Karma Chameleon...

I love Texas. I love that it's February 12th and the high today is 78. It makes me excited for summer and ready for the lake. My sister is a lay-out freak. She comes by it honestly because my mom and Nana like to bake in the sun as well. My Nana is queen bee. Homegirl slathers on that Hawaiian Tropic DARK tanning oil, gets herself a cup of ice water, props herself and those hot-pink fingernails up on her raft that sits up so her hair doesn't get wet, and she's good for a few hours.

My family loves the water. Growing up, both of our sets of grandparents had pools. We were water rats and we loved it. I distinctly remember swimming at my Nana and papa's house practically daily. We would swim and swim and swim and we would get out of the pool and be STARVING! Nana would always have a freshly cut cantaloupe waiting for us and a Styrofoam cup of milk. Ah memories. I was always at a disadvantage though. You see, my dad and my sister are literally twins. They have dark hair, green eyes and freaking olive skin. they are so lucky! My mom and brother have very similar coloring with brown hair (ahem...excuse me, brown hair for Taylor...mom's a natural blond....) and they tan very easily. Then there's me. what the heck people? Red hair, blue eyes, fair skin and freckles. I'm like Vanilla Ice....Turn off the lights, and I'll glow! The family joke is that I don't look like anyone in my family. I came from the Milkman...

I could never hang with the rest of the family and not much has changed. They can sit and bask in the sun for hours upon hours just getting to be bronze goddesses. This past summer we went to Vegas for a week and my entire family would lay by the pool and Dave and I would hang out for about 1 hour and then go shower and go walk the strip until they were done. We can't hang! I know you're all going to tell me the sun is bad for you and protect your skin and blah blah blah. You haven't met my family and you're clearly not from Texas!

This is my lot in life. I am going to be fair skinned and hardly tan at all and what little tan I do get will not come easily. So what do I go and do? A great dissatisfaction to my future children. I went and married someone who is actually more pale than me. Ha! My sister and I like to joke that I will be "that mom" at the pool with kids in hats and t-shirts. They will be the slippery babies that are slathered in 80 proof sunscreen and can still only be outside for 20 minutes. My sister and I laughed about this for 20 minutes the other night and as she so lovingly stated, "They will practically be see-through they will be so pale."

Ah....little chameleon babies....

Day one of our honeymoon in Mexico...and I had been tanning for the wedding!

Day 3....Shoot, I'm a bronze goddess in this pic

This is my family after the before mentioned day of fun in the sun! They put the pale kids on the end. You can hardly even see my dad's face he's so dark. I'm proud of Dave and I in this picture though. We're sportin' some serious pigment!

This was mid-June Last year after a day of laying out with my friends and a day on the golf course for Dave. We are SO tan! (Or maybe so pink...) There may be hope for our little karma chameleons yet!