Catch up:)

So life for us has been quite busy to say the least and I've just let myself get so behind that my only hope of catching up is just to combine basically the entire month of May into one entry so I'll just try to skim over some of the highlights of each of our stops starting with Charlotte, NC.

I have said and continue to say that if we were ever to move to the east coast it may very well be to Charlotte. I love this town! It is just so beautiful. Now part of this may have to do with the fact that we're always there in the spring but in any case every time I go to Charlotte I just love it more.

A few years ago we got to know a family at church and have stayed in touch each time we go to Charlotte. Knowing we were planning to be at their church on Sunday they asked if we would be willing to speak to the young men and women of their church. We talked about basically how the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only real source of happiness in this life. We each had about 10-15 minutes and it was so fun to get to speak as well as get to hear my amazing husband share his testimony of Christ. After church our friends had us over for dinner. So nice to know someone in advance:).

One of our other highlights was that my friend Kristina took pictures of the boys. She did an incredible job and they turned out so well. Nice to have talented friends:).

We also had a BBQ at the bus with some of our friends one of the nights. We got out the grill and the bounce house and the ice cream maker and really what else do you need? We ended up having about 25 people over which was a complete blast even though the ice cream flopped.

With the PGA Tour Wives Association I got to be involved in the Walk the Course Against Domestic Violence. There were hundreds of people gathered one evening to walk all 18 holes straight through in order to raise awareness and money for local shelters and safe houses. It was a really cool event for a very important cause. It breaks my heart to think about anyone not feeling the love and safety in their own home I've been so blessed to have my whole life.

Despite Danny missing the cut it was yet another great week for our family and since we weren't playing on the weekend we headed on over to Sedalia, Missouri for my family's reunion.

We had such a blast with my family and frankly a much needed break from the grind. We packed more into one week than I ever knew was possible. We played dodge ball, floor hockey, Frisbee golf, some random game my brother made up involving two fence poles and my mom's decorative candles and some Frisbees, and an ultimate game of tag at the biggest play structure I've ever seen. We had a YouTube competition, a variety show, had a date night with dinner and the Newlywed Game (classic), we had a shower for my brother and sister in law who are about to have a baby, threw in a couple craft classes, a book club, and managed to have a BBQ and fit in family pictures. We all needed a long nap after but we had so much fun!! My family is pretty incredible and the boys were in heaven with all the cousins to play with. There are seven kids in my family and all of us are married now and we have 11 going on 12 grand kids so as you can imagine it was a bit crazy at times but it was just my kind of crazy:) My family is spread literally from L.A. to Utah, to Missouri, to Philadelphia to Buffalo with Danny and I covering everywhere else in between so it was so nice to have everyone together in one spot.

From there we drove down to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and spent a couple weeks in those two cities. Danny got a special invite to play in the Colonial in Ft.Worth, a tournament he normally wouldn't have gotten into, which was so nice. They had the greatest little family party one of the nights in conjunction with Radio Disney. The boys got to make crafts, dress like cowboys, and watch Toy Story 3 in a room all decked out like a movie theatre including all you can eat movie theatre popcorn and candy (danger:))

Another one of the nights Danny and I got to attend a really nice dinner for all the past champions of the tournament as well as all the board members and other important people who make the tournament run. We were seated right next to the Mayor of Ft. Worth and his wife. Such nice people and we had a lot of fun talking with them. You know the conversation went well when the mayor's closing remarks to you include his new appreciation for Wal Mart:) (Wal Mart lets us park our bus in their parking lots over night:)) We are about as classy as they come! Luckily the vast majority of the people we meet out here are pretty down to earth once you get to know them.
The boys and I had a couple fun outings as well. We hit the Ft.Worth Zoo, the playground a couple of times, and the little mini train that took us all around the big park there.

Our big adventures in Dallas started off with a couple days of tornado warnings. One of the nights was particularly scary. Danny and I had a dinner for all the rookies and their spouses and they provided tending at the host hotel while we were downtown. Halfway through the dinner I checked the weather only to find out that there were a few tornadoes right in the area where my kids were. I'll admit I freaked out a bit since they wouldn't let us leave the restaurant and so we had no way of getting to our kids. Fortunately everyone was just fine and the boys loved getting to hang out down in the tunnels below the hotel. In the end the only real damage done to our family was to our poor car which now has tons of golf ball sized little dents from the hail. No real biggy though.

Friday night after missing another cut my die hard husband made an impromptu decision to fly to Florida that night and spend the weekend working with his teacher while the boys and I hung out in Dallas. We had a great weekend and spent our evenings playing by the lake, feeding ducks, swimming and watching fireworks over the lake.

