Vacation Withdrawals

Since Jamie and I got married, we have taken our annual beach vacation to Destin around this time of year, in either June or July. However, this year, my sister is getting married in Savannah, GA and we are trading our Destin trip for a week's stay with my family at Tybee Island. I couldn't be more excited... except that we still have a month to go until vacation time! I'm having MAJOR vacation withdrawals. In fact, if Jamie's heard it once, he's heard it a zillion times in the past month: "I sure wish we could take a long weekend trip to the beach!" I've tried (unsucessfully) to talk him into a spontaneous weekend trip to Destin to appease my need for relaxation, sun, and fresh seafood. In honor of our annual trips, I've decided to reminisce with pictures of each trip since Noah was born. Enjoy!

In 2007, the year Noah was born, we waited until September to take our vacation. We had to put it off until September due to Noah's health problems following his delivery. Fortunately, at 4 months old, he was doing much better so we headed south with my mom, dad, sister, and aunt. Our vacation couldn't have come at a more perfect time, as Noah was about to have surgery on his skull on October 1, so it was nice having a week to relax and get our minds off what lie ahead.








These baby pictures REALLY make me miss having a little baby...

The following year, we went with Jamie's parents and stayed at The Hilton Sandestin. Jamie's parents go every year during the 3rd week of July to the Hilton in Sandestin for the Annual Alabama Homebuilders Convention and each year we rotate which son and his family gets to go with them (Jamie has two other brothers, both of whom are married which 1 child each). The convention occupied alot of their time, especially Tony's, but we still worked in some family time. The convention involves alot of meetings for the builders, however, they also have fun activities for the whole family: such as private pool parties with catered food and drinks, a formal dinner with a band, etc. Jamie and I love going to the Hilton, especially since we prefer hotels over condos... we enjoy being pampered on vacation: having someone make the bed each day, refresh our towels, being able to order food and drinks out by the pool, etc. Plus we love nothing more than to be able to order room service and eat a dessert in bed once our little guy goes to sleep! Noah was a little over a year old and did great! He enjoyed the pool(but was scared of the ocean... good thing we're pool people!) and was really good the entire time we were there.











And last year, we returned to the Hilton for our first beach trip with just our family of three. Noah was a little over two years old and did great! He loved the pool and would even nap on a lounge chair so that Jamie and I could remain in the sun! We ate at all of our favorite places, including my #1 favorite restaurant of all time... Louisiana Lagniappe (if you ever go, you have to order the Grouper Pontchatrain... delicious!). We also had a photo session on the beaches of Seaside, which to this day are my favorite family pictures that we've had to date (which are the pictures I used in my header.)

















So our countdown is on for Vacation 2010... 4 weeks left!

YUM!

One of my good friends, Kellie, has started a recipe blog. Tonight I tried one of her recipes, the Chicken Enchilada Ring, and it was DELICIOUS. Even Jamie couldn't quit raving about how much he enjoyed it and Noah gobbled it up (which is rare). So I'd say this recipe gets 3 thumbs up from our family. Here's a link to it... Chicken Enchilada Ring. I'm not a big fan of flipping through a recipe book HOPING I choose something that will taste good. I would much rather try a recipe from someone who recommends it. So thanks Kellie! I look forward to trying out more of your recipes!

Sneak Peek

The photographer that did Noah's pictures on Saturday already has a sneak peek of the session on Facebook, so I thought I'd share! I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures.

Weekend Happenings

On Wednesday evening of this past week, Jamie, Noah and I were playing in the floor together and talking about our sweet baby on the way, along with all that has to be done between now and October. Thinking my idea would get shot down, I asked Jamie if he would be up for a trip to the mall to buy Collier some clothes. I had been there earlier that day and noticed Belk had a pretty good sale, so I thought, "why not?" To my surprise, he thought that was a great idea and off we went with Noah in tow to buy Collier his first outfits. We found several things that we thought we really cute and topped the evening off with dinner at Crocodile Ed's, where Jamie's mother joined us. It was fun spending the evening with my two boys and having both of their input about what they would like to see Collier wear once he gets here. It made me realize that even though I'm outnumbered in the boy to girl ratio, my family of boys will still want to spend time with their momma, even if it is doing the girliest of things, such as shopping!

