The Berry Flock

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Beach! (Part II)

OK, folks. Back to our beach story. We've been sidetracked around here lately, what with all the back-to-school craziness and summer-winding-down festivities and such. Anyways, when we left off, we had finally gotten in a few good days of beach time on Cape San Blas, and before we knew it, our original destination got the power back on, the bridge repaired and reopened, and our condos ready for us. We were in business! So we loaded up our cars for what felt like the umpteenth time, and headed to St. George, where we parked it for nine glorious days. Mostly glorious, anyway. Evelyn, who is sick once every 365 days or so (knock on wood), came down with some sort of heinous virus (marked by a super-high fever and a general feeling of rottenness) for a few days, and feeling bad is never fun, even when you are at the beach. But we enjoyed our time on St. George, nonetheless....

St. George, at last!

This one is at Eddy Teach's, a St. George institution. Raw oysters, cheap beer, bathing suits and flip-flops encouraged. Ev is looking a little worse for the wear, right? But she didn't feel bad enough to stay home:) Thanks to Miss Thang, we also discovered that Eddy Teach's makes a mean grilled cheese.

See this technique? At swim lessons earlier this summer, Evelyn learned how to float. Or at least, how to almost float. She likes to "relax" and stick both her legs out of the water.

Our beach vacation came to a close all too soon, leaving all of us dreaming about next summer!

P.S. As a side note, do you people know about Peach Park? We have stopped at their exit off I-65 in Alabama for years going to and from the beach. Highly recommend it if you need a rest stop or a fried peach pie break. There is a giant peach parked in a little landscaped garden area, a produce stand with great peaches and tomatoes and such, and a restaurant area with excellent peach treats. All under one roof!

This is what a fried peach pie with peach ice cream looks like. Joseph and Evelyn (and the rest of us) are all about this.

Also, if you time it right, you may get to enjoy your fried pie at the kid-sized table in the corner! Nice:)

Monday, August 20, 2012

Berrys vs. Princesses

Dave and I frequently talk about whether (or maybe when) Evelyn will get bitten by the princess bug, since it seems that many little girls, at some point or another, make it their business to know as much as possible about as many princesses as possible, Disney-fied and otherwise. Anyways, when we headed downstairs to bed last night, Dave stopped by the dryer to unload our clean clothes for a quick sorting and folding session. It was a good thing, too, since he was the first to see what it looks like when a blue crayon gets washed and dried with a load of clothes. The blue crayon was no longer a blue crayon, mind you; instead, it had smeared itself all over the inside of our dryer and clothes, leaving behind only bits of its wrapper. And you know what that wrapper read? "Disney." Our sweet baby girl had apparently been doing a little Disney princess coloring after a slumber party with Grammie and Grandaddy, and had somehow managed to pocket a blue crayon and escape the house unnoticed. As Dave commented, "The princesses struck first!"

After a brief panic, we calmed down and counted our blessings (the load of clothes was NOT whites or delicates, it is delightful to have a little one who puts crayons in her PJ pockets, we discovered the mess together, etc.) while attacking the dryer and clothes with the assortment of cleaning products pictured above. I won't go into detail, but we did manage to get the dryer back to a mostly white (instead of blue) state. The clothes are still a work in progress, but I am feeling optimistic:)

Friday, July 27, 2012

Summer Livin'

When we aren't at the beach, our summer looks pretty low-key. Generally, we do lots of playing around the house or at the library or playground in the mornings, and then lots of splashing at the pool in the afternoons. In between all that playing, there are lots of snacks. Or as Evelyn likes to holler when she is hungry, "NACK!"

One of Ev's favorite summer-time treats is fresh fruit with yogurt dip. This is not only tasty, but is a great opportunity to lick your fingers.

See this sweet munchkin trying to stick her foot in her mouth while Ev tries to make a break for it? Her name is Emma, and she (and her parents) go to church with us. When we had supper together last week, they gifted Evelyn with a pair of purple sunglasses AND a yellow kazoo...

...which have rarely left Evelyn's face/hands since then. She has them in the car, she has them in the house, and she has them at the pool. Love it!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Beach! (Part I)

Greetings, long-lost friends. We have been out and about and on the move this summer, and I haven't taken any time to update our blog. So here we are. Grab a chair, pour yourself a glass of sweet tea (or coffee or wine, depending on your mood and climate), and get ready to look at some beach pictures. Lots of beach pictures, actually.

