Robin Interviews Robin about Her Trip to Destin

Well, it's not good enough to just tell the story of our vacation to Destin, Florida.  Of course, there has to be an interesting angle for communicating a vacation story.  I've chosen to interview myself so join me as I tell me about my trip.

How do the Carnetts entertain themselves on long road trips?
     Lindy and I don't have a great capacity for staying awake while driving on long trips, even when we don't leave early in the morning or late at night.  We're kind of light weights in that way.  So we left the house around 8:30 a.m. or so and by 10:30 a.m. Lindy was nodding off and needed me to keep him awake.  That's right, two hours on the road, and he's ready for a nap.  I was reading a book so I wasn't really feeling the pain.  Back in the day, when it was just Lindy and me; and waaaaaaaay before smart phones and navigation systems I used to keep him awake by using our old school travel atlas and asking him geography questions.  I know, we're nerds.  He's really good with geography and I can kill it on state capitols.  Now that we live in the 21st century I have him and the boys play "Name That Tune."  Specifically, they played Petra (I told you we're old school) and TobyMac "Name That Tune" on Lindy's iPhone with our Toothpik.  Lindy's a little better than Jac with Petra, depending on the particular album, and Ethan can kick both their patooties on TobyMac.  If you ask Ethan, there is no other recording artist.  I often catch him in our garage with his music blaring, dancing and singing with a broomstick as his mic stand.  (Don't tell him I said that.  It would really cut into the coolness factor of this kid):

   

I heard that you were going to see an old friend in Nashville.  Who did you see?
     I'm so glad you asked.  We saw my friend Kimmie.  Most mature adults probably just call her Kim and her students call her Mrs. Henderson, I'm sure, but college nicknames stick.  She still calls me Robbie.  I hadn't seen Kimmie since college so it's been a long time.  We are now both married and have five boys between us.  She has the most beautiful Bermuda grass, the kind that doesn't grow in Missouri--at least not in our yard--and her front lawn is like a golf course.  Her husband is as particular as mine about his yard.  Speaking of her husband, and I don't think she'll mind if I give a shout-out about him to my tens of readers, but his name is Jon Henderson and he is a songwriter in Nashville.  His office is on Music Row.  Way cool.  Whether you're a country music fan or not, I have to tell you that he has written some great songs.  The songwriting business is extremely competitive and tough to break through to the top, but he has a fabulous song on Brad Paisley's new album:  "This is Country."  If you don't buy the album at least buy his song, "Toothbrush."  It's a sweet little story and Kimmie said the first time he played it for her it brought tears to her eyes.  It did the same for me and he's not my husband!!  Anyway, buy the song "Toothbrush" and pray that it gets picked as the next single from Brad's album.  That's where the big money comes in--when your song gets picked as a single.  (See, I can call Brad by his first name and share all this cool information with you because I know about all this music business stuff since my friend Kimmie's husband is in the biz).  Of course, you know my husband had to contribute something to this discourse between Kimmie and me and he let Kimmie know that he comes up with all kinds of one-liners all the time that Jon could use in his songs.  Apparently, there's a phrase that her brother says that goes like this:  "Write a word, get a third."  So, Lindy was motivated to give as many one-liners as possible.  I told Kimmie that she had created a monster, but she said I could text her the lines and she would give them to Jon.  Hopefully, she's filtering them.  I texted her several times while we were in Florida.  Lindy's gone back to preaching now, instead of songwriting; although he has written a couple pretty good songs in the past.  Here's picture of me and my dear friend:

Here's a picture of us in college:

We haven't changed a bit, have we?  Sorry it's such poor quality.  I'm on the far left with the wild spiral perm.  Kimmie is second from the right with the mass of brunette hair.  I don't know exactly what we were doing, but I have a feeling it had something to do with dressing up for Monday night hall meeting in our dorm.  I've cropped the picture for public consumption.  I happen to know that at least one of the other girls in this pic reads my blog and all five of us are friends on Facebook, so we'll see how long it takes for them to comment...or send me hate mail.

