give them a piece of his mind. So the poor guy got yelled at anyways. Maybe he will take people more seriously now when the woman warns him of her angry husband. Ha ha. But, besides that everything else was great. 

If you have never been to Rosemary Beach I recommend going! It is very family oriented! It is perfect if you have children. Families with children are everywhere. I would not recommend this place to a couple without children or a couple who does not like children since they are all over the place all the time. Also, if you hate bikes never ever step foot in Rosemary. Bikes and children are everywhere at all times!! I myself as most know love children but I am not very fond of people on bikes. It brings up angry memories of the times I have gotten stuck behind bikers here in Birmingham. The only reason I am OK with the bike riders at Rosemary is because you do not have to get into your car much so really the bikers are only aggravating when you are trying to walk/run on the sidewalk and they are riding there bikes entirely too fast on a sidewalk. Yes, I did almost get taken out a few times by a person on a bike so this is why I am bitter about it! Rosemary is a very safe and friendly place. We met lots of nice people while we were there. I do not know what it is but when you have a baby people automatically assume you want them to come over and talk to you. Luckily, I enjoy meeting new people and talking to them so that is a plus for them. So take this as a warning if you are not a people person and you decide to have a baby you may want to work on your social skills during those nine months because whether you like it or not people are coming to talk to you and want to look at your baby!!! :) Now that I addressed that I will get back to our vacation. 

Mom & I took Mary-Ross out on the beach on Monday and Tuesday. I know people think we are crazy but like I said Rosemary is covered with children of all ages so we were not the only cuckoo's on the beach! We did only take her out for an hour or two each day before it got too hot. She was really good the whole time. She slept or looked around and then ate and would sleep again until time to go back up to the house. On Wednesday we all went out to the beach together and she was good again. But when I was changing her diaper that day she decided to grab a handful of sand while I was not looking and some how got it all over her stomach and even in her diaper! It was so funny and a big mess! It was time for her to go back inside anyways so my mom took her back to the house and gave her a bath. It got really hot by Thursday so she did not go out to the beach after Wednesday. Justin and I could barely stand it on Thursday it was so miserably hot. Justin's parents came down on Friday afternoon and stayed Friday night with us. Then Saturday we packed everything up and headed back home. We were all ready to be back home. 

We ate lots of good seafood while we were there. I have been trying to broaden my horizons when it comes to food since I am trying to lose weight. It's not easy loosing weight when the only meat I ever eat is chicken and beef. I know this might come as a shock to some but I actually started getting tired of chicken since I have only been eating it because beef is so fattening. So I decided the week before we went to the beach that I needed to stop hating fish and give it a fair chance. I took the opportunity of being at the beach and having access to fresh fish to give it a go! I have to say that I actually enjoyed picking out something new every night to try. The first night mom and I went to the Old Florida Fish House and I got the grouper sauteed and it was excellent. Justin and I went to a place called Paradis in Rosemary and I ate Cobia which again was delicious. We then went back to the Old Florida Fish House with Justin's parents and I decided to get the special which was Red Snapper blackened and again I liked it. So it is official, I am a fish eater now! Yay for me! I am so glad that now when we go to seafood restaurants I can order something besides shrimp or crab cakes! 

So overall our first beach trip as 3 was wonderful and we are so happy we will continue to keep this tradition going. We will return next year and have even more fun since Mary-Ross will actually get to enjoy the beach and the water! 

Sun bathing

Knocked out cuddled up to her sleep sheep

Hanging out with Daddy in the bed

Until next time.......

Glendale or BUST!

The Bass family headed out to Glendale, Arizona to watch our Auburn tigers in the National Championship. We had a wonderful family trip and we were so happy we got to see our Tigers win the title as National Champs!

Our family had not taken a trip, just the four of us, in a long time. It was very nice to spend some quality time together. Kristen and me headed out of Nashville on Saturday and meet up with Mom and Dad in Denver. The flight was fine but I will say it is a lot harder traveling when you are 20 weeks pregnant! A pregnant woman is not made to fit in COACH! So the flights were very uncomfortable! My feet were severely swollen after the flight and I could not even fit my foot in my shoes! We had to buy me a new pair the next day because they were still so swollen! We had plans and events scheduled for everyday we were there so we were busy bees! The walking ended up taking a toll on me and my right side started aching and lasted for the next few days! I tried not to be Debbie Downer and enjoy the rest of our trip but we had to start taking more sitting down breaks! Kristen and me had to remind Mom & Dad that we required food very frequently and that we couldn't go hours in between nourishment! Hehe. So after those few adjustments we were all happy! We enjoyed a lot of great food in Arizona! We even snuck in a quick shopping trip at the amazing mall in Scottsdale! Wish we could have shopped more but we had to many things on our to-do list! The game was fantastic and a nail biter but luckily the Aubies pulled out our last "W" for the season! Would not have traded anything in the world to be there at that moment!

So overall the Bass family vacation was a success and Mary Ross attended her first National Championship game!

