Sisters in the City

Whew. Those little ladies are too much fun. My Mom and her sister, Cindy, came to visit for a whirlwind of a weekend. From the moment they arrived on Thursday, I don't think the smile left my face until we dropped them off at the airport this evening. We went to the beach, shopped, ate great food, went walking, ate more great food, played with Molly, and had a fun and relaxing visit. Thursday, we stayed up talking until after 2a.m. talking and they reminisced about their childhood growing up in Texas, my great-great grandparents, our extended family--and essentially where I come from. It was such a treat for me to listen to their stories and learn so much about our family history that might not otherwise be passed down--I just soaked it up like a sponge. I took off work Friday and we decided to head to Clearwater to have a girls’ day at the beach since Monte had to work. It was a gorgeous sunny day, the water was at 85 degrees, and the grouper sandwiches and cold beers at Frenchy's were the perfect additions to our afternoon. Saturday, we had another girls day and shopped our way through Tampa--we went everywhere from TjMaxx to Tiffany's. I know Monte was bummed that he wasn't included in the shopping marathon and had to sit home and watch football all day. So, that night we invited him to join us for dinner and drinks in Ybor City. Sunday we all (Molly too) went to Tarpon Springs for the day. It is a little town that was founded around the turn of the century by Greek sponge divers, and there are lots of touristy shops, Greek restaurants, and historical buildings along the sponge docks. Molly loved all of the attention and kisses from the locals and her favorite part was eating spankopita at the table with us. We had a fabulous authentic Greek meal and bought the most wonderful baklava and other pastries to take home and eat with our coffee. OMG. Yum. Monte and I absolutely love having guests; it feels like a vacation for us too. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend, and I'm so happy that my Mom and Cindy were able to spend the time together as well. Those gals are the best--the BEST! ;)