What was the most exasperating part of your trip?
     Definitely, it was the traffic getting there.  Can I just say that driving south through Alabama to the Gulf coast on the Saturday of 4th of July weekend is extremely exasperating??  More exasperating than the traffic was listening to Lindy complain about the traffic.  The only real entertainment we had was in having fun joking about a lady in front of us on the Bay Bridge who didn't want her husband to let us in.  There was nowhere else to go, lady!  I was texting back and forth with Cayla, and being Lindy's sister she is well acquainted with Lindy's traffic impatience issues.  She told me to tell him to kill the time by looking for a traffic app on his iPhone.  She said there wasn't one but it would at least distract him and keep him busy looking for one.  Good tip, Cayla.  It worked for a little while.

Robin, what do you view as the "must have" items when going on a beach vacation?
     Well, most normal people would list things like sunscreen, beach towels, etc.  Not this girl.  Here are the two items I think you have to take to the beach.  Ready?  Bobby pins and tinted moisturizer with SPF.  That's right, hair and beauty products.  I do not like wet hair hanging on my shoulders so my preferred beach or pool 'do is a side bun.  Exhibit A:

I didn't capture it too well in this shot.  You can see my little messy side bun to the right, but you can see my two little ones and the gorgeous white sand in the background.  My friend, Dawn, reminded me after I published my last post about our staff retreat that my side bun lasted the whole day on the lake.  She said I am a walking advertisement for whatever hair products I use.  Dawn, it's really more about the strategically placed bobby pins than the product, although I am an advocate for using the appropriate product for your hair.  I use four bobby pins to be exact.

Since I know you all just can't get enough of my silly preoccupation with all things beauty, you must understand that you can't go to the beach without tinted moisturizer.  The one I have is by Mary Kay and it's fabulous.  No makeup needed.  Just put on your tinted moisturizer, a little lip gloss and you're good to go.  Just try not to get your face wet unless you carry your tinted moisturizer with you.  I can actually feel my face start to burn if I get it wet.  Not good.

What was the funniest part of your trip?
     That had to be snorkeling with my crazy 70ish mother.  She thought she was crazy for trying it, but I know she's glad she did.  She's a lot like her Mom in that way--trying things just to prove you still got it. I accidentally threw away the photo that was taken of Lindy, me, the boys and their Mimi in the water with all of our snorkel gear on.  I haven't had a chance to make a copy of hers yet.

I heard you went with your family.  Who went and where did you stay?
     We stayed in a beach house for ten and it was my family; my brother, Rob; his wife, Lisa; their daughter, Alex; and my parents.  The beach house was nice and we had a wonderful time together.  Here are some random photos of us enjoying our trip.  They are raw photos.  Lindy, the photographer, requires a disclaimer and they might not be the ones he would pick:

My Dad and Lisa

My Mom and Dad

Me and my boys

The pastor and his not-so-average wife

Our three stair steps

My sweet E--who I wish I could just keep the same age no matter what age he happens to be

My biggest handsome blue-eyed boy who is about an inch away from passing me up

A rare shot of my brother and me--and him smiling.  I get him to smile by repeatedly telling him not to smile.

Crazy boys

I told Lindy when he snapped this one that it was the "money shot."  Big blue eyed almost kindergartener.

Rob and his beautiful girls--Lisa and Alex.

Weren't you also seeing some of your extended family while you were there?
     Yes, we got to see my Aunt Elaine--my mom's sister; my cousin, Gerayne, and her family; and my cousin Lana and her son, Dylan.  Here are a few pics of them:

The Gav and Aunt Elaine

Me and Aunt Elaine

I wish you could see my aunt's eyes in these pics.  She has the most gorgeous tiger eyes--gorgeous green with brown flecks.  For my co-workers who see me wear my aunt's hand-me-down shoes--this is the aunt.  She is stylin'--always--and the one thing she had to make sure to do while in Destin was to go to a particular shoe store.  Lindy was the two Miss Daisies' chauffeur and he was a big hit with Aunt Elaine.  He's very charming and is great company.  Old ladies eat him up--no offense meant to my 70ish mother and her sister.

