It's Destin...I promise!!!!

We just got back from a really great trip to the beach. The water was so absolutely gorgeous that I had to keep reminding myself that we were in Destin and not the Caribbean. The boys had a blast!! Here's some pictures...many of them have my nephew, Bryce, and my niece, Elise.

We took some pictures of the boys together one afternoon on the beach--unfortunately our camera was really foggy and we didn't realize it. Here's a couple of them--sorry for the haze!!

Just a few thoughts....

For those of you who haven't heard me rave about this book, I just have to put in another plug. My bible study has been reading Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas. Some of you may have heard of him before...he also wrote Sacred Marriage, which I also enjoyed, but this one has just been incredible. I really think it's a must read if you have children--if you're precious angel is under two you'll probably want to read it again in a couple years...for me it's totally changed my perspective. You can get it new for $5.25 on www.amazon.com!!

Another note--a friend of mine emailed me one of her friend's blogs...I so enjoyed reading her thoughts and wanted to pass the address along to you:

http://www.happyhelms.com/archives/2007/07/growing_pains.html

She has such incredible insight that I had to go back through her archives to gain more of her wisdom. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did...

"Sano"

I took the boys today to let them pick out a fish! We went with a Beta (in hopes that he'll stick around). Griffin was determined to get a red one, so that's what we got (I tried to steer him to some of the pretty, colorful ones, but he's apparently not into looks). He decided to name him "Sano"--we're not quite sure where that came from but he seems quite pleased with it! So, without further adieu...Sano!!!

NEW YORK, NEW YORK!!!!!

I just got back from a fun weekend to New York with six of my best friends from college! We hadn't all been together in five years, so it was a lot of fun to get together now that we all have at least 2 kids!! We all turn 30 sometime this year, so we decided to take a trip to celebrate!!

At NBC Studios

Frozen Hot Chocolate from Serendipity 3...one of the best things I've ever tasted!!!


We went to see Hairspray...it was great!!

Our daily Starbucks run...
The Staten Island Ferry




Times Square

We loved the Stardust Diner...we went there for dessert twice! The servers are great singers...our last night they sang "Summer Lovin'" just for us!!!

This is cool!!!

This is what my sweet baby looks like!!!

Back home with the boys....

Even though we had the time of our lives on the cruise, we missed the boys terribly and were definitely ready to come home. My parents and grandmother took great care of them...they had their own little vacation (the pool, the zoo, Recreation Station). Although Griffin was so excited to see us, I don't think he was quite ready for Nana and Poppy to go home. Michael and I probably seem pretty boring now! Here's some pictures we took of them this week...

Back from the Cruise....

From the front of the ship

We had a really great time on our Mediterranean Cruise...we saw some unbelievably beautiful places!! I'm going to post some pictures from the cities we went to, although somehow the pictures from Florence were deleted--major bummer!!! We took so many great pictures, but I didn't want to bore you with too many. It couldn't have been more fun, but we were soooo ready to come home and see the boys!!! Eight days was a long time to be away!!!

Naxos, Sicily






Valetta, Malta





Dubrovnik, Croatia





Isle of Capri (Naples, Italy)