Swim & Eat

And celebrate birthdays. Just in the last week, we've celebrated three birthdays. Britani and Bradley's and my mom's. June is crazy full of birthdays. We get a little break in July. Then August hits and it gets crazy again. But a summer birthday is a good excuse to have a pool party, right?

What is it about boys that makes them like to wrestle in the pool? No need for expensive pool toys with boys in the pool. Look at sweet Alex's face in this picture. She looks like she'd love to get in on it with those boys.


And a birthday is a dang good excuse to have cake and ice cream. Or a cake that is made with cake AND ice cream all in one. That's what we had at Britani and Bradley's 17th b'day party.


Suz made The World's Best Coconut Cake for my mom's party at my house Sunday night. It was the kind of cake that after your first piece, you have a second claiming the first piece was so small. The second leads to a third. Have you ever had cake like that? And honestly, is there anything prettier than a snow white coconut cake?


Except maybe the smile on my 64-year-old mom, my kids' Mimi's face. This picture shows my pretty Auntie Brenda in the background. Not sure what tale Eli was telling Mimi, but from the looks on their faces, it was pretty amazing. It was a great party and will be a new tradition at my house.


And then there were the kids. There were 11 of them here. I still count Ross and his friends as kids. Hey, if you're 23 years younger than me, you're still a kid.

The big kids throw the little kids. Eli's the only one small enough for them to throw more than a time or two and honey, he'll wear them out. I love this picture because you can see the excitement on Eli's face before he hits the water. I love it, too, because it shows my dad and my Auntie Theresa having a chat. Now, there's a bond for ya.


We're a family of Georgia Bulldogs. We have a scattering of Tech Yellow Jackets in the mix, but for the most part, we're Georgia Dawgs. And when you're a Georgia fan you CAN'T STAND THE FLORIDA GATORS! Except Ethan. He's a gator fan. The irony of this picture is that the alligator's tail had a hole in it. But it had enough air to hold up a gator lover.


I realize I never posted any pictures of our Panama City trip with Ronnie and Nan. I posted a couple on Facebook, but I didn't post any here.

These are a few of my favorites. This is Ronnie and Nan at Pineapple Willy's the first day we got there.

Jeff and me on the balcony at sunset. Only God could creat the colors in the sunset. There are no crayons in the box to match those colors.

This is the pool at The Shores of Panama where we stayed. It was seriously the prettiest pool I've ever seen. And at night with the lights, it was even more beautiful.

We had our best meal of the trip at Captain Anderson's.

If you've been to Panama City before, you've probably been there. They have amazing seafood. When we were little girls and would take our beach vacation to Panama City, my dad would take us there. We'd go early to watch the fishermen unload their catches of the day. I have many good memories of my girlhood vacations in Panama City.

The weather and the water were just beautiful the entire time we were there. A couple of days the water was as calm as a lake.

And one day the waves were crashing in and we had so much fun playing on the shore, just like little kids. I thought I'd have to get my Mickey Mouse pressure washer to out to get the sand out of my bathing suit bottoms! If only we had had a movie of that. I'm pretty sure we'd win Funny Home Videos. Two 44-year-old women getting bounced around like a beach ball in the water. It was hilarious.

Since we had no camera that day, I'll just share this picture with ya.

We saw dozens of stingrays. They were swimming in schools. Not bothering anyone, just swimming along.

And we could see dolphins playing just out of reach of the swimmers. There was no seaweed in the water and the sand was truly like sugar. It was Panama City Beach at its finest.

Now I'm worried about this coming along and messing up everything. Not only am I worried for all of the sea life who make the Gulf of Mexico their home, but also for all of the people who depend on tourists for their livelihood. From the images and news about the oil spill, we need a miracle.

Without a miracle, some little girl somewhere might not get to make her beach trip to Panama City with her parents and sisters. She won't get to float in that clear aqua water. Or build sandcastles in that blindingly white sand. Or have dinner at Captain Anderson's or Angelo's.

Yes, indeed, a miracle is just what we need.

Till next time...