Beach Club Scrapbook 2012

 I have just uploaded a gazillion pics from my camera and phone and realize I'd better get into the load up the blogs el rapido style!  I have so many pics and so many stories to tell, and that means.... multiple blog posts per day!!  Whoop!

Any of you who have been following this blog for any time knows that I make mini books to commemorate any special event.  I have a bright red cart in my art room at home in which I chunk all my little books.  My girls enjoy occasionally pulling them out and asking questions/ remembering our special days. 

 Guests to our house seem to enjoy looking through them too.  And I am all satisfied, because I got to do something special with my pics.

 I think I take so many pictures because my memory is horrible and I want to remember everything. I do that through photos.

 It is crazy to look back at our beach trip only one year ago and see how much my girls have grown.

 The girls and I came down early in the year last year, knowing it would be the last time before we had a big kindergartener (or school aged kids period, for that matter), where we could just hang as a family and not worry about missed school.

 I packed all my mixed media goodies, and we spent several hours playing with paint, tape, paper, stamps, etc.

 This has become my favorite way to scrapbook.  Not really "scrapbook", per se, but more like doing mini art projects.

 Sorry so many of these are turned sideways.  I didnt' note that they were turned when I uploaded them.  Should make for a fun viewing... enjoy.

 Look at Ellie's handwriting only a year ago  What a difference a year makes!

 And I know you can't see them here, but their feet were TINY!

 Some things never change.   Still love bloody marys!

 And still love my husband.

 And still love to stop and bring in fresh flowers to the condo on the way down.  We stopped at the Farmer's Market when driving in this year too!

 Rememeber when Ellie Sue got her toenail caught under the gate at a neighbors house?  And it wasn't until on our way down to this trip that I realized it was totally pulled up except for the "root" at the bottom of the toenail. TOTALLY DISGUSTING!!  I've decided my older kid has a WAAAY higher pain tolerance than does her mama!

 Look how little they were.  :(

 The beach was fairly desolate that time of year.  We pretty much had it to ourselves.  We went out in the sunshine and the rain!

 And I was reading John Maxwell books then, (not realizing I'd be going to become a certified coach, trainer, and speaker only a few months later.

 We worked on our mixed media projects in the entryway of the condo.  When it rained, we just took all of our stuff down to the breezeway and painted our hearts out.

 I used hymnals as well as tabs from Daddy's cigars.  (I can count on my fingers how many cigars he smokes in a year!  But, the ocean and a golf course tend to bring it out in him.)

 See above... "Started April 2012" and "Finished April 2013" .  I must have been referring to the actual putting in of the pages and photos, because I brought the book along on this trip to officially finish it.

 This is what the pages look like prior to adding photos.  I have already done two books while at the beach this year.  I am on a ROLL!!  It has strangely taken me way less time to settle in and forget about the stress of work than it usually does.  Must mean I have a great staff!!

 And when it started raining outside, we'd just go to the inside pool.

 I know many of you can remember Ellie and her guy friends she met while on their senior trip.  This will forever crack me up!

 I sprawled out on the chairs every day and painted and collaged and sprayed.... oh my!

 Not a lot of words in this book, but a lot of LOVE I think all the same.

 Todd turns every trip into a project.  He is not a sun lover!

 I even have our return home to see our beloved Lizzie. Somehow out of order?!!

 And this concludes beach trip 2012.  So tell me honestly.. do you wanna see Beach Trip 2013?  Cause I have that book already 1/2 way done.  Appropriately so, as the trip is 1/2 way over.

 Todd and I are driving to Pensacola to pick up Paula and Johnnye today who are flying in from another trip.  And Linda Lou, Miss LInda, Mr. Joe, Mary Allison, and the rest of the crew are also coming in today.

 It's about to get FUN up in here!!

 This is how big the book turned out .  Check it out in scale to my fist.

 NOt sure how I got this page out of order,Something during the upload of pics to blogger,  but anyway... this completes the book!

Hope you enjoyed.

MO