Our Family Trip to Oklahoma

Ten of us drove up to Oklahoma this past weekend to visit family. Here's all of us together at my dad and Wendy's house. (I meant to crop the picture before posting it, but well heck...I forgot to.) We took tons and tons of pictures, but don't worry, I didn't post them all. Just a couple of dozen or so. lol Here's Skye, wearing Maddy's new hat. She really thought she was stylin' in this. lolHere's Nick and Kara, opening gifts.
This is Maddy, sportin' her new OU beanie.

And here's Maddy, opening a gift (I love this sweater...wish it came in my size. lol).

And here's yet another one of Maddy. She's a bit of a hippie...perhaps the ribbon tied around her head gives that away, eh?

This is my step-sister, Leah. She totally cracks me up.

This is four generations of Steeds; Kara, Nick, me and my dad. We do have a better shot of this, but I thought this one was funny because Dad and I have the same look on our faces. :)

And I'm not sure how this picture got into the mix...it was taken before we went to Oklahoma. But whatever. It's still a good one. It's Kaleb, Randey and Kara. Randey was surprised to see how tall Kaleb really is. He just doesn't seem this tall in real life. ha!

And here's Kaleb again. Jodie (my daughter-in-law) and I kind of used Kaleb as our model while we were playing with our cameras. He's the only one who would sit still and smile on command. Everybody else ran.

And here's Jodie herself, probably laughing at something Nick or dad had said.

This is Jacob, wearing his new shirt that Wendy picked out for him (he didn't realize a camera was trained on him!). Terribly GQ, isn't he?

This is Nick...undoubtedly arguing with someone over something. (He's so like his mother, you know).

Now check out these big blue eyes! This is little Kara, eating one of her toys.

Here's Jake again. I can't believe he actually looked at me when I called his name. He usually doesn't if he knows I'm holding a camera.

This is Maddy, showing us what she opened in the Steal-a-Gift game.

This is me and Leah, showing how much younger we'd look with a little botox. Okay, so maybe this wasn't the best demonstration of that, but we were trying.

Here's Nick with his Steal-a-Gift prize. I think Jacob eventually ended up with the hand warmers, though. Good thing, too. Nick lives on a tropical island...don't think these would come in handy there, you know what I mean?

Look at Skye here...she got a dress-up chest as her gift and she absolutely loved it. She modeled for us most of the night. What a cutie.

And here's Wendy Sue. my step-mother. I love her white hair and, while this picture doesn't show you, she has the most piercing and beautiful blue eyes. (Yeah, that's "color" envy you're hearing!)

Speaking of pretty coloring, this is my niece Kelsey. She's got perfectly lovely red hair, eh? I kind of envy that, too.

This is Kara and Jodie. Looks like Kara was telling us something important.

This is Kaleb and his Steal-a-Gift prize. I think Wendy actually ended up with this candle set.

Here's Kaleb holding Kara. Little kids love Kaleb...he's got a way with them. Isn't she cute, how she's waving at us?

Here's my dad, opening one of his gifts. The look on his face says it all. lol

This is my nephew, Derri. He's one great kid, a lot of fun and (almost) always good-natured. :)

Here's Des with one of her gifts. She recently got a camera and has developed a picture frame fetish.

And this is Jake with his Steal-a-Gift prize, a belly dancing kit. This was a gift I picked out for the game. I never intended for one of my kids to get it, though. I thought it'd be hilarious for either Leah or my dad to get stuck with the darn thing. Not to worry...my wickedness came back to bite me in the butt...Randey ended up with it at the end of the game. LOL

We've been having a great time (although I think we all may be looking to sleep in tomorrow...it's been a very busy few days for us lately!) Hope everyone else is having a great Christmas season, too!

I did all my food shopping today and will be baking pies and cookies tomorrow. Right after I attend a Weight Watchers meeting, that is. (Talk about mixed messages, eh???)

We Are Family!

This past weekend, I traveled to Birmingham, Alabama for what I'm calling the "First Annual Cousins Get-Together". Actually, it was more like a Mini-Get-Together than a full-blown one. And calling it an "annual" event might be jumping the gun a bit, but I'm sure hoping we manage to turn it into such a thing. Anywho, Randey, the boys and I drove to Florida Friday (we had to bring our granddaughter back to her mom) and then my sister Sherri and her daughter Megen and I drove from Florida to Birmingham early Saturday morning and met our cousins, Kristie and Sunshine, for some cousin "bonding" time. lol We started out with some shopping which naturally gave us all an appetite for lunch. Here we are at P.F. Changs: From left to right: Sunshine, Sherri, me, Megen and Kristie. I had never eaten there before and was excited to get to try it. I gotta tell you, their Mongolian Beef and Pork Fried Rice were fabulous (so much for that Weight Watchers will power I've been so proud of lately!).