Danny also had a great weekend and felt very encouraged about his time with his teacher. What a stud. I sometimes don't know how he does it.

He flew home Sunday night and we pulled out of Dallas an hour later headed for Columbus, Ohio since he had just barely found out that he was in the Memorial Tournament up there.

Columbus was also a very fun week. They had a party for the players and their families at the Columbus Zoo and we got to have a private viewing of one of their shows. We also got to meet Jack Hannah and wander around the zoo after hours for a bit. It was the perfect time to be there since it was nice and cool and all the animals weren't hiding in the shade. So fun!!

They also gave us some spa credit so Danny and I went and got a reflexology treatment together for our date day. Pretty much a glorified foot rub but it felt great and it's supposed to have some health benefits so, I guess we'll see;)

The other great part about Columbus was that Danny made the cut. The emergency trip to Florida seemed to pay off because he was feeling alot better about his game. He had a rough day on Saturday but played great again on Sunday. So nice for him to feel he's making some good progress. Heaven knows he's worked his tail off!!What a man!!

So there it is Mom:) My month of May update. I'm hoping to never get so far behind again and will hopefully be updating on Memphis sometime next week... it may take you until then to read this whole thing so thanks to anyone who made it this far. You are my true friends:)

New Orleans- The Zurich Classic

Good ol' New Orleans!!Or not so old but really quite new to us since neither Danny or I had ventured down to the "crescent city" (still have no idea why its called that). In preparation for our trip the boys and I watched The Princess and the Frog several times in order to maximize our experience. I think it helped! I definitely appreciated the gumbo and even added a dash of Tabasco (it really is better) and I feel that I was able to understand the people better by studying Ray the lightning bug's accent. If you haven't seen Princess and the Frog, go watch it and then you'll know what I'm talking about.
So, despite being warned by several people that we were staying in the ghetto and to definitely not go in to the Piggly Wiggly, we had a fun week in New Orleans. Everyone was so nice and hospitable and the tournament took great care of us. We stayed at a state park which was just a few miles from the course and only about 20 minutes from downtown.
Monday after finishing our drive from Hilton Head and getting settled we went to the course with Danny just to scope things out and get all the info on the weeks activities. While there we grabbed an incredible lunch at the clubhouse(always a good sign of a great tournament). That night we had a gourmet dinner of Taco Bell (I realize the sacrilege of eating taco bell while in New Orleans but we were out running errands until dinner time and we needed something fast)
Tuesday the boys and I ventured into downtown and went with some friends to the aquarium located right on the Mississippi River. It was really fun just getting to see the city with all of it's rich history. The aquarium was also pretty cool and the highlight according to Jack was definitely the "white alligator". The tournament offered transportation to anywhere so we took advantage of it and saved ourselves the stress of parking and trying to navigate our way through a city completely overrun with one-way streets.
That night we had a little family BBQ and even made some homemade ice cream...mmm we've got the summer bug.
Wednesday I took the boys to childcare for a few hours while I attended a luncheon at the Roosevelt Hotel(one of the oldest, most historic hotels in the city). We had a cooking demonstration by John Besh (I hadn't heard of him but apparently he's pretty well known from the food network and other TV shows.) Anyways, he made us this incredible, authentic New Orleans lunch and taught us a few tricks of the trade (OK let's be honest I don't make anything that has more than about 6 ingredients let alone something with all sorts of crazy herbs and spices I've never heard of, so most of that stuff went right over my head but I sure enjoyed eating it:) Afterwards we got to participate in a charity event packing backpacks of food for kids. OK here's my shameless plug. The organization is called Blessings in a Backpack. There are thousands of kids in this country being fed Monday through Friday by the government but have nothing to eat on the weekend so this organization goes into schools in lower income areas on Fridays and fills these kids' backpacks with food that they can prepare themselves so that they know they have something to eat over the weekend. Really cool organization!! Look it up on blessingsinabackpack.org.
Wednesday night we went out to eat at Draggos restaurant with some friends and I tried some char grilled clams. Despite not being much of a seafood girl, they weren't too bad if you could get past the texture:)

