clearwater, greenville & may 9th

Matt had to go to Clearwater for work and Lottie Sue and I tagged along last week. It was AWESOME for us, maybe not so much for Matt since he had to work but Lottie Sue and I sure had fun. I had an absolute blast with Lottie Sue, we had nowhere to be and nothing to do unless we wanted. The weather was perfect, 80 every day and sun sun and more sun. They had terrible storms the afternoon we flew in but by the time we got there they were over. So of course we have a zillion photos (taken with the lesser of the cameras) for you to enjoy so I'll just start going.

This was Lottie Sue's first plane ride and she was very good! We had to make sure she was entertained but we didn't have any problems.

flying the friendly skies

A typical day went like this (for Lottie Sue and myself, poor Matt had to work):

7:00 - Wake up and mess around, fitting breakfast in
9:00 - Lube up and pack for the beach
9:30 - Arrive at the beach and make camp, spend time playing in sand, making friends and splashing in water
11:00 - Make our way back to the casa and hit the pool
12:30 - Head back to the room for lunch and play time
2:00 - Quick bath/shower and then down for a nap
4:30 - Wake up, have snack then head to the park for swinging (Matt is home by now)
6:00 - Dinner time - we enjoyed delicious food every night - SCORE
7:00 - Walk on the beach and watch the sun go night night
8:00 - Lottie Sue goes down and Matt and I play cards while watching tv (I lost every round)

As you can see, we had nothing to complain about. Lottie Sue would not walk in the sand right away but warmed up pretty fast. She also did not want to get in the pool at first but soon fell in love with the shallow parts. She was a social butterfly, it's very cute but forces us to chat with more people than we normally would. She would spot a couple/group on the beach, tell me "bye" and walk on over, making herself at home. She is not shy at all and traded me in a heartbeat for an older couple from New Jersey. I had to run after her a lot and she would get so mad at me for bringing her back. What am I, chopped liver I ask? The New Jersey couple were all over her, they had a hand held radio and once Lottie Sue had that she would walk around with it to her ear just chatting it up with them. They were right next to our spot and I just sat there and watched her work her magic for a while. They would have taken her home I think...

this is the first day on the beach, lubed up with 70 spf
(which worked like a charm)

here is lottie sue that night after dinner

Here are a few shots from the next day at the beach. Lottie Sue is in her one bikini and I think it's too small...

staying hydrated

hands in sand

walking around, looking for friends

she enjoyed rolling around in the sand, she kept posing
funny here but none of those shots turned out

what a cutie pie

Our very good friends from Chicago moved to the Tampa area a few years ago and we went over for dinner. It was great seeing Adrianna and Ron - PLUS meeting their two little boys (Ryan and Reece). As you can see, Lottie Sue had her sights on Ry-Ry here - kisses and cuddles.

making her move, he was mildly interested

We walked pretty far up the beach the next night, here are a few photos of my two favorite people.

awww, too cute

Saturday morning we headed over to the Clearwater Aquarium. It needs some funding people so if you have any extras dollars please help them out. Wow. They had one fish tank that Lottie Sue loved and you were able to see the dolphins pretty close. Those were the two standouts, this was fine for Lottie Sue but if it was just the two of us then it would not have cut it.

lottie sue and matt watch the dolphins swim around

two of the dolphins we saw, they were playing with a hula-hoop

After the aquarium we packed it up and went to beach for the rest of the morning. Matt and Lottie Sue made a sand turtle, they even decorated his shell with shells we picked up.

this was a very good project for lottie sue, she loved decorating him

She also LOVED sitting in the chairs and wanted them to be for her and Matt - not me. She got mad at me for sitting in one and kept telling me to move, that it was "Daddy's" - burn.

laid back (notice the cute swimsuit courtesy of auntie shon)

That night we went off the island for dinner and had a hard time finding a place. We were about to turn into Applebees (ew, I know - but we were STARVING) but Matt took a turn that landed us in a little community with a little diner named the Whistle Stop Grill. Um, it was fabulous - fried green tomatoes with goat cheese and cilantro, then a grilled veggie with black beans and rice meal for me and fish tacos for Matt - followed up with a cinnamon and peach ice cream sundae. Seriously, delicious. We had such a good time and Lottie loved her food as well.

good food, good times

After dinner we went the beach for one last sunset. Here I am with my baby girl.

my bff

So that's our trip! We are going to San Destin next month with the Apples and I can't wait! Lottie Sue will have a playmate with Harlan and she will love that. She lights up when she's around other little ones.

So here are a few photos from our trip to Greenville for Easter. I will need to steal photos from Melinda's facebook page since we have none from Easter day. We had a wonderful time, Lottie Sue fell in love with Claire and Jane - at night time she cried and wanted to hug them over and over again.

the three amigos at dinner with everyone on saturday night

Here are photos from the egg dyeing session. Lottie Sue was a total mess but she loved doing it.

it went really well and this egg is lottie's masterpiece

And you know that the Easter Bunny came (he acutally came two additional times but Lottie Sue was not complaining one bit). Everyone was so generous!

checking out these basket things

the bunny gave her a cow, she likes cows

the girls going through the baskets

this is cute and calm lottie sue before the peep incident*

we didn't think she'd get an easter egg hunt but boy did she - she was all over it

