back from vacation

for vacation this year we went back to one of our favorite places...seagrove beach in florida.
it's about 30 minutes from destin but so much more calm and peaceful than destin.
it's a sleepy little beach town where people ride old fashioned bicycles with baskets and, in general, feels like you just entered 1955. we absolutely love it!
(bear with me as i post most all of our pictures throughout the week)

our car as we left

2 sleepy girls
(this year we decided it would be fun for mckinlee to take a friend with her, so amber was our extra girl for 10 days!)

this was our view for a lot of the time--pretty but boring after a while.

chris cheesing it up

taking my turn to drive

mckinlee

and amber...having fun watching movies as we drove

going through a cool tunnel

i think this is the uss alabama
(when i was a little girl we got to tour through this)

more trees

we made the mistake of driving in through destin and will never do this again--it added an hour to our trip. it was also raining and looking pretty bad when we drove in. we are starting to panic and think our whole vacation will be spent in the rain (the forecast the whole week was thunderstorms!)

we finally made it to our turn and were so glad!

this was our first year staying at this condo--one seagrove place. it was beautiful and right on the water.

i took pictures right away before we could mess it up!
here's the living room

we never actually sat in these chairs--but they were pretty.

our little kitchen

the pretty dining room table that we also never used!

we used this table to hold all our sunscreen and aloe vera gel

our bedroom that i loved!

the girls' room
(this was actually taken on the day we left. i realized i hadn't taken a picture, so the girls made everything look so nice for me to take one!)

as it turned out, we got to go to the beach everyday. it did rain a little but nothing like the forecast said.
i stayed inside to unpack and enjoy the condo while chris & the girls headed right out.
they are right in the middle at the edge of the water.

here's the view from our balcony on the first day

a & m playing in the sand on the second day

chris reading & my little area all set up

i'll stop here for now...come back tomorrow for more.

2011 convention

we had our convention last weekend--it was wonderful & so encouraging!
here are some of my pictures...

i always get a picture of the sign so i can remember the theme each year.

chris & i in the book room. his assignment was the book room--so we were in here a lot.

rachel, natalie & me

amber & mckinlee waiting for the session to start

abby, claire & mck

bethenie & me
we have been the closest of friends almost all our lives.
now she has a 17 year old & i have a 12 year old--how in the world did that happen?

michele & me--coordinating very nicely together

amber, chloe, mck & claire

bethenie's family
she said phil would never again let them match their clothes after this!
i thought it was cute :)

chris & i on saturday

chris had a talk and did a great job!
(wow--my zoom lens is great. i was sitting SO far away!)

as i was sitting at the book room, i saw a girl from our congregation wearing the same dress--had to get a picture!

mckinlee on sunday before the session

me, new friend (and i found out massage therapist!) erica, natalie & rachel

patricia and me

mckinlee and i in our slippers.
she wanted this picture taken to see what the future is going to look like--i think not!

valarie, me & patricia
(i had to do some major cropping on some of these so the new releases stay a surprise for everyone who hasn't been yet!)

our family on sunday--the only picture we got of the three of us!

a real tea party

our new friend, april & her daughter monica, had several of us over for a tea party the other day.

here we all are with our tea party clothes and hats.

each of us had one of these beautiful cupcakes

here was the pretty table
all the pretty little touches like the roses were so sweet

jars of candy with cute chalkboard labels
another shot of the table
julie, michele & mindy
april, me & patricia
monica & amber
my place setting before it was filled with food.

that pink drink was champagne punch and it was delish!

michele & me
a close-up of my hat and posy pin. (this hat is also my beach hat and will be featured extensively pretty soon!)
monica passing out the gifts she made each of us
i loved this picture of everyone taking a picture of her
she knits & crochets so amazingly you wouldn't believe it! she made us each a tea cozy for our tea cup. here's mine. isn't it darling? i loved that turquoise button!

we had such a fun afternoon and felt like real southern ladies--thanks april & monica!