To be honest on Thursday and Friday the boys and I played it pretty low key. We all seemed to have a little bit of a cold and so we just let Danny take the car and we hung out at home. The pictures to the left show some of our biggest thrills. Both days we rode bike/scooter to the playground at the state park to get us out of the house and expend a little energy. We found a little slope at the playground that Jack then proceeded to cruise down, circle around, then climb back up repeatedly. He was barely even phased when he took a tumble, drawing blood on both knees, and replied after only a few tears, "it's ok, I'm tough" and rode right back up to the top of the hill. Several of our other adventures involve in some way, the two crib mattresses that we recently bought for the boys to sleep on . We realized after several nights of not sleeping that the mattresses were maybe bought a bit prematurely but when Walmart wouldn't take them back we decided that they served many more purposes than just for sleeping and have become a permanent fixture in the front windshield of our bus.
Thursday and Friday while we were "extremely busy" at home Danny was grinding it out at the golf course while we were following on the computer. I think I may get more nervous waiting for that darn computer to refresh than actually being at the course. At least there I can see what's going on. However we missed the cut and so on Friday night we decided to hit the town once again with the Putnams. This time we went to Acme Oyster House which is located in the French Quarters just a half a block from Bourbon Street. The tournament had given us each a gift card for way more than we could possibly spend but that didn't stop us from trying:) I got some gumbo, and a poe boy (sandwich of sorts) but the hit of the night was the crab sandwich our friend ordered that was literally a whole crab just deep fried. It really looked like a crab had just rolled around in some batter and then jumped into a deep friar. So funny!! Sorry I'm talking so much about the food but it wouldn't be an accurate account of New Orleans without it.

After dinner we considered for a brief second walking down just a block of Bourbon Street so we could say we did it but having beer spilled on me while leaving the restauraunt made us feel that our trip was complete without it. We did venture into some other areas of the city that night though. For those not familiar with New Orleans, the Garden District is the upscale posh part of the city filled with blocks and blocks of classic turn of the century mansions (last century:)). This sounded like a great idea until I accidentally told Danny the wrong street to turn onto and we found ourselves in the ghetto of New Orleans at dusk with our two sleeping boys in the back seat. That's one of the crazy things about it is the city is such a patchwork place. You have multi million dollar mansions two blocks from the hood. So only fearing for our lives for a few minutes we got back on track and did get to explore the Garden District a bit. So beautiful and again, so fun to be in such a historic place!!

In general my impression of New Orleans was good. Like any big city it has it's dirtier, run down places but it also has some very fun, old beautiful features as well. Add all that to some good ol' southern hospitality and some pretty amazing food and New Orleans turned out to be an exciting stop on our crazy adventures.

Hilton Head South Carolina

After a nice long 20 hour drive we made it from San Antonio to Hilton Head South Carolina. It actually wasn't too bad... ok 20 hours is 20 hours. We left at about 9:00 Friday night and drove until around 5am. After a few hours of shut eye in a Wal Mart parking lot in Beau Bridge, Louisiana, we started off again and drove all that next day getting to Hilton Head at about 9:00 the next night. It was a bit of a bruiser but my amazing husband pushed through it and my sweet little men were troupers as well. Although it was long, doing it essentially in a day allowed us to relax and enjoy Sunday in gorgeous Hilton Head Island. We caught a 10 o'clock church meeting, and then had the rest of the day to just relax. I do love having low key Sundays.
Monday was spent getting things in order. Grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning etc while Danny hit the links. Monday night we had a fun little family barbecue and family night outside on our sweet little patio that we had at the RV resort and Jack, Patton and Danny had batting practice.

Tuesday Danny and I participated in the PGA Tour Wives Golf Classic. Pretty much the wives play in a 9 hole scramble while the guys are on the bag. We had such a blast. We were on a team with some of our good friends, Michael and Kristina Putnam, Bobby and Lauren Gates, and Scott and Jen Stallings. Did I mention we had such a blast!! So, for the record, I'm horrible. I can't think of a clever way to phrase that more delicately. Danny's face in this picture pretty much says it all. I think since I've had kids I've hit balls maybe 3 times. However I was well matched because 2 of the other girls on our team were at about my same skill level. Fortunately Lauren Gates played in college so we had our ringer. Also luckily for us they allowed us to purchase 3 mulligans each (all the money went to a local charity and to the wives association) which we did so our boys got to hit 3 shots each for us, definitely helping us out off the tee especially since we were playing from the ladies tees. Despite our incredibly low expectations we started heating up. We (the girls mind you) started making some big puts which when combined with our boys getting us to the green in one shot makes for some sweet magic.
About 3 birdies and 2 eagles into it we really started believing we could win it. We all started getting all fired up (boys included, since they're not competitive at all) and putting the heat on. Even down to the last hole we had a shot. We had about a 50 foot putt from the fringe and after being coached by Danny I stepped up and the line was perfect. Still to this day I don't know how it didn't drop. And Danny will tell you this too, it literally jumped over the hole, defying gravity. Sadly we lost by a shot but again, we had so much fun and just have some good ol' vengeance built up for next year:)

Another of our highlights of the week was taking the boys to the children's museum and the beach. We didn't get in the ocean since it was super crowded and I was by myself but we got to play in the sand and at least see the gorgeous Hilton Head shoreline. Jack rinsed off the sand by getting soaked in the fountains out by the beach. Patton wasn't so sure about it this time.

