Ft. Lauderdale

Somehow, I got lucky enough to go to the beach 3 times in the month of June. Lucky, right? As a matter of fact, Bubby is loading the car as we speak to go to Destin with Nana, Da, Ryan, and Aidan tomorrow. We are excited! Last weekend, I headed to Ft. Lauderdale with some of my girlfriends to celebrate Katie G's (aka Gigi's) birthday. She turned the big 3-0 in style! It was really nice to get away with my girls for a weekend. We always have a great time together, and it has been awhile since we've all been on a trip with just the girls. Here are some photos from our trip:
G, Katie, me, Brooks, and Courtney poolside.

Katie and me in our cabana, our "bed by the sea". Talk about comfortable! These mamas enjoyed getting some relaxation time!

G and me at her birthday dinner at Shulas

Katie and Erin getting some R & R on the beach

Erin, me, Bethany, and Katie after dinner at Yolo. Incidently, you've never smelled more cologne in your life than at a trendy bar in Ft. Lauderdale. Those dudes are serious about their skinny jeans and smelling good!

The Original Big Kids

Here's the picture that inspired the one of Bonnie, Hayden, and Camden on the cooler last week. We were at Portsmouth Island, and I would say it was the mid eighties by the looks of it. We had so much fun on those trips, and used our imaginations well....as you can tell.
L-R: Dexter, Todd, Jay, and me. Ahhh, wonderful childhood memories.

Beach Pictures!

Well, tonight is our last night at the beach. We are a little sad because we had such a great week. But, we are so, so, so excited to see Daddy tomorrow. That makes leaving the beach easier, although it is tough to leave such a beautiful place where we've had so much fun. Here are some pictures from the last few days. Oh by the way, how do you like the new layout? I am testing it out. We'll see how it goes...

Bonnie's uniform for the week: diaper and t-shirt

I like the backward cap-it adds a little something to complete the outfit.

The family picture before Dex, Mel, and Pap had to leave :(


The World's Best Uncle and Aunt

Our sand crab

She loves to break up the clumps of sand!

Grandma and Bonnie!

Fun times with cousins! Up on the top bunk having so much fun!

Cousin Camden having fun in the sand!

The cooler picture!

I will have to scan and post the "Original Big Kids" picture of me, my brother, Jay, and Todd on the cooler circa 1985. This is re-make of the original with the next generation.

This picture is so funny because she was actually fussing, but it looks like she's all smiles!

Pretty girl in her pretty dress that Ansley gave her for her birthday

Topsail Island

Bonnie and I are continuing to live the good life this week. We're in NC with my family having a ball. Here are some shots from Dexter and Melanie's camera from our trip so far. We sure are enjoying it~
Here's Pappaw flying a kite.

Bonnie got a new hat, which she is enjoying (sometimes).

Ready to hit the beach!

Uncle Dex is getting her ready for the sun....so cute! Luckily, they wear the same SPF.

She likes her beach chair, and the sand.

Walking the beach in her pjs. What's better than a morning walk on the beach?

Sweetest picture of Bonnie and Uncle Dex. Don't you know that she can say Dex-ter almost better than any other word in her emerging vocabulary? That's a pretty hard word-and that's because he's extra special to her. She loves her Uncle Dex and Aunt Mel. Annnnd-They got some exciting news yesterday! China has sent their LOA, so they are officially Lucy's parents! Hooray! They can now proceed with the next step-getting Visas. They had to leave the beach to go get it done. We will miss them the rest of the week, but we're so excited to be one step closer to Lucy!!

Yay for Summer!

"School's Out for Summer!" and Bonnie and I are taking full advantage! We've had a great week so far, and we're only two days away from our trip to the beach with Grandma, Pappaw, Uncle Dex, Aunt Mel, and Pap. We are getting so excited. I just wanted to add some pictures from this week before we hit the road.
I've been trying to have her stay awake longer in the morning, and to take her nap more mid-day. The result? She falls asleep in her high chair!

We went swimming with Sallie, Sam, and Mrs. Ida Louise. Bonnie liked it a lot better than the baby pool.

We've been to the park a lot. She can now navigate the whole playground apparatus, and goes down the big slide all by herself.

Not even thinking twice about the big slide.

Yay! A good close-up! This is exciting because usually I get something more like the two photos seen below. Mary Scott and I were laughing about this the other day, and I thought I should include some eyes-closed pictures, too. That is what 75% of my pictures are, after all!

Lovely.

Classic!

A girl and her Pap

We had an intresting week. The good news is that school is out-hooray! The drama this week has been our leaking pipe from the street to our house. This has earned us the title "The biggest Jerks in Nashville". At least it appears that way. You see, after the flood, our city was on mandatory water conservation since one of the two water plants was completely out of use. We took this very seriously. We conserved as much as we possibly could, and we jeered at the reports on the news of people who were stockpiling water and going to the car wash.

Then we got our water bill from this month, and it was 5 times the usual amount!! Apparently, we had a leak, and I'm sure the mayor's office had us tagged as a household who was stockpiling water in our tub, pots, pans, etc. Anyway, we had the plumber come out to give us an estimate-which was outrageous-so Bubby ended up digging a ditch through our front yard on Monday to cut the cost of the plumber's bill. The good part about all of this is that my dad came to help with the ditch, and we ended up getting to enjoy some bonus Pap time! See, every cloud does have a silver lining!

Here's a sweet video of Bonnie and Pap taking a walk:

Wild Woman

Well, it has been too long since I have blogged. Gee, if only I had a couple months off from work so I could just get caught up on some things. Oh wait! That is going to happen in just a week and a half-yipee!! I am officially counting down the days until the end of another school year, and getting so excited about the upcoming summer. We've been so busy lately. Even though Nashville has had the rainiest month on record and we have been a little bummed because our house hasn't sold, neither has stopped us from getting out and enjoying this wonderful time of year.

So here's what we've been up to lately:
taking walks

lifting weights

playing alot!

hanging with Sam, and attempting to have fun in his baby pool, but Bonnie wasn't a fan. Oh well, she had fun hanging out at the table with him

Mommy and Daddy went to Steeplechase and had a great time with our friends

We had our friends over for a cookout, and had some fun playtime.

Bonnie picked some flowers for Sam

Sam picked some flowers for Bonnie

Will got to hang out with Aunt Erin on the couch. He was very happy about it!

Silly girl, just playing-what she loves best!

Get ready-she is so big! Doesn't she look so big in this picture?