Bienvenue a l'hotel Chappell

We have been so flipping busy at the Chappell house. I'm talking about the kind of busyness where you need a weekend to recover from your weekend... except in our case our busyness has come in the middle of the week!!

Our friends Kris & Mitch came to see us from St. Louis!! We hadn't seen them in so very long, and it was great to catch up a bit. Kelly McJ hitched a ride with them, and we all got to eat together at Felix's. I will use any excuse to eat there... I love their she-crab soup more than words can say. We made reservations for a private dining room, which I love to do when going there. It is so nice to be able to hear everyone and get to visit properly.

Nicole, Kelly, Kristen, Emily (greasy, ugh)

They left just in time for our annual July 4th celebration. Carson invited us to her parent's house down on the bay in Orange Beach for a cookout. It was so fun! Carson's mom had cooked this very delicious meal for all of us (it was her birthday!) and had to miss it because her 3rd grandchild was being born. So, thank you GooGoo for the wonderful food. I am so sad you didn't get any. :( We even had white sauce for the BBQ. I have never had that, and I have surely been missing out. Check out Krista's blog for pictures. She got lots of good ones of the water slide fun. The husbands really had more fun than the kids, I think. I only went down once...it was bit of a hard landing.

Unfortunately, nausea+sun+hour-long car ride=one sick Emily. I had to miss the cookout at the Carrigan's pier, but we made it just in time for the fireworks. Apparently, the city of Fairhope is going through some cost containment in the fireworks department. It was a total bust, and I was mad that I dragged myself down there for them. I kept waiting and waiting for the "finale," and it never happened. Darn this financial crisis.

Okay... on to last week... I got a text from Taylor asking if she could spend the night with me on Wednesday! Of course!! She was driving through on her way to New Orleans to visit family. And then Lindsey decided she would come too (which I still can't believe because it was so last minute, and Linds is just not last minute...)!! I was so very happy to see my college BFFs. I hated to miss our girls weekend in May, but this was the next best thing. We had a lovely lunch at the BayBreeze Cafe, and then Tay had to leave, which was very sad.

Lindsey, Emily, Taylor

But Lindsey stayed and we visited with Lucy and Lauren all day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday! These Dothan girls sure can talk. I didn't know half of the people they discussed even though I lived there my entire life... county school v. city school at its finest. I thought Justin and Jason were going to kill us for sure. And I am really surprised that Lindsey is still my friend at all because I volunteered her to "serve" with me at a dinner on Friday night. I thought that "serve" meant to pass out the food and clear the dishes off the table. I thought two hours tops. Nope. "Serve" meant actually serve the food and wash dishes and clean up stuff for FOUR hours. Did I mention that Lindsey is 23 week pregnant? I thought we would both die. But it was really fun, and Lucy and Lauren were there, too, so that made it better. What was not fun was getting so sick that I had to lay on the couch and watch TV for two hours before I could finally go to sleep. I am so ready for this to be over...

Saturday night we celebrated Jonathan's 30th birthday with a fiesta at the pier. It was so fun! I can't believe we are all getting to 30. It just doesn't seem possible.

Yesterday we had a send-off lunch for the Mexico mission trip that leaves on Saturday. I am so jealous that Justin is getting to go, and I have to stay home. The kids are all so excited, and I cannot imagine a better group of youth to go with--they are going to have a blast. I hope that Justin takes my threat seriously and comes home with some Mexican pottery in his suitcase.

And finally, Oliver is tired of all the company and events. He is ready to take a nap without interruption. His little eyes look so sleepy.