Now for the golf report. Thursday was an ok day. Danny felt a bit better about things and ended up shooting 2 over par. Not great but improvement and not too bad in comparison with the rest of the field. Friday however was a really fun day. Danny got a hole in one on the 17th par 3. Apparently the crowd went wild and gave him a standing ovation. One of those great moments that as my dad says, "keep you coming back for more". Ironically after all the rounds of golf I've watched, I wasn't there. I stayed home with the boys that morning so they could sleep in. That's all right though because there was much more where that came from. I got there on the back 9 in time to see 3 more great birdies. It was so fun getting to watch all his hard work show in his score a bit. He went on to shoot 5 under that day and it was more than enough to get him to the weekend. And even if the weekend wasn't quite what he hoped, it was so nice to have one of those days that remind him what he's really made of.
We also had a fun Easter morning with the boys. Jack was fascinated with the idea of the Easter Bunny and was so excited going to sleep Saturday night. I was trying to make sure he understood the real reason we celebrate Easter and so I was telling him the story of the crucifixion and resurrection. He really responded well and I could tell he understood it but he kept trying to figure out how the Easter Bunny fit in to all of this. I have to admit I wasn't completely sure what to tell him. I tried to tie him in to spring and new life and how Easter eggs are like the empty tomb but ultimately Jack just satisfied his own mind by stating, "mom the Easter Bunny must love Jesus". I agreed:) This picture is the boys in their new Sunday clothes brought to them by the very Christian Easter Bunny:)

San Antonio

What a fun week we had in San Antonio. We spent the week before in Houston with the Diehls (it was the week of the Masters so we had it off) and then drove down to San Antonio on Friday night. Saturday we took the boys to Sea World. Ya know to be completely honest we don't really do a whole lot of big touristy things in each city. First off we're not really on vacation so Danny still has to work and also, if we tried to tour every city we go to, we'd get really tired real quick. So most weeks we keep things pretty low key just going to the park, grocery shopping, library etc while Danny goes to work but since we did have a week off we decided to have a vacation day. So fun!!!
We eked out every possible moment of fun out of that place and thoroughly covered the whole park. We saw the sea lion show, Shamu (this picture was taken in Shamu Stadium)and even caught the dolphin/acrobatic show twice. We met the sesame street characters, cooled off at the splash pad, rode rides (all 4 of us got to ride the log flume together) played on the playground, fed dolphins, and together consumed six frozen lemonades (it was quite warm). By the time our shuttle came at 6:00, we were all about ready to pass out on the bench but man did we have fun!!
We parked our motor home in an undeveloped cul-de-sac(sp?) right there by the course. Amazingly they managed to fit 7 of us big buses in the circle and although they were slightly tight quarters we had such a blast. For family night on Monday we promised Jack we'd play baseball so we went outside in the circle and within 20 minutes there were 8 other kids and parents in the outfield. Another thing I love about traveling in the bus is the feeling of having neighbors. Almost every night we were hanging out outside riding bikes, playing ball and just chatting. Fun people out here.
Tuesday night the tournament put on a fun fajita party on the driving range and they let the kids hit balls (which of course my kids hated:)) We were the last ones there and only convinced Jack that it was time to leave when he could barely see his ball.
Another fun element of this week was that we had access to the JW Marriot's swimming pool/water park at the resort. We easily clocked over 10 hours there over the course of the week. They had a great kids pool/play area, water slides and an awesome lazy river. It was also a central gathering spot for other tour moms and kids which made it even more fun.
Patton pretty much owned the kiddy pool boldly manipulating the water fountains while Jack would have been content swimming with his floaties down the lazy river all day. One of Jack's little friends had some goggles and when Jack figured out that he could see under water with them he became fixed on getting some goggles of his own. So we grabbed some kids goggles for him at the store and he was so pumped to try them out. So this picture was taken before Jack got in the pool and discovered that for whatever reason those goggles were not going to stay on his little head. So sad!! He was a champ about it but I think it kind of killed his zeal for swimming for a bit. I'm not sure if it was that or his discovering the sweet lounge chairs by the pool, or him just being completely warn out but the vast majority of the rest of our pool time, Jack spent wrapped up in a towel "taking a little rest" on the lounge chairs watching Patton fill and refill his little bucket of water in the fountains.

