Work Beach Trip 2009

In June half of our office went to Gulf Shores for The Alabama Association of School Resource Officers Conference (TAASRO). It's an entire week long and it, unlike most conferences, is a very family-oriented conference: rather than being from 8-5 like most , it ends at 2 pm or before so you have plenty of time with your family at the beach and on Wednesday, they reserved the entire park at Waterville USA just for conference attendees and their families for 3 hours and served us dinner- it was great! On top of that, I am lucky to work for an office that is also family-oriented and will allow a certain number of people at each conference to have a room of their own so they can bring their family with them. I got lucky this time and was able to get one of the single rooms, but Wayne had to work and couldn't come down until Wednesday. So, Jackson stayed with Mimi and Papa from Sunday night until Wednesday, when Wayne picked him up at daycare and they drove down to the beach to meet me. We had a whole lot of fun and Jackson did great the entire time he was there! He still doesn't like the ocean water touching him, loves playing in the sand and loves being in the swimming pool as long as someone is holding him the entire time. He played in the kiddie section at Waterville but would only go down the smallest of the kiddie slides. He LOVED the lazy river but didn't want to be on a float- he wanted to be in my arms as I walked through the lazy river. Jackson also slept surprisingly great in a set of bunk beds (he slept in the lower bunk) that were situated into a cut-out in the hallway. We went to Zeke's Marina one day, which ended up being a mistake- Jackson is OBSESSED with boats. He wanted to get on all of the boats, couldn't understand why we wouldn't let him, and pitched a HUGE screaming fit when we were making him leave. Other than that, though, he was so well-behaved. Jackson loved the Ahpatus (Octopus) store too.

Overall, even though it was a working trip for me, it was a nice family get-away.