Teefas!

Oh my! Carson has eight teeth coming in at once! He has his two bottom teeth in, but now has two more coming in on the bottom and six cutting on his top. Poor fella!

Key West...a week in heaven!

This will be out of sequence with the next few postings, but I HAVE to jump ahead to the best part...vacation!
A week of pure heaven. Truly. We had the best time in Key West. Key West was a fun place to vacation, but it was absolutely the property and staff that made it divine. We took a ton of pics (shocker) so I'll keep it brief. It's not where you are, it's who you are with...that's what we always say at the Darby house. I had the best time with Nathan. It's nice because we were on the same page the entire time. I love that! The expectation was just to have fun and relax...and that's exactly what we did. I did cry when I left the kids but as soon as we arrived, I realized how brilliant Nathan was to get me away from home...I SO needed the sleep and downtime. For me, the lack of chaos was the biggest perk. Oh and no baby monitor. Or was it the sound of the ocean at night while we slept? :)
A few highlights:
*We rented a brand new red mustang convertible. We had a blast exploring the island. We hit the local grocery store so we had several PB&J meals in our room to save $$.
*We saw "The Hangover" -- funniest movie I've seen in a LONG time. Hilarious!!! So inappropriate-- it was greatness.
*Oceanside candlelight dinner. Hands down the most romantic meal I've ever had in my life. It was one of those moments I will remember forever. It was so special. And the filet was perfect.
*"Pridefest 2009"-- Key West hosted a "rainbow parade" as I was trying to explain to Alex when she wanted to see pictures. Holy moly...we sat right up front and didn't miss any of the action. Took tons of video, but I will spare you from that. It was so dang funny! Lots of pride in Key West, that's for sure. During the parade a really handsome guy came up to me and said, "Ohhh, he's cute. Hang on to that one." AHHH!!!!!!
*Pumping on the airplane-- that was a ONE time experience for me. Awful!
*We ate at a Brazilian steakhouse. We both ate so much we literally had to race home because we both were sick to our stomach. I've never consumed so much filet in my life!
*Bean bag toss-- our favorite afternoon activity. Very similar to washers or horseshoes. We had a fierce competition going on and I held my own!
*We are 95% sure we swam right next to a nurse shark. They aren't aggressive, but it was still a freak out to see a large fin coming toward us.
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My favorite picture,"Soul mates." We were having fun playing with the camera.

Famous sculpture in the lobby of Casa Marina

The t-shirt says it all. I know, so mature :)Perfect form!

Mel's victory photo after a heated bean bag toss competition

Dirty pirate. Ewww. You can't see where the gun is pointing, but it was NOT OK! He wanted Nathan out of the picture.

Snorkeling adventure! We went with a group out to a beautiful reef and saw all kinds of exotic fish. The water was like glass. It was a perfect day.Wild dolphins at play. So amazing to see!
Mel's favorite reading spot.
Mel's birthday slice of Key Lime Pie. YUM!

Our view from the balcony. It looks like a postcard!

The "Stang" in front of our hotel

The Righteously Outrageous Twirling Corps in the parade. They took this VERY seriously.

"Miss" Jessica. Ewww.

Picture at the 'Southernmost Point' of the continental US. Just 90 miles from Cuba.

Enjoying our time at the ocean. I can see why Nathan got hit on! :)

Sunset beach walks

Nathan reading his "mystery book." You'll have to ask him about that one!

The beautiful beach

View from the patio

Room 190 is where it's at!

Lobby pic

Paraside Found.

The pier just after sunset

Dinner on the beach. Pictures can't begin to explain how intimate and special this was.

Mel taking it all in.

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Who wants to go next time?? :)

Celebrity Sighting

This is my first solo blog posting (i.e. without Melissa's help), but this is one of those situations that doesn't happen to me often so I thought it was blog worthy and wanted to share it. The funny thing is that as I type, I think of the people that will be reading this and I’m pretty sure you are the wrong demographic for the news I am about to share. No offence, but I bet most of you don't follow football players like I do...so you've been warned. For those of you that do follow football players, I appreciate you taking an interest in my childish ways when I am presented with a celebrity sighting. Shell shock with sweaty palms was the physical/emotional feeling during this whole event. I'm embarrassed to share the whole story, but I think it's funny and hope that you enjoy me in my vulnerable state.

So here it goes...
On our way back from vacation (June 14th) I was upgraded to first class and someone tapped my shoulder and asked if they could sit with their boyfriend...who was supposed to sit right next to me. I agreed and went to sit in her original seat. When I looked at the boyfriend, he looked VERY familiar. I finally figured out who he looked like, but I didn't really think much about it. When we landed I had to go back to my original seat because my bags were there. When I looked at her boyfriend I said "You know you look JUST LIKE Larry Johnson"...he smiled and said, "yeah...'cause that's me." And then of all the normal, nice, clever things to say...I said, "Thanks for your fantasy points last year." He smiled and said, "No problem.” I’m such an idiot.

Just to make things worse for myself and to dive deeper into self deprecation, I'd like to elaborate how exactly I got Larry to take a picture with me after we got off the plane. I walked up behind him while talking out of the side of my half-pursed lips saying "Paging Mr. Johnson, paging Mr. Johnson" in that voice where you try to sound like an intercom. I'm actually blushing as I write this. What was I thinking?!

Again, I was a giddy little boy seeing what I consider to be a potential Hall-of-Famer...if he could just get on a better team…he’s still very young. We shall see.

BTW - If you don't know who Larry Johnson is, he's the Running Back for the Kansas City Chiefs...and he's no scrub...he's been a top 5 RB for the past 2-3 years.