Great catch-up

Take a look at these ugly kids! :)

Grace (14) , Jessie (10) , and Sam (16) Wilson

So that's a joke, obviously. These kids are not only beautiful on the outside but fantastic young people on the inside too. I can't believe how much they have grown up. When I first met them, Jessie wasn't even born! Wow!

What a fun Saturday we had here on Eglin AFB. Despite the fact that it has been raining since they got here on Friday and the fact that JB was on call on Saturday, we had a wonderful time!

We woke up leisurely on Saturday -- the last of the crew, Grace, crawling out of bed around 10:15am -- much earlier than her estimated 2:30pm entrance. By 2pm, we were on our way down to Destin where we had a light-late lunch at the Backporch which is right on the water. Here are some photos from that lunch.

After lunch, we headed down to Destin Commons for some shopping (which Mike was ecstatic about -- ha ha!) Man, can his family shop! When it became obvious that Jessie's shopping styles were quite different from her two older siblings, she managed to steal me away to be her personal shopping chaperone. That kid can work it in the store! She can also work me in the store. She had nearly talked me into three different things I had never thought of owning. I also become very familiar with the LIMITED TOO store. Oh man ... when we have a daughter, that store is DANGEROUS! Way toooo cute while also a bit pricey does not make for a good combination. Jessie ended up buying a jazz hat and a bathing suit which I was a bit nervous about approving without her parents seeing it first. However, Jessie insisted this suit was acceptable, and sure enough, when she tried it on for them later, they agreed.

We stopped at a Surfshop to help Grace find a bathing suit ... she did and it was adorable! They talked me into trying on the same one for our cruise. I liked it but decided I needed JB to come and help me pick one out. These surf shops are pretty cool when it comes to bathing suits! They have a ton of choices! HUNDREDS of choices! So JB and I are going to return, maybe today, to try to find a suit for me to take along. I have one suit, but the cruise is a week long so I'd at least like to have two choices.

Here's a pic of Mike and Deanna with their Starbucks waiting for the kids to finish shopping.

I picked up an order of fish tacos for JB at Blupointe and figured we'd drop them off at the hospital for him and get to see him for a few minutes. However, while I was on the phone telling him all of this, his senior told him that he should just go home for a few hours since there was nothing happening at the hospital. What?!?! This has never happened before, and I was ecstatic. He did have to bring the three pagers he carries home, but they only rang once until 5:30 this morning when he went back in to round on his patients. It was so wonderful to have him be able to spend even a few hours with us.

I actually cooked as well -- my chicken meatball Parmesan that I have become quite proficient at. It went well and no one barfed so that was a good sign.

I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to reconnect with the Wilson family. We saw them all the time when we lived in Kentucky and managed to see them 3-4 times during our years in Minnesota. We are hoping now that we live a bit closer, we'll be able to see them more frequently. The kids taught me all about Facebook and how I can talk to them on this page so hopefully, I will be able to stay up on their lives a bit better.

I'll close with a cute picture of Jessie. I gave the Wilson ladies a purse from Nigeria. Here's Jessie demonstrating her use for her hat. What a great weekend!