Off to Florida!

Yes, this was Callie at 4:30 AM!!!! She looks wide-eyed and bushy tailed, right? :) We found a little play area at our airport when we were heading towards our gate, and Callie had to check it out.

This was Callie's first time flying. She liked checking out the window - although it was still so dark when we took off. On our first leg, we had the aisle seat, so she had to look out the window while peering over the man sitting there!!

She sat in my lap - she's still free until she's 2 - but this was when we first were getting settled on the plane. She looks like something big is about to happen! :)

She actually did GREAT on the flight. I had high hopes that she'd sleep, but I think she was too excited. She had a captive audience in a plane full of 150 people that she kept smiling, waving, and saying "hi" too. She'd lay her head down on my shoulder, and then pick her head back up and wave at someone. She was a riot. We met Mom at our layover in Atlanta, and it was SO fun flying together on our way to West Palm Beach. My oldest sister Kim and her daughter Mary (who is 12 now) picked us up at the airport and drove us all over to Kelli's house. We had lunch, finalized the grocery list, and off we went to shop. (Well, Callie went to bed. It had been a LONG morning for her by then!). My younger sister Kristen had taken a half-day, so she joined us for the shopping excursion. When Kelli got home around 3:30 pm, the kitchen was in full swing! We had LOTS of food to prepare, and it was SO fun just sitting around talking and catching up over the food. I'm sure the girls would say that I was quite the drill sargeant about the food, but that is my area and I was the boss of it! It was a LONG day, but SO fun getting everything ready before the shower the next morning!

Kelli and Callie. Callie is more like Kelli than I ever thought. Kelli joked when I decided on Callie's name that she was being named after her (Kelli and Callie sound a LOT alike). In fact, Jacob called Callie "Baby Kelli" at first. Poor kid. I've never met anyone that is more exuberant or expressive than Kelli - she claps more and waves more than anyone I've ever met....which is where Callie must get it! :)

Here's the whole gaggle of girls! Poor Scott (Kelli's husband) - he was overrun by this household of women!!! And two that were pregnant just to make it worse! This picture was at who knows what time of night - it was very late - but we were finally almost done with most of the food prep I think.

And this is another similarity between Callie and Kelli - their LOVE of books!

My sous-chefs!

Here's my niece Mary - worked on a zillion chocolate-covered strawberries!

An impulse buy at the grocery store that afternoon. They had some BEAUTIFUL artichokes on sale, and when you see good ones, you just HAVE to buy them. They were GREAT! That's one thing I miss about California - they are only grown there, and the season is very short. (Torie, do you guys eat these? ) All of our husbands (mine and my sisters) all say that is their favorite thing that we brought to the marriage - we taught them all how to eat fresh artichokes!