Destin, Florida trip: Part 2!

A typical morning in Destin consisted of donuts, bacon, and other yummy, extremely healthy treats. :) Holden loved the powdered donuts.

Holden was so happy to wake up to a whole condo full of people every day! There was always someone to play with. He had to wait for Aunt Allie and Carly, since they took advantage of sleeping in. (Someday he will do that, right???) He and Aunt Allie were being silly doing leg kicks here.

I have a picture frame in my house with the saying, "Inside every Dad is a little kid who loves to play." So true of Jay with Holden!

Holden had so much fun with his new floaties. He loves being independent, and with the floaties on, he could practice "swimming" on his own. Of course he equally enjoyed being in Daddy's arms, Pepaw's arms, and being tossed into the air. He went back and forth between the pool and the hot tub.

Our family friends, the Browns, were also staying in Destin. Their daughter, Bailey, built sandcastles with Holden, and their son, Ben (the blond) and his friend, Dylan, helped him dig huge holes on the beach. Diane and Charlie Brown (yes, his name is really Charlie Brown and yes, he's heard every joke in the book about it!) are in the lower right picture.

Holden's favorite beach pastime was digging with his giant shovel. It was the same size as him!

We went to a place called Fudpuckers for dinner one night. It is really fun and different, with several levels indoors and out. There was a playground, live band, and the big draw was the alligator pit. You could hang a pole over the pit and put meat on the end to feed the gators. There were also big screen TV's with music videos in all of the eating areas. Of course our little rocker loved that!

Jay and I enjoying our daiquiris. Yummy!

Holden and his lady entourage. :) Aunt Allie and Carly are on the right, Bailey Brown is holding him, and her friend is the blond. He quite enjoyed all the attention they lavished on him.

Daddy and Holden in their matching shirts. (Pepaw's in the background.) They are trying to feed the gators here, but I think they had eaten too much; they just sat on the dock and stared at us! Holden was a little nervous. :)

"Got meat?"

While we were waiting for our food to arrive, I took Holden to the playground area. This cute little girl started following him everywhere, giving him hugs and kisses. He wasn't too sure what he thought about that; I give her points for persistence! Her mom and I were just watching and cracking up. I think they are pretty cute in their stripes!

After Fudpuckers, we headed to a local fun park called The Track. It had go-kart tracks, a putt-putt course, and other fun attractions for the older crowd, and a kiddie area for the youngsters. All Holden wanted to do was "ride the choo-choo!" Which we did. About 500 times each. He was in heaven! We managed to pry him away to the carousel, game room, and swings, but then he headed right back to the choo-choo. In case you're wondering, he didn't "measure up" for the big kid rides. How cute is he studying the feet?!

Not pictured was my bungee sailing with Ben Brown! It's where they strap you into a harness and you go sailing back and forth across the sky together. It was too dark and none of the shots turned out, but we have some lovely screaming video footage somewhere. Nobody would go with him and I felt sorry for him, so I told him let's do it now before I lose my nerve. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but it was a lot of fun after the initial drop! (During which time 12 year old Ben told me he thought he was going to cry, and I was sure we were going to plummet to our death.) I was proud of myself for taking a risk, since we all know the most adventurous I usually get is staying up past 9:00! :)

Random Monday Memos

I'm still working away at Destin post #2! Meanwhile, a few happenings/thoughts from the weekend and today:

