Halle's Visit

I think my friend Halle might win the award for the most visits to Tampa: 5! She had a few rainy weather visits during Robert's deployments and then she met Abigail when she visited last July. Halle is really great with little ones and Abby was so excited during the days leading up to her arrival. She even ended up going to the airport with me at 9:00 pm -- way past her bedtime -- to pick Halle up.

I treated Halle and myself to massages on Sunday afternoon and then on Monday morning we headed to the zoo with Abby. The zoo is currently all decked out for Zoominations, a Chinese lantern festival that takes place at night. While we didn't get to experience the full effect with all the lights, it was still really beautiful and fun to see.

Halle was Abby's new buddy from the moment she stepped off the plane.

Why hello, penguins.

On Tuesday morning Halle and I did a little shopping while Abby was at preschool. One of the employees in Francesca's made our day by asking us if we were sisters. We get this a lot and just love it! Later that night we drove out to Mellow Mushroom for dinner and then spent a little time at Clearwater Beach, dreaming up plans for our future vacation together with our families in Maine in 2020. Robert and I both spent a few summers in Maine at Bowdoin Summer Music Festival (where he proposed!) and I've always wanted to return. For two fair skinned girls, what destination could be better?

But first, back to the beach. And my 35th birthday! Halle treated me and Abby to a delicious birthday breakfast at Daily Eats and then we squeezed in one last trip to the beach at Robert's work before we had to head to the airport. It was a bright, bright spring day.

Abby's sunglasses never stay on long. We had fun talking about the different kinds of footprints we saw in the sand. We even saw little bird prints, which Abby thought was pretty great. Later she had fun chasing around big flocks of seagulls.

Pale girls on the beach!

Oh! Did I mention that Halle is 19 weeks pregnant?

Seriously, how cute is that bump? Is it a boy or girl? Halle and I both felt certain it's a girl and I have a whole pile of kitty cat baby girl clothes ready to put in the mail.

She had her first sonogram today and texted me the following picture:

It's a BOY! Halle, thank you for visiting and thank you for your sweet friendship over the years. You are going to be an amazing momma and I can't wait to meet your little man sometime after September!