Here's a picture of Sunshine, all laid up in a chair at Pottery Barn.

And here's a picture of Megen, Kristie and Sherri telling Sunshine to get her butt up out of the $1600.00 Pottery Barn chair. lol
Once we fed our faces, we headed to the hotel for check in. Then we went to Sunshine's house and visited for a bit and then headed back out for more shopping. Kristie and Sunshine's brother, Trey, wanted to join us for dinner. And even though this was a chick weekend, we let him. (ha!) Here he is with Kristie.
Who could resist that face? And here we all are together:
That's Sunshine, Megen, Trey, Kristie, Sherri and me. We ate at a place call Firebirds and it was delicious! I had a pepper crusted steak that was so tender, it was all I could do not to inhale the whole thing. (Yeah. Weight Watchers did indeed take a beating this weekend.)

Here's a picture of the place we stayed at, the Ross Bridge Golf and Spa Resort (we didn't do any golfing or spa-ing, though):
Check out the pool area. Sweet, eh?

Check out the waterfall going into the pool. Luckily, I didn't bring a swimsuit and even luckier, it was sort of overcast Sunday morning or I might have been tempted to swim (and nobody really wants to see that, trust me. I swim like a rock).
Sunshine went home Sunday morning to tend to her youngest son while Sherri, Megen, Kristie and I partook in the breakfast buffet at the resort. Had we known how much the breakfast buffet cost, we might have partook in an Egg McMuffin instead. Yowza! Check out the bill:
Yessir. Sixty nine dollars and 76 cents. For four people. And not one glass of champagne in sight!

Here's Megen, Kristie and Sherri looking down onto the pool after breakfast. (They were still in sticker shock over the cost of breakfast, hence the leaning on the banister. lol)

Another guest at the hotel offered to take our picture together. We kind of scratched our heads over this "sculpture" when we first saw it. Then we figured out that it represented the University of Alabama Roll Tide (from l to r: me, Sherri, Megen and Kristie).
There was also an Auburn War Eagle "sculpture" hanging from the ceiling. I forced Kristie to stand in front of it so I could take her picture:
Speaking of Kristie, I have to tell you guys something awful that Kristie accused me of (I'm still shattered by it). She and I were bedmates Saturday night and, first of all, she told some wild and crazy tale about me snoring. Oh please. Like such a delicate flower like myself could possibly snore, right? Then she said some garbage about the noises I make when I sleep. Some nonsense about me moaning ever so slightly as I snoozed...well, let's just say she accused me of dreaming impure thoughts, okay? Now I ask you...what kind of cousin says things like that? Anybody who knows me would naturally assume I sleep like an angel, a quiet and sweet tender angel. Kristie was obviously tipping back a few brewskis when the rest of us weren't looking because I mean really! Me, snore? Never. And me make strange and obnoxious noises in addition to snoring?? P-u-l-e-a-s-e. But, thanks to her spreading these vile tales about me (and by spreading, I mean she told me, Sherri and Megen!), I'll probably have to bunk alone on the next Cousin Adventure. I don't know that I'll ever get over her scandalous accusations. (heavy, heavy, painfully sad, sigh).
Oh okay. So maybe I do snore. A little. Maybe. So what? But I'm not owning up to the other stuff. Uh-huh. No way. And now that I've cleared that up, let's move on, shall we?
Sunshine and her youngest met us back up at the hotel later on and we headed back towards Kristie's home to do a little more shopping before the weekend ended. Randey and the boys drove up from Florida and picked me up around noon and we four headed straight home to Texas. Approximately 10 hours later, we pulled up in our driveway.

It was a wonderful weekend with the cousins and I really hope we can make this a regular thing. Special note to Michael and Wallace: We've now proven that this generation can get together and have fun without any conflicts whatsoever! (As long as you don't count Kristie's bizarre-o talk about my sleeping habits, that is! ha!) That means you guys need to start getting serious about whether or not you want to join in on the next one. We're thinking of meeting in Vicksburg, Mississippi next time. No dates yet (although Trey has expressed a preference for Spring or Fall). Don't worry - we'll "talk" plenty before any plans are set in concrete!

