Back to the Beach

Thursday morning we headed back to the beach for the Grey family beach trip to Dauphin Island, Alabama. And, in case you’re wondering, we didn’t really plan our two beach trips back-to-back like that; they just kind of fell that way, but we’re not complaining. In the end, you forget about the three days you worked in between the two trips, so it almost feels like a two-week vacation!

Here are a few pics, starting with Uncle Ryan burying Ryan Hadley in the sand... this little girl is a true beach baby - she loves everything about it from the sand to the waves. At one point she was standing there at the edge of the water saying, "Come on, waves!" Too precious...

And here's Uncle Derek playing with Ryan Hadley and her Dora the Explorer fishing pole.

The real reason we took a family trip was for PawPaw Billy's 80th birthday party, which was Saturday. His real birthday was Thursday though, so we celebrated with a makeshift cake made out of a Pop Tart and a grill match. Classy... :)

Here's a group pic of the Greys, Aunt Kacki and David, and PawPaw Billy and Meme Lou.

A very tired Ryan Hadley fell asleep to one of Grandee's lullabies...

On Friday night before sunset, we decided to take some of those "all white" beach photos, but it was kind of impromptu, so all the boys had on different shorts, and inevitably not all of us were ever looking at the camera at the same time. Here's the best one, but Ryan is squinting. Oh, well...

We did take a good girls' shot, though, so this is Candee's belated Mother's Day gift... :)

Friday night we had a little dance party on the deck... Even Uncle Rusty got down...

By the time Saturday night came around, we were so worn out from the birthday party that just about all of our energy went to the wild goose chase we went on for some raw oysters and ended up over the bridge in Coden, Alabama. Random, but I guess the oysters were good (I don’t eat them; I was more along for the ride) because Neil and Gary slurped them down with enough horseradish to make their heads explode.

We hit the road Sunday morning and surprised my mom and grandmother for a late brunch at Salute in Gulfport. Dad and I worked out this little Mother’s Day surprise late last week, and we pulled it off without a hitch. It was delicious, and the best part about it was that the two guests of honor couldn’t have been happier to see us.

We are worn out yet again, and I’m busy trying to catch up on nearly two weeks’ worth of laundry and dishes tonight. It’s crazy how two back-to-back vacations can leave you almost as tired as you were when you left, but it’s been great! It was so good to get away for a while, and of course it was nice to get a head start on my summer tan, too. I wish every week was a three-day work week and a four-day weekend. :)

Happy Bloggiversary To Me!

It’s been a year since I started this little blog journey, and I absolutely love it. I don’t really even care if anybody reads it; it’s just a perfect way for me to fill whoever might be interested in about what’s been going on with us lately.

I’d have to say the biggest plus is just being able to write. As most of you know, that’s my passion, and I miss it so much these days. My job now doesn’t really allow for too much creativity in that department, so I’ll take it any way I can.

There are so many “bloggable” moments I remember that happened before I started blogging, so hopefully my life will continue to surprise me and entertain you to some extent from here on out.

And, if I had my way, everyone would have a blog… peer pressure is a great thing sometimes. :)

Come Monday...

We're back from Destin and feel totally refreshed and grateful for some quality beach time with my family. I honestly didn't know if I'd be able to go or not until late afternoon Wednesday thanks to the swine flu at work, but I made it, and I tried really hard to only check the news and my work e-mail twice the whole time. :)

It took just a couple of hours once we got down there on Thursday afternoon to get vacation head and let my worries float away. I can't tell you how much we needed this little get-away, and it was very special to have another trip down there with Granny and Pap. This trip has been in the "works" for a year now, and this time I wasn't going to let a hurricane OR the swine flu keep me from going!

After settling in our condo and spending a few hours on the beach, Derek and I geared up for dinner and found this great little seafood restaurant right on the water. It was so good, and the live music from A.J.'s next door (and the bottle of wine) just made it that much better. We had a few drinks on our balcony after dinner and then called it a night.

Friday we slept in (have I mentioned I really think we need to buy a king-sized bed for our house so we can feel like we're on vacation all the time?) and rented a pontoon boat with my family to take out on the bay that afternoon. The weather couldn't have been better and the water was beautiful, as always. Friday night we went to dinner with the whole family at Harbor Dock for some delicious, fresh seafood and then headed back to the condo fat and happy.

