Destin 2011 {Part 1...oh dear}

We did it again.

Our current favorite vacation spot was hit up again.

We stayed 7 days & had a ton of fun.

Being together, as a family, with nothing but the beach to distract you, is one of the greatest feelings.

so, we make the 12 hour drive,

through 4 states, once a year, to make it to that wonderful place.

Entertainment in the car has gotten much easier with this big girl.

She was thrilled with her new Preschool workbook, & she was good at it.

Win, win.

I love that concentrated face she makes...

And, that book, Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs, made him smile every time I pulled it out.

He would point to all the pictures naming things on every page.

It made me want to squeeze him.

Of course, entertaining a nearing 2 year old...not so easy.

Thankfully, they both love Veggie Tales & Nemo.

After that long drive, no one can wait to hit the beach house, change into swimsuits, & head to that happy place.

He loved every minute of it.

And got very good at shovel throwing sand at any target.

Birds, the ocean, buckets, bags, shoes, towels, his family.

I may or may not have been seen ducking & running from that tiny, innocent looking thing, when a shovel full of sand was being hurled in my direction.

Nice.

Oh, but I love that boy.

Him too.

He's like a little kid on the beach.

Airs out a busy, overwhelmed mind to sit back & watch that.

Until sand was dumped on me again.

But I was still feeling peaceful, so I taught him to throw it only on mama's legs.

It worked...that evening.

And that P girl...kept herself busy building sand castles all evening.

It's all she talked about driving down.

Awesome.

We spotted a Little Caesar's on our way in.

Cheap, quick dinner on the deck at the beach.

Then off to the grocery store.

Even that's fun on vacation...sort of.

Day 2 included a picnic on the beach & a mom & dad who FORGOT to take pictures.

Does that happen?

Did that day...

We did get this annual shot.

Mitchel feet.

Chillin'.

Dinner on night 2.

It's on the beach.

Open windows inside.

And a super cool picture spot.

Hilarious.

Have I mentioned yet, that a certain favorite sister & brother-in-law were there?

With my Okee baby?

Who turned one already?

Who didn't love me nearly as much as I loved him?

I think by the time they left, he was relieved.

Just kidding...I hope.

Perfect, squishy, squishy boy.

We miss him. And them, too...of course.

Some of our favorite friends, the Dobberstein's were there too.

It was awesome to be with "family."

We love them.

Good buddies.

With a great big sis, who I want to take home with me.

It is so helpful to have a 7 year old around.

They make anything exciting...& keep us on our toes.

We're so blessed to have spent a week doing something we love so much with people who mean so much to us.

More to come...

Friends

Moments like these are growing.

Kind words, asking a baby brother to come see.

A closeness that is not a bother.

A friendship unlike any other.

A sister & brother kind.

She watches over him. He hugs her when he's sorry.

She catches him by the hand when she's feeling silly.

He looks for her when he wants company.

She hits him with balloons. He throws a football at her when she's not looking.

And, they both think that cucumber is hilarious.

Oh, Larry. You're so silly...you bring such great giggles to my house.

And have brought another reason for this mama's heart to smile.

The Date Night Project

Our 8th anniversary was June 14th.

I like seeing what traditional gifts are each year.

This year the traditional/modern gift was linen.

So, I made some "hoop art" for my honey:).

(after borrowing an idea from etsy...although, mine is not as cute as hers)

With fake linen. I'm a risk taker...or just cheap.

You can decide.

But...since my "traditional" gift was a little, well, not so manly, I wanted to do something more focused on us. Not just cute, but fun.

Date nights. For a year.

Found the idea here.

I cut rectangles out of white paper.

Then I cut slightly larger rectangles out of different styles of cute scrapbook paper & graph paper (I super heart graph paper).

The larger rectangles were the backs for the white paper.

And, of course, those rectangle notecards fit inside these envelopes that were each stamped with a month of the year.

Then I planned out a date night for each month.

No specifics like time or date...

just the place we will go & what we will do.

I searched "cheap date ideas in Dallas" online, & came up with some fun stuff.

I also planned some of our regular favorite things too, because now that we have kids, our regular favorites don't happen all too often.

The next step was fun.

I wrote out a note for each month.

And decorated my note.

Just with a pen.

No printing. So easy. And in my handwriting.

To my sweetheart.

I stuffed the envelopes...

and set them out for a happy anniversary surprise.

He's cute.

And he makes me happy.

And he can't open the envelopes until their month comes around.

I like making him squirm:).

He likes it too...