New Years Eve Wedding

My friend Carrie got married on New Years Eve and her wedding was so elegant and beautiful The reception included a delicious meal, wedding cake, a live band and dance floor! So much fun! We were so glad to be a part of her special day and also to be able to ring in the new year with our very good friends, Amy and Chris.

Craig making his goofy face before the wedding started.
Wedding is over and now we are having cocktails and hor dourves before dinner.
Our dinner table
The reception
The menu

Amy and Chris at dinner

The beautiful bride's cake
Cute groom's cake
Eating the flower that came with the gelato... supposed to 'cleanse the palette'. They told us to eat it so I did... I think I was the only one to eat it.
Steak and lobster for dinner
Me, Carrie (the bride) and Amy

About to ring in the new year

Here we are at the wedding luncheon the day after the wedding.

Texas High School Football - RC

I try to attend one football game a year from my home town of Royse City. I didn't get to go last year but we did this year and this was also Craig's first time to go with me since RC built this new stadium. You probably won't appreciate this post unless you are from my home town or unless you appreciate high school football. High school football is a BIG thing in Texas!

My home town used to be such a small town - a population of around 2,000 when I lived there as a kid. Now, I believe the small town's population is around 10,000. All things RC is exploding, no doubt!

The football announcer booth thing is massive and still blows my mind.
RC is really stepping it up and even has a replay video screen.
When I was in high school, I participated in the drill team for three years. This was the highlight of my high school years by far.

When I was in school ages ago ***sigh***, I remember the cheerleaders used to make these decorated/painted, paper banners for the football players to run through along with a spirit line. Once again, they have stepped it up.


Here is a pic of the announcer booth from the inside.

Craig and I
Me and Kelli - my long time friend of 25 years. We have been friends since the 4th grade and we were in drill team together. It was so fun to go to this game together and of course we had to sit near the band and drill team. :)
It was a fun time and I look forward to doing it again next year.

MOPS & MOPPETS

A friend invited me to join her mops group at a church in Allen and I am so glad I did. The cost is low and it is 2 Fridays a month from September thru April. It lasts for 2 hours in the morning and is very much needed to give me a regular break throughout the month. Each mom helps with the MOPPETS (the children), on a rotation, two times during the year. Today was the first time I have visited (I missed the first meeting) and I really enjoyed it.

Getting the kids and I ready and out the door before 9 a.m. was a challenge as we aren't super early risers in our house. Mommy managed and we even got there early which was a good thing because I had to find where to go and get all the essential paperwork filled out etc.

The kids were kind of clingy at first but by the time I took them to their class they did great and nobody cried when I left them. They had a good time too - playing with other kids and being in a different environment. The teachers do crafts with the kids, learn Bible verses and learn about Jesus.

After dropping the kids off, I went in with the ladies and found my table. Met several new moms in my group and immediately fit right in. Everyone was all very friendly and welcoming. There are about 10-12 ladies in our group and we sit together each time we meet, chat a little over a wonderful breakfast, I might add (the groups rotate bringing breakfast), watched a video (this week), we do crafts (today was decorating aprons for hospitalized children with cancer), we have a speaker (this week - Larissa Linton, the founder of a charity organization called Heroes for Children shared her personal story of losing her first born child to a rare form of leukemia at the age of 3.

This charity specifically focuses on supporting families of children with cancer. She spoke to us about how important it is that we teach our children philanthropy. Here are a few ideas, shared by Larissa, to involve your children in philanthropy: talk to your children about it; create a collection jar of loose change to donate; donate items; create goody bags; make art; hold a lemonade stand, book or cookie sale; donate to a charity in lieu of gifts; attend an event; be creative.)

After the speaker shared about her story and organization, we had a little more time to chat, plan events and discuss the questions from our reading. We have a book to read between meetings called "Momology - A Mom's Guide to Shaping Great Kids". I have quite a bit of catching up to do since I came in late but I look forward to reading it. :)

In addition to meeting 2 Fridays a month, the group gets together for playgroups and mom's night out and I am looking forward to attending these and getting to know these ladies as well as my kids "getting to know" the other kids.