Another highlight of the week was the gripping, neck in neck, heart stopping competition that was... the rubber ducky race. Jack and Patton each got to decorate a rubber ducky in childcare and then on Friday morning they got to race all the other kids' duckies down the lazy river. It was pretty intense, not gonna lie. Danny and I had been prepping the boys all morning for the big race. Even though we were the only parents there, Danny and I knew what a big race this was. Patton's had a chance but then it lost quite a bit of ground coming up to the second bridge. Jack's kind of got lost in the crowd from the initial dump. Although in the end the Summerhays clan didn't come home with any trophies we came away with something much more important... new bath toys!!
While golf didn't quite go our way this week, we found that a BBQ chicken pizza and a chocolate chip Pizookie from BJ's Grille did wonders to boost our spirits. And even when golf is a little rough in the end it's just a tough day at work and Danny is amazing at keeping his perspective and his priorities in place. And really when you get to come home to a smokin' hot wife and two of the cutest kids on the planet life just isn't that bad:)

Houston Shell Open- Jack's 3rd Birthday!!

Ok so while all of Houston was really fun, the highlight was definitely my Jackers turning 3!! We had such a fun day with him for his birthday. We started the day off with a shopping trip and then lunch at... where else... Chick-fil-a. Danny came home from the course early and took him golfing just the two of them and I'm pretty sure Jack would have been completely satisfied with just that. 5 hours before they were going to leave Jack went out into the bay and was getting his clubs ready and had them set out by the front door. However Danny got PING to send us a little set of clubs including the cutest mini bag that even has a little kickstand and Jack got to open them before their golfing outing. Jack was on cloud 9 getting to golf like a big boy golf cart and all. By the end he had even memorized Daddy's pre-shot routine and had made it his own. My goodness I can't even stand how cute he is.

That night when they got home we had a little party set up for him in front of the motor home. We had the basketball hoop out, ladder golf and we even got our bounce house out for the kids to play on. The best part by far though was that Jack's cousins were there!!! Danny's sister Mary and her husband Mike and their four kids live in Houston and came up for Jack's birthday. They had so much fun playing together as did the adults:) We had pizza, cake and ice cream and even got to completely destroy a Lightning McQueen pinata. Good times!! We also had the Bertch family over. They are some of our friends out here who also have a motor home. It was also their little girl Brianna's birthday so we made it a bit of a double birthday party. It's times like this I'm particularly grateful to have the motor home. It would have been significantly more difficult as well as boring to have a party in a hotel room.
Other highlights of the week mainly revolve around the Diehl family. We piled in the car one day and took all 6 kids to the zoo. We had a memorable time even if we didn't get to see a ton of animals:) In addition to losing one of Joshua's shoes in the sea lion tank Patton fell off a chair and got the biggest goose bump on his head I'm pretty sure I've ever seen. Poor kid had a 3rd eye. And as for the shoe, we decided that even after the 3 hour intensive disinfecting that the zoo felt necessary to do on the shoe, we would leave it there as a memento to our day. It just goes to show that it is much more important who you're with than what you do because we still had a blast:)

Mary, Mike and the kids even came out to watch a little golf. Margaret made it a whole 9 holes while the boys seemed content with 1/2 hole:) They were all troopers though.
Although for Danny the week meant another missed cut, we again made the most of it. We ended up being able to listen to alot more of General Conference (a conference held every 6 months for our church via satellite)than if he had been playing on the weekend (well as much as any other parents of a 3 and 1 year old get to listen to). We even got to participate in conference bingo with the Diehls (ok lets be honest we were just tanking back on the marshmallows) and got to hear Dad Summerhays' name read over the pulpit as he was sustained as an area authority. So excited for him in his new calling and for mom because we know who keeps everything running:) So for the weekend we ended up moving the motor home back down closer to Mary and Mike's house and had a fun weekend with them.

Now for my quick Jack update for his birthday. Oh how I love my Jack!!! He is such a smart little whip and just continues to learn more every day. He loves anything with a ball and is pretty darn good at about anything he tries. He is super social and loves people. He'll often just stick his head out of the motor home window and start yelling/talking to whoever happens to be parked next to us that week. I am so grateful he has the ability to make friends anywhere he goes since he seems to be doomed/blessed with a life of constant change. He is such a fun and sweet big brother and is completely adored by his little bro. Patton can't go to sleep at night unless Jack is in there with him and most mornings the first thing out of his mouth is "Jack". He is so full of life and spunk and anyone who meets him loves him. I am constantly amazed at the things that come out of his mouth. He is my little buddy!!! Happy Birthday Little Man!!!!

