Sister-Sister

Two weeks ago, Stephanie came to visit for FIVE whole days! Simply put- it was wonderful.

She flew in on a Monday night, which happened to be the same Monday that Hurricane Isaac was spinning in the gulf and throwing rain all over the state. Her flight ended up being delayed by a couple of hours, but I finally got the text around 8:30 that she had landed.

I made friends with the security guard at the pick-up lane in the airport and at least a dozen loops around it while I waited for Steph to roll her suitcase out to the curb.

I was in tears when I finally caught sight of her. It could have been the fact that there was some pretty rough weather that day and I was worried about her flying through it. It could have been all of the soldiers I watched being reunited with their families at the airport that night. I’m sure it was a little of both, but the main reason was I just love her so much and I was so glad she was finally here!

Stephanie was actually just coming off of her latest adventure with her thrill-seeking husband. The day before she flew to Florida, she was actually on the top of Mt. Rainer in Washington state. Amazing. She and Henry have had a lifetime of adventures in just a few short years. They blow all of our minds and I never know when I’ll get an email saying they’re off to Vegas for the weekend or hiking in Yellowstone or spending a few days in Paris. I LOVE that about them. They are such a neat couple.

Actually her trip to Florida (and then a week in Georgia with the family), was just the stop before their next adventure. LIVING IN ENGLAND for 9 months!

In fact, they fly out TODAY!

The five days we had together, like always, went by way too fast.

We spent a couple lazy days around here… We ate Chick-fil-A twice, took Steph to Blue Highway for her first taste of a peppadew, got her a haircut, and hit Target. All the basics. :)

We spent the day at our Granny’s…

and then hit the beach for a couple days.

My Aunt Cindy and Aunt Kay came to spend the week with Granny and to take Steph back home with them, so we decided to end the week with a girls trip to the beach.

We enjoyed soaking up the salty sea air and sunshine, playing in the waves and having ice cream from the YELLOW (not the blue) ice cream truck! :)

Thursday night we had dinner at Aunt Catfish’s and then decided to go to the dog track. It was everyone else’s first time (I had been once in July, so I’m a seasoned dog-track go-er) :)

We laughed our heads off and had such a fun time!

Steph and I (& the girls) were going to just show the “Moms” how to get there, but we ended up going in and then staying.

Yes, we were THOSE people…

We were also the people who:

- had to have the man at the counter explain it all to us, and even afterward still had no clue what it all really meant.

- stand by the fence and cheer for “our” dog

- Yell, “Here comes Lucky” with the announcer at the start of the race

- Buy the program, but not to see the stats on the dog… we pick our dog based on the name we like. Doesn’t everyone? That’s the one that really sealed the deal on us being THOSE people – Everyone was sitting on the bench and I was reading out the dogs’ names and we were all deciding who we each wanted to go with. We were all the way through the list and had made our choices, when the nice couple beside us yelled over to us to tell us we were only on Race 12. (We were picking from the race 13 list) :)

On the way out that night, we got another laugh when AB, in all seriousness says, “Yall know what pup was my favorite? Lucky!” (I was dying that she called the dog a “pup”). She asked to go back to the dog track all day Friday! :)

Friday we had breakfast on the pier and spent the day on the beach.

My girls loved having Grammy and the Aunts all to themselves. It was like have three Grammys! Growing up, it was always fun to have them together and all of us cousins have always said how much our aunts remind us of our own moms. They are all very different in their own ways, but alike in many others. I love them all very much.

Dinner that night was at the Port Orange Steakhouse and dessert was at High Five. Yum.

 

It was such a fun time with Steph and I am so thankful we got to spend some time together before they made the big move! All of our lives, we have lived states apart, but never an ocean. I know England is going to be an awesome adventure for she and Henry! A once in a lifetime opportunity for sure. Hopefully Stephanie will start blogging again so we can all follow along on this exciting chapter! :) (Hint, hint, Steph!!)

~amw~

Gator Guys, Girls & Games…

I laughed a few weeks ago at my friend, Mandi’s post about football season and “brainwashing” their boys… It was particularly funny because I read the post on an evening when we’d been out “brainwashing” our girls! :)

In preparation for the 2012 football season, we took the girls to the stadium to take some pictures of them on Florida Field. The stadium had a fresh coat of paint, but the field had gotten it’s yet.

 

After our little stadium stop, we took a drive through campus and DW pointed out all the big UF landmarks for AB. She has a “My First Florida” book and has it memorized. One of her favorite places in it is Century Tower, so she asked her Daddy to take us by it, too. Along with all the “famous” UF places, he also rode us by his old apartment and told AB that’s where she could live when she goes to UF. I think he believes if he says “WHEN” instead of “IF” – that she’ll always know there isn’t any other choice when the time comes for her to go to college. :)

DW & I were back at the stadium this past Saturday, when Football season kicked off at 3:30. One word to describe the afternoon? Hot. Thankfully our seats were in the shade by game time.

It’s always fun to Gator-Game with the crew, but this game was especially fun because Sam & Gracie were here, too! It was Gracie’s first game and she was adorable, “Tebowing” everywhere! :) We went up to the booster tent during halftime to have a snack. On our way back down, we got a quick pic of the four of us.

After watching the Gators play on Saturday, we are all missing the days when we were REALLY good. We all agreed with my FIL, who said he was really hoping that the Gators were keeping all their good plays top secret for this week’s game. A win is a win, though, and we’ll take it.

On Sunday night, we went to dinner for Sam’s last night at home. Since we were already in Gainesville, we decided to take a detour over to the Women’s Soccer game. (It was announced at the football game the day before and my ears perked up since we have a soccer player in our family now).

We signed AB up for Soccer Pups this year, and we thought she might like/need to see a soccer game before she starts practice! :)

We had our picture with Alberta and stayed for half of the first half of the game.

We couldn’t really tell if AB was having a good time or not, until we left and she said, “Why we’s leaving? I wanted to watch ‘dat soccer game.” Maybe we’ll take her back to another game before the season is over. Poor DW. He’s a great Daddy for sure! :)

On our way off campus, AB had one more request… “Daddy, can we go see Cen-tree Tower?” And yall can just guess where we ended up…

 

Such Gator Fun!

~amw~