Friends.

I was looking back at the last month of pictures deciding which ones I would keep. No spectacular super cool pictures but I did notice one common ingredient... our FRIENDS! We are so blessed with the amazing people that make our lives so much fun everyday!

No matter if it is friends we have known since the day we were born or the ones we see every single day at school...

Or the friends we used to see every single day long ago but now we don't get to see enough...

(Blake and Carlos Hernandez)

Or those "forced friendships," where their parents have been such great friends that now it's only natural that they get to celebrate their birthdays side by side each year!

(Carter and Conner Hernandez)

Or those friendships you spend hours just talking and you always leave in tears saying that, "you wished we could only live closer..."

(Alli and Megan)

And again those forced friendships! (because it is important to their mommies! lol)

(Carter and Trey Casey)

Or those, "We're care free and having fun finding things that make noise together" friendships!

(Drew Boerckel and Addie)

Or this is "My best friend in the world and I don't want to go to school if he's not there" friend.

(Carter and Cash McPeak)

Or those important "work colleagues turned mommy friend turned great girl friend" who get the occasional night out to catch up together.

(Amy and me)

Or those best friends "who you can't get enough of because you have so much fun no matter what you are doing together!"

My Babies...

are getting so big BUT I absolutely LOVE these ages for BOTH of them!

This week, Carter turned 33 months, just 3 months shy of his 3rd birthday. The wheels are turning in my head for his party already. He is without a doubt an incredibly sweet, loving, rule-bound child, however, he seems to be getting more and more sensitive and cautious with new surroundings and people. He has done remarkably well in the last month moving up to the 3 year old class and being the very youngest in the class. He still has a very clear passion for books and his memory is starting to "wow" us.

Addie just turned 16 months and her favorite thing right now is playing in our cars. She will sit in them for 45 minutes pretending to drive and climbing all around... pure entertainment every day. She just started Spanish lessons at school and is doing so good. She is our little 'miss independent,' and such a fearless child.

Then it was off to The Hamptons.

This blog entry is going to be pretty detailed, in effort to help remember some specifics for my mom and Joe as they try to make their first trip to The Hampton's this Spring. Finding a Car in New York City is pretty difficult. So we took a taxi back to LaGuardia (which was directly east of the city and on the way to Long Island) therefore, we didn't have to battle any of the city traffic. It was an easy drive, only about a 75 minutes to South Hampton, where we stopped and had a late lunch.

We ate at "75 Main"on Main Street. Blake's fish and chips were yummy! At first glance, Main street resembled Fredricksburg, however, at closer inspection, the small store fronts were filled with Tiffany's, Sak's 5th Avenue and Trina Turk. It is probably one of the only towns in America that still has actual "tennis" shops. We saw only 3 car dealerships in all the of the Hamptons - Mercedes, Land Rover and BMW.

Cooper's Beach, the number 3 rated beach in America for 2009 happened to be here, so we had to find it. Believe it or not, it was completely unmarked and we had to nonchalantly ask the locals how to find it about a mile into a beautiful neighborhood.

On the way to Cooper's Beaches, the mansions were spectacular and we found it very interesting that the owners don't believe in fences surrounding their beautiful multi-million dollar homes, instead, tall and dense bushes are what give privacy to 90 percent of the houses.

Blake and I love real estate and had to do some research while we were there. For an Atlantic beach access house similar to below, they are going for minimum 18-21 million dollars...

Cooper Beach was in fact gorgeous, amazingly clean, and mostly deserted in the 70 degree cloudy weather.

So geographically, South Hampton, Bridge Hampton, East Hampton and Amagansett are all seamlessly connected by Highway 27. The entire road is lined with beautiful Farmer's Markets filled with fruit and fresh flowers in vibrant colors.

There are NO MAJOR hotel or motel chains in The Hampton's, which is what gives it it's quaint ambiance. After reading dozens of reviews and battling the beautiful September weather and popularity, we chose Sea Crest on the Ocean. Nothing fancy. Simple. Clean. Perfect.

View out our private balcony. About 15 feet was to the boardwalk and our extraordinary Atlantic Ocean beach with not a shred of sea weed and filled with some of the biggest waves Blake and I have seen since Hawaii.

The view, walking up from the beach, of our room.

One of the most unique aspects of the beach was the smooth colorful rocks that would wash up on shore during high tide. We brought home about 50 of them as a momento of our relaxing trip.

We went jogging on the beach Sunday morning before heading to the farthest east point of New York - Montauk Point Lighthouse. Beforehand, we enjoyed breakfast at "Bird on The Roof," along with the Montauk locals.

Montauk definitely has a different "feel" than other Hampton towns we had spent time in. It was a much more relaxed and low key fisherman town. Montauk had great little shops and we found Carter this great metal sign as a gift. We stopped in at "Shagwon Tavern," a local fisherman's bar to have a drink and for Blake to get caught up on football scores.

We climbed to the top of the 212 year old light house and afterwards, explored "Gin Beach." We learned that the beaches on the north side of the island and bay are no where near as beautiful as the south facing ones, where Cooper's Beach and our hotel are located.

We explored a Montauk Marina.

When the sun came out, we spent the rest of the afternoon sipping wine and relaxing at our beach having fun. One other thing that was different than our South Texas beaches... the seagulls.... they were seriously enormous! (Blake says nearly 20 pounds.)

On Sunday night we decided not to drive and instead walked directly across Old Montauk Highway (just a 2 lane road) to this "hole-in-the-wall" bar/restaurant called "CYRIL'S." It came highly recommended from one of my mom's vendors that lives in NYC. It ended up being one of the highlights of the weekend. Amazing food and atmosphere while dining with people that lived and vacationed in that area. We over heard the table behind of us saying that they thought we were famous and they were trying to figure out who we are.... lol.

Hands down, the coolest aspect of our trip had to be that we couldn't pick out one other "tourist" at any point of our trip, once we left the city. It was relaxing, fun, low key, new and just completely different. On the way back to the Long Island Airport on Monday, I took my friend and native New Yorker, Cara's advice, and stopped and had a REAL New York bagel. It WAS delicious. (She says it has to be the New York water that they soak the dough in!)

What fun.