Girls’ Trip to Charleston: Saturday

To celebrate my mom’s upcoming 70th birthday—and because a girls’ trip with my mom and sister is always a good idea—my mom, sister, and I met for a lovely weekend in Charleston, South Carolina.  On Friday evening in Charleston, we took a food tour, explored the Charleston City Market, spent time in all of the little shops near the Waterfront Park, and walked around the Battery before taking an Uber back to our hotel at the Charleston City Marina (Uber was so easy in Charleston—and a lifesaver a few times!).

My mom, Tracy, and I were up early on Saturday morning to walk down to Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit (a Charleston staple) for breakfast before a historic Charleston walking tour.  We loved the tour.  Our guide took us down the most beautiful side streets and alleyways that I had never seen in Charleston, historic neighborhoods were locals actually live.  I also enjoyed being able just listen to our guide and follow her mindlessly all the while I could just take it all in and take pictures to my heart’s content.  After our tour, we had a delicious lunch at Husk, explored the Charleston City Market again (always such interesting sights there), and then walked up King Street for some more shopping.  We’d had our fill of walking around Charleston by late afternoon, so, after a break back at our hotel, we decided to drive out to Shem Creek for dinner at Vickery’s.  The boardwalks, lowcountry marshland, and shrimp boats are beautiful in that area, and it’s fun to drive over the scenic Ravenel Bridge.   

Instagrammin’ in May

Looks like I had a great month of May!  

my last lunch at school with a kid—jack will join his sister at middle school next year. | mother’s day strawberry picking | and mother’s day family tennis | girls trip!  my mom, sister, and i met for a beautiful weekend in charleston. | callie’s hot little biscuit—yum! | historic walking tour of charleston | rainbow row | husk for lunch | vickery’s for dinner | enjoying the view at shem creek | exploring 18th century rice plantation middleton place | my mom’s the little red speck next to that oak tree—that’s how big it is!

Florida Spring Break: St. Augustine Beach

We ended our spring break week at Nana and PopPop’s house in beautiful St. Augustine Beach where we were lucky enough to spend some time with, in addition to Nana and PopPop, all of the Williams cousins, Aunt Jacqui and Uncle Randy, Aunt Chrissy and Uncle Chris, and—bonus!—Aunt Anita, Uncle Mark, and Grandmom and Grandpop! 

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.