We didn't get any shots of Gerayne, but she was the first nurse in the family and she's gorgeous.  We did get a quick shot of my beautiful cousin, Lana, and me--aka Lana Banana.  Cousin nicknames don't go away easily either.  Here's Lana and me:

Still rockin' the side bun

Did any momentous events occur while you were in Destin?
     If you would count the last ever, supposedly, shuttle launch and the Casey Anthony verdict; then yes.  We happened to be in Whataburger eating lunch after our snorkel trip when I noticed what looked liked the verdict being read on the wall-mounted television.  I was on my way to our table when I looked at the TV, dropped my tray on the floor like a hot potato, waved my arms around and shouted to the whole restaurant, "Quiet people!!!  It's the Casey Anthony verdict!!"  Just kidding, I basically had little to nothing invested in this trial so I watched with only the slightest interest.  She's definitely guilty of being a neglectful mother who made really stupid choices in raising her child, but at the end of the day the prosecution didn't prove their case.  Just my opinion.  Even still, I figured since it was such a big deal in the media I needed to take note of where I was when the Casey Anthony verdict was read.  For the record, I was working at St. John in Tulsa on the oncology/neurology floor when the OJ verdict was read.  Most of us gathered in an empty patient room to watch together.

Were there any heart-touching moments on your trip?
     One of my favorite moments was watching Jac teach Gavin how to go all the way down to the bottom of the 8 foot pool and touch his feet.  He taught me too, by the way.  Apparently, the best way to accomplish this is to actually let out all of the air in your lungs before you try to descend.  If you try it while holding a full breath then you are too buoyant and you can't get to the bottom.  This nurse learns something new from her children every day.  Imagine that.

Any exciting moments?
     Well, I have to tell a little bit about my girlfriends' trip to Chicago last December for this one to make sense.  Deanna, Jenn,and I went to Chicago for a few days before Christmas.  While there, we spent four hours in a Starbucks one evening just chatting the night away.  During our time there, a homeless man came in and started asking us for money.  He homed in on me, maybe he saw weakness there, and Deanna had to be the firm one to get him to leave us alone.  (Don't mistake her firmness for a lack of compassion.  It was a slightly uncomfortable experience in a private business).  He was pretty insistent and didn't want to leave Starbucks.  After he left, I made the statement that, "Sometimes politeness gets in the way for me." I have a hard time forgoing politeness even while being harassed.

I remembered that statement one afternoon while Gavin and I were at the pool.  I was laying out and reading a book while keeping an eye on him.  I watched him let go of his raft and it got too far away for him to swim to it.  (His grandmother has taught him to swim from a very young age, but he can't swim far distances).  When he realized he couldn't make it to the raft he turned around to try to swim to the side.  He couldn't make it that far either.  I was watching him but wanted to give him the opportunity to solve the problem himself.  When I saw it wasn't going to happen I took off running across the concrete, yelled "Watch out!!" and jumped over some people in the pool to get to my baby.  I yanked him up out of the water, pulled off his mask, and he was screaming.  Some men in the pool tried to help me get him to calm down but there was nothin' doin'.  I was determined not to let him get out of the pool--you know, the whole getting-back-on-the-horse thing--but I eventually let him get out.  Within half an hour he was back in the pool, with his mask on, swimming all over the place.  Later on, when I was reflecting on this event I realized that I did not let politeness get in the way!!  Robin-in-her-right-mind would have certainly yelled, "Excuse me!!" before jumping over the people.  Robin-rescuing-her-child-from-drowning had no qualms about yelling "Watch out!!"  I was proud, but mostly just glad that Gavin had agreed to get back on the horse so soon.

OK, one more story, then I've got to close out this post that's taken me 3 hours to write and a good portion of that time for you to read.  I had planned to do a section on swimsuit fashion but that will have to be a post for another day.

Anything memorable happen on the way home?
     I bought a pair of cowboy boots.  I know that's shocking to most of you; but my husband, his friend, and a few other people get it.  I don't have the finger power to explain my reasoning at the moment.

I will tell you one last cute, memorable thing that Gavin did.  While we were driving back he asked if he could sing a Christmas Carol.  Lindy said no.  He asked, "Well, can I sing a Spring Carol?"  Lindy said, "Sure, sing a Spring Carol."  So, Gav breaks out into a lively rendition of "Joy to the World!!"  Good try, Gav.  Call it what you want.  It's still a Christmas Carol and Dad wasn't buying it.



That's all for now.  Hope you enjoyed me interviewing me.  I'll have a post on swimsuit fashion at some point, The View From Here, and my feelings about my little Gav Gav starting kindergarten.

Love to all.