Orlando-Bay Hill

Orlando... ok since I'm so stinkin' behind I'm just going to try to give at least a short rundown on each of the last 4 weeks for posterity's sake as well as for the sake of my sweet mother-in-law who convinced me to continue to update:) Thanks mom. We had a great week in Orlando. We stayed at Disney's Camp Wilderness which what could it be but the happiest campground on earth right? The park was awesome with beautiful sites as well as so much to do. We clocked several hours in at the pool where Jack and Patton owned the kiddy water slide. On Tuesday night we went to the Chip and Dale sing along (no the chipmunks...family friendly folks:) which was a little campfire show starring... you guessed it, Chip and Dale. The boys loved it and let's be honest, Danny and I were singing right along with them:) One night they showed "Cars" for their outdoor movie and so we let the boys stay up past their bedtime so we could go. I'm pretty sure we went through 3 big buckets of popcorn (Jack and Patton pounding 2 themselves) but we had a blast! The boys and I also went on a little outing with my friend Erin Walker and her little boy to Downtown Disney. We walked around for a bit and then grabbed lunch at the Rainforest Cafe (so cool). Then we had planned to let the boys play in the fountains there but the boys didn't get the memo. It was still a fun outing though even despite getting on the wrong shuttle on the way home. It's nice having other friends out here to go explore with. On Wednesday Danny and I left the kids in the Tour Childcare and got to go to the Orlando Temple. It was starting to become a joke that every temple we happened to be close to was closed for cleaning the week we were there. We finally made it though and it was so great to be there. We were starting to think the church was trying to keep us out:) The boys and I went back later that day so they could see it too. Thus the picture. Another fun event of the week was the party they had for the players and their families. They had dinner, a face painter, a balloon artist and just enough other kids to make it heaven for my boys. I don't know how they didn't knock down any of the gorgeous table displays and in the end we only had one casualty, a basket of forks. But I guess they should have known what they were getting into when inviting the families:) Always an adventure throwing kids into this crazy country club/resort lifestyle called the PGA Tour but they definitely keep it real. So a couple of the tournaments have put on these family parties and they usually have balloons and face painting as well. Every party Jack asks to be a pirate (or in this case a viking pirate) and he has really started owning his role. Luckily once Jack is a pirate other boys seem to take on the role as well so at least I'm not the only mother with a little boy running around screaming "rrrr" and trying to chop your arms off with a balloon sword... what can I say he's a leader:) Patton was every bit as lively just in different ways. Like for instance climbing all over this little scooter statue and... well going back to the forks:). Man I love these boys!! It's easy to laugh at them now as I write this while they are sleeping:) Another highlight was that they had the BYU basketball game on. The low point was that we were watching it in Orlando with a bunch of Florida fans... so sad:( That's all right, great season Cougs! We ended up staying until the end of the game so you can imagine how wired our little pirates were by the end of the night. So despite the earlier than planned departure from Orlando (missed cut) we had such a fun week and then continued on to Houston:)

Tampa- the Transitions Championship

Good ol' Tampa was a good week for a couple of reasons. First was that we were parked right at the course so the proximity made it really nice to get around. It was also fun because there were several other players and their families parked in our little parking lot with us which allowed us to get to know some of them better. Tuesday night some of our friends Rori and Amy Sabbatini had a little BBQ at their bus in honor of his win in Palm Beach and so we went over and ate and chatted with them as well as some other people for a while while the boys played with their kids. It's so nice to have a little neighborhood of sorts. Another highlight of the week was a little service project/luncheon we had with the PGA Tour Wives Association. Quick side note: The Wives Association is made up of, you guessed it, the wives and significant others of the players. It is primarily a service organization that find opportunities to give back to the communities the tour goes to. It is also a support group of sorts for the women out on the road with their husbands. Pretty cool! End side note. Anyways we got to help out a bit with an activity involving a bunch of local school kids. After we had a nice lunch where we met one of the owners of the resort (pretty amazing woman). The next highlight was St. Patrick's Day. I love holidays!! Any excuse to celebrate and add a little spice into every day life I'm all about. We had a breakfast of Lucky Charms, way too much chocolate and a great excuse to talk in an Irish accent... can't go too wrong. It was also Danny's caddy Danny's birthday (his caddy's name is also Danny) so we took him out to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse (quickly becoming one of my favorite dining out options since we get great food and entertainment. The boys were awesome. Saturday morning I took the boys to the little "kid's zone" the tournament put on. We were the only ones there for a while so Jack and Patty got to drive hotwheels to their hearts content as well as get thier faces painted. After while Patton napped Danny took Jack golfing (with his face still painted) Fun day!! So while Danny may not have the same opinion I've loved having him around on the weekends to play with and have some help at church:) Despite the frustration that is golf Danny has maintained an incredible attitude and is still happy and optimistic about the direction golf is going. So we're happy and as always loving being together as a family getting to have these awesome experiences together. Life is good!! On to Orlando... PS sorry about the layout... we've been having issues with blogging lately. Help Jules!!

