Sunset at the Beach

After dinner last night, we walked down to the beach to enjoy the sunset. We had our camera in hopes that we might catch a few shots on the beach. I think we caught more than a few....since I can't upload them all, I have included some of my favorites!

Melt my heart....he is just too sweet!

Happy boy!

Loves his Daddy!

Thomas's face here cracks me up. No telling what he is thinking.

What a beautiful end to a great day!

 

Life at the beach

A trip to the beach with a baby is unlike any other beach trip I've been on. Of course, life as we knew it changed the minute Thomas was born, so why should a beach trip be any different? We have still had lots of fun and the little guy has settled in to life at the beach. He is a water baby for sure!

LuLu bought Thomas a bear, and he loves it. He would take it swimming in the pool if I let him. Here they are at dinner (again) at George's. LuLu is hiding from the camera!

This is a man that sat next to us at George's the first time we went. He and his wife loved Thomas. They are from Atlanta and he went to UVA a little before Mama was at Mary Baldwin, so we had lots of things to talk about. He is showing Thomas the horse on his shirt!

We ate lunch at Bud and Alley's the other day. We always sit at the bar when we go, and having a baby didn't stop this tradition. They didn't mind and Thomas had lots to watch!

Our Sesame Street placemat and lunch for Thomas. Little man will eat anywhere...he's not picky!

We tried a new pool one morning...the Frog Pool. There are 3 beautiful tiled frogs that spit water out into the pool. Thomas LOVED to play in the water.

And he wanted to climb on top of the frogs too!

Holding Thomas up high since we are too close to the ocean for his comfort.....

He tries to scale up my shoulder if he thinks we are too close. He looks like he is shaking his finger at me in this picture! How funny!!

A safe distance from the big, bad ocean with our bucket full of ocean water....this will just have to do for this trip, I'm afraid!

Paradise

Life at the beach is good. Look at this view....how could a day not be better when you get to look at this?  More pictures to come later. Patrick/Daddy comes tomorrow, and we are so excited!

Adventures

Our adventure...the 8 hour drive to the beach....was a success! Thomas gave me the best Mother's Day gift - he was the most perfect angel on the drive down to the beach. We broke it up into two days, but I was still in the car by myself with him, so it could have been awful. Of course, I had a few tricks up my sleeve, and they worked like a charm.

First, we turned Thomas's carseat around for the first time the morning we left. This opened up a whole new world for Thomas to look at and boy, did he enjoy looking! I love his face in this picture....he is looking at Patrick like "are you sure you know what you are doing? I think this is backwards, Dad."

 Saying their goodbyes. We are looking forward to Daddy joining us!

Oh my goodness....where has this TV been the last 11 months? Y'all have been holding out on me, folks! SUCCESS!!!!

Now on to the beach!

This was our first trip to the beach....Thomas was just checking everything out. He enjoyed playing in the sand. He is not so fond of the ocean, however. I can't really blame him, though. I don't love the ocean and I can see where it would be very intimidating.

Little man doesn't sit still very often these days, and the beach is no exception. I haven't been able to take too many pictures because I am constantly running after him! Who needs to work out when you have an 11 month old!!!

Pool time!

This picture makes me laugh - notice the $20 bill flying through the air. He was throwing my wallet around and money went flying....don't worry, Patrick, we found it all! : )

Thomas LOVES the pool. He would stay there all day if I let him. He isn't a huge fan of this float, however. I think it is too restrictive for our little mover.

He will come out of the pool for food! Just enjoying our lunch by the pool. Look at all of those rolls....Oh, and Go Dawgs! Thomas and I practiced calling the dawgs this morning and he could say the "ruff, ruff, ruff" part by the end of our lesson. Never too early to learn those traditions!

We spent Mother's Day morning in the condo because there was a huge storm and tornadoes. We decided to head to the mall and stopped for a nice lunch in Sandestin. By the time we got there, the sun came out, so we enjoyed lunch on the patio and decided to turn around a go swimming after lunch instead of shopping!

Tonight we went to dinner at George's. It is a fairly new restaurant near Alys Beach. It is definitely our new favorite place. It has a fabulous food, and a wonderful porch and patio with patches of grass for the kiddos to play in (see the background of the photo above). Thomas was so good and was flirting with all of people in the tables around us. I expect us to return to this place lots more before we come home!

Hard to Believe She's 18!

Aunt Boo Boo turns 18 on Wednesday....can that be right? I don't think that my baby sister should be that old. Lisa was in kindergarten when I graduated from high school and next year she will be a senior in high school. Guess what? That makes me REALLY old. To celebrate they had a surprise brunch for Lisa and her friends at the club today. She was so surprised too - absolutely no idea!

Such a cute group of girls!

And the most popular part of the party was the balloons....at least according to Thomas. He almost flew away his little arms were flapping so hard trying to get his hands on those balloons. Lisa was sweet enough to share with him, and he was on cloud nine. He kept saying "ball" - close enough little buddy! I was so nervous he was going to pop it and be scarred for life against balloons.

On Saturday, we went to a cocktail party that Daddy and Lisa hosted for our cousin, Kate, who was recently married. They live out of town, and we don't see them very often. These are cousins from Mandaddy's (my dad's father) side of the family. They live in DC, NYC and Illinois. We had a great time catching up with cousins, aunts and uncles from near and far. I was too busy chasing after the little guy, so I didn't get many pictures.



The time in between parties was spent frantically running errands, packing and working in the yard. Had lots to do in the yard this spring to get ready for our little guy's first birthday. Just a little more than a month away!

These Are the Days....

See that sweet, happy face? The Lord outdid Himself with this little man. Yes, I'm his Mama, so I'm supposed to say that, but it is so true. Thomas is at the best age right now....he is discovering so many things and learning so much. He is feisty and sweet, pensive and impatient, cuddly and independent and best of all he is exactly who God made him to be. I love watching him grow and develop...it is truly an amazing thing to watch. Being a parent is hard work, but it is also such a gift.

On Monday night, Thomas had his first taste of lasagna. I think he liked it, what do you think? Not only did he devour it, he also decided to wear it all over his face and hair.

Mommy's purse....oh what a treasure chest this can be. While I wasn't watching, he proceeded to delicately take things out of my purse and examine each one of them (his pensive side).

This looks complicated. Good thing I don't need lipgloss!

On Monday afternoon, Thomas was fixated on the big machines tearing up our front yard. He stood there for over 20 minutes and would have stayed longer, but they were done.

This is a picture of what he was watching.

I love that while so focused on the machines, he still didn't drop his lovey.

Whoah, Mom. Have you see this?

Just chillin'...I just might have a tiny attitude.

This afternoon Thomas and I had a grand time. We went to Target, got ice cream and then went to the playground. We played hide and go seek, chase and peekaboo.

Little guy is getting very adventuresome these days!

Then we ventured to the slide. Thomas loves the slide and can now slide down by himself. (I have a great video but I can't upload it for some reason. Will work on that later.) This picture will just have to do.

These are the days that I hope I will never forget!