I know I mentioned last summer that we camp on vacation and that it might not be for everyone. Having said that, I honestly cannot imagine spending my vacation any other way. I might also have told you we had a travel trailer when we first got married and that it was the perfect size until we expanded our family. We sold it a few years ago in hopes of upgrading, but haven't felt good about making another investment of that size. For this year, we decided to try our hand at renting a trailer close to the beach and it was a dream come true. We found a great deal on a brand new camper and decided not only did it save us money this year, but it allows us to try out a few different floor plans before becoming an RV owner again. We could not have been happier with our decision. If you are used ...
family
Beach Babies
I have just spent the last eight days with these beauties at the beach. We are positively exhausted. Luckily, they were excellent travelers and adjusted well to life at the beach. Everything we did, we did in abundance: rolled in the sand, got soaked, ate yummy food, snuggled in the sunshine and took an insane number of photographs. Not only will it take me a few days to wrap my head around normal life, but I need to upload the images, read over 600 entries in Google Reader, check my email, catch up on design orders and get my house back in order. I also have two girls in terrible need of a schedule readjustment and some downtime with mommy and daddy. Our trip was wonderful and I'll have lots to share in the next few days. We missed you guys! ...
Summertime is Here
Can I tell you how thrilled I am that summer is here? It's a little bittersweet, since it marks one year since I've been back at work. It is hard to believe that this time last year we were sleeping in and snuggling our newborn baby girl and spending every waking moment soaking up the sun. It was such a blessing to get to spend maternity leave at the pool with my girls and I'm going to have to sneak in lots of sunny weekends if this summer plans to compete. I love having a three-day weekend and we took full advantage of our time together. We spent all day Saturday, Sunday and today at my parents' pool. We grilled out, packed picnic lunches, bought floats, applied sunscreen, watched puppy dogs make laps and remembered how to swim. It took Ella all three days to gain a little confidence ...
Easter
Although Easter was really late in the season this year, it seemed to sneak up on me. I had been thinking about the girls' baskets for weeks and all of a sudden I had a mere days to finish them up! Luckily, I had been taking good notes and Ella had been making many requests over the previous weeks. I am not a huge fan of candy for the kiddos, although they do get sweet treats. Instead of loading up on sugar, I usually shop for things that I would be buying them anyway. This year, Ella got a beach towel and bathing suit, silver sandals for spring/summer, a cute quilted purse that she spotted several weeks ago at a local shop {thanks, Sue}, some alphabet flashcards and the movie Tangled. There was also some candy, bubbles, kaleidoscope and hopping chick. Sophie got a beach towel, bathing ...
Sneaky
On Saturday, we met K bright and early for a family photoshoot. It was very grey outside, so we were glad for bright blue eyes and pretty green grass. I have had an idea in mind for this shoot for months - I knew I either wanted pics of us waist deep in rye grass or lying on a blanket in a pile. Random right? When K sent me these sneaks this morning I knew I couldn't make a decision. I need help, people! 1. Conceptually, this is what I had in mind. I love that it isn't "too" posed and I LOVE the grass. What I don't love? My face. 2. Again, love this and everyone in it. But me. Why am I so weird looking here? I don't think that even looks like me. 3. Then the sun started peaking out, my necklace broke {Ella is playing with the beads here} and the girls got happy. I love this ...
IKEA: It’s All About the Food!
When I planned a girls' weekend road trip to the closest IKEA, I had no idea our day would revolve around food. On Saturday morning, I loaded up with Garan and K and we spent two and a half hours of a rainy drive to Atlanta for our first ever stroll around IKEA. I've heard of it plenty, even ordered the magazine and shopped on-line a few times, but if you are reading any design blogs you know that there is plenty of goodness to be had here on the cheap. The big blue warehouse greeted us right off of the interstate and we were all a little giddy. I was armed with a little bit of cash and a long list of wishes for the newly painted living and dining rooms. Mom & K really wanted to scope out couches and I kind of wanted to do some mattress testing for SD. We started out in the ...
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
This past weekend we had another alumni bash, only this time it was a baseball game. Former varsity baseball players were invited back to play a fundraiser game for this year's team. You know what that means, our bestie was back in town and these two were up to no good. I've known for several weeks that this trophy would be making an appearance, but that didn't make it any easier to see it in my living room. This was their Fantasy Football League trophy that will be passed around year to year. We've had major discussions about where it can reside and all I will say is I think I've convinced SD that it cannot sit on the console by the television! Either way, Chris insisted that we have a little impromptu photoshoot and the photos MUST make the blog. So, here you go, CG. On Saturday ...
Scrum "Dill"y Chicken Salad
Do you love chicken salad as much as I do? I could seriously eat it for lunch every. single. day. If you are from the Birmingham area, you know there is a spectacular local restaurant that is known for it's chicken salad. There are hardly any seats in the restaurant as it is, so if you want to eat there for lunch you better call it in or get there super early. Even if you get there early, you might have to split a table with complete strangers. Trust me, it's worth it. I might not have gotten the top-secret recipe just right, but after reading tons of options on countless cooking sites over the last few weeks, I decided to give it a shot and see how close I could get. I know this isn't a food blog and I'm clearly not an excellent photographer, but we scarfed this stuff down so quickly ...