1) Pool time (magazine and book required)
2) Baseball (Go Rangers!)
3) 4th of July and Fireworks
4) My Birthday
5) Annual trips to Florida
6) Full concert schedule
And lucky me it is mid-July and I have accomplished all of the above items on my summer to-dos.
1) I have been enjoying great pool time on Sunday afternoon's after church. Very relaxing and good time to get caught up on my reading (hello People and Real Simple).
2) I have gotten to go to a few games already this summer, most recently Mom, Dad, Amy, Chris, and I went for a Friday/Saturday weekend in Arlington. We watched the Rangers beat Oakland, it was a good time.
Me, Dad, and Amy (Dad really liked his shirt, it says Feel the Grip...haha)
The whole fam (love that we finally have another boy)
The girls.
The original Byrd clan (we got dad the hat for Christmas, he finally got to wear it).
Sisterly love.
Since the game was on a Friday night we got to stay and watch the fireworks. They did a TV theme and it lasted over 30 minutes. Very good.
Another firework shot.
Finally, the weeping willows, I love those.
3) (See above for the Fireworks). The 4th of July was great. I spent the weekend at the lake with some work friends and watch fireworks with my friends Nicole and Ashley in Highland Park. (I didn't get any pics though, but the ones at the Ranger game were much better).
4) My birthday was super fun this year. Thanks to an awesome roomie (Love you C), I got to celebrate with lots of friends from Dallas, OU, and work (we also had a party with the fam at home, complete with homemade ice cream, thanks Grandmommy! I didn't get any pictures from that party though). For the Dallas party, we went to a great Mexican place called Monica's where you get to dance on the stage if it's your birthday and they do a Conga line complete with a tequila shot at the end. Yes Please!
Me, Casey, and Audrea at dinner (my necklace was a gift from Sarah for my bday, I LOVED it).
Having fun with Casey.
Haylee and I at dinner.
Getting to dance on stage with my tambourine. The orange shoes were a gift from Heidi for the bday (I really liked my bday presents this year).
Me and my strawberry cupcakes Casey made for the party. They were really good!
After dinner we went a Piano bar and got to sing some good songs, including a Disney song from The Little Mermaid and "Thong Song"....let's just say that the piano player was really well rounded.
All in all it was a great birthday and I have a good feeling about 26 (as Holly always says, she likes even numbers, so I have kind of started to lean that way too....26 is very well rounded number, don't you think?)
Every year it varies on who all goes to Florida with us. I have been with Jackson (Heidi's son and the brother I never had) and friends, work friends, Holly, and twice I have gone just me, Heidi, and Chapman. No matter who goes we always have a good time. This year the lineup was Mom, Dad, Heidi, Chapman, and Paula and Bert. Mom, Heidi, and Paula have all three known each other since kindergarden and Dad, Bert, and Chapman put up with lots of old stories. I was the youngest person on the trip by about 25 years, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.
We normally split the trip down there into 2 days, spending one night in New Orleans on the way. I had a wedding in Oklahoma and actually ended up flying to Florida to meet the gang, but they got to drive through New Orleans and go to Cafe du Monde and the whole she-bang. I was really sad to miss the drive because it really is one of the most fun parts. I know most of you don't believe me, but we have a really good time driving across the country. Particularly because we play the license plate game along the way. In case you don't know what that is it is a game where you try to find all 50 license plates from the start to finish of your trip. We play every year and we have only gotten all 50 once or twice. Normally it comes down to some hard states like Vermont or Delaware (extremely hard to find). Anyway, it makes the trip super fun. Heidi and I are really good at it, and we keep each other in check (the hard states have to get double confirmed by two people, unless it is coming from a reliable source....which in Heidi's mind she is the only reliable source although I have kind of proven myself over the years). The trait comes in handy, I can spot random license plates from a mile away. I digress....more about the trip....
So I got a call from my mom on Sunday telling me that we were actually not able to stay at Heidi and Chapman's condo because it had been inadvertently rented out. So we were being placed in another condo managed by the same rental company. They thought it was going to be a disaster. However, the replacement condo was great and we all liked it. It was a good alternative since there was nothing we could do about it and they had already driven all the way to Florida.
I met the gang early on Monday morning after flying out from Oklahoma after the wedding. I actually got a really good picture on the plane:
Once I landed I got a taxi (no one wanted to pick me up because they were all at the beach) and drove to the condo. Once I arrived I was so excited to see our view from the new place:
I didn't take great notes on each day of the trip like I normally do, but our routine each day was about the same: Breakfast on the patio followed by beach time for several hours. This was normally followed up with lunch and adult beverages (we also checked in on the Casey Anthony case each day as it was airing while we were down there). We then had more beach time followed by showers and afternoon shopping. We normally returned in time for happy hour and appetizers at the condo and then would go to a late dinner and then off to bed to start the whole process over the next day. Now that is my kind of vacation. Very low key, but very fun, full of good food, good laughs, good shopping, lots of drinking (during the day and night....somehow the six of us went through 2 48 packs of beer and several bottles of wine during the week....as my dad said "I am on vacation and going to enjoy myself"), and good beach time.
There were lots of funny moments and quotes from the trip that I wrote down, but somehow I could not find when I was trying to write this blog entry. So, pictures will have to do.
Here are some fun pictures from the trip:
Dad, me, and mom at dinner one night. We went to a good seafood place with the best hush puppies ever....so good! This place also had the Voice on TV, which was another obsession of ours during the trip.
Bert and Paula
Mom and I in our matching coverups purchased at Target. Heidi got one too but wasn't around for the picture.
Picture night on the balcony. Normally we would do it on the beach but we were up on the 10th floor and decided to just take pics from the patio. My dress and headband were trip purchases. Dad has a great smile in this pic.
The whole gang (besides me because I was taking the picture).
Now I have to explain this picture. This was my riding companion on the drive home. It is a Chinese New Year dragon costume. Now I have been on a million trips with Heidi where she has found things for the store that ultimately have to get home somehow. So we either have to make room for the said item(s) or get them shipped to Ardmore somehow. These have consisted of a wedding cake pinata, a ceramic frog, a gigantic ice cream cone (this had to be delivered in a semi), pieces of a Carousel, and a 6 foot wrought iron chicken, among several other items. She already had this piece picked out before I got there. We walked into the antique store and she said "Can you see what I want in here?" I spotted it immediately.
That pretty much defines our trip in a nutshell. I always enjoy our Florida trips and I am glad my dad got to go this year, it made it extra special.
6) Concerts: Please see my last entry for the most awesome concert ever....(NKOTBSB!!!)
Audrea and I have tickets to see Keith Urban at the end of August, and I think Casey and I are going to see a cover band at the Dallas Arboretum. I am really looking forward to that.
I hope you are enjoying your summer as much as I am enjoying mine!