Now that all the excitement of this last trip is over, though, I have to say I'm pretty much maxed out on my traveling this summer. Between the trip up north to Montana, South Dakota and Minnesota, the trip to Oklahoma, the first trip to Florida, the second trip to Florida with an add on to Birmingham, Alabama - we've traveled more than 7,500 miles (all by car!) since school let out in May. It's all been great fun and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I'm ready to chill out here at the house for awhile now. I need my rest, you know. After all, Christmas is right around the corner! LOL

Blogger Meetings and the Florida Trip

Here's some overdue business that I've been wanting to take care of...first of all, I'd like to show the sweet gifts Annie from My Life as Annie gave me when we met almost 2 weeks go in OKC. See the little red purse Christmas ornament? How cute is that? And the BELIEVE cross! I love it. Thank you so much, Annie. These are wonderful gifts (and so nicely packaged, too!!). I'll always think of you when I see them (which will be often as I'm hanging the cross in the living room and I generally put up my Christmas tree no later than November 1st. LOL). Remember I told you that I'd gotten to meet Kat from Just a Beach Kat when I went to Florida? Here's a picture of us together down at Dewey Destin's Seafood.

I've got to tell you guys, Kat is every bit as nice in person as she is on her blog. I can't say enough good things about her! She's beautiful, she's sweet natured, she's kind-hearted, she's funny...I felt like a country rube next to her. lol (I even stepped on her toe when we first met - how's that for giving a good first impression??). After having met both Annie and Kat in person, I'm kind of torn about meeting any other bloggers in real life. Don't get me wrong, it was fun and interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. But I'm going to have to require just a little bit more imperfection in my blogging buddies from here on out, okay? These two are just such all around good people - it was hard not to feel every single one of my social shortcomings after meeting them. (Note to self: You may want to sign up for that refresher course down at the local Charm School if you intend to keep meeting new people. LOL) Anyway, to Annie and Kat - thank you both for taking the time to meet with me. I certainly appreciate that! Oh, and check out the shell that Kat gave me:
It has The Lord's Prayer printed on it. I adore this. I've put it on the shelf in our living room next to the angel Randey brought me back from Italy years ago.

After my lunch with Kat, I visited mine and Randey's grandson's grave site. It's such a peaceful place. This was my first time going alone, though. I was kind of surprised at how poorly I handled this particular visit. I guess it's just easier when I'm with other people. I cleaned the grass off that was growing over the edges of his marker and straightened up the toys we've all left him over these past 2 and 3/4 years. I wish I'd thought to bring some new flowers for the flower pot his mommy had made him. I left him a picture of his sisters, though. They're wearing their super hero costumes - Maddy was dressed as Bat Girl and Kara was dressed as Spidergirl. I barely made it back out on the road when I had to call Randey for a little moral support. I think I'll be sure to have someone with me the next time I go there. I need someone to talk to during the visit. Otherwise, it's just too sad.
Here's a picture of a car we saw on our way to Florida. Randey thought it was cool so he had me take a couple of pictures. (I almost didn't want to do it. Didn't want to give Nick, Kaleb and/or Jacob any ideas!).

And here's a sign from a pest control company down in Florida. I had forgotten about this company, although I did use them once or twice when we lived there. Their slogan always makes me pause. I can't decide if it's creepy or just funny:

Here's a picture of Maddy Moose with Grandpa in front of Cracker Barrel. They love to play checkers together. I swear, Maddy loves Randey best because he truly is a great grandpa to her. I love watching them together.
Here's me holding Randey's brother's newest granddaughter. Little Brooklynn was born the week we were there. She's such a tiny little thing. Weighed in at 6 pounds 4 ounces. I love little newborns. Holding Brooklynn made me crazy thinking about holding Kara. I've missed so much of Kara's life already.
(Hey, but check out my gray hair in the picture. I'm about halfway there to having all my old colored hair grow out. Woo-hoo!)

And here' a picture of THE finest steak in the world. The peppercorn New York Strip steak from McGuire's Irish Pub. My gosh, how I love these steaks. I had two of them. One in Pensacola with my sister, her husband, my niece, her boyfriend and Randey. And then another one in Destin with Susan (my BFF) and her husbandTerry, and Randey. I did so good with them, too. I only ate about a quarter of each one, which was plenty. No morning-after guilt over failed Weight Watchers moments for me! lol Well...I did partake in 2 Raspberry Wheat beers on both nights, which wasn't too smart. But what can I say. I love McGuire's Raspberry Wheat beer. They were worth the guilt!
And finally, here's a picture of my niece, Megen and her boyfriend, Taron. They were sharing a "Wake" from McGuire's. I'm not sure what it has in it, but suffice it to say, it's potent. They both look like they're totally toasted. Which they were. I'm sure they'll thank me for posting this. LOL
Don't forget, the Brenda Photo Challenge, hosted by Sharon @ Funky Fairy Frolics is August 9th. The theme is PLAY! So get your playing photos up and going! I'll be out of town again, but I hope to come check out everyone's pictures Monday, when I return!