Destin 2009

Destin 2009 was wonderful ..... my brother went this year and Jacob slept great, two welcome additons from last year! We took so many pics, it was hard to choose ..... I have so many more good ones, but I'm tired of posting them! So, the big story of the trip (for us, anyway) was that Jason went deep-sea fishing and was reeling in an estimated 40-50 lb. king mackerel and as it was surfacing and close to the boat ... they watched a very long, dark shadow take a bite out of it. A shark ate it - Jason fished out a half-eaten fish! Kind of cool, but glad I wasn't there because I would have collapsed into the fetal!

Jacob and daddy .....

So one of the highlights of the trip was getting to see my BFF Michelle .... we grew up together and had only seen each other once since highschool graduation and that was at my sister's wedding 11 years ago .... She was kind enough to pack up her two kiddos and drive up to see me in Destin ....and she's six months pregnant! And of course, we chatted non-stop, just like our mom's used to do. There's not many childhood memories that don't include her .... we were the biggest GEEKS and I treasure every minute of our geekhood. And so, a story I have to tell is when we were both beatle-ized, thanks to my mom. When we were around 12 or 13 years old Michelle and I had very thick and unruly hair. Neither of us really liked to fix it .... okay, I don't think either of us brushed it -- we had better things to do! Anyway, our moms we're a bit frustrated about our straggly hair .... so my mom took us to the hair dresser and showed us a picture of a beautiful model in a magazine and told us that our hair was going to look like hers. The models hair was actually a lot longer and straighter than our current hair at the time .... so that should have been the first clue, but it wasn't. We were both mesmerized by model hair and wanted it. So, Michelle went first and I'll never forget walking up to the salon chair and seeing the finished product. Now Michelle has always been a beautiful Italian that could pull off anything .... but NOBODY could pull of this cut. Let's call it ... the Greg Brady, aka beattle-ization. I was kind of speechless and she said "you better get yours done still" .... and so I sat down in the chair, knowing that I was about to receive the worst hair cut ever. And I was right .... twenty something years later, it's still the worst cut we've both ever had! And, it took like 10 years to grow out!! It's always better with good friends.

Her two little ones below ..... they were so cute and they both reminded me of Michelle when she was younger, aren't they good-looking kids?

Me and Michelle - my beautiful Italian friend!

Jacob and I on the pier

Me and Alyssa as Old Navy advertisements ....

My dad, brother and Trish ....

Keith out did himself this year .... the crab & shrimp boil was DELICIOUS!!!

Me and Jason .....

My brother Mike

Daddy and Jacob

Keith caught a shark on their deep-sea fishing trip. Don't be sad, pretend it is JAWS!

Jason, my dad and Mike .... pic of my dad makes me laugh and think of a bee catcher's costume. He was trying to avoid the sun, I think he succeeded.

Hubby on the boat

My sister and Alyssa ... Not the greatest pose of me, but Jacob LOVED these stairs. We went up and down, up and down!

You can't catch me daddy! I love this pic because it is so ...... Jacob. Always running!

Me and my baby

Regan, my sister and Alyssa. Such a sweet picture.

Vanecek family photo.

Sister's Trip

We had our second annual "Sisters and Kiddos" trip this Memorial weekend and headed up to my dad's house in Austin. It's always a great time! We got to make a stop and see my sister's college roommate Crystal and her two cute little guys, but we were all so busy gabbing that we didn't stop and take a photo. Here's the pics I did get:

Just a random pic, clearly I did not fix my hair that day!

This is one of my favorite pictures! There was a puddle of water in their drive-way from the rain and he loved it.

Grandpa (my dad) and Jacob

My sister and Jacob

Can't you just hear the beautiful melodies that FOUR kids can produce by playing the piano at the SAME time???

My sister and the girls .... and a reluctant Regan to hug her sister!

Jacob loving on the fountain (sidenote: it's green b/c the chlorine was killing birds and my dad is a bird-lover)

Jacob loving on Trish's hair

My very own Panama Jack!

