Swimming Party with ABF

This year's ABF Swimming Party was quite entertaining, to say the least.  Lots of cute kiddos to chase around, for sure.  Without further adieu, here are some pics I snagged.

 

{Julie & Knox}

{Kristin & Myla}

{The Links}

{Erin & Richard with Eva Mae}

 {Anna & Westin}

 {Some of the gents hanging out in the kitchen}

Love how I caught Myla squeezing Denise's face!

 

{Some of us ladies on the couch}

{Denise reading to Bryn & Myla}

Such a fun afternoon filled with sweet friends, giggling kids, and tasty food! 

Miami and Tampa Bay Trip

The first weekend in August, Colin and I took a long weekend trip to Miami and Tampa to see the sites and, of course, cross off two more baseball stadiums!

We landed in Ft. Lauderdale just before lunch on Friday, picked up our rent car, and drove down to Miami Beach.  It was really cool to see all of the fancy houses right on the water with all of their boats lifted.

South beach had a cool park area with a lot of people rollerblading/walking/etc. with a whole line of restaurants and hotels facing the ocean.  We had already picked out an authentic Cuban restaurant (Havana 1957) that was in the Lincoln Park area, so we parked and headed that way.  We ate outside (with a fan close by of course), and had some authentic banana chips, mojitos, and some delicious cuban food.  Afterwards, we shopped around a bit in the area.

We made our way to the hotel over a long causeway, but stopped at Star Island (according to Real Housewives of Miami, this is THE place to live) to look around.  The houses were gorgeous - from what we could see of them.  Most had big gates and landscaping that you could not see around.

Our hotel room had a gorgeous view of the bay area.

We got changed and headed to the Miami Marlins game.  Apparently, local citizens are not pleased with how their tax dollars are paying for the new stadium, because there was not a big turnout at all.  We didn't mind!  It was an exciting game with 14 strikeouts!  The Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians 10-0.

The next day, we ate breakfast, drove around Miami beach some more, and started to make our way to the airport.  We stopped on one of the beaches to dip our toes in the Atlantic (it was so warm!).

We made it to the airport, and a quick 30 minute flight later, landed in Tampa Bay.  We picked up our rent car, and headed towards St. Petersburg.  We checked into our hotel and then headed to downtown St. Petersburg to check out the area.  After browsing around the pier area for a bit, we found a place to park and headed to the Tampa Bay Rays game.

We got to the game early, but that gave us time to wait in line to pet the sting rays!  Yep - they have a tank with 14 cownose stingrays that you can pet or even feed!  We opted for the petting, but even that was tricky.  You are supposed to stay on a certain part of their back which made it challenging since they move so quickly, and usually stay pretty far under water.  We both got to pet the stingrays though!

After that, we washed our hands thoroughly, and got some Everglades BBQ for dinner.  I had a pulled pork sandwich, and Colin had BBQ nachos.  Both were tasty, and by far some of the best things we have had at a ballpark!

We had a great seats, and it was a packed house unlike Miami!  The Rays ended up winning 2-1 in the bottom of the 10th.  Great game!

The next day, we checked out and headed towards the Gulf Coast.  We rode down the coast from Clearwater to Treasure Island.  So peaceful.  We stopped on Treasure Island to dip our toes in the gulf, and snap a few pictures.

We slowly made our way back over the causeway and to the airport.  Such a fun trip.  I love getting to share these little adventures with my hubby!

{25 down, 5 to go!}

Chasing Babies

Instead of chasing cars (Snow Patrol, anyone?), we have been chasing babies in our small group.  We have had a couple of events here at our house lately, and the babies in our group, Myla, Westin, and now Eva Mae have kept us on our toes!

Just sharing a few of the quick (and usually blurry) pictures I got of these sweet little munchkins.

{Westin chasing Myla}

{Myla chasing Westin}

 {Myla saying buh-bye to Westin and blowing kisses}

 We gave Westin his own seat and he sat still - for about 30 seconds!

Another trick - give him blackberry ice cream.  Just don't ever take it away!!

Eva Mae can be pretty chill, but usually she doesn't like to sit still for long either.  Once you get her in a good spot though, she can stay put forever. 

Such sweet little additions to our group!  This time next year, we'll have three more to enjoy!

Dinner like the Good Ol' Days

The other night, Colin and I had some of our college friends, the Muellers, over for dinner.  Since we had been planning to get together anyway, I thought it would be a great idea to have them over and cook and be able to relax and chat instead of feeling rushed in a restaurant. Now, the way it worked in college was that the boys cooked, and the girls supervised.  It was great then, so why not do it again now?!

Just as I planned, the boys monitored the kitchen while us girls got to sit at the bar and catch up.  It was great!  We had jalapeño poppers to start, and then a big ol' steak for dinner!

We even had some wine left from our trip to Fredericksburg with the Muellers last year that we got to share.  A perfect occasion for the wine, if you ask me!

The Muellers brought homemade peach cobbler for dessert, and it was so good, I forgot to stop and take a picture!

Love these friends and so glad they live in the area for us to see them!

Trapped in the Backyard

So, the other day I got trapped in my backyard.  How, you may ask?  Funny story.

We keep our trash can out on the back patio, so when I noticed that some trash had not been taken out the night before, I decided to take it out before heading out to work.  Well, while we were out of town, some "cicada killers" decided to dig some nests in the ground right by our back door, and the pest guys had not come out yet.  When I walked out to take the trash out, one started buzzing towards me, so I quickly closed the door so it would not get in the house.  Problem with that is....while the deadbolt was unlocked, the knob was not.  It stays locked all the time.  Colin of course had already left, and I did not have my phone with me.  Our gates are locked from the outside, so I was literally trapped.  The cicadas kept buzzing me, so I went to the other gate (running through the wet grass - sprinkler day! in my high heels).  After a car buzzed by (I wasn't about to let anyone see me), I hung my pumps on the fence and climbed up the gate.  I grabbed my heels and jumped over.  I ran around to use the keypad to get in the garage, hoping (praying!) that Colin hadn't locked the door.  I couldn't get the keypad to work, and I later found out I was using the wrong code.  (I won't forget that code again - believe me!)  So, with no other choice, I walked to the neighbors house.  I felt bad because it was kind of early on a summer morning and I was not sure if their daughters were up, but luckily they were.  They let me use the phone to call Colin.  He knew he had locked the door, and we did not have a spare key anywhere outside, so he had to come all the way back home.  Luckily, he was only in Plano and not all the way downtown.  I stayed at the neighbors house until he arrived since it was so hot outside.  He made it back home and saved the day!  I hurried to work and found that I had still beat most of the people in my department.  I had to wait until they arrived to tell them about the crazy morning I had already had!

I'm just glad I did not wear a skirt that day like I had planned to! Not to worry, changes have been made so this will NOT happen again!  Either way, I survived and it made for a funny story!