The Beach...Again

Last weekend my girls and I went to a beautiful 10 year vow renewal ceremony on the beach for my bff. The trip was an adventure for sure (365 mile drive with just my girls made me a little nervous) and the ceremony was simply beautiful. The beach was lined with houses and the beaches were very private, a much different atmosphere than the commercial Myrtle Beach. It was nice. The girls enjoyed making sand castles and the beach had lots of shells to gather.

We got to hang out at the beach all day before the ceremony. You can't beat a nice relaxing day at the beach!

The vow renewal ceremony was just lovely! Teena and Brian walking the isle...

Teena gave Melia the special job of "shell girl" (instead of flower girl) She felt soooo special and happy to be involved! The girls gathered the shells earlier that day and picked out just the right ones. Melia handed out the shells and we all threw them into the ocean as a part of the ceremony.

Here we are with the "newlyweds"....

The pictures that they had taken were just so beautiful! So I snagged some to put here. These guys are so great...

This is one of my favorites! I love the look on Brian's face and to see Teena laying in a white dress in the sand and surf is just not something that you'll see very often!

A beautiful smile!

Today Sydney got her braces off! She had her teeth cleaned just a few days ago so she has a beautiful gleaming smile!

What her smile looked like one year ago...

And today!....

Her back teeth are still coming in so the orthodontist put in a semi permeate retainer that is glued to the back of her front top four teeth. I'm glad it's glued in there...it won't get lost or thrown out that way!

Beach Trip 09

This past weekend we went to Myrtle Beach, SC. We had a great time! Our good friend Ken came along with us so I got to have the back seat all to myself. (easier to catch some Z's!) This was my view on our way there.

Peace up!

We set up the car DVD players and the girls watched some videos and watched the scenery. They traveled really nicely this year. The trip took us about 6.5 hours.

This was my view of Chris. Don't you love the fuzzy handcuffs that I have on the mirror?

We stayed at a nice hotel along the coast but our view was a side view of the beach. It seems that you either get a nice suite with an OK view or a nice view with an OK suite. A suite works best for us because we like to bring some of our own food.

This was our hotel looking at it from the beach. The kitchen faucet was a bit loose so Chris tightened it up. Such a handy man to have around!

We don't have any palm trees at home so I always like to get a picture of some. They seem to grow were it's really hot, sandy and flat....not a place I want to hang my hat permanently.

We stayed on the 14th floor and spent a lot of our time in the elevator.....picking people up and dropping them off.

I really do wonder why hotels don't have buttons for the 13th floor. Does that mean that the 14th floor is the actual 13th floor or is there a floor that they use for something else? Could it be a floor to another dimension? weird...

When we finally did make it off of the elevator we had a grand time swimming in the ocean. The water was a great temperature and the waves were the perfect size for some boogie boarding. Sydney and Melia caught some serious waves...

Melia found a friend to play with in the sand....

I love how this picture turned out of Sydney! It's really hard to tell how the pictures look because the sun is so bright!

Ken and Chris pretty much looked like this during the day...beach bums!

The hotel had a lot of nice pools.

The main pool had a swim up bar....

Me and my girls with their new sunglasses!

I had Chris take a picture of me as proof that I was actually there on vacation and not just as a photographer. Ta-da!

The beach can really wear you out!

Had to stop at Wal-Mart before we went home....

I came home exhausted but this is only the beginning of our summer. We will go back to the coast this weekend to see a good friend of mine renew some wedding vows, Sydney has camp, we're going up to PA, the list goes on and on....just hope we all make it with our sanity!

Baby Jibber Jabber

Let me just say that Laurie Eller has a fabulous blog that I follow daily. She makes beautiful beads and jewelery! Well, I was looking at her blog and saw this precious clip one of her friends gave her. This baby girl has obviously had a great day and wants to talk all about it. Some great things happened and Momma was there too! LOL! Reminds me of when Sydney would go on and on at about this age.

Thanks Laurie for the great clip!

Melia's Graduation

Today Melia graduated from pre-k! yay! The class sang some songs for all the parents. It was so darling! Awww....

I was sitting on the front row (I'm a dedicated parent. lol) so it took two pictures to get the entire class.The class is very unique. There are 3 little deaf boys, all have their own interpreters, 2 kids who have deaf parents, and 3 kids who have parents who are teachers (the principle's son is in the class also). It's been a wonderful year in a wonderful class. Melia opened the program with a welcome....wait for it.....

I'm not quite sure how I have the tallest kid in the class? Seriously, she'd like 4 inches taller than everyone else!

Then they sang a song with sign language. You can tell who uses sign language at home! lol. so cute!

They also got to demonstrate a song that they learned in kindermusic. This is an African song game. The kids loved this...

Melia getting her diploma from Mrs. Isbell.

A proud moment...::sniff sniff::

The class...

Cute chipmunk

This little guy is just too cute! I want one!