All Blacks: Ruth and Coopsie come to town!

We met Ruth back in December when we were in New Zealand for Georgie and Mark's wedding. She and Georgie are bestest friends and we had heard so much about her and were so excited we finally got to meet her. We told her that she needed to come visit us in Alabama and well, like most of our Kiwi friends, she made it happen. She came over to the states for several weeks to do some traveling, etc. and made sure that a trip to sweet home Alabama was on her agenda. WE LOVE YOU, RUTH!

We also met Cooper (I choose to call him Coopsie....just suits him better) while we were in NZ. He came over for the wedding as well. Coopsie is from Georgia and had met Mark several years ago while Mark was working for an inner-city ministry in Atlanta. Coopsie offered to give Ruth a ride down from Birmingham (where she was visiting some other friends) to Mobile so she wouldn't have to ride a greyhound bus. She was pumped about that :) It was great to see Coopsie again as well. He is a fabulous drawer, so the girls took to him quickly when he offered to help them draw and color :)

We grilled up some yummy kabobs for dinner and had a few more friends over... (Missa Mark....as the girls call him...aka Mr. Mark and Colleen and her hubby, Jason...who had not arrived yet when this pic was taken)

Of course Ruth had to get a photo in Mark's ginormo monster of a truck and camo detail....it suits her so well :)

The next day the I decided to take our guests to the beach...I mean, you gotta see these beautiful beaches, right?! My friend, Martha, and her kiddos have a house on the beach and were actually over there so she invited us to come hang out with them for the day. Of course, we had to stop at Burris Farmers Market to get their famous strawberry shortcake....it was Ruth's first every strawberry shortcake experience. She was a fan....

As was Coopsie....

On our way over to the beach it started raining, but thankfully our friends, The Parks, were staying at a condo across the street from Martha's and it had an indoor pool we could use until the rain stopped. YAY.

The girls had a blast with Coopsie

Ruth decided to relax and read while we waited for the rain to leave....Oh, how I remember those days of getting to relax and read by the pool....those are long gone :)

The rain soon stopped and it ended up being an absolute gorgeous day!

I tried to put the girls down for a nap at Martha's, but they did not cooperate....sooooo out to the beach they came....

Ruth decided to snap a couple of pics with my camera without me knowing it. I'm SO glad! I'm never in pictures with them b/c I'm always the one taking them! At least I have a few to prove that I actually existed :)

Ruth was SO excited to meet the girls and get to play with them. She has a twin sister as well so she had a special connection with them :) Needless to say, she got a work-out in at the beach....Jocie LOOOOOVED that she would pick her up "super high" over the waves....

and build sandcastles with her....

About an hour after being on the beach....the Gabster LOST HER MIND. I know that not napping majoring contributed but let's be honest....she can throw one heck of a fit when she feels like it and she definitely felt like it at this moment. I had to drag her up to Martha's house and lock her in a bedroom for about 20 minutes for her to scream her head off until she decided it was time to stop. I gave her the choice of either going back out to the beach or staying in the bedroom until we left. She picked the beach :). Here she is eating a snack and finishing her pouting before getting back in the water....

Meanwhile, Jocie and Ruth went for a walk on the beach...

and jumped a thousand more waves :)

Gabbie finally decided to join the fun...

While I was packing up our stuff on the beach to head back up to Martha's house, my children decide to walk over to some beach neighbors and proceed to SMASH the mini-sandcastles that someone had spent a huge amount of time building. NICE.

Here I am trying to save the remaining little mounds :)

Jocie trying to get one more in before I snatch her away.....what am I gonna do with these little chicas!? (AND please notice the couple in the background turned around watching this whole episode go down. They were hysterically laughing. Thanks to Ruth for capturing these proud moments on camera :)