Vacation

To me, vacation is…

Pool time,

braving a tropical storm to see the ocean,

dance parties,

Aunt Leigh taking on nap duty,

a long overdue movie date with my man,

playing hard and crashing hard,

having a sweet little nap interrupted by a nephew who can't resist climbing on you,

celebrating a Fourth of July birthday together with sparklers,

getting up early to head to the beach for precious family time, looking for shells,

finding that perfect shell,

and seeing the wonder of the ocean from the perspective of a child.

As we enjoy our last few days together, I'm so thankful that we've had such a sweet vacation experience!

Pool party

It appears that Debby likes Florida so much that she changed directions and decided to stay a little longer. The rain may have shortened our pool party outdoors today, but we just carried the fun right on into the jacuzzi!

Vacationing with Debby

On Saturday, we set out for Florida, dreaming of sunshine and playing in the sand for a week, along with the entire Anderson family. With my mom's siblings living in two other states, it's rare that we all get together, and this was to be a memorable family reunion on the beach.

Levi was a champ on the plane, loving every second of being entertained by Grammy and Grandy, until he finally crashed.

When we arrived, it was raining, but we didn't think much of it. What's a little rain on a travel day, anyway? But then, we met Debby. And boy is she a cheeky one. Debby invaded our island with fury, churning up the water, knocking out our power for the day, flooding streets, dirtying our pool, sending 40-50 mph winds gusting at us… and perhaps worst of all, forcing us to keep a 17-month old corralled inside all day.

It's a good thing I have such a fun family. They pulled out puppets and books for our little dude, chased him from one end of the house to the other and back again about 100 times, and gave that little ball of energy so much love and attention. GP even taught him to scoot down the stairs, a concept that will benefit us long after this vacation is over!

When he couldn't stay awake any longer, nap time was the perfect opportunity for adult playtime! We played beach games inside, made our own waves to boogie board in, juggled, and played a competitive game of monopoly on the iPad. And about the time we'd had enough of a stuffy, humid house, the power finally came back on. Hooray!

While Levi experienced the pool in the middle of a tropical storm, Grandy and Grammy got to experience the island grocery store. They were soaked upon their return!

While we knew it had been a crazy day, we didn't realize how severe the weather was until just before bed, when we pulled up CNN and saw that Debby was the top story. We were shocked to see that the road we drove in on the night before had been closed yesterday. Had we arrived one day later, we would have been stuck somewhere other than our beach house. Additionally, the island we originally looked at visiting, one that my family vacationed on in my childhood, had faced mandatory evacuations yesterday. Had we gone there instead, as I had originally predicted we would, who knows where we would have ridden out the storm!

Debby may have altered our plans for the weekend, but it looks like she's now on her way out of town. So long, Debby. You came, you saw, and you conquered… and we're ready for our sand and sun now.

Cooking adventures in Thai cuisine

As part of our fundraising efforts for our upcoming Thailand trip, our team has been offering homemade Thai food, delivered to people's doors on Saturday nights. While the fundraising aspect is definitely a focus, I'm not sure any of us realized how much fun we would have together as a team, learning to cook Thai food from two of our expert chef teammates. I can now fry dozens of spring rolls using only chopsticks as utensils! We've also learned to improvise when I somehow mess up the rice or the grill won't start or any other number of things that unexpectedly occur, which has been both fun and humorous!

We really do have one amazing team, and they've worked so hard on this fundraiser. I'm thankful for the way they serve, and for the way they have fun with each other!

Some pics from one Saturday's Thai to Go adventure are below, and I would be remiss if I didn't include the link to order food and other goodies, for anyone interested: http://teamthailand2012.eventbrite.com/.

Such focus, peeling the carrots for the spring rolls:

 This can opener, while high-tech and helpful, took three of us to figure out:

The Ninja. An impressive piece of equipment:

Laura getting the spring roll ingredients ready to go:

Our main chef and Thai cuisine extraordinaire, Kenah, doing what he does:

Lauren was a quick learner:

The finished product! Beautiful and delicious. 

Zoo time

We love the zoo! In fact, GP and I had our first date there more than ten years ago. He drove nearly four hours each way to wish me a happy birthday, and I remember touring the herpetarium and shuddering at every snake we saw, yet being thrilled at the fact that I was anywhere with the man who would later become my husband.

Now, we both have a new perspective of the zoo, from the vantage point of a toddler. We've had a lot of fun watching our little dude watch people... and sometimes the animals! And now, as some of his favorite things in life are rocks, he has a blast at the wading stream there.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my dad, Gib's dad… and this guy:

GP3, you are one amazing father. As this picture shows, your son adores you and LOVES being around his daddy! Thanks for being you.

Summ-Summ-SUMMERTIME

I love many things about summertime. I love being outside, going for evening walks and grilling out. I love that summertime usually entails some sort of vacation, even if not to somewhere exotic. And, I love that summertime is swimming time!

My big 3-0 birthday was last week, and happened to fall on a lifegroup night, so my people did what any good lifegroup would do… have a swim party! I can't think of many more adorable things of summer than little kiddos in their swimsuits, playing in the water. 

We cooked chili dogs, at my request, and I'm pretty sure Ashley thought I was kidding when I suggested them. I can't help it. I love hot dogs. Taylor surprised me with a delicious chocolate cake that she concocted without using a mix. I'm so impressed.

Here are some pics of our fun evening:

More birthdays!

In continuing with the birthday fun, Gib's dad's birthday was just four days following his own birthday! We are thrilled that Gib's parents are within a day's drive from us, and we got to visit Noel right around his birthday. New house, new city (well, a new return to that city!), and a new job - it's been quite an exciting year for my father-in-law!

This beautiful lady turned another year wiser at the beginning of this month.

I could go on and on and on and on about my mom, but suffice it to say that Gib and I have tried to brainstorm ways to nominate her for official sainthood status.

We had an unofficial celebration in Dallas earlier this month, during our Girl Getaway, but I'm about to make her the cake (or pie - your choice, mom!) of her dreams later this month, in FLORIDA!

Gib and I frequently talk about the fact that we have incredible parents. We love you all!