After we returned from our early June roadtrip, Dave headed to NYC for a week-long teacher workshop, and Evelyn and I held down the fort in Nashville. I taught some SAT prep classes, Evelyn took some swim lessons, we played at the library and the park and the pool, and we desperately missed Dave:) Anyways, after a series of flight delays and an overnight stay in a D.C. airport, Dave finally made it back home to us in Nashvegas, and we picked him up at the airport with a packed car and headed straight down I-65 towards Florida.

For the last year or so, my mom had been planning a two-week-long beach vacation for the Cummings family to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. She rented a couple condos on St. George Island (where we grew up going to the beach), and all of us took off from our various locales on the appointed day (June 23) and headed toward Dothan, AL, where we were to spend the night before driving the rest of the way to Florida to begin our glorious beach vacation. However, you've heard about "the best-laid plans," right? To make a long story short, a tropical storm slowed us down, and we ended up on St. George six days later than planned. In the meantime, though, we spent some quality family time in a couple charming towns along the coast near St. George Island:

The three pictures above are in Port St. Joe, FL, where Evelyn first glimpsed the ocean. A little stormy, but still beautiful! The rain and the wind kept us out of the water, but we threw on jackets and did lots of walking, swinging, and rock-hunting instead:)

Then, it was on to Cape San Blas, where we all moved into a beach house together for a couple days and headed outside for some time on the sand, at last:

See these two cousins playing next to each other so contentedly? This scene did not take place often, but we enjoyed it while it lasted.

Mmmm...snacks on the beach are the best.

Happy birthday, D! Evelyn sure does love her grandfather, and was delighted to celebrate his birthday by spending the day on the beach with him:)

OK, more pictures to come soon, folks. Have a great weekend!

Friday, June 22, 2012

Pre-4th-of-July Cousins Photo Shoot

While we were in Black Mountain a couple weeks ago on our early June road-trip, Amy and I staged a brief photo shoot of the three cousins wearing matching 4th-of-July dresses provided by Grammie. These are the highlights:

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Catching Up--Our June Roadtrip

Friends, can you believe it is June 19 already? The summer is flying by, and we are loving every minute here at the Berry casa. Evelyn is taking her first swim lessons this week from the very same lady (Miss Carolyn) who taught me and my sisters to swim; although Ev was decidedly NOT pleased about having to follow directions in the pool yesterday, she calmed down a little bit today, and is floating on her back and blowing bubbles to beat the band (in between letting out screeches of protest, obviously).

Dave watched his little ducklings graduate on June 2 and head out into the great beyond; although he dearly loves spending most moments of his days with the children during the school year, he is in sore need of a break by May, so hallelujah for summer vacation. Speaking of summer vacation, we officially kicked off our summer with a 9-day road-trip to visit family in Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky. Phew! Lots of driving, which Evelyn did not always love, but we had a good time, nonetheless.

First stop: Lynchburg, VA, for a visit with our beloved G.G. Evelyn and G.G. were thick as thieves, whether strolling around the neighborhood, inspecting a train at the park, splashing in the tub, or snacking on the porch. The pictures below are from a park we visited twice with G.G.; it had a fun playground, a train to inspect, a spray-ground, and all sorts of great paths and green-space to wander:

We (sadly) waved good-bye to G.G. after a few days, and headed down 29-South toward Black Mountain, N.C. Dave's brother, Phil, and his family graciously hosted us for a couple days, and we had some great cousin time! Evelyn loved hanging out at Camp Ridgecrest (where Phil works), eating ice cream at the Dairy King, and playing around the house with Piper and Lily:

This shot is at the chapel service after supper one night at camp. Note that Evelyn's cousins, aunt, and father are sitting still and listening attentively.

Finally, we headed west and spent time in Frankfort, KY, with Evelyn's great-grandfather B, Grammie, Grandaddy, Dan (great-uncle), and Patsy (great-aunt), and then swung through Louisville on the way home to eat a meal with Honey, D, Aunt El, and baby cousin Joseph:

And though our girl sometimes looked like this in the car...

...it was not all fun and games. So when we needed a break, we just found the closest Chick-Fil-A, parked, and visited their lovely Play-Place for a brief respite: