San Destin 2008

We have finally returned and gotten caught up on laundry and unpacking long enough for me to post this! We headed down to the beach on Thursday morning for our annual stay at SanDestin resort. Jeff has a conference there every June and has been asked to speak at ones in the past which have led to some great fall beach trips! We LOVE this resort because it is so family oriented. We stayed in a two bedroom condo right above the amphitheater. The first night they played "Shrek 3" on the lawn and we could watch it from our balcony. The other nights they had a band that allowed all of the millions of kids running around to play instruments on stage. It was so cute! It really is the perfect place for families!

We prefer to stay on the bay side near the shops and restaurants because at this age Anderson really doesn't just love whole days spent at the beach. He would much rather be in the pool. We can get to the beach by tram anytime we want, but we only went once for about an hour. He is very particular about "make a mess" as he says and the sand was not his favorite thing as it kept sticking to his hands and feet!

My mom joined us down there for the trip, and that was so nice. We tried to eat out the first night before mom got there and it was a disaster! Anderson has zero interest in being contained in a high chair these days. We decided to do everybody a favor and order our food to go. Once mom got there she stayed with Anderson so we could have a couple of peaceful meals and we even got to shop at the outlets one afternoon. Anderson loved having his GiGi at the beach. For a solid week before we left he would say "make sandcastles at da beach wit GiGi".

I did try to get Anderson on the beach for some pics and they are OK, but not as good as I would like. I hope to get some better ones when we go in September. By then Lydia will be here and our family will be complete. I can't wait to get some pictures of them together!

******Oh and just a tip for you mommas that are beach bound this summer from the Tuscaloosa/ Birmingham area. We stopped in Pratville at the Bass Pro Shop. I am not kidding when I say I have never seen my two boys more happy. It's like Disney World for the outdoors man. They had a huge waterfall and fish tank and stuffed bears, wolves, dear, and pretty much any other animal you can imagine! Anderson talked about "see da Bears and da Fishees" so much that we decided to stop there on the way back as well. It was a nice break in a very long car ride!

My Twin... David Barton

So we have some friends David and Lisa who had an adorable little boy the February before we had Anderson. David and Jeff work together, and Lisa and I were quick friends which eventually led to lots of fun times including shared pregnancies (we are both now preggo with # 2 and due 3 months apart), playdates (for David Barton and Anderson), and at one time football game tickets (for the adults)! We just love David Barton and apparently we love the same clothes! HA! We have shown up twice in the last couple of weeks wearing the EXACT same thing! Too funny! First it was swim trunks to the pool and then it was an outfit for another friend's birthday party. We are going to have to start calling each other I guess... :)

Here are a few pics from the parties we went to this last weekend...Leigh Powell (2) and our cousin Avery Williams (3).

hmmm... I think I'll have another M&M...or maybe the whole bowl!

Happy Birthday Leigh!

Take me out to the Ball Game...

Jeff's firm participated in the Family Night at the Met for the Birmingham Barons last Thursday night. They were able to rent out a sky box right behind home plate for employees and their families as a summer social event. They chartered a bus up there, but since we had swim lessons we opted to drive our own car up after Anderson's afternoon lesson.

He loved every second of it and was ALL boy! He loved looking at the game, but more importantly all of the lights and movies on the scoreboard. He also spent a lot of time running up and down the aisles of the sky box with Jeff or I one chasing him. I swear the boy does not slow down. He has two speeds: asleep and wide open! We were also given playground passes as part of the deal, and he enjoyed that as well. We had a great time, but it was a late night! We got home at 11:00 and Anderson stayed awake the whole time. Bless his heart he slept until 9:15 the next morning! Oh well...it is summertime after all!!

Amanda Traywick pictures are up!

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Church of the Highlands

Last fall Church of the Highlands (out of Birmingham) decided to start a Tuscaloosa campus. This is the church I attended while still single and living in Birmingham. We were actively involved in another similar style church here, but when I heard that COTH was coming we really started praying about it and after one visit we knew it was where we were supposed to be. Jeff and I helped with the church plant starting last September and we just love it there. The pastor is the best speaker I have ever heard and gives wonderfully practical sermons that you feel like you always need to hear. We are so grateful to have this campus in Tuscaloosa!

We meet at the Bryant Conference Center at 11:15 on Sunday mornings. We have live praise and worship, but then have our sermon simulcast from the Birmingham main campus and pastor Chris. We do, however, have our own Tuscaloosa pastor (Mike Wilson) that is responsible for our little town for outreach, etc. At first we weren't wild about a video taped message, but Pastor Chris is phenomenal and when do you interact during a sermon anyway? You don't...so it is really no different than sitting down for a live sermon. The crowd is young, which makes it a lot of fun.

We made a commitment to become part of the "dream team" which is basically helping fill leadership positions for the new campus to get it off the ground. Jeff ushers and I keep the nursery a lot. We also co-lead a small group (sort of like Sunday School) at our home on Wednesday nights. Our neighbors Keith and Monica are in the group and have a three year old, so we split a babysitter that comes to their house so that we can enjoy the videos and dinner without distraction from small children...but they are just two doors down so it's nice to know they are close by! We just finished a study called Love and Respect about marriage. We have about 12 members that are consistent and we have had a blast. We love the couples in our group. We have had one couple get married while in the group...Congrats Maddie and Jeremy who are just back from their wedding in Hawaii. We also had one couple get engaged this semester...Congrats Sho and Erin! Another couple is expecting their first baby just 6 or so weeks after Lydia arrives. We are sort of the older couple, but we just love watching these youngins getting the right start to their marriages!

