our beach weekend

which was unlike any beach weekend ive had in quite awhile - if ever.

i spent most of it INSIDE. sacrelig i know.
my sis was up at the crack of dawn shuttling her hubby to the airport for a bachelor weekend in vegas {i know - go big or go home, right?!?} so she swung by, picked us up, and the three of us headed down to the beach early friday morning to miss the traffic.

stephen came down later in the afternoon and he and i had a real-live date friday night.  at 6pm.  and we were home by 7:45 ;).  dont you DARE say we are old.  {we know we are} {thanks erin for baby sitting!}

saturday morning, we took benney woe to the gulf shores zoo.  i was honestly not looking forward to the heat factor, but it was surprisingly pleasant in the shade - low humidity and a nice nearly-cool breeze.  jack and "baby charlie" {and their momma} met us there and you should have seen the jack-bennett reunion...running to each other screaming each others names while bennett is "whistling" {making high pitched woo-oo-woo! noises over and over again} and immediately telling each other to "come see this jack!" "bennett follow me!".  so precious.

i thought this picture was so funny - looks like both of them are uncomfortably avoiding eye contact:

the only pic i captured of bennett and jack together:

"baby charlie" was there, too

im really excited about returning to the zoo when its a little cooler and the animals arent as lazy :)


i am so happy/thankful that erin was there to help entertain my rambuncious toddler - i could only stand so much time in the hot sun and sticky wet tankini {will be so happy to throw those things OUT...well, if tummy-after-second-baby allows it}.

thanks, auniE, for being on the receiving end of this about-to-jump daredevil.

bennett had a blast swimming the mornings away and mommy and bennett had a blast resting off the afternoons.  it was actually nice not to have the "pressure" to lay out or anything.  i quite enjoyed my showered, inside beach time for a change.  R-E-L-A-X

after much bugging by me, i finally got my sis to take a few pictures of bennett and me.  i knew how i wanted to "pose" with him...just bc this how i actually do carry him these days.  someone pointed out recently that we are going to have to make sure bennett knows he cant sit on emory when she is actually born ;)
erin took this on saturday, and after looking at them i realized i needed to wear makeup, and maybe brush my hair, for the next "photoshoot"...i had to black and white this one out to save you all:

these ended up a little better, but of course we couldnt ever get bennetts face AND my face to cooperate at the same time





i also took advantage of a smiley-after-a-long-nap bennett and snapped some solo pics of my bud...

 
here is a face ive been getting a LOT of these days:



the rest of the fam came down saturday afternoon and sunday was spent swimming, fishing,

"nocular"-ing

eating, and just hanging out

while i might not have been up for spending a lot of time outside, i did get a lot of things done this holiday weekend, mainly sewing a band of the same headboard fabric on the leading edge of bennett's drapes.  on monday when we got home we were able to hang up bennett's drapes, "dress" his beds, and make this possible:

thats right! one night in the "big boy bed" is under our belt and we have great news to report: he did wonderfully! it might have taken him a good hour and a half to scope out his new room and feel comfortable enough to fall asleep, but he didnt budge until 7:30 this morning.
however he did NOT take a nap today, but he hasnt taken naps on school days since it started a couple weeks ago.  i would expect him to be even MORE sleepy than usual on school days, but instead he just seems wired.  thankfully he rolled around, read books, and sang for three hours so, for me, that counts as a "nap"/quiet time.

happy labor day!


ill be back later with a handy dandy recipe i know you will love