beach withdrawals

We spent last week at the beach. Just the four of us. The long drive there was rough, but once we got there it was wonderful. Marlie loved the beach. She was the perfect age for playing in the ocean and the sand.



Tate boy was a little dream boat. He took long naps (I did too), and let us cart him around wherever we went with a smile.





We read books. We put the kids to bed early and ate dinner together on the balcony. We played scrabble. On our last night we went out to the beach for our own little photo shoot. Which is kind of funny because it pretty much means we got dressed up and hoped someone nice would walk by and take our picture. And a nice man did.



And then I took some of my favorite people.





My heart skipped a beat when I snapped this one...



Such a nice vaca. And Now I'm having beach withdrawals. Thank you Terry and Mary for another amazing week at your place!

shopping with Beth

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, then you've heard me talk about my friend Beth. Well, a few months ago Beth and her sweet family moved about 30 minutes away. This might not seem like a big deal, but it is. We've lived no more than 10 minutes from each other for the last 6 years. We've raised our kids together, we work together, our lives are intertwined. They still are, but we talk on the phone more than see each other these days. We are praying that it is temporary and making time to hang out whenever we can.

Each Thursday night Beth heads east, I head west, and we meet at a "mom and pop" little grocery store to do our weekly shopping together. We shop in peace with no squirmy kiddos, we get $10 off our $50 purchase, we get our groceries for the week, we get to see each other. Its a win win.



The store is quaint and quirky and I love it. We started shopping here when we both wanted to try and shop for food that was grown or made locally. They have all kinds of things that you can't get at other stores. Like this butter that makes anything I bake taste little better...



And the cheese, don't even get me started...



They also have some funny props around like this guy...



Is it me or does it seem like he might be about to squeeze the crap out of that kitten rather than pet it?

Beth is really good at getting her grocery bill right at $50, I am not so good at it. Although this particular day she was a little bit under and had to buy two huge bags of tortilla chips :). I think she might have a fiesta this week.



We get our shopping done as quickly as we can and then we meet down the road at the Quick Trip gas station where we get ourselves slurpees.



We sit in one of our minivans, drink our slurpees, and catch up on each other's lives. I'm pretty sure that the people who work at QT think that we are secret lovers, who also love slurpees, who rendezvous on Thursday nights. But we're just friends that like to take some time out to talk. Cuz that's what good friends do.

A few years ago I never would have thought that one day, a fun night out would consist of grocery shopping or minivan sittin. But it does, and I love it.