So we've been working on utensils .... as you can see, the spoon needs a little work! (and this was AFTER a little clean-up)

But he's a pro with the fork! (I have to credit daddy here, he taught him to "stab" his food. I think he just likes to stab things. Whatever works!)

First Family Swim of the Year

I have been trying to catch the little turkey doing this on camera for months, finally got him! He tries to shut himself into it by closing the door and doesn't quite understand why he doesn't fit!



More of the "weeeeee" basket .....

I almost fit mom!

Momma's got the camera out .... ATTACK!!!!!

You better think quick mom, here I come in a full out sprint!!

Jacob and I have been to the pool, but we went with all three of us on Friday - finally have some pics. One thing I learned VERY quickly was to bring some pool toys with us. He kept trying to steal from others. According to my sister, pool toys can be quite the controversy at the pool - you must protect them from leaving with other kiddos. Good to know. I also need to get some of his delicious belly.

What do you suppose I do with these things?

Ah, I caught some fish mom!

Dad, do you see all my fish?

Getting sprayed down

Thanks for visiting Stanley!

My niece Regan has a project in school called Flat Stanley. If you don't know the story, Stanley was flattened by the bulletin board above his head (kind of odd) and decided he liked being flat and wants to be sent away with different people. Well we were the lucky ones chosen to keep Flat Stanley for a week. We took pictures to document his adventures.

Ooops! Flat Stanley didn't look both ways before crossing the street and got a little flatter. This is of course Regan's favorite picture and she's insisting on presenting it at school. I hope they don't think she has crazy relatives!

We busted Stanley licking the cake batter!

Okay, enough of Flat Stanley. Here's the snake that was on the porch of the cabin we stayed in - needless to say, we stayed INDOORS all weekend!

We took a little trip to Gruene Hall.

Here's Jacob trying to escape the park.

Mommy & Jacob playing outside.

Jacob emptied Oreo's toys out and rocks back and forth in the basket saying WEEEEEEE!

Jacob and I on the way to the neighborhood pool today!

-

Mom

The approaching Mother's Day of course has me thinking of my mom. The longer I'm a mom, the more I appreciate everything she did. I can only imagine how appreciative I will be by the time Jacob hits the teen years. There are so many "mom questions" I wish I could ask her ...how did you do this? did I do that also? But mostly, I just wish she could meet and spend time with Jacob. She would just love how silly and cuddly he can be, I just know he gets some of his silliness from her. I am so thankful that he has Grandma Judy and Trish to spoil him, he is quite the ladies man!

If she were here today I would tell her thank you. Thank you for driving me to all those soccer practices, thank you for always preparing a beautiful home for us after each move we went through - what hard work that must have been, thank you for teaching me that somebody else's trash IS my treasure, thank you for always having dinner on the table - and sorry if I complained about the onions, thank you for helping my introvert ways by making me join things - I'm still quite the joiner, thank you for helping me meet my BFF Michelle Apostolico - we still talk twenty something years later - thank you for teaching me that it's okay to go against the tide, or at least not always go with it - thank you for being from a small coal town in Pennsylvania, I love that I have those values instilled in me - thank you for teaching me to give certain things/people the bird, because just saying "F it" really is the best answer sometimes, thank you for sleeping on the floor to keep an eye on me when Montezuma had his revenge - thank you for sleeping on the floor the first night I stayed in my dorm room at Tech, thank you for teaching me how to buy things for the house without your husband noticing, although I have yet to be successful - thank you for marrying my dad, the twenty-five year old you was right when you thought he would make a great dad, thank you for my brother and sister - how else would I know how to argue? Thank you for teaching me to have pride in my home, although I don't vacuum quite as much as you did, Thank you for understanding my lack of gratitude before I was a mom, Thank you for making biscuits and gravy on game days - mmmm, miss them - Thank you for telling me that anyone that made fun of my red hair was just jealous of it's uniqueness, I'll probably tell Jacob the same thing - Thank you for leaving this Earth a better place, and for keeping your faith - Thank you for being the tree that this apple did not fall far from!