the 2010 beach trip: presentations, beachtime & lottie's new mudder

the official photo, the gang's all here

(shon, chris, cj, tony, suzy, kristina, andy on greg, jennifer, spencer, megan over ronny, lianne and tommy over matt, moi with rowdy, lottie sue, lucy and sam, mary ann and then max)

we got back on saturday from a week of fun in the sun, it was another venable beach trip and was so much fun! i have some photos that i will put up here, but with two kids we noticed there is less photo-taking. i am SURE megan will post about it and will have 100 photos so i will link to her blog once it's up. i did steal a few photos from her but there were so many i was overwhelmed. anywho, here we go - and please note that their is not way that i can convey ALL of the jokes (inside and out) of this trip. it is rich, people. rich.

matt made the yummy pimento cheese (mild and spicy) for everyone with lottie sue's help.

after shredding, a mountain of cheese

lottie sue working the food processor

we left on friday and spent the night at the gilmore's house. it was super fun and we packed up early to head over to ocean isle.

the caravan from the smiths' car

once we got there lottie sue started with beach shenanigans, it was pretty funny.


then it was tommy's turn.

mazola

if i go anywhere the first thing i do is unpack everything - i like to have my room like my house. i put everything in the drawers and organize the bathroom and whatnot. tommy and megan live out of the suitcase so this year i offered to unpack their room and make it all martha stewart.

everything has a place in its place

the first night we arrive we have presentations and this year was the best! first, you will notice the queen of ocean isle here...this year she signed a new proclamation.

our queen bee

megan reads the proclamation before all

sam and mary ann enjoy the show

i'll have to get the actual proclamation
for you (or i bet megan will put it up)

then suzy and tony had an awesome presentation, they had special t-shirts for everyone (as in, everyone had their own special t-shirt that relates to them - yes, like i said - awesome). i have a few here that we took shots of...

matt's shirt states the truth - proud to be an american!

i'm a rowdy raider!

sam's shirt says "sin kills" - so funny

lottie sue got a hannah montana shirt, and even though she has no
idea who hannah montana is she LOVED it and wore it every day

our presentation was also great, we made a video titled "deaton the odds" - i can't post it here (soooo very sorry) but believe me when i say that there was a lot of time and effort put into this video that honors one of our brothers, the great tony deaton. he is america's new hero!

there were testimonials, doctors, jezebels (former), UT kickers, bag boys and so much more. you will have to trust me on this one. tony loved being the center of at all! we also made writstbands a la livestrong for the group. it was a winner.

all natural talent, never had a lesson

every night after dinner we walk out down to the beach together. usually the kids end up naked and in the water.

lottie sue maneuvering a sand castle

every afternoon around three, man time happens. man time consists of smoking meat, cocktails and LOTS of laughs for everyone. it is the most entertaining time of the day, lemmetellya.

let me introduce one of the stars of the show/man time...the smoker.

please don't crowd him, as he has to be able to catch his breath

it is rare that we get into the "ideal" zone

here we have a few more shots of the beach, lottie sue loves her some beach. she cries when we have to leave.

i put her in this hole someone dug and then
four people told me how dangerous it was, i missed
the 20/20 show that recently aired on the topic

our first and only (the horror, i know) family photo

there are many underwater meetings at the beach. we really try to solve world issues and come up with new business models.

rowdy's first attendance

matt chillaxes

i can't get by without mentioning the food - OH THE FOOD. matt gained seven pounds this past week! but don't worry, he can lose weight so easily. he'll be back.

megan made some yummy bruschetta

ok, more photos...

we are cute, yes we are

more man time fun

my kiddos

tommy loses an arm to lottie sue and her light saber
(don't worry, it grew back)

there was someone near us that made awesome
sand castles, alligators and so forth

lottie sue on the beach, carefree

here i am with the rowdyman

cj gets a beach feeding

lottie sue and matt run around together

tommy and chris

lottie sue did this one night sans underwear
(yes, sand was EVERYWHERE)

me and my cutie pie

oh yes, i leave you with this photo. lottie sue absolutely LOVES mary ann. i think she may love her more than she loves us. she called her "mudder" all week and the first thing she asked me every morning was "where's my mudder?" - true story.

lottie sue and her new mudder

i have a few more photos that i can't get to right now (mostly about the turtle nerds but i think i have more presentation-time photos). matt is doing a two-city tour this week and they are on his laptop. i'll get them and post later. i also have many things to post about the past month. i am WAY behind on posting about our happenings. forgive me.

but i will, of course, leave you with a few interesting reads. you're welcome.

