Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Seafood & Sandcastles: Our Trip to Destin, FL

The view from our Majestic Sun unit
I can't even tell you the last time that Ryan and I went to the beach... felt the sand between our toes and got some much-needed sun. It's been a while. So, when our good friends, Justin & Marli said they were taking a vacation to Destin with their sweet little girl, Presli, we jumped at the chance to join them! We just got back and boy, do we wish we were still there! The weather and the company were perfect. :)

The Majestic Sun - where we stayed.
DAY ONE:
There's Ryan - blowing bubbles with Presli on the balcony.
Ahhhh.... the beach :)

We ate a delicious lunch (fried oyster & shrimp po' boys, seafood nachos, and a blackened amberjack sandwich) at The Back Porch - right on the water. Perfection! :)

Here is the view from our table:



And who would eat right on the beach without taking a stroll through the surf?


Time for a bit of BABY SHOPPING! I had not purchased one item of baby clothing for Baby Girl Smith... and I thought it was about time! So, Marli and I went to the outlets and she bought clothes for Presli and Baby Paxtin while I was overwhelmed by all the baby girls stuff...

Presli was a bit overwhelmed as well...

Oh dear... I knew this would happen!
Then it was off to the beach for some lounging and sand castle building! Ryan and I took a lesson from a guy at Frito Lay and so we came prepared! We had an assortment of equipment and tools ready to make a kick-ass castle. Ryan and Justin did all the hard manual labor...


It's a tough job...

Adding some details...
Loving the staircase!

Not a bad place to be hanging out...
If you can't take the heat...
It's getting fancy!

Ta dah!

The finished product! 
Time to go in and get some rest for tomorrow's castle!
DAY TWO:
Another day... another adorable outfit!

We set up camp in the same spot this time... and made another sand castle!
This one got more attention than the last one...

We think the stone work really added something extra...

And there we are with our creations! (the sand castle and the fetus... lol)


Any excuse to show off that bump!

Add caption

We even signed our creation!
For dinner we went to Dewey Destin - another local seafood spot on the water. Before dinner, Ryan and I took a walk down to the dock and we met a very tame blue heron...



There's the restaurant!

The perfect sunset!
 DAY THREE:


We had a very fancy lunch of hot dogs and friend okra... ;)
For our third and final day (boooo), we decided the beach was the place to spend it. So, we set up our little camp again and went to work!

Sand Castle #3 

Someone got a bit sleepy after playing in the sand!

Can you even take how precious she is?
With Presli sleeping, the boys got to work!
We didn't think the bridge would hold, but Ryan proved us wrong!


We decided we definitely got better with practice...




With our final sand masterpiece!
We had a great time and were sad to leave the beach and our friends...



Thanks for looking! :)

~ Mari



Monday, April 16, 2012

The Nursery: Tomatoes, Chilis, and Apples Galore

I'm finally starting to feel better and so I've had the energy to actually think about where our little peanut will live: the nursery. I knew up front that I wanted something fairly gender-neutral, but after looking at Babies R Us and a few other places, I just wasn't too keen on the bedding and decor options I saw. I scoured Pinterest and found some cute ideas, but a lot of them were super girly or super masculine, or they were too modern for a baby room. Any room can be modern and sleek... but only a baby room can be bright, colorful, and silly. So, I decided to go with a fruit and vegetable theme. I thought I was quite original until I looked on Ikea's website and saw that their "TORVA" line of baby stuff is fruit and veggie themed. While my ego took a small hit, I was thrilled to know I could find some goodies at the mecca of cheap stuff: Ikea. So, I began the brainstorming process. I knew I wanted the walls lime green (if you know me well, you'll know this has pretty-much always been my favorite color), so one weekend Ryan and I bought the paint and my sweet hubby painted the room!

Mr. Paint-man
As he painted, we got a little nervous... that is GREEN, folks! But, we trusted our instincts with the "Twist of Lime" color we chose and Ryan kept on painting...


So, there it is! I actually love the color now. I think it's absolutely perfect! Bright, sunny, and fun: perfect for Baby Smith. Sadly, the settee has to stay in the room because we have no other place for it! But, we'll make it work... just you wait and see!

Once the room was painted, I needed some outside help: my mom! She is wonderful with color and actually knows how to sew. So, she came down to GA last week and we went to town!


First, I ordered a rug from Overstock.com that I thought would be the perfect addition to the space - something round, comfy, and orange. Then, we picked our fabrics!


We found this lovely print at Hancock Fabrics and figured this would be the PERFECT color scheme for the room!


We also found this great apple print - kinda modern, but also cartoony - perfect for a baby room! :) 


That stripe is great, too - it has all the colors we want in it! And we got a couple solids as well.. too many prints is a bit much for the eye!


Mom is going to make a valance for the window out of that red and white stripe. We're thinking a fruit stand awning? 


They had this great fabric that's ready to be made into a crib blanket! It's not fruit and veggies, but it's ADORABLE and is all the right colors! Yessss....


We then took a trip to Ikea and bought those little fruit and veggie people... (only $8 per pillow!) How cute are they?? Then we found a striped twin duvet cover to cover the settee. It's coming together... Yay!!


We were trying to figure out what to put above the settee on that HUGE wall and found this amazing decal from Etsy. So, we ordered it and when it arrived, we went to town!


It was a family affair... ;)


There it is!!! How adorable is that? For some reason, the picture isn't showing the wall color the right shade of green, but you get the idea. Dancing tomato and chili pepper flower people... perfection!


Now we just need the little bugger to arrive so that it can be enjoyed! ;)

On Thursday we had the 20-week ultrasound and.... here SHE is!


Ryan had to go back to work after the ultrasound... so he wore a pink shirt to share the news with everyone! 


So, that's it for now! We're quite excited here at the Smith household and can't wait for our little girl! Yippee!! The nursery is definitely going in the right directions, but there's more to be done, so check back for more updates!

~ Mari