Let me end the Easter section with Harlan's Easter Bunny photo - he cracks me up. The Apples and the Gilmores were in this past weekend but we missed them because we were gone - poo poo poo. Becce left an outfit for baby boy and I am totally taking a photo of it to show you - it is so sweet. Oh yeah, back to Harlan...

what a cute little man

I also wanted to show you a few photos of Mandy and Jeff, Jeff is Matt's cousin on his mom's side (please notice the blondness - they all look like this!) and we saw them last summer in Little Rock. They are adopting a little boy and it is such a blessing! Aunt Jan sent these photos and they made me cry because I could feel the joy they have for little James. Everything is in motion and he comes home with them on May 9th. What a lucky kid!

mandy and james bonding

happy happy happy

jeff and james, life is good

OK, that wraps up my post here. I hope everyone is well - I leave you with a few randoms...

• Here is an interview with Junot Diaz on life after Oscar Waor and all things pop. If you don't remember, Diaz wrote what might be my favorite book of all time, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
• Netflix is now going to stream tv shows from Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, the future is NOW.
• Hulu for my iphone??? Please, make it so!
• For those of you looking forward to The Hobbit (I AM), it looks like it will span two movies.

OK, bye now!

*We let Lottie Sue have ONE peep on Easter morning (before milk or food) and she went berserk - I mean CRAZY. She's never had anything full sugar like that and she didn't know how to handle the rush I guess. Matt and I agree - sugar is BAD.

little rock rocks: major crafting, yahtzee & a mississippi squirrel revival

I mentioned that we traveled to Little Rock last week, and I have photos for you to view. Matt's Aunt Jan (husband Jim along with son Jeff and his wife Mandy) live in Little Rock and this year Grandma and Grandpa (Robinson) sold their home in Springfield (Missouri) and moved to Arkansas. So we packed up our car (including Lottie Sue and Sydney) and met Matt's parents for a big drive West.

We spent our time visiting, eating, crafting and playing games - it was great. If you don't believe me take a look at the photos!

hubba hubba

Matt's mom volunteers at a local nursing home and she is starting a Red Hat Society there for the little ladies. You wouldn't dare be caught at the luncheons without fabulous red and purple hats, it's required. We spent a lot of time decorating hats and making pins, it was like our own Project Runway! We then we spent a lot of time wearing them for photos. You'll see below.

an inspired sydney

Dad did a little yard work and "found" Jan and Jim's water line. Bad thing is he found it with a pickaxe. Oops. When Dad sat down to dinner he had his very own place card.

not sure if you can tell but the place card is set inside the broken pipe dad butchered, we laughed for a long time over this one

Mom and Dad brought these pears all the way to Little Rock, they grew them on one of their trees and were very proud. Don't they look huge?

objects in photo may appear larger than they are

ha, we tricked you with props - they are tiny pears, but still special

lottie sue reads a book while we decorate hats

here we have (from left to right) sydney,
lottie sue, jan, grandma and mom

doesn't dad look adorable here???

and lottie sue looks adorable as well

here i am with sydney, we donned some of our creations

grandma and a super relaxed lottie sue play together on the couch

lottie sue gave grandma lots of kisses

lottie sue could not get enough of jan's koi pond,
she would point and say "oooh"

matt and grandma in the kitchen

dad and lottie sue play ball

grandma and mom here

sydney and my hubby (fyi - matt is officially a four-eyes now)

mandy and lottie sue play games before dinner one night

We of course had a family photo session, I can't tell you how hot it was out there. I was melting.

grandpa, grandma, mom, dad, lottie sue, matt and moi

same players here but sydney is in the center

jim, jan, jeff, mandy and lottie sue

the cousin shot (jeff is crouching down here,
he's actually 10 feet tall)

And here we have the "red hat" section, it was after dinner and us girls became a bit excited about modeling.

this is my favorite hat i made, i think it looks GOOD

here we are waiting for our closeup

we make these hats look GOOD

mandy and jan vamp it up

here we are wearing the headband/veil thingies
(we made these in case they ran out of hats at the luncheons)

Afterwards Mandy performed her interpretation of the "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" (any Ray Stevens fans here?) song for us. Mandy works as an interpreter for deaf and blind persons, and she performed the song in sign language. She first did it last Christmas and brought the house down, if you know the words you can see why it's a hoot.

mandy signs away

Here is the first verse of the song so you have an idea...

Well when I was kid I'd take a trip every summer,
down to Mississippi.
To visit my granny in her ante bellum world.
I'd run barefooted all day long,
climbing trees free as a song.
One day I happened catch myself a squirrel.
I stuffed him down in an old shoebox,
punched a couple holes in the top and when Sunday came,
I snuck him into church.
I was sittin way back in the very last pew
showin him to my good buddy Hugh,
when that squirrel got loose and went totally berserk!

You get the idea, it was really cute and we actually video taped her performance. Maybe I'll post it up here if I can edit the videos we have. I'm sure Mandy won't mind...

jan cues the song while looking like the cutie pie she is

here is matt with a big smile

grandpa and grandma enjoy the show

So there you have our trip in a nutshell, a great time was had by all and I am now obsessed with Yahtzee. The Robinson family loves to play games so I was in heaven, we played every night and also during crafting breaks. I must note how delicious the food was and let me also say that Jan and Jim were wonderful hosts to us. Next time I go I may not leave.