• louis c.k. interview gets npr's fresh air banned in mississippi, their loss
• metallica says the 2004 documentary was a big, bad mistake
• here's an interview with paul buckley, he's the book cover design guru behind penguin books
• i love stuff like this, check out persona - it's an original photo series that displays a subject and their essential daily items
• i'm sure you've heard about post secret, people send in their secrets via postcards - if you are nosey like me it's a great thing
• here's a site that can tell you song meanings, lyrics and trivia
• you should bookmark this site, it's ALL about television shows
• the word detective can tell you everything you want to know about word origins
• pastemagazine is a great resource for anything in music, film and culture

buh bye!

lottie sue's birthday party, a 4K (hey hey hey) & poolside

yes yes, i am switching up how the blog looks. i am still tweaking...but on to the post!

oh boy, i am so tired right now. the past weekend was nutz, packed full of visiting family and celebrations for the following: a wedding engagement, a wedding in the woods, a baby on the way, a birthday and father's day for numerous daddy figures - and that was just this past weekend. i think in the month of june we celebrate eight birthdays. i mean WHOA. but i'll have to get to all of that in the next post, THIS post is from two weeks ago - lottie sue's birthday weekend.

lottie sue turned THREE earlier this month (sniff sniff). she's a big girl now i suppose...

anywho, she was of course showered with gifts and it started with this doozy of a gift from gramma and papaw.

she calls the sand "snow" - don't know
why and she refuses to listen to me

lottie got that gift on a thursday night, i was out for megan's birthday downtown. the blues travelers were in for sundown and in the city and we all went. i gotta say that it pays to know shawn o. - she got us the best table in the square and i ain't kidding. it was GREAT!

i only had two photos on my camera, this one...

and this one, i must have said something
REALLY funny to get marty going like that

then that friday we went over the the venable's casa for another birthday celebration for dear ole megan. it was a fantastic night.

flowers are bestowed upon the birthday girl

dipsey fishes with the kids and matt handles wine and rowdyman

here i am with rowdy, i love this photo

the next two photos are funny, megan is about to blow out the candles. please notice that lottie sue is not in this shot. she heard something about "blowing out candles" and raced over.

no lottie

she ran over and tried to blow them
out before megan could - it's hilarious

megan received some glow bracelets and they were a hit with the six and under crowd.


megan gets not one but TWO running skirts. a birthday miracle! side note: why don't all women wear running skirts? they are ADORABLE!!!

shell shocked from the excitement

matt and rowdy play around.

two cutie pies

then it's outside time with the race car mary ann and dipsey constructed. it was a huge hit. in this shot lottie sue is asking mary ann if she can go next.

pleading her case

mary ann says yes.

they did this for over an hour, the kids loved it

the next day we went up to johnny and judy's house for three birthdays: granbunny, lottie sue and bb. it was a delightful party!

lottie sue happy to be the center of attention

hyper drive

birthday cupcakes

i didn't get a shot of the cupcakes but lottie picked out the flavors and colors. she wanted chocolate cupcakes with white icing and hot pink sprinkles on top - they were very cool.

then she got into opening her presents, and she basically loved everything. she got a scooter, books, clothes, a purse, shoes, swimming goggles, a thomas the train dvd and lots of other things.

ripping through gifts

matt and the goggles

lottie sue and her bb

after everyone opened presents it was pool time. lottie has a wardrobe change and we head out to the pool!

lottie sue chats up grandma

bb and judy look at rowdy as he looks at cookie (the puppy)

a mother/daughter swim

rowdy basks in the attention from mamma dot,
bb and aunt shirley (he also LOVES cantelope)

lottie on her scooter

rowdy chills with his aunt judy

after swim time, a drooling rowdyman acts all cute and stuff

and this is lottie sue one minute after we pulled out of the driveway.

she was spent

alrighty, i meant to put this up a while ago but here is my race bib from the expo i ran with chris and amy. and i must say, i missed beating my prior time by 15 seconds...i state that they are wrong! i cross the finish line before 45:47 and i know that i didn't cross the start line for maybe 30 seconds after the race started. poo poo poo.

dumb shoelaces!

then i ran a 4K with amy, hilary and barbara the weekend after lottie sue's birthday. it was HUME. ID. my hair looked so bad, i was shocked when i came home and looked in the mirror. i mean, yikes.

another race in the books

here we are pre-race

it was hilary's birthday, amy had the brilliant idea to make something for hilary to wear during the race. recently delivered in the mail i had my new super neat iron on papers and made this super neat sign for hilary.

isn't it the cutest birthday running sign EVER???

later that day we went up to the lake for some fun in the sun. here are some photos i took of the kids.

still loving the hipstamatic, yo

here are some poolside shots for your enjoyment.

this is one of lottie sue's "tricks" (she is way proud)

here she waters something

loading up the water gun

rowdyman chillin with a beach ball

lottie sue rides on grandaddy's back and "sleeps"

lottie sue in the fishie

i leave you with a few items of interest...

• the new issue of lonny magazine is available to you on this crazy thing called the interweb!
• don't mess with chimps.
• we need a catio for our cats, they try to escape all the live-long day!
• eat brown rice, it could help ward off diabetes.
• watson would totally smoke me in jeopardy!
• i love hummus, so does america!

oops, i see that i have a few more photos down here. the first photo is lottie sue at 7:45 one morning playing with her snow table.

rowdy and i sipped our coffee as she played

here we have lottie sue moving her cat, just like olvia does
(you may not know that reference but in one of lottie's
olivia books, olivia moves her black cat around)

rowdy with a puff on his face

lottie sue giving me a look after i politely
asked her to pick up her toys before school

lottie sue working on her laptop

this is lottie's other trick (she has two)

i took these the other day, she was being super cute before school.

holding on to my leg, not letting go

big smile

"i'm lottie sue! ahhhh ya ya ya!"

ok, for reals - i'm over and out! i have a million other photos to put up this week. wish me luck.