• We had a hailstorm Sunday morning before church. Holden heard the commotion and ran to the sliding glass door in our kitchen. His mouth opened wide and he yelled, "MOMMY, IT'S RAININ' BALLS!!!!!" :)
• Corinne Paige, my friend Kara's new little one, made it home on Saturday. I swear she grows and changes every time I see her. Mommy and baby are doing well...Mommy is just a little tired right now! My friend, Bridget (blog on the right) posted some cute pics of the three of us and our babies from last year and this. I am going to have to copy her idea and add Holden's birth, since she couldn't find it. It's fun to compare the difference in each year!
• You gotta love Illinois when you wake up like I did this morning, to discover snow covering everything IN APRIL! It's also really fun if your child's riding/outdoor toys take up so much of the garage during the winter months that you only have room for one vehicle in the garage, and it's your turn to scrape the one on the street, which resembles a giant white cupcake. I am really missing Florida...
• Jay took Holden in for his 2 year appt. and shots this morning. I am thankful that he has this job, and not me. I don't do well holding him down for the shots! My little string bean is in the whopping 13th percentile for his 25.5 weight (shocking, I know!) but close to the 50th percentile for height. It's that long torso; he has the shortest little legs!
• I can't believe ER is over. I was 5 episodes behind, so I had a marathon this weekend, ending with the series finale. I have watched every single episode for 15 years. Is it totally pathetic that I feel like I know the characters and thus am losing friends?! (Don't answer that! Please!)

On the upside, only three days of school this week with the kiddos. We have an institute day Thursday, and are off for Good Friday. I'm looking forward to decorating eggs with Holden tonight. And there are only 7 weeks and 3 days left of school after this week. Not that I'm counting or anything...! I love my job, but I love summer more. :)

Destin, Florida trip: Part 1 (Warning: major picture overload ahead!)

I am finally getting around to our trip posts. I am finding it a fun yet daunting task. The bottom line is that I take WAY too many pictures, and while I know this, I can't stop myself! My friend, Ali, described it as some type of photo disease. If there is such a thing, I have an extreme case! Ha! I am also not good at downsizing and weeding out the best shots; I love them all! Sooo...no apologies for the ridiculous number of pictures in this post. If you are reading this, you know me, so you aren't surprised! :) At least Holden has plenty of reminders of this trip!

We decided to leave Thursday night, so that we could be in close proximity with Jay's parents, who drove down separately with his sister, Allison, and her friend, Carly. That way, too, Holden could sleep through the night and it would make the long drive easier on all of us. I took a personal day Friday. Holden's sitter dropped him off at my school Thursday afternoon, and Jay picked us up with the van all loaded and ready to go. We were off! I have to say, Holden did a MUCH better job of entertaining himself in the van this year. It's nice that he's old enough to watch DVD's and play with travel toys. We also read a lot of books and sang a lot of songs, danced to music on the radio, and pointed out anything and everything we could see out the window. If I had a dime for every time he said, "A TRUCK!" I could have paid off our entire trip. :) Thank goodness for the Wiggles, as they had his rapt attention for a good leg of the drive. And when all else failed, snacks did the trick. Nothing like bribing your child with food! He did not, however, sleep as well through the night as last year. He fell asleep around 8pm, but woke up on and off crying and fussing every so often. I think he was just uncomfortable. He likes to sleep on his tummy at home. Jay and I had to laugh at some hilarious sleep-talking outbursts that took place. At one point, he threw his arms up in the air and yelled, "WHEE!" Then he dropped his head to the side and was out cold again. We arrived around 6am, beating Jay's family. Since we couldn't check into the hotel for a few hours, and Holden was sleeping soundly at that point, we pulled a total white trash move and slept in a Walmart parking lot! Lol! When we woke up-scratch that-when Holden woke us up-we ate breakfast at a Cracker Barrel. Holden thought the peg game was pretty cool.

Once we met up with Paul, Tami, Allison, and Carly, we were able to check in early and head to the beach. Destin lost a great deal of its beach to the hurricane a few years back, and they are slowly trying to rebuild. Near our hotel were some construction workers scooping up sand. They saw how fascinated Holden was with the truck, and offered to let him help dig! He was on cloud nine! It's all he talked about the rest of the week, and when we show people the picture album now, he always requests the "truck page."

