Most people have a pet name for their baby before its born and Monique and Josh chose Colonel Sanders. It started out as a joke (well, I think so anyway...) that if they name the baby Colonel Sanders, maybe the whole family would get free KFC chicken for life. Then it stuck and even the gift registry has the baby named as Colonel Sanders. :D So, what other kind of baby shower (or baby party as we called it) could their be other than a KFC themed one!? Monique and Josh are both the sweetest people who would never expect or ask anything of anyone and I think they were pleasantly surprised by what their friends came up with. We made onesies and instead of using the typical baby stencils and wording, we made everything with a KFC theme to fit the parents. It was mostly the girls making these and we had fun doing it. Kris put a great book together for the couple with pictures taken by everyone through the years, only changed a little to fit the theme. One of them was eating chicken or sitting or dancing with Colonel Sanders in all the pictures - it was clever and hysterical! The picture for the cake was one chosen from the book and you can see everyone's shocked and humored reactions from it. Another, but lesser used name for the baby was frog, so even a frog baby diaper wreath was homeade! Last but not least - no one else will appreciate me adding this to the blog, but since I made the morph with a free software I downloaded, I had to show everyone of my creation. What we expect the baby to look like based on the parents faces morphed together!
I decided to run America's Finest City (AFC) Half Marathon on San Diego's HOTTEST day! It's a great route with some beautiful views and Kristin and Wil came in town to run it too, so that made it extra special. Did I mention how HOT it was? When I came into the finish, I saw Scott with Greg who finished before me. I gave Scott a huge, wet hug for meeting me there. After the race, Kristin, Will, Scott and I went over to Coronado and had lunch and some really yummy ice cream at the Hotel Del. I think that's the only reason Kristin really wanted to go there, though she said it was for the views too.
A couple of weekends ago, I headed back to the South to meet up with my cousins from the Sacramento area and visit our Papa in a small town an hour and a half north of New Orleans. We spent a night in New Orleans first and had a nice, cajun dinner and sightseeing around the French Quarter. I was really excited to see Dana and Wil again, but was especially excited to meet my new little cousin, Dana's daughter Sadie June. I was on my last flight thinking about how excited I was to meet her once the flight landed, when all of a sudden I heard a baby crying. Next thing I knew, I saw all of my family on the same flight as me, traded seats and held little Sadie through the whole flight, instantly bonding with her.
After a night on the town, the next morning we got up and went to the famous Cafe Du Monde for some great coffee and beignets. On the walk back, we saw the beautiful New Orleans style with the lush ferns hanging over balconies and a horse and carriage waiting for takers at Jackson Square.
We next drove up to Kentwood to spend a few days. I snuggled in a chair with my Papa just like when I was a little girl. I also snuggled up with little Sadie and LOVED having her so close to me - she was the sweetest little thing ever! She loved just looking around at anything she could see moving. You can see in the movie below how far she could even reach her head back to watch the fan.
One day we took a drive a couple of miles over to Brittney Spears' house. She grew up in Kentwood (when she wasn't traveling around trying to be made famous by her mom) and had a house built here after she got famous.
Other activities included looking at tons of old photos, Wil and Kelly (my new best friend) riding around on the riding lawn mower, and some good old card playing (I'll buy that card).
It was really nice to spend time with family and remember where I can from.
