Turtles

As you know, I have spent the past 3-4 weeks packing.  Boo!  While packing, I had to wrap up my small collection of turtles.  I had a thought that I have all these turtles with no record other then my memory to remember where I got all of them.  So, this blog is for that purpose, to document the history behind each turtle. 

I started collecting them a few years ago.  Why?  I am not really sure, actually.  There is just something so cute about the roundness of them.  And, they are small enough that they won't take over the house (as long as I keep it in check).  Plus, I try to find one every trip we take so I can have something to remember the trip by.  Erik has brought some home to me on some trips he has taken too.  Surprisingly, they are not that hard to find.  They sell turtles at just about every little souvenir/trinket store out there.

This one is one Erik bought me when he was in Arizona (traveling through when he traveled from San Franscico, CA to Knoxville, TN via the car)

This one we got at Muir Woods in San Franscisco, CA.  We went back in 2006 to visit my sister, Nell, and her husband, Dave, who lived out there at the time. 

This is from our trip to Cancun in July of 2010

These are from our trip to San Diego this past February, 2012.  The one on the left, I got at the San Diego zoo.  The one on the right is from Sea World San Diego.  I had to have them both.  I love the one made out of all beads.

These are all from Hawaii when we went in April of 2005.  I went a bit crazy and bought 4 - they had tons for sale at the swap meet.  Erik and I were lucky enough to go back when my neice, Jessica, and her husband were stationed over there.  We spent 10 days.  It was amazing!!

Erik's mom got this for me... to be honest, I can't remember where she got it.  Sandy, do you recall?  Somewhere out west.

This one was purchased on our most recent trip to Fort Walton Beach, FL (June 2012).

And finally, these are my favorite.  I got these in New York City.  I love them for 2 reasons.  1 -they were made by a local artist who sells his work outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I love to buy things from local artist for some reason. 2 - it's a family of 3.... precious.  Just like our little family of 3 :)

Sort of a boring post... but, it's all about memories. 

Marta, if you're reading this.....I am thinking my collection is short a cardboard turtle???  Just sayin ;)  How cool would that be?

Sold

Well....  it happened.  Our house sold.  This is not really "news" but I have not had a chance to blog about it yet.  Our official closing date is June 29th.  We got a contract on May 14th with a closing date of June 18th.  We thought we would have 2 weeks after our vacation to be out but it got extended until June 29th.  Good news because I was stressing about getting it all done.  We went ahead and moved what we could since we had it planned and people lined up to help a few weekends ago.  So, we have been living with the bare necessities for a while.  We are planning to be out this weekend to give us a week in the evenings to come clean, get last minute items, etc....

I have been worried about how Elaina is going to adjust but she has been remarkably easy breezy with it all.  The day we moved all our living room furniture, I thought she would come home and be sad.  But, she gasped and said "ooh yah!  I big room I can run in BIG circles in!"  Then she ran for 5 minutes straight in a big circle.  She also has had a lot of room to practice her cartwheels and hand stands with lots of room.  Then the day we took her headboard and bed frame away, she was super excited about sleeping only on the box spring and mattress.  She loved that her bed was lower.  So, all in all, she is excited.

Where are we going??  We are building and that will start in a month or so as soon as we get all that lined out.  In the meantime, we are basement dwellers at Erik's parents house..  We are very grateful that we have a place to land and are being welcomed with open arms.  Elaina, like with the other stuff, is excited about her room over at her mamaw and papaw's - she says "it's huge!"

So, the next journey starts....  We are excited and feel so blessed to have things work out and be able to build a new home.   

Family Photos

Like most families, we ended our last evening on the beach with a photo session...  Here are some of the pics we got - photos on the beach at sunset are always so good.  I need to say that I did not bring a bit of makeup on this trip (on accident) nor did I remember my hair dryer or curling iron.  Not a big deal for most people and not a big deal for just lounging by the pool/beach BUT when it comes to pictures, I am not a fan of frizzy hair and no make up on me.  Call me what you will, I just don't prefer going without it but..... these are for memory's sake so here it goes.....

My fave

Beautiful family

Again, Justin in all his fabulousness of taking pictures shot this sweet one

The cuteness with these 2 is just too much, love those 2 little ladies.

Me and Tami - she a great friend and my pal.  Love her!

We let the kids take pictures of the adults and Elias (since we thought it bright not let one of the kids hold him, especially near the water).  The camera? Yes. But not the baby.  Each kid got a turn.  I can't remember if this picture was taken by Elaina or Olivia but either way, it's not too bad for a 4 year old

Such a fun trip - lots of great memories - sad to be home and back to reality.  But, hopefully we can go again. 

Some more of the same....

More pictures of our fun times at the beach........

Wednesday night Tami and Justin graciously kept Elaina while Erik and I went to dinner to celebrate our 11 year anniversary which was on May 16th.  Oddly enough, Wednesday was Justin and Tami's 7 year anniversary so why were we going out and not them???  Not sure, but they were nice enough to do that for us.



Our view at dinner



Our dinner spot, it was delicious



The happy couple - I am not a fan of this picture of me but it's all I got. 



Thursday morning, me and these three kiddos took a walk down the beach to find shells....



While walking, a wave came up and left all these tiny fish flopping on the sand.  The kids thought it was so cool and picked 2 up a piece and put them in their buckets.  You can sort of see them in  this picutre to the right.  This was super fun for them to carry around for a while - it was short lived.  They died within 10 minutes or so.



While I did that, Erik and Justin were building a sand castle.



Finished product



After the beach was the pool..... Elias joined us for a pool visit



He is just the cutest



A great family photo of the Fords



Us



Erik made a friend at the pool, Carley.  She loved Erik and showed her affection a few times... very sweet



Later that day, the boys played paddle ball while I took the kids to the pool



After dinner we went to play Putt Putt (does anyone else call it that?).  Growing up we had a miniature golf place that we played at all the time called Putt Putt golf so I have always call it that.  Not sure if I am the only one.  The girls had matching hair do's again  - it's hard to tell from this picture though.  But, how sweet is this picture???



The whole crew....  it's the only one from the trip so far.  I love it!



This was Elaina's first time playing miniature golf.... she really liked it.  We will be taking her again soon.



We had a small rain shower blow through on hole 11 so we went inside to wait it out - ski ball was played.  Fun

Justin won the game...  I was last.  Boo!  But, we all had fun. 

Another great couple of days....  We have 1 day left :(  But we plan to keep the fun going until the last minute.....