Aunt Ally and Carly wasted no time in testing out the (freezing!) water temperatures. This was before we had even checked in. Destin got very warm (mid 70's) around 10:00 and lasting until around 2:00, but was chilly in the mornings and evenings. I think Holden would have ran in after them if Memaw wasn't there!

We saw a dead stingray on the beach. It was pretty neat to see one up so close!

The beach was beautiful. Pure white sand and crystal clear water in beautiful shades of blue. Sigh. I missed it from the moment we left! If I ever win the lottery...! Holden found a little "sand hill" that he liked to climb up and run down. Lots of pictures ensue; he was too darn cute!

He looks like a little surfer dude! :)

Nothing like a tushy shot!

Ahh, the scenery

Taking a break to lay out?! (This only lasted a second.)

He tried to see what was so cool about laying out like Aunt Ally and Carly...so cute! This only lasted a second, too.

"Hey, Grandpa, want some sand?"

Needless to say, Holden required a bath everyday before nap time since he had sand head to toe. As you can see, he didn't mind! He loved playing with his shovel and net in the tub.

This is the view out of our 6th floor balcony. You can see our pool, hot tub, pavilion, and the gorgeous ocean view. Does it get any better than this?

Another balcony view of the beach. Man, I wish I was there right now!

I had to add this one of the "diggers" for Holden since it was the highlight of his trip! He'd beg to be held on the balcony so he could watch them. I think he was the only one excited about the noise!

Palm tree shot with Daddy! We took a walk the first night along the front of our hotel and the rest of the street.

Rear view :)

Holden and Mommy in front of our hotel sign.

Think of the theme from Jaws...."doo doo doo doo..." Everyday around 4:30, sharks and stingrays surfaced near the beach. A local told us it was mating season, and supposedly they don't eat when they are mating. I don't know who would want to take their chances, but we did see several surfers literally within touching distance of the sharks! They'd just float on by. Crazy! They were not around at all during the day, but they came out like clockwork in the late afternoon. Scary, but really cool to see so close! I got some shots from our balcony. Holden now knows the word, "Shark!"

There are three in this picture if you look closely. Two on the left; one is farther back but you can make out a dark shape. Jay and his dad counted 15 one night!

Holden and Mommy being goofy before bed on our first night. We were so happy to be on vacation!

Chillin' with Daddy on the couch before bed. We had a great first day! More posts to follow; stay tuned! (A big thanks to Ali Moser for showing me how to post multiple pictures off Picasa...as you can see I made the most of it!) :)

I'm an "aunt" again!

No....not Eric...that would require him to settle down first!!! :) My best friend, Kara, gave birth to Corinne Paige Thompson this morning! I got to go see her for a little bit tonight, and she is just precious. She's a bit of a stinker; Mommy wasn't due until April 10th, but she decided to turn completely around and go breech Monday night, so the Dr. scheduled a C-section for this morning. I have been anxiously waiting to meet this little beauty and to find out her NAME! (Kara and Gary kept it top secret, not even revealing the first initial.) I love their choice and think it suits her well. Bridget and I can't wait until she is old enough to have a play date with Natalie and Holden! Our little stair-step babies. The three of us went through the ups and downs of Jr. High, High School, and college together, earned teaching certificates at the same time, were in each other's weddings, and now all share the joy of Mommy-hood. Kara, I know you will be a wonderful Mommy to Corinne! I am looking forward to years of fun memories together with the new generation of the "Super Crew." :)

Pretty in Pink: Corinne Paige Thompson

She knows her Aunt Katie is holding her; look at that little smirk! I love it!

Sweet family shot if the Thompsons


On a side note, I had to add this picture from last night because I am a mean Mommy and think it's hilarious! We thought Holden would enjoy the car wash. Boy, were we wrong! OOPS! Traumatized is the word.

P.S. I promise to start working on my trip posts soon! I have so many great pictures that I am trying to sort through them and figure out the best way to collage them. Not to mention a little thing called lack of time....man do I miss being off work!