We decided we wanted to get out and about on Saturday, so Derek and I headed to Grayton Beach to just piddle around at the Zoo Gallery and stop by the Red Bar for a beer. We hit the fantastic outlet mall in Sandestin on our way back. Needless to say, a few hours later we had definitely done our part to support the local economy. :)

We spent a few hours on the beach when we got back and then got ready to boil some shrimp down at the condo pavilion. I forgot to mention that when we weren't sipping a nice, tropical drink on the balcony of our condo, we were downstairs in my family's condo either bowling on the Wii (yes, Mom and Dad brought theirs) or playing poker or Dixie Dice, a Grey/Turner family tradition that's caught on well with the Bices.

Once we got everything ready for the shrimp boil, we headed downstairs to the pavillion. There was a 70th birthday party going on down there, and they had a great little two-man band playing some beach music. It was perfect. By the end of the night, we had made some new friends, and the birthday girl even got Granny out on the dance floor... absolutely priceless.


We had a wonderful time, and while I'm glad to be back home now, I really, really dread checking my e-mail and voicemail tomorrow morning. It's definitely back to reality now, but at least with a fabulous vacation memory in the back of my mind... :)

I'm out...

After three full days of battling the swine flu with an overflowing inbox, conference calls and press briefings, it's time... Later gators. Please hand me a Corona.

Heaven on earth

We had a wonderfully relaxing weekend with some good quality time at Eagle Lake. We headed out there Friday night after work and spent the evening having a feel cold beverages outside with Derek's parents and enjoying some old school Fleetwood Mac on the record player. It was so nice and cool outside. Even Bentley took advantage of the peace and quiet by fetching a stick and going for an occasional dip in the lake.

Bless his heart... It was definitely his own little idea of heaven out there. Usually during the summer we don't bring him because he can be a handful with a crowd, but he's getting better as he gets older, and this time he really proved that he could behave.

On Saturday our friends Drew and Kristin came over from Jackson, and we took the pontoon boat out for the afternoon. It was really choppy, but we made the best of it and enjoyed some good sunshine. It feels good to abandon your weekend to-do list for once and just enjoy the springtime weather!

Once we made it home last night, we were all worn out, especially Bentley. He played so hard that he was snoring in his sleep and dreaming about swimming. Maybe we should take him places more often. :)

Bye Bye, Birdies

For the second year in a row, a mother bird has built her nest in my spring flower arrangement inside our carport. I guess it could be a pretty safe place to raise your babies if you just ignore all the in-and-out backdoor traffic, which is quite a bit considering that's where we park and where the laundry room is.

It's all cute at first... Mama Bird builds the nest from dryer lint, pinestraw and Bentley's hair, and then before you know it, she has four or five pretty little eggs all snuggled in the warm little nest. Then the babies hatch, and then they start to poop. Everywhere...

So gross... Obviously, it only gets worse the longer the babies make the nest their home. Last year I was able to clean it off pretty easily, but this year is different. There is poop all on the greenery and and flowers, on the outside of the iron basket that holds the arrangement AND down the carport wall.

These cute little poopy birdies have finally flown the coop, and now it's time to clean. I'm grossed out just thinking about it. Happy Spring.

My totally lazy, unproductive and wonderful weekend...

I don’t think I’ve felt this rested on a Monday in a super long time. I did nothing, and I mean NOTHING, all weekend, and I don’t feel the least bit bad about it. At all…

The only semi-productive happenings of the weekend were starting the ordering process for a new sliding glass door (woo-hoo!) and carefully selecting a couple of nice, fluffy, girly books to take to the beach.

First, the door… our poor sliding glass door has needed to be replaced since we moved into this house almost two years ago. It’s been on the to-do list, but it’s never been a priority. Well, the door has come off its track one too many times and now is missing its wheel, so it really barely slides at all. Plus, if it rains, you can really give up on trying to open it. It’s pretty sad.

So, we gave in and finally took the plunge into replacing it. We love the look of French doors, but the original opening is eight feet, so we’d have to add side panels. We also like how opening the sliding glass doors actually opens the living space, so, here’s what we decided…

Ta-da! French-style sliding glass doors! The inside is unfinished wood that we can stain the color of our wood floors, and the outside is white to match the white trim. I can’t wait! It's just another excuse for a party if you ask me…

As for the books, we have this used book store down the road called the Book Rack, and I could spend hours in there looking through all the books and picking out one that I like. I lucked up this weekend and picked out two books – Bundle of Joy by Ariella Papa and Whacked by Jules Asner – that fit my beach book checklist of having girly drama, a non-British author and a pretty covers.

I just have to set them aside and not let myself start reading them before vacation.

Other than that, I caught up on my DVR’d shows and movies over the weekend and got plenty of beauty sleep. I think I’d be a lot more productive if every weekend was as totally lazy, unproductive and wonderful. :)