A Winter Wonderland!

Justin, me, and 9 other of our friends went to Breckenridge, Colorado for 6 days. We have been wanting to go on a ski trip for a while now so we were very excited we finally had a trip booked.

We left January 5th out of Atlanta to Denver. Then we drove an hour and a half to Breckenridge. The scenary was unreal the whole way.

We finally arrived to our house we were staying at called "Pine Woods". The house was amazing with lots of perks. We had a hot tub, heated floors, fire place, movie room, and a game room.

We were worn out from traveling so we just hung around our house on Tuesday night. Then we had to be up early on Wednesday because some of us were taking ski lessons that morning at 9 am. Justin and I were 2 of us who had never skied before and would be taking lessons. We were both very concerned about me learning because we all know I am not the most athletic person ever. We ended up with a great instructor name Gene who had been skiing for 40 years. So he was a great teacher. Luckily we all picked it up right away, which we were all shocked. Gene told us we were the best first timers he had ever taught. No of us even fell the first time we went down the little bunny slopes that are used for practicing. So after lunchtime Gene thought we were all ready to try out some easy greens and take the ski lift. We all did great besides a few little bumps. Luckily Justin nor I fell! By this time in the day it was snowing for heavily you could not even see 200 feet in front of you. We were all like little children again because none of us have been in any weather like this. It was so cool and we were all covered in snow. We looked like walking snowmen.

After such a successful skiing day we all went back to the house and again enjoyed a night of relaxing at home. Luckily our house had a hot tub which we took full advantage of every morning and night.

Thursday morning we went back to try out our new skills. We were all feeling very confident which then was shot to never never land! It all started with us getting off the ski lift. I was sitting in between 2 of our friends and when we were supposed to get off they both went flying out leaving me no room to get off either. Well when around ski lifts they do not care if you can not get off because they still keep going. So I was then a few seconds later getting off then everyone else which caused me to be hit in the side of my right hip by the huge metal seat! Which then of course knocked me over in front of lots of people. Luckily it is very easy for me to get up on my own. So with a minor bump we all took off down some greens, which are supposed to be the easiest ones. Well myself and another one of our friends, Cassie, decided to lead the group down the particular slope names "Red Rover". Everything was going smoothly so far and everyone was a little behind Cassie and me because we were going really fast. As we continue to follow the signs pointing you to "Red Rover" I look over to Cassie because I notice that a part of "Red Rover", which we were coming up on at a pretty fast speed, appears to just drop off. I can not even see then end of it. Since it was only my 2nd day I of course began to panick. So I ask Cassie who is a more experienced skier what should I do? She reassures me it will be fine and just to "snowplow", a ski term which means to turn your knees inward which makes your ski's go into a backwards pizza slice. So as this steep hill approaches I am still going pretty fast and take her advice and just keep going. I then pass Cassie and go straight towards "Red Rover". As I am going down the scariest thing I have ever seen of course I begin to freak out because I am "snowplowing" and not slowing down one bit. Not to mention all the other people I am having to dodge going down also. Then I have to dodge an orange sign which is almost at the end of "Red Rover". I'm still flying down when I finally reach the bottom which then I have lost all control of myself and everything else. This is when I face-plant right into the snow! As I begin to lift my head up I see a lady and a boy come rushing over to me. Which at this point all embarassment is hitting me. For you all who know me I usually begin to laugh after I have hurt myself. So this is when the hysterical laughter begins and the 2 people are just staring at me like I am nuts. I quickly pull it together and they ask me if I am ok. I tell them I am fine and the guy says, "I do not think I ahve ever seen someone hit so hard and then start laughing." The lady then proceeds to tell me that one ski is behind me and my poles are in front of me. The she looks at me and says "Hunny you have to be careful." I just look at her like are you serious? Do you think I wanted to come flying down this hill and try and kill myself? But I just thank them and proceed to stand to find the rest of the group flying down and falling as well except for the ones who knew what they were doing. Needless to say we all got a great laugh out of "Red Rover". We never made it down that particular one without ever falling. "Red Rover" wore us all out that we only skied one other green before calling it a day.

So the next day we planned to go snowmobliling. It was a blast but a bit scary at times. Those things are very easy to turn over. Luckily none of us did that. We saw some great things and they had the huskies that they use for dogsledding there as well. They were so cute. Snowmobiling does not seem like it would wear you out but it does. It is a lot of work actually. So we were all exhausted went home and laid around.

As our week starting getting shorter and shorter we skied one last day which was the warmest day since we had been there. Justin and me were both tired and not feeling very confident skiing that day so we didn't ski for very long. Our last night there we ate at a great resteraunt called "Relish". It was great! I had elk for the first time and really enjoyed it.

So overall we had a wonderful trip and Justin and me are official skiers! We are hoping to go to a different ski town every year with our friends! So hopefully we will continue to improve. I am attaching more pictures from our trip! Enjoy!

Till next time..........