we love the beach...

So, we went to the beach about two weeks ago....yeah, I'm just getting to the blog!  Even though most people that read this have already seen the pictures, I'll go ahead and put some on here.  (Between mom and I, we only took 556.)

A long while back, Derek and I decided we wanted to take Michael to the beach this summer.  We decided to try to make a big famdamily vacation out of it and invite everyone!  By everyone, I mean both sets of grandparents, all three uncles and two aunts.  It ended up where only the grandparents got to go, but we had so much fun!

The original plan was that Michael would fly down with Grandma & Granddaddy, but after a series of events, he ended up riding in the car the whole 9 hours with us, Juice & Pa.  He did awesome!!  (Thank you to iPads and iPhones!)

We spent the days playing in the sand, shopping in Port A, riding in Uncle Marcus's boat, eating wonderful food and even making it to the Texas State Aquarium.  Here are some of my favorites....

first look at the beach...

 catching the big waves with juice & pa...

fun with juice and pa... 

check out his shadow! 

the life... 

beach boy! 

fun with grandma & granddaddy... 

our little family... 

i do love this boy... 

'flying' like airplanes 

in uncle marcus's boat 

michael...port a...'11

 weeeeeeeeeeee

shark tattoo 

getting a closer look at the sea horses... 

big shark!

got milk??

Milk mustaches are just too funny around here.......

first movie...

When I saw this commercial a few months ago, I knew we had to take Michael to see his first movie in a theatre (well, first movie ever...the kid won't sit still)!  So we took him yesterday to see Winnie the Pooh!  

 We let him have skittles and a sprite....he didn't want popcorn?!??!
(This picture is fuzzy....nice one there, Katie!)

He really enjoyed it!  He sat there the entire time and only got restless once at the very end.

furniture redo....

Derek's Aunt Mary passed away right at a year ago this week.  We miss her and still love her so much!  In her house, by her front door, was this piece....and it's been in my father-in-law's storage barn for about a year!

(if you judge my garage, I will hunt you down and make you come clean it out!)

This was going to be my project all summer, and I'm just now getting to it!  I saw a blog (from my friend, Jessica) where she redid a piece of furniture and I loved how it turned out.  So, after stripping it (nothing but grime came off), I started painting...

 Then I recruited mom to help...actually she just came to see Michael, but during nap time, I made her help!  We sanded a little off....

 Then we stained and wiped and stained and wiped....

After letting it dry over night, I moved it in to my sunroom, by the backdoor.  I added some random knobs....that I purchased from Hobby Lobby.

 And finally tried to decorate it a little....overall, I love it!!!  (and I think Aunt Mary would too.)

does anyone see a rabbit around here??

Cause I hear some crunching going on......