Weekend With Raymond & Debbie

We left Friday afternoon for Arlington with the girls. Our friends Raymond & Debbie have built a new home and they invited us up for a weekend at their place. Terry met Raymond in the car business yearrrrrs ago, and I love his wife Debbie to bits. She is a total rock star in the kitchen, laughs at every single thing I say, and would do anything for anybody. Just a doll. I had an appendectomy in January and she called to inform us she was coming into town to take care of me and the girls for the week since Terry would be working. She's a doll, love love her. I love you too Raymond, just not as much as Deb. :)

After arriving into town, we took the grand tour of their beautiful hizzie then we all changed and ventured to the pool. Ava is a total tadpole and loves to swim. Grace enjoys forcefully flailing her head backwards into the water...usually with no warning and it scares the crap out of whoever is holding her. Little turd! Everyone enjoyed cooling off, it was 99 degrees Friday afternoon, and the pool was our saving grace! The pool is salt water... I have read about these pools and seen a few, but never actually went swimming in one. We were impressed, the benefits right off the bat were very noticeable. No chlorine smell, no eye burning when you open under water (it's nothing like sea water, I know what you're thinking) no dry skin after you get out, we loved it! I was expecting to jump in and taste the salt, but you'd never know it was there. Way Cool!








This is Guinness, black and tan like the beer







Ava played with the water thermometer for an hour... whatever floats your boat!

Raymond and Debbie, how cute are they?!




Dinner rolled around and the girls were exhausted. Debbie was so thoughtful and had a birthday cupcake prepared for Terry, she lit the candle and we all sang. Ava loved it, and loved stealing finger tips of frosting even more. The girls played around the house for a while, the foyer is very large and they got a kick out of running back and forth from the front door.







As expected, the girls went to sleep without a peep. So....... we took advantage of our free 'adult' time and went back out to the pool after dinner. ;) Debbie fixed some fabulous coffee-tini's and brought them and yummy dessert outside, now we were ready to goof off...

I'd never had a coffee-tini ~ they are surprisingly lite and mucho tasty.



Raymond hid behind a bush and snapped our pic (check out the top right of the picture, you can see the cats eyes glowing inside the house!!!)



I kicked Terry in the face about 3 times doing this move...



Saturday afternoon we ate lunch on the back patio and played in the pool.

Gracie liked the waterfall, she tried to climb over the top



Nestea plunge! Front AND back!





Little Ava has come a lonnng way in the pool!

She has it down now :)






Ava made sure Guinness had easy access to her toys




Later that afternoon we all took the kids to a park around the corner from their house. It was 100% shaded, and in the crazy heat, that helped.









Terry and I were pumped for multiple reasons about visiting Raymond and Debbie, but one major excitement for us was because Debbie will make like a 4 course meal and say she just 'whipped something up.' Even simple dishes are turned into beautiful, flavorful masterpieces! Her cooking is phenomenal and we knew we would eat like Kings and Queens, and DID WE EVER! Of course I took pictures of it all, you know me, that's what I do. :) Here's a taste of what we had over the weekend...
















The visit was wonderful and we can't wait to come back again! Love you guys!