oh! heeey!

can we take a second and talk about how super, super, super behind i am on this gosh darn blog? obviously it's true. crickets can be heard for miles, tumbleweeds are blowing by and dust is accumulating on this little web space of mine. (and also around my house but we won't get into that.) there's nothing that states, "i'm crazy busy!" better than a blog that hasn't been updated in over a month.

instead of a million different posts all nicely organized by event- with coordinating pictures of course- here's just a teeny, tiny peek at our life as of late. and by late i mean from june-ish until now. yikes.

row 1: family date night / selling mama-made ring slings / a back-roads walk / birdie's room decor- all mama made.

row 2: pink, sparkly toes / post-bath kissies / packers #1 cheerleader / birthday celebration at a baseball game

row 3: grammy visited / mama made mock up of birdie's flower girl attire / it's still hot in 'bama but it's fall in our house / this guy is getting older and handsomer (new word)

row 4: lots of storms but no hurricanes yet / pre-bedtime story time / visit from auntie / sleep issues finally under control

not pictured: countless mosquito bites, prep for our trip to hawaii (!), countless projects that have been started but not finished, d brewing his own kombucha, keeping up with my young women girls, doing cross fit work outs, watching lots and lots of football with friends, cleaning up after a curious, mobile baby, my new part-time job, playgroups, mila is cruising and finally lovin' table foods, fighting bugs, new tires (!) and all the other day to day stuff that requires attention or randomly pops up. whew.

beachy keen

one of the things i loved about the last three houses we lived in was the closeness to some of the most beautiful beaches. at a moment's notice we could head outside, walk for 5-10 minutes and enjoy the sand, waves and sea mist. gosh, i miss it. there's something truly therapeutic about being able to leave everything else behind, physically and mentally, and focusing on your senses while being in that moment. it's cool and calm. plus, i miss watching our pup-pups anxiously squirm as they wait for us to release them off their leashes so they can bolt down the shoreline, barking as they race to catch seagulls. finding sand in every crevice later in the day is a small reminder of the fun and tranquility that was had earlier in the day.

prior to moving to alabama we decided to change things up a bit, opting to live more in the country than by the water. after all- it'd only add minutes and a short car ride to our beach commute. a short little 15 minute drive isn't too shabby. truly a testament of how little we knew about lower alabama. that short little drive is actually a minimum of 45 minutes to the nearest beach. what the what?! we were really spoiled prior to this. 

just about every weekend we trek 45 minutes to almost 1.5 hours- depending on the beach- to get our salt water fix. we've come to find that florida has some of the most beautiful beaches we've ever seen, and love that it's become a mini-vacation every time we go. d and i cannot get over how flat the beaches are here in alabama- the terrain and waves. no matter which beach we visit the 80* water gives us some cooling relief from the humid summer heat.

A Pickin' We Will Go

update: google reader has shut down which may effect the blogs you read and follow. thanks to blog lovin' you can continue to follow our little updates here: Follow my blog with Bloglovin  create yourself an account so you'll never miss out on our happenings.

--------

around the corner and down the road a couple of miles from our little home is a you-pick farm. i've driven by it about a dozen times and each time i do i'm suddenly reminded that we have not been. finally, d and i set a date to go as a family. i waited and waited impatiently for him to get home early from work so we could jet over to the farm before it got too hot. mother nature clearly had other plans- rain, rain, and rain. we headed over anyways and, turns out, picking blueberries and vegetables in the rain kept us slightly cooler than usual. two hours, a gallon of blueberries, a five gallon bucket packed with various vegetables and $20 later we were all happy campers. extremely hot, but happy.

our picked blueberries barely lasted a few days- eating them nearly ice cold has been our favorite summer treat. we'll be back very, very soon, you-pick farm. i predict a berry cobbler in our future.

One of Those Saturdays

this is our first coast guard move that has us living far from the beach. c'mon, we're in the gulf coast- shouldn't we have a little more coast in our lives? you mean we have to pack up our car and travel to the beach? clearly we've been spoiled in the past when we lived thisclose to the ocean. on a side note: we're also in hurricane country and i will never regret living far from the beach whenever a severe storm heads our way. but it's deceiving to be married to a coast guard rescue swimmer- that surfs- who's stationed on the gulf coast and be 40 minutes from the nearest beach. i mean, really. 

we schemed earlier in the week to make the upcoming saturday a family beach day. we woke up early, packed up our car, dressed birdie in her swimsuit, kissed our doggies goodbye and prayed that they didn't destroy anything in our absence. along our way we stopped at a local farmers market. we wandered through isles of fresh produce, flowers and baked goods. d and i left with a power snack and a bag of sweet peaches. 

we had so much fun playing in the waves and body surfing. mila-bird had a blast splashing around in the gulf. it was one of those beach saturdays were even i kept saying over and over, "this is so much fun!" it's been a long time since i've actually played in the waves. it also helps that it was a thousand degrees outside, despite the rain clouds, and the water temperature was into the eighties. 

we cut our beach time a little short as we wore out our little bird. we were also invited to a last minute baseball game, and wanted to have plenty of time to shower, change and tend to our doggies before we left for the game. 

i honestly couldn't tell you who won the baseball game. my hot dog and diet coke did absolutely nothing to take away the heat and humidity (holy. cow.) but we had a blast sharing mila's first baseball game with friends. our day was as much fun as it was busy... and i'm still trying to get the sand out of our beach stuff. 

Park It

summer is rapidly approaching in mobile. our weather has soared into the high 80's and low 90's. insert my central valley friends and family scoffing and rolling their eyes at that last sentence. not so fast. we're in the south where the humidity is constant. it makes our heat index seem comparable to those triple digit california days. evenings are, in my opinion, the best part of the day. the heat lets up just enough to enjoy put up with being outside.

seems like every time i'm driving around town i find a new park that i haven't seen before. there are so many places for our little family to play, including a little park in our subdivision. over memorial weekend we took a break from our various projects we have in the works to take birdie to explore veteran's memorial park. while the playground was large and loads of fun (this mama was really stoked to play on a few things) it was just out of birdie's developmental reach.

we settled for a little hike on the walking trails. when fighting mosquitoes became too much (understatement) we sought the comfort of the air conditioner in our car and headed back home to play at our little park closer to home.

we ended the day as we typically do- a baby birdie playing on a blanket in the grass, exploring whatever she can get her hands on, while the sun begins to set in our backyard. i foresee a lot more days like this in our future.

Bits & Pieces of Bama- Photo Dump

1. this one can be filed under, "creepy things you find in your backyard"
2. large tree in our backyard- complete with tire swing and zip line
3. an alabama sunset
4. random swamps
5. country roads
6. a local