Puerto Rico and Tampa

Wow playing catch up is brutal I'll try to just be better at staying up to date on my posts:) We arrived safely in Tampa only to turn around early the next morning and take Danny to the airport to catch his flight to Puerto Rico. My parents stuck around for the majority of the week though to help out with the kids and just to play. And man did we play:) We spent a day down in Sebring, FL visiting my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Stan and getting a taste of the sweet Florida retired life. I tell you what, there is a reason so many people retire to Florida and it isn't just the weather. The Sebring Diner was kickin', no joke. It's like spring break only it's in the winter... and Bingo replaces some of the other activities:). I keep telling Danny, we're already half way to the sweet life, we own a bus and he plays golf every day.
We had a blast once we got back to Tampa as well. We hit the park, story time at the local library and Chic-fil-a (like three times, someday ask me to get on my chic-fil-a soap box... I'm a fan) One of the highlights of the week was going to Clearwater Beach. We weren't planning on swimming so we came a little unprepared but the boys didn't seem to mind and by the time we left were strutting around in their underoos for all the coeds down there on spring break. We had such a fun week with my parents and they saved me from a week of way too many chick flicks and at least a carton of icecream.
Due to a very fortunate delayed flight my parents didn't leave until Friday morning and due to an almost as fortunate missed cut (at least for me) I got Danny home Friday night. So you see things worked out just swimmingly>We had a blast Saturday with Danny. We took the boys to the Tampa children's museum and burned a good 3 hours there and then came home for a sports marathon. These consist of Jack and Patton getting into the bay of our bus where we store all of our athletic equipment and systematically removing one ball at a time until they've played every sport imaginable and then we all go inside and crash. They're very fun! Danny told me I have to stop praying for him to miss the cut but if we keep having as much fun as we have been on Saturdays I just don't see that happening:) Sunday we went to church at a ward there in Tampa and I got to teach primary. I overheard a poor Primary president frantically trying to cover for 4 missing teachers so I told her if they would let me take Patton to nursery (he's still a month shy of being legit) than I would teach. I had a fun time with the 7-8 year olds and it was good for me to get to contribute at church (something I really miss believe it or not).
That afternoon we moved the bus up to the golf course (we had been staying at an RV park) where they were letting us park for the week. But this gets me into the next week so I'll start a new post for that...

Palm Beach- The Honda

Palm Beach Florida, so beautiful! Since I am a bit of a slacker and didn't post last week I'll just have to do my best to remember what we did. Mondays are ususally my set up days or "normal" days if you will. I clean, go to the grocery store, take the kids to the park while Danny practices. Then he comes home from work to some gormet meal:) and we eat discuss the day and then have family night. These days are so nice because they give me a small taste of my life back at home, the normalcy I so often crave. Tuesdays I try to take the kids to do something fun...this week was the pool. We had a fun time swimming except when Jack boldly decided he could handle the deep end without floaties and jumped off the ladder. I have to give him props for his courage, well that is after I caught my breath from bolting across the pool to pull his cute little head above water again and calmed down from my minor heart attack:)

We were parked next to 5 or 6 other busses with other families of golfers and so we had a little neighborhood to play with in the evenings. We got out the basketball hoop and the bounce house and just had fun hanging out outside with the other families.
Wednesday started off with a massage (always a good way to start off a day). Occasionally they'll give the wives some spa credit which is definately one of my favorite perks. Afterwards the boys and I drove down to Ft. Lauderdale to get my parents who came into town for the week. We grabbed dinner at a fun little Japanese Steakhouse and then headed home to get ready for the tournament the next day.

