Florida Spring Break: Nonni & Papa’s House

The weather was just gorgeous while we were at my parents’ house and we took advantage of it by spending most of our time outdoors.  We explored the Manatee River area of their neighborhood by bike and golf cart (Olive enjoyed her first golf cart ride) and then we tried out the neighborhood bocce ball court (court? pitch?)  No wonder why Nonni and Papa are so good when we play on the beach in HHI—they’ve been practicing! 

Thanks for having us, Nonni and Papa!  It’s always wonderful spending time at Casa de Slaton.

Florida Spring Break: Sarasota

For spring break, we loaded our whole crew into the car—including Olive—and headed down to Florida for a week of visiting family.  Our first stop was Jacqui and Randy’s house in Orlando.  We must’ve been very busy hanging out with Harper and Hudson because I do not have any big camera pictures from our time there.  We had a great couple of days including some park time, good food, and good beer.  It’s always a fun time with these four.  Harper and Hudson are just the sweetest and most loving kids and they are open to anything.  I wish we could see them more often.

After Orlando, we headed over to Nonni and Papa’s house for several days.  We got in plenty of pool time, of course, but we also wanted to check out some new sights while we were there.  Nonni and Papa took us to The Ringling where we were able to explore beautiful gardens, try our hand at the high wire and clown car at the Circus Museum, check out Italian Baroque and a modern art installation at the Museum of Art, and visit the beautiful Ca’ d’Zan (House of John), the mansion of John and Mable Ringling.

Instagrammin’ in April

April is one of my favorite months.  It’s not just that my birthday falls in April, although that’s definitely bonus.  The weather is just so beautiful, the Volvo Open (a WTA tournament in Charleston that is just so fun and gives fans up-close looks at quite a few of the top players) is the  first week of April, we usually have spring break in April, and I get to enjoy a lot of time outdoors in April (including playing a ton of tennis).

i was immensely humbled to be grace miner’s confirmation mentor. | volvo open!  shelby rogers taking on maria sakkari in the big stadium. | gold medalist monica puig | australian open semi-finalist mirjana lucic-baroni | grand slam winning doubles player sania mirza | bethanie mattek-sands! | sam stosur playing jelena jankovic for the night match. | we did a tour of florida for spring break, starting with a visit to orlando to see aunt jacqui, uncle randy, harper and hudson. | next stop was nonni and papa’s house. | we visited the ringling museum in sarasota. | and toured the ringling house, ca’ d’zan. | back of ringling mansion | ca’ d’zan gardens | full-sized replica of david | ella and jack with nonni and papa | us | renaissance men #reallyitalianbaroque | pathless woods art installation | seeing the jack for the trees | someone else is having a fun spring break trip, too. | nonni and papa resort has all the amenities. | lovely day for a bike ride | manatee river | a man and his dog | honing our bocce ball skills for hhi this summer. | back with our sweet cousins | and more cousins! | all of the williams cousins! | olive’s adoption day—she’s been with us for two years, so we celebrated with some of her favorite things starting with an off-leash walk at flat branch. | and her football (although at some point we had to take it away) | and family time outside | happy easter! | enjoying our new patio furniture

Instagrammin’ in March

March was a big month for the Williams family—Ella became a teenager!  Happy 13th birthday to Ella!

ella participated in the fill the bowl 30-hour famine and cardboard village overnight event. | 30-hour famine included service projects, too. | snow day! | handsome between-soccer-games lunch date. | finalists in their soccer tournament. | jack and his soccer teammates. | ella’s artwork on display at the local public library. | and just like that, she’s a teenager!  happy 13th birthday to our ella bean. | she called shotgun!  finally able to ride in the front seat now that she’s a teenager. | a little birthday celebration post school, track, tennis, and homework. | ella’s first track meet and a new non-treadmill PR of 6:27 mile. | mismatched day—barcelona, manchester united, and chelsea mixed up fan. | handsome new ‘do.

Snow Day!

We definitely saw plenty of snow on our trip to Canada this winter, but it’s always nice to have at least one snow day each year at home.  By March, we’d figured our chances for a Charlotte snow day had passed.  So, Ella, Jack, and I were pretty excited when enough snow to play in fell on March 12th.  Yeah, you read that right—March 12th…in the southeast…  Olive was pretty unsure about the snow at first—she doesn’t like to get her paws wet when she goes outside in general (insert eye roll emoji)—but as soon as we got the chuck-it and a tennis ball out, she was all in.  Eventually we started throwing snowballs for her to fetch and she could not figure out where they went when they landed in the snow.  Over and over again, she never caught on.  Yes, we’re terrible people.  And, as for Jonathan, he usually hops on the first flight out of town to his next work destination whenever snow is in the forecast.  One year, I was trapped at home alone with the much-younger kids for a week! 

Instagrammin’ in February

February was a big #goella/#gojack month!

ella-jack-jonathan ski weekend! | cold one day, warm the next—the girls are taking advantage of a nice day. | this pic was sent to gator basketball coach white when they were recruiting angie’s son.  #itriedcoachwhite #hewenttokansas | superior ratings for both kids at piano festival! | ncaa league champs! | soccer buds turned basketball buds.

Instagrammin’ in January

It was all (or mostly) about Olive in January, I guess.

thankful for a few days of nice weather, kids in school, and tennis. | olive loves to help pick the kids up from all of their activities. | yes, olive can smirk. | brown-eyed girl | enjoying my last year of lunch at school with jack. | rock-star napper.