The State Bar Convention 2010

Every year we go to the State Bar Convention, which is always held at a beach somewhere. This year we went to Sandestin, and oh the fun we had. It was so relaxing. Partly because little Tuck Tuck went to BB's house leaving us big kids to stay up late and avoid nap schedules altogether.

This year we stayed on the Bayside at Baytowne Wharf and on the way down I was so disappointed. I was used to staying at the Hilton on the beach. But boy was I wrong- Baytowne Wharf is AMAZING! It's all these shops and restaurants and activities and a big pier and tons of boats to watch and live music everywhere and trams to take you to the beach and other shopping.

These two pics are the view from our balcony- the balcony of our two-bedroom condo. Again, we were surprised. We thought we were getting two adjoining hotel rooms, we ended up with a kitchen, den, dining room, two bedrooms, two baths and a laundry room. And there was live music on the lawn and tons of people brought lawn chairs and sat out to listen. We walked everywhere and never left the place the four days we were there.

We ate breakfast at cute little bistros.

And played so hard we passed out at night. They didn't giggle or talk at all when we put them to bed- they were OUT as soon as we hit the lights.



The best part of the bar convention is the attention they give the kids. There is something awesome for them to do every day. The first night when we arrived we had a gourmet pizza buffet on the grand lawn (not pictured) and had a showing of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". The kids got giant cookies and ice cream- such a treat.

We of course, swam all day every day at the pool and went to the beach side once. They had a big fireworks show on Thursday night that we watched from our room.

There were various receptions at night. Here are the kids after the Cumberland Alumni reception- see the spilled water on Marc's clothes- I call this trip the "spill your drink at every meal" trip. It was one or the other spilling a drink ALL THE TIME.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Marc...ziplining across Baytowne Wharf in dress slacks. Marky did it too and we were shocked at how fearless he was about the whole thing. He got strapped in and the guys said, "you're gonna need to just step off the ramp" and before he could finish talking Marky was flying high.

They had jump castles and trampolines one night.

And the kids favorite- a build-a-bear event. We'd never "built" a bear so this was big-time exciting.

May I intoduce you to "Darth Bunny" (also called "Bounce") and Sally the Princess Kitty?

It worked well because I'd forgotten to bring their lovies- now they have new ones.

I have decided my kids would swim all day every day if I let them. Literally hour after hour was spent without getting out of the water. Julia still wears a puddlejumper, but she can put her head under water and float on her back now. (which she did a lot while talking to all the strangers she could). "Hi, my name's Julia, I can put my head under. See? Did you see me? Isn't dis a fun day?"

Marky found boys to play with and mainly spent his time wearing goggles and jumping off this wall.

Julia and I rode this carousel several times.

And Marc did this hamster-ball-in-the-water thing that was hilarious. And he drove these remote-controlled tugboats.

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I just LOVE the beach. I love getting the whole family all cleaned up late in the afternoon and going out to eat with our slightly wet hair and slightly burned cheeks. I mean, what is more fun?

Here's to our 9th annual conference. Thank you Marc for agreeing to go- even though you have to work when we go. : )

P.S. Don't you worry one bit about Tuckerboy. He had the time of his life. His BB and Poppy completely doted all over him and never let him have one second where he wasn't being swooned over. Here he is amusing them by trying on Poppy's tennis shoe.

They even took him out to Pete's Playhouse. Now that's impressive!

And they taught him how to squirt Poppy with a squishy crab toy, which he found hilarious. They sent us email updates and I called every day at least once. Three nights is the longest I can stay away from my Sugarbear. I had to get home and get some hugs.