My Niece and Nephew

This past weekend (August 13th) I headed to Birmingham to visit my sister and my niece and nephew. I had not met my niece Ellen yet b/c she just came home on Saturday August 7th. I was SO excited to get up there and get my hands on those babies. I got there Friday evening and we headed over to the Gresham's (Anna's inlaws) for dinner, they had cooked out burgers. I ate and then pretty much held Ellen the whole time. We had a great time visiting. We headed back to Anna's sat around for a little bit and then mom and I told Anna to go on to bed, that we would stay up with the babies. My mom has been up there since the Sunday after Ellen came home. 11:30 was their next feeding so mom and I fed them and then put them to bed around midnight and we went and got in the bed. A little after 1, I think Cole was fussing so mom got up and just put his paci in and he was fine. Then around 2 or a little after, Ellen woke up, so I got up with her and rocked her in the glider until 3:30 which was their next feeding. We fed them, put them in bed at 4 and then a little after 5 Cole was up b/c he had spit up in his bed, so mom got up with him. Then around 6 or a little after Ellen was up. It was definitely a job, but I loved every minute of it. I am sure if I had to do it everyday/night then it would get tiring. I was fine throughout the morning but around 2:00 that afternoon, it hit me, I was tired!

(Cole)

(Ellen)

Saturday, late morning, Anna's sister-in-law, Emily Joy came over to do a photoshoot with the babies. They were dressed so cute. You know I took a bunch of pictures too!!

(getting ready for their photoshoot)

During their photoshoot, Ellen was definitely relaxed in this one!

Precious Babies!!

Sweet Ellen!

Ellen

Sister & Brother holding hands (how sweet)!

I had such a great time visiting and seeing those babies. They are still so tiny, I know the next time I see them they are going to have changed so much. Anna and Cole are such amazing parents, Ellen and Cole are very lucky. I don't think words can even express how special it is to be an Aunt to these most precious precious babies. I can't wait to go see them again!

Aunt MA with my precious niece and nephew!

My 10 yr. reunion!

On August 7th I had my 10 year high school reunion. Whoa, I can't believe it has been 10 years! I had to scan some pictures into my computer so that they could be printed out to have on display at our reunion, and just going back through all those pictures, sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday. We had our reunion at Lester's in Orange Beach, AL b/c no one wanted to have it in Monroeville since there is nothing to do there. Rob and I left Troy around 2:30 saturday afternoon to head towards Orange Beach, a good 3, 31/2 hour drive. As soon as we get on I65 right outside of Greenville, we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. We actually had our car in park on I65 for an hour. We were thinking the whole time how we were not going to make it down there in time, it started at 7 and last til 9. Luckily after an hour traffic started moving so we ended up making it to the reunion in time, we were actually some of the first people there.

Some people I hadn't seen in 10 years, others I had seen but not in a long time. I was so excited to see my best friend Stephanie, we have been friends since the 3rd grade. She lives in Virginia now, so I rarely get to see her. Some people looked the same and some people looked a little different, mainly it was people voices/accents that had changed. We all enjoyed visiting with everyone. Right before we all left we had to get a group picture just so we could see how people have changed in 10 years. Everyone wanted to go out somewhere after we left Lester's so we went to this place called Rum Runners which has dueling pianos which was fun. Rob and I stayed just a little bit and then we headed back to Troy. We didn't get back to Troy until 3:30 am. We were exhausted. I am glad I went, it was a lot of fun to see everyone. It will be interesting to see where everyone is and what everyone looks like in the next 10 years.

 Look at how we have changed! This is Me and my best friend Stephanie!

Destin

Last weekend we headed to my beach house in Destin, FL. with some of our good friends. Rob, Allie and I headed down Thursday night when I got off work. Friday morning I realized that I had left my flip flops at home so I had to go out and find some. Who knew it would take me so long to find some flip flops, i couldn't just get any ole flip flop...haha. I ended up finding some and then headed back to the house. Rob and I went and ate lunch at Harbor Docks and it was SO yummy. Later that afternoon our friends Kelley and Kay and their son Henry and Dustyn and Erin arrived. Our dock was torn down b/c we are getting it rebuilt since it was so old, so we set up chairs in the grass down by the water and enjoyed the evening weather. While down there, there were a few little pieces of board from the dock so Rob picked up a piece to throw in the water to see if Allie would go after it. And to our surprise, she did! Normally for her to get in the water Rob has to pick her up and take her in with him, but this time she went on her own. She jumped in the water swam to the piece of board and brought it back to the shore to Rob and then she was ready for him to throw it again. It was hilarious, I was so proud of her. I got my camera and shot a video of her fetching that piece of board, I was like a proud mama videoing her child...hah. After all that, she was worn out. Later that night we started thinking about food and it was already so late that we just ordered pizza which was really good. (I have video of Allie fetching and swimming but I can't get my videos to upload on the computer so as soon as I get those I will be posting one).

The next morning when we got up, Kelley and Kay had already headed out for the morning and brought us back some yummy doughnuts. We hung out around the house and then we got ready to go out on a pontoon boat that we had rented. Kelley, Kay, Dustyn and Erin had friends that live in Destin so we went out on the boat with them. It was such a beautiful day! We went and anchored and enjoyed floating around in the water. Henry had a great time too. We wore him out!

All the girls and Henry enjoying the water.

Our group!

After having so much fun out on the water, we headed back to the house to get cleaned up and ready for dinner. Dustyn cooked dinner for all of us and it was really YUMMY! He boiled shrimp with sausage, potatoes and corn and Erin made this delicious sauce to dip our shrimp into. It was such a great meal. We all enjoyed it!

Last Sunday was Erin's birthday so her husband and her friend Jennifer surprised her with a cake. We all sang Happy Birthday and enjoyed the delicious cake.

We had such a great weekend with really good friends!!