Thursday and Friday were the tournament. The wind was completely crazy which made things particularly exciting and while Danny didn't play exactly how he wanted he still maintained his incredible attitude and just picked himself up and started getting ready for the next week. He really is incredible. Allow me my sappy moment. He has an incredibly intense, high pressure job where if you have a bad day at work thousands of people know and have an opinion on it and yet none of that seems to phase him. It takes some pretty amazing focus and mental strength and yet he has just kept working and progressing and staying optimistic keeping his eye on the big picture. What a man!! End sappy note:) Anyways the good thing about missing the cut is that we got to play with him again on Saturday:) We went to the coolest place called "Lion Country Safari". It is a drive through zoo basically except the animals are just wandering free (not the lions though) right outside your car in a more natural environment so you can see them interacting with other of there kind in a more real setting. Soooo cool!!! We saw ostriches, zebras, rhinos within 10 yards of our car. Crazy stuff. After the drive through safari we went to the little amusment park and rode rides, fed birds and giraffes and just walked around looking at more animals. It was such a fun day and my boys were in heaven...ok who am I kidding us adults were loving it just as much!! That night Grandma and Grandpa watched the boys so Danny and I could go on a long overdue date. So much fun to get to just hang out with my sweet man!
Sunday we went to church in Palm Beach and then drove home down the A1A (Ocean Ave) and packed up and headed to Tampa...

Across the Country in 7 Days

So, last entry was in LA and now I'm sitting in Palm Beach Florida. The two mighty oceans serving as bookends to one heck of a week:) That almost bordered on poetic, and you were starting to think I was fairly illiterate based on the amount of typos usually found in my posts:)

Anyways, it was one heck of a week. And in order to tell it all I'll break it up into chapters.

Chapter 1: Phoenix

We started off our 45 hour drive by tackling the six hour drive to Phoenix. As I've mentioned previously Danny's brother Boyd and his family live down there and there is also a TPC (Tournament Players Club?) or a course for Danny to practice on as well as being the headquarters for PING (Danny's sponser) so it just made sense to stop there for a while. It ended up being even better because Mom and Dad Summerhays came down to visit as well. During the day the boys and I hung out with Grandma Summerhays, Barbara Jean (Boyd's wife) and their kids while Danny, Lynn (Danny's dad) and Boyd practiced.

Some of our highlights include playing in the bounce house in front of the motor home, going to the McCormick Railroad Park and riding on the train as well as the carousel, playing at Boyd and Barji's neighborhood playground and having lunch at Chick-fil-a almost every day. Life is good! Our last evening there the dads watched the kids and Mom, Barji and I had a girls night out with pedicures and dinner. So fun!!

Chapter 2: Phoenix to Houston

We left Phoenix on Thursday afternoon and set out on our 18 hour segment of the drive towards Houston. The big event of that night was Jack's "tummy ache" that turned into a night of dashing for the bowl as soon as I heard Jack moan "mommy". Any parent will understand the plight it was just accentuated by our being in such tight quarters and by driving into the wee hours of the night. Fortunately it seemed to be just something he ate because the next morning he was very happily sipping back on his 7-up and pedialyte and didn't have any other issues:) We ended up stopping in a Wal Mart parking lot in Ft. Stockton, TX (the only Wal Mart for hundreds of miles. There isn't a whole lot going on in Western Texas for any who didn't already know this) and driving the rest of the way to Houston the next morning.

Chapter 3: Houston

We had a short but action-packed Friday night and Saturday morning with the Diehl family (Danny's sister Mary and her family). In true Cousin Eddie style (see Christmas Vacation) we backed all 45 feet of our bus into their driveway and plugged in to one of their outlets. Although we took over the whole driveway and hung out into the road a bit, I know deep, deep down inside the neighbors thought we were pretty cool:) Jack and Patton had a blast running around with their cousins and we got to catch up with Mary and Mike. Saturday morning they took us out on a lake by their house in their canoe which was tons of fun. However the fun was short lived since we were now to Saturday and still had another 18 hours to Palm Beach.

Chapter 4: Houston to Palm Beach

We drove...alot... and then drove some more:) While the stops definitely broke up the 45 hours a ton, in the end it was still 45 hours on the road. We still managed to have fun though by reading books, watching movies, playing play dough, coloring and watching more movies. We stopped at a Walmart in DeFuniac Springs, Florida and went to church there the next morning (In DeFuniac Springs not Walmart:)). After church we hit the road again and drove all the way into Palm Beach. We got in about 8:30 (about 1 hour before our eta thanks to Danny's amazing driving skills) and got set up once again for another week.

So while it was a ton of driving it was so nice to have a little more low key week without having the stress of a tournament. We spent some fun time with extended family as well as a lot of quality time with just the four of us... the road warriors as we like to call ourselves:) Anyhow, we are now safe in Florida and will let you know how it goes next week. Til then...