Friday evening, we were invited to attend a gift card shower for my sister and her fiance, Derrick, hosted by several of their friends. Mom and Dad kept Noah so we could attend. Several of Lindsay's high school friends, in addition to her college friends, were there so it was great getting to see all of them and catch up. Lindsay and Derrick got a plethora of gift cards from all different types of places in Florence... the usual places such as Lowe's, Target, Walmart, but also some from the Surprise Store and David Christopher's. Several friends got them gift cards for date nights out to eat and to the movies, while two friends thought outside the box and got them a gift card to ticketmaster to be used toward a concert! They had a great shower!

Noah had an outdoor photo session scheduled for Saturday afternoon. I called and scheduled it shortly after his 3rd birthday so I had no clue that we would be going through such a heat spell this early in the summer. It went GREAT and I think the photographer got some really cute shots, however, it was HOT. Luckily, Noah was a trooper and didn't fuss at all, but by the end of it, Jamie, mom and I were soaked in sweat. Sunday, June 27th was my sister's birthday and Derrick's birthday is July 1 so we had planned a joint birthday dinner for the two of them on Saturday evening. My mom and dad prepared a shrimp boil with potatoes and corn, homemade crabcakes, and for dessert... Victorian Tea Room birthday cake. YUM! We ate until our bellies were full!

Sunday morning was our usual... sunday school and church. After church, we had enough time to eat lunch and for Noah to get in a much-needed nap, then we had Hannah Clayton's 1st birthday party at Gattman Park. Thankfully, the weather wasn't quite as hot and humid as it had been the day before, and we were in the shade under a pavilion. Hannah got lots of cute toys and all the kids had a great time. After food, cake, and presents, we all took the kids to the Splash Pad at Gattman Park. My parent's neighborhood is within walking distance to Gattman and as kids, we spent MANY summer days (and evenings) at the ball fields there, since my sister and I both played rec league and high school softball. So Gattman is a familiar spot for much of my childhood. I had not gone to the park in a year so I was surprised to see their latest addition... an AWESOME Splash Pad for kids to run through and play on! Noah LOVED it!! The splash pad was pretty crowded and I didn't want Noah crawling around on concrete (and possibly getting run over by the bigger kids) so I walked through it with him, easing him close to the water spouts so he could play but I wouldn't get wet. Lucky for me (no sarcasm intended!), this little boy runs up right beside Noah and stands in front of one of the sprayers, shooting water all over me! By that point, I'm pretty much soaked so it didn't matter if I got more wet... after all, I was doing it for Noah so might as well have fun! The only thing I regret is that I wasn't able to take pictures. Jamie was there and watching us, but my mom had taken my camera back with her to the house. Oh well, next time I will definitely get some shots! We had a busy but fun weekend and after spending 2 afternoons in a row, out in the sun, we were all beat!

Nesting Already?

I've pretty much decided how I would like to do Collier's nursery, so in my eyes that means, "let's get started!" That room is currently Noah's play room, as it is across the hall from his bedroom. We are moving the boys' playroom downstairs (that's kind of weird to say... "the boys"), however the room that will be their playroom, is currently Jamie's workout room. So we have to do alot of rearranging (and some cleaning and organizing.) I mentioned all of this to Jamie and asked when he would like us to get started and he suggests we wait until after my sister's wedding, which is August 1. Part of the rearranging that we have to do is to lay the flooring in our attic and move some boxes and storage stuff up there, which I know Jamie isn't thrilled about in this crazy heat, so I understand his desire to prolong this project. I agreed with him but later on that evening, I begin thinking about all that I have to do before Collier gets here! If we wait until after Lindsay's wedding, I'll be around 27 weeks. I want to feel good and be able to help in this process but the longer we wait, the less I'll feel like doing. For some crazy reason, the thought of putting off this project kind of had me a bit anxious! I also began thinking about the additional items we'll need for Collier: a double stroller, clothes (his and Noah's birthdays are in completely different seasons), a video monitor, etc. Yikes!! Am I ALREADY experiencing nesting???