Tonight we had a cookout to close out the last semester and socialize (eat a lot!! ) before the next series starts next week. We had the babysitter stay at our house and blew up the bouncy house for the kiddos. We even had some new visitors to the group come and bring their kids. Jeff grilled some delicious burgers and a good time was had by all! I took some pics and thought I'd post them. Enjoy!

Swim Kids

We decided to go ahead and enroll Anderson in Swim Kids this summer. I almost didn't because the guy said that basically they don't learn to "swim" until age 3, but that it was good to do some classes earlier so that they don't develop a fear of the water. My initial though was...Anderson LOVES water. Is this going to be a waste of time and money? However, I decided it was worth it even if for only the lessons on putting their heads under the water. Jeff agreed to take him if I could schedule it for an afternoon after work. They have had two classes together now and it is so fun to sit and watch.

They do a lot more than I originally thought. They sing songs and "blow bubbles" to prepare them for going under. The instructors are creative and use toys and hoops to make it all seem like fun! The first time he put his head under he talked about it for a solid week. His little dialect is so sweet! He'll say...."Mommy...I putted my head unda da wata" and he would blink because he is concentrating so hard on all of the words to make sure we understood him. He was so proud of himself

How cute is this little duckie?!

Crazy busy weekend...

Well, I am finally coming up for air after our crazy busy weekend, which led to a crazy busy Monday of catching up on cleaning, laundry, and Anderson duty (since he is out of school this week).



Last Thursday we packed up and headed to Winchester, Tenn. to see Jeff's nephew graduate from high school. Jeff can hardly believe that Ethan is actually 18 now, since his birth seems like just yesterday. Jeff and his family went to the ceremony sparing me the duty of being 8 plus months pregnant and sitting in bleachers for 2 hours. Jeff saw several classmates from his days at Franklin County High that actually had graduating seniors. Jeff always floored them by telling them he had a two year old and one on the way. He got a bit of a late start! Ha! I stayed behind at Jeff's parents house and put Anderson to bed before watching the season finale of LOST...and that show, my friends, is an entirely different post for a different day!



Friday morning we were up bright and early (Anderson never sleeps well away from home) and headed outside at Nana and Pop's for what has affectionately been dubbed "water day". During his last week of school they got out all the baby pools and sprinkler toys for a Water Day. Anderson LOVED it! Now every time we go swimming or play in water he screams "Wata Day" at the top of his lungs. Today while at Target he saw a little girl in a bathing suit with a terry cloth cover up and loudly pronounced..."Mommy go home now...all done...home to have Wata Day!" After wearing him out in the sun and water we packed up the family SUV and headed back home trying to catch his nap time while we were in the car. He did sleep for about 2 hours, but we still had a ways to go when he woke up very unhappy. I can't imagine traveling with two kids soon!



Friday night as we got home I checked messages and had one from a photographer to confirm our appointment for 10:00 am at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Fear and terror gripped me as I gripped the phone trying desperately to get someone from the studio on the line. Our appointment was for the following Saturday (because I knew we would be exhausted from our trip to Tenn and the last thing we would want to do is load up the car again the next morning and head to Birmingham.) I am still not sure how they got the appt. mixed up. After leaving several messages at the studio and trying in vain to look up the photographer's home number, I finally realized we had two choices...either suck it up and go assuming that some poor girl would in fact be at the gardens waiting for us the next morning, or not go and hope that they could reschedule us for that next weekend when our actual appointment was. I knew that they were very popular booked well in advance and after much debate decided to go ahead and bust it to get packed up and go anyway. If they had said we don't have anything until July and this baby arrived early there would be no maternity shots!



So battling exhaustion we packed up again to go to Birmingham and have our pictures made. Once there we met the apprentice photographer and it turns out that she was one of my former high school English students. I was reluctant about getting an apprentice, but as soon as I knew who it was, I was fine. I remember her being incredibly creative and very sweet. She hadn't changed a bit except for the fact that she now holds a photography and liberal arts degree from Montevallo. She was wonderful with Anderson, and I hope we got some good shots. I'll post the link when it goes up.



Since we were up there already Mom agreed to keep the monkey so that Jeff could treat me to a whole birthday "day". We shopped at the Summit and had an afternoon ice cream treat. He even treated me to an afternoon movie...Sex and the City! If you know my husband this surprises you! He HATES that show! I remember begging him to watch just one episode one night...BIG MISTAKE. It happened to be the one where Carrie cheated on Aiden with Big and Aiden was all torn up and heartbroken. Jeff just looked at me and went...yeah...great show and rolled his eyes! But since it was "my" day he went along willingly. It was a great movie and he even said he liked it. Of course it was a bit graphic in parts (which didn't really make the movie any better- so I wish they had left those scenes out), but the storyline was good!



That night we had reservations at Hot and Hot Fish Club, one of my favorite gourmet restaurants in Birmingham. They have been featured in Southern Living, Cooking Light and probably some other magazines. We had an excellent dinner, just the two of us. It was my favorite part of my birthday. The food and service was, as always, amazing. It was so much fun to sit across from my sweet husband and talk about our past and our future. We still can hardly believe that we are about to become a family of four.



All in all it was a busy, but fun weekend...but this very pregnant momma is tired! I will add pics to this post later. We are having some computer issues!