Destin!!!!

We left Friday afternoon and drove to Rachel's apartment in Little Rock. It didn't get us very far, but it was free, rather than booking a hotel further down the road. We continued on Saturday and despite a few diaper blowouts had an okay ride. We got there around 5pm on Saturday and after putting the kids to bed, the ladies headed to Walmart for the big grocery run. YIKES!!!! It was busier than Disneyworld. I think it took us two hours to get everything. We were definitely ready for bed that night!

Sunday morning before church: (thanks Dad, for teaching us that no matter where you are, it's always important to find a place to worship God each Sunday - even when you're at the beach!)
Sunday afternoon beach time:

The men digging a hole:

Our house came with an AWESOME street-legal golf cart. A TOTAL life-saver. No sand in the cars!

The playground at the complex:

The swimming pool at the complex:

Enjoying a little play-doh fun:

We went to Fudpucker's for dinner one night. They have a cool restaurant and an even cooler area called Gator Beach - lots of alligators and other fun stuff:

Check out the bathtub in the master suite at the house!:

Story time:

Destin Commons: (kind of like the Promenade)

Bass Pro Shop:

The Gulfarium (kind of like a mini-mini-mini-Seaworld):

Thanks, Amanda, for thinking to bring bubbles!:

Of couse, you can't go to Destin without doing the family photoshoot on the beautiful white sand (Ethan was feeling less than photogenic and not so pleased with the whole idea):

Our drive back was an unreal experience. We left at 11am on Saturday (with the intention of driving the whole way back without stopping for the night) and within an hour or two Ethan puked all over himself and his carseat. It was really bad. After getting cleaned up, we continued on only to run into a horrible traffic jam that left us stuck on a two-mile stretch of highway for about 3 hours. Ethan was getting restless, so we just decided to let him out of his carseat and roam around the van. Shortly after climbing in my lap he pukes again. The other adventure from the traffic jam would be witnessing a grown woman in the car behind us put her car in park, walk to her front bumper, drop her pants, and urinate RIGHT ON THE ROAD!!! I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go! Anyway, we finally got moving again and by 11:30 that night decided we couldn't go anymore - we needed to get a hotel. Unfortunately for us, we stopped in Tupelo, which was hosting some sort of Little League World Series, and there were no vacancies in the whole city. We eventually found a hotel, if you can call it that. We enjoyed the cockroaches that slumbered with us. We got back on the road by 8am and drove, and drove, and drove, and FINALLY got home around 4pm. Mark my words - we will NEVER, EVER, drive to a destination that is 12+ hours away. WE WILL FLY, NO MATTER WHAT IT COSTS.

Sorry for all the details, but I want to remember them forever! Hope you got a few chuckles at our expense.

Awesome trip, though. Nothing like having such close friends and family that you can spend the week with in a beautiful house, with beautiful surroundings. Love you Thibs and Grubbs!

A Quick Teaser

So here we are in Destin and LOVING it!!!!! We didn't bring our laptop, so I can't download all our pictures. So I just stole one of Rachel's pictures to use as a teaser until we get home and I can blog!

Shapes and Words

Ethan and I were enjoying some Play-doh time this afternoon and he was being so cute (and smart!) that I just had to grab the video camera. He is surprising me everyday with how much he understands and knows. He may not be able to SAY a lot of things, but he sure does understand a lot!

This next video is just stinkin' hilarious! Check out the 'cat' part:

Tampa

About a week and a half ago we received word that my Grandmommy in Florida passed away. She had a stroke 6 years ago and has not been doing well since then, especially in the past month. So it was not unexpected, but sad nonetheless. I know she was ready to go.
So, we made a quick trip down to Tampa for the funeral. Rachel and Keira were able to head down with Lonnie, Ethan and I. I was a little nervous about how Ethan would handle his first flying experience, but he did a wonderful job!
It was really good to see a lot of cousins, aunts, and uncles that I haven't seen in a VERY long time.

At Granddaddy's house:

The kiddos waited patiently while we finished getting ready for the visitation:

Keira and cousin Lydia:

Our attempt at a cousins picture:

The Willis Crew!

Granddaddy and some of his great grandkids:

Ethan chillin' with Uncle Vic:

Granddaddy was so nice to share his water with Ethan:

Yeah, see what happened to the water?

At the Tampa Airport at 5am. Thank goodness for a convenient play area right next to our gate!

Okay, completely unrelated...

We got back from Florida on Thursday. Our 5th anniversary was on Friday, and we already had our whole weekend planned. So, we went on with the plans! Rachel and fam kept Ethan all weekend so we could enjoy some child-free, stress-free time. It was AWESOME!!!! We stayed at Embassy on Friday night, went to Ruth's Chris for dinner, went to see The Proposal, got Cici's cinnamon rolls for dessert (the BEST in the whole wide world), got massages in the morning, and spent the rest of the weekend just shopping, running errands, and believe it or not, cleaning up and organizing around the house. Although we had an amazing time, we were both very excited to see Ethan at church on Sunday morning! We missed him!

I wanted a nice picture of us at dinner, but never got around to asking someone to take our picture, so we did it ourselves! Ummmm, after about 20 pictures, I decided I just look hideous with braces and there was no hope for a good picture.

This is how we felt after taking so many pictures of ourselves. Started getting a little crazy!

One of our buys while we were out shopping was a kid-sized chair for Ethan. Love it!

So, that sums up where we've been lately and why I've not been blogging. I hope to get back into routine soon! (at least for 2 weeks, then it's off to Florida again, for vacation this time)

16 months

I realize I'm waaaaay late for this, but it's been a busy week or two, so I'm trying to play catch-up now.



Ethan has REALLY blossomed this past month. Especially his speaking skills and his personality. I just can't believe all that he's learned in such a short amount of time!

Ethan at 16 months:

• New words this month: baa (for a sheep), meow, quack, roar!, water, up (pronounced either uppy, or buppy, with a high pitched squeal at the end), baby, Papa (his attempt at Grandpa), poopy, banana ("nana")
• New signs: again, bird


• He is SOOOO into music. Favorite songs right now: Wheels on the Bus, If You're Happy and You Know It. He dances at the sound of almost any music.


• He's become Mr. Personality. He will finally smile and wave at people he doesn't know - a HUGE step for him! He used to shy away from any unfamiliar person (either by nuzzling up close to me or hiding behind my legs). He's starting to participate more in group activities at Gymboree.


• Still LOVES to read! Book after book after book after book after book...


• Running!


• Soooo ticklish!


• Still LOVES to be outside!


• Climbing! He's mastered climbing on top of our bed (which is really tall), the dining room chairs (which are tall, again), and well, pretty much everything else. I guess the only thing left is climbing out of his crib - don't even want to think about that!


• Ethan's dislikes: potatoes of ANY form, eggs of ANY form, ants/bugs, changing his diaper (plays the crawling away game), sleeping past 6am

Well, I guess that's all I can think of. Love that sweet boy!

BUPPY!

One of Ethan's new words lately is 'up.' For some reason, this is what comes out...

Sometimes it's 'buppy,' other times it's 'uppy.' Either way, it makes us laugh every time!!!!