I've always believed that one of the best things about coming home from vacation is sorting the mail. Now that I'm an adult (sort of), most of the mail is bills and junky catalogues, but it is still fun to sort through (and besides, my copy of Harry Potter #7 arrived!).

It is especially fun to sort mail when I have help.

The previous pictures of Eli and Kevin and I on the beach are pretty cute, but truthfully they are not a good indicator of preceding beach trips. I did my best to protect his little tender skin from the sun, so we ventured out before 8 am and after 5pm and Eli was always covered, like this. Yes, I know, he looks a little dorky, but he didn't get sunburned!

Eli encountered his first "old fashioned" phone... you know, the kind with the curly cord. It was a big hit.
I think he ordered pizza. From China.

Little baby, big beach.

We all went down to the beach. Eli's first encounter with sand went pretty well.

After the long flight from California to Florida, I was pretty tired. Lucky for me, Eli was ready to help me unpack. He's so helpful.

Two weeks ago, I flew to California to start my vacation with a half marathon in Napa Valley with my bff Alison. No pictures from that. Sorry, I was too busy running!

At the end of a fabulous weekend of great food, fun shopping, sightseeing in the Bay Area and, of course, running, I flew to Jacksonville, FL into the waiting arms of two handsome gentlemen (who happen to be my husband and son, lucky me!).



Kevin left for El Salvador the next day and Eli and I spent ten delightful days together at the beach. It was very, very fun. (Although not very restful. The days of lounging on the beach with a book are far behind me, I think.)

Here follow some pictures of our vacation adventures.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I haven't posted in a while. Truth is,
WE'VE BEEN AT THE BEACH!!

Tonight, Eli and I went to the Frilingos new house for a get together and low country boil. Master chef Timothy Frilingos rocked the shrimp, sausage and corn. Many kudos to him!

Eli ate and ate and ate. He ate cheerios and cherries and watermelon and peas and mangos and bread...

Eli also played with bubbles and played with some water toys and watched the bigger kids run around. He is learning to crawl through things and tried out Paul Frilingos' crawling tunnel. Very fun!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!
We had a big, busy day. Mama ran the Peachtree Road Race while Eli hung out with his Grumpy. He tried to be good but may have been a bit fussy. It is hard being little.
When Mama got home, she and Eli and uncle Arthur and Anna and Tabasco and Rudy the Dog went to the neighborhood parade. Arthur, Anna and Mama remember going to this parade with their bikes and dogs decorated with crepe paper and streamers. Back in the day!


Eli was all decked out in his fourth of July finery. Check out his baseball shoes!

I was going to pretend that I am posting this picture to show off Eli's new pjs. Really, though, I'm posting this picture to show off my cute kid.

Mama likes it when Eli helps out in the garden. He's a great gardener when he remembers not to eat the woodchips.

Most of all, though, we LOVE to visit Grandaddy and all of our friends in Pilot Mountain. Eli wants to send a special shout-out to his new buddy Landon who brought Eli a whole bunch of cool toys and books. Now there are lots of fun toys at Grandaddy's house. Thanks Landon!

The parish picnic!


Hanging out with Beth and Daddy.

Summer is a fun time around here. Here are some pictures of the fun things Eli gets to do.

The zoo!
The baby panda, Mei Lan is only a few days older than Eli. She's a good bit bigger, though.

Yesterday was a great day starting with the zoo, then errands around town (the craft store, hooray!) and ending with a trip to the "beach" in Decatur Square where they blocked of several roads in the middle of town and dumped a bunch of sand for us to play in. There was live music and games and... did I mention sand? This was Eli's first encounter with the gritty stuff and I have to admit, I was a little worred, especially since we are going to the beach in a few weeks. A beach trip sans sand sounds pretty miserable. He, of course, loved it. He loved it on his toes, he loved it on his hands. He loved chewing on a shovel. He even decided it didn't taste too bad.

Thanks to Erin Miller for this great picture.

Look out you carnivores, this is not for the faint of heart...
ELI LOVES TOFU!!

The best part of the whole weekend, though, was Monday afternoon when Eli went swimming for the first time at Grumpy and Grandmere's. The pool was nice and warm and the weather was perfect!
We didn't know what to expect for his first time in the pool, but we should have known... he loved it. He's like a little duck in his floatie, even trying to kick and splash. We floated around and splashed and played for nearly an hour before cooking up some (veggie) burgers and having dinner. Looks like we know where we'll be spending most of our summer afternoons!

On Sunday we went to play at the Millers' house. We were having so much fun we didn't get the camera out. Eli played with Baikal in her water play table and he ate some dirt. A good day all around. Since Memorial Day is the official start of the summer, Daddy and Eli celebrated by donning their Hawaiian shirts and fishin' hats.