Destin Day Four

Our last day of vacation, we all headed off to the pool once again. It was rainy off and on that morning and we thought it had passed but it did start up again a few times while we were at the pool. We just sat under the canopy for a few minutes and waited for it to pass then back in the pool we went. We had a good time spending the morning there and sadly didn't get any more pictures of us or the pool.

We decided to have lunch at the La Cocina restaurant again so Mamaw and the kids could enjoy it. Well and me too since all I had the night before was chips and a margarita. This time we ate inside and we really enjoyed our lunch.

Then we headed back to the room and put the kids down for a nap and while they napped Craig and I headed to the beach for really the first and only time. It was really nice and relaxing - the breeze was nice as were the occasional cloud cover. We got some sun while listening to music and flipping through magazines. Then, Craig and I went into the water and had a great time riding the waves. And let me just tell you about the sea weed... It was EVERYWHERE in the water! We overlooked it and had a good time anyway. When we got back to the room, I discovered I brought some sea weed home with me (in my bathing suit) as a souvenir. :)
After getting cleaned up, we then went back to Seaside to thoroughly look around and eat dinner. This was the tower thing leading to the beach right next to Bud & Alley's Pizza Bar.

This was where we ate. There were several of these trailers lined up serving food and drinks. It was a nice, light meal after having such a heavy lunch. I don't think I will ever forget Mamaw's 10 dollar corny dog. I think I paid less for a sausage on a stick.
The clan waiting for their food.

After we finished dinner and window shopping, we stopped by for some frozen yogurt. Here is Craig waiting with the kids for Mamaw to get the yogurt.
On the way back to the room, we swung by the pool so I could get a picture because I knew it was really pretty all lit up at night. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the pool during the day time...it was so pretty. :( Of course the picture doesn't do it justice but here is what it looked like at night - well, just one small portion of it. Then off to bed - a long day ahead as we pack up to leave and another 16 hours in the car! The drive home post coming up!

Destin Day Two

Day two we got up and went to Seaside and did some walking around, window shopping and sight-seeing. A lot of the shops etc. weren't open yet so we didn't spend much time there. Anyway, Seaside is just up the strip from where we stayed and such a neat little community. Probably more to do as far as shopping, dinner etc. in Seaside than any other beach on the strip. If we could afford to stay there, and if we decide to go back one day, I'd like to stay there.

This was so pretty driving through this short row of palm trees on the way up the strip toward Seaside. It was also especially pretty at night with the palm trees lit up.

On a side note, here is the resort that we stayed in - The Villages of South Walton. Most of the condos were in much smaller groupings, like a house; ours was one of the few set up like this. This picture was taken just outside of Bud & Alley's Pizza Bar restaurant and several cute little shops. It is really cool how it is all set up so close to the beach.


When we finished up in Seaside we went back to the condo for lunch and put the kids down for naps. I took a walk with Mamaw while Craig stayed behind in the condo with the kids. I've never seen so many people walking/jogging for exercise on vacation in my life. We thought we would get a little exercise in too. It was short-lived.

When the kids woke up we decided we would take them to the pool. We weren't sure how this would go over because they hadn't been in the pool all season and had never really gotten super comfortable with the water even last summer. They were a little nervous at first but luckily with this large pool, it is separated into several sections of pools and we first went to one of the small pools then gradually moved to the bigger pool. I think the little water toys furnished by the condo owners saved us with the pool. It was a nice distraction and they were much more at ease.
After a fun, late afternoon in the pool, Craig and I had a date night and went back to Seaside for dinner. We planned on going to Bud & Alley's Restaurant because from what I read, they were one of the restaurants overlooking the beach and had pretty views and sunsets but when we got there, the first thing we saw was Bud & Alley's Pizza Bar so that is where we landed.


It wasn't until after dinner that we realized there was a Pizza Bar and Taco Bar too - all separate restaurants. It was all good and we really enjoyed the pizza bar. We sat out back and enjoyed the openness - we couldn't see the beach where we were but still very nice. This was our view from our table. This bench with green pillows was one side of our table - we just sat on the opposite side to enjoy the view.

The tables we sat at outside were coffee tables so it was different but good. Just what we wanted... something different. While we waited for a few minutes for our table before dinner, we looked around at some of the nearby shops but we were quickly buzzed to be seated at our table so after dinner we decided to stop back by this one shop and look around some more. Unfortunately, everything was closing up so we decided we would come back another day to check Seaside out a bit more.


A nice, friendly (slightly intoxicated) man offered to take our picture so we would have a picture of us together and stop taking pictures of each other separately. It was funny, his wife was on his case for spending so much time taking our picture and making sure we liked it because she was trying to get a family picture of her own. :) This was before dinner while we waited for our table.
Day Three to follow tomorrow...

Destin Day One

The morning of day two was pretty low key with trying to get settled in. We made a trip up the strip to Panama City Beach and did some sight-seeing from the car then we made a stop by a souvenir shop and get some souvenirs for everyone.

Then we went by the grocery store to pick up some food for us to have at the condo. Speaking of grocery stores... We went to Winn Dixie but we were all quite tickled by the name of one of the grocery stores in Destin.... Publix! Not sure if it is pronounced with a long U or short U but we hoped for the short U. Ha!!

We came back to the condo afterwards and had lunch and put the kids down for a nap then Craig and I went to the wonderful pool. It is a huge, 12,000 sq. ft. pool or something like that. It is a short walk from our condo, as it is not in our resort but we had access to it, staying where we stayed. This is one of the reasons we picked this resort because a lot of the condos either don't have a pool at all or the pool is very small. Anyway, I really enjoyed spending a couple hours soaking up some rays and floating on my Dora The Explorer float furnished by the condo owners. So so so relaxing and enjoyable.

Then after naps, we decided to take the kids to the beach. Boy oh boy was this a nightmare!!! The kids were all so freaked out by the sand and the mere size of the ocean and the noise of the waves crashing into the beach freaked them out, mainly Tyler!! Oh my goodness - it was awful! He would not warm up to it even after sitting on the shore (being held), walking the shore (being held), sitting in the chairs (being held). It didn't matter what we did, they weren't having it. They all went out in the water and the girls did stop crying and screaming but not Tyler! Whitney was just mainly freaked out by the sand. As a matter of fact, the entire trip, anytime she saw sand on the street, she would walk around it because she was so afraid of it. She is my sensitive girl and always has been afraid of stuff like this. She was also afraid to walk on rocks or anything other than pavement. Anyway, we stayed all of probably 20 minutes and left and never visited the beach again with the kids. All the stairs that had to be climbed to get to the beach and with the three kids and all the chaos, we figured it wasn't worth it to try again and attempt to acclimate them to it.

We went back to the condo and got cleaned up and went out for dinner. We went to the Old Florida Fish House. Their salmon and bread was SOOOO good! It was a neat little restaurant - slightly hidden off the main road and the whole set up leading to the restaurant, including a little souvenir shop leading up to the restaurant, was neat.

Here we are just outside our front door on the front balcony getting ready to go to dinner. It was Memorial Day but poor Tyler didn't have any red, white and blue to wear...

We decided to be silly and take our picture with the sign.... there are actually pictures of us kissing the fish too but I will spare you. :)
Sadly we didn't take very many pictures this day because in the morning we didn't do much and the beach was too chaotic for pictures. We took the camera to the restaurant but forgot it in the car so we didn't get any pictures at dinner. A day or two later we went back and took some pictures of the restaurant sign.

Day two to follow...