Weekend Travels

Happy Birthday Lydia!

This past weekend we spent time visiting in Kansas City for my niece’s 3rd birthday! We headed out on Saturday morning and came back late Sunday evening. It was SO FUN to watch the girls play together. Lydia, Parker, Brecken and Hannah played so well, and it was hilarious to listen to them and see them together. I pray that they continue to enjoy each other’s company and be close friends as cousins as they grow older. Here are the girls!

Lydia, Parker, Hannah & Brecken..trying to get them to look at the camera and smile is hard.

Parker waiting with smiles for cake and icecream!
Brecken waits too!

Check out the shoes...Parker and Brecken loved wearing Lydia's play shoes!!
Brecken putting on the shoes!

Lydia and Parker...not the greatest of them, but funny with the head wear!

Lydia with her baby doll

Dove Season

Parker enjoying her dinner while "hunting". She has informed that that this pink shirt is now her "hunting" shirt

When Chris and I found out we were having two girls, his hopes of having a boy to hunt and fish with diminished a little…until he realized that he would just take the girls with him someday. Well, that day has arrived! Parker has been begging Chris to go with him to dove hunt. He went out last weekend, and I had to sneak away before he left so he could go with just the guys, but this weekend he decided he would take her and introduce her to the world of hunting. She was so excited to get to go. Daddy purchased ear protectors for her and a sandwich for dinner and off they went. She got to go potty three times outside; to her delight I’m sure and got home way past bedtime, to which she surly didn’t mind! Mr. Clint, Dr. Jeff and Gray joined in on the fun.

Parker with the dove's she helped find..

Dr. Jeff and Grayson

Dance Classes

Parker had her 1st dance class today, and she did awesome! I think her momma was more excited for her today, than she was! Parker is signed up to take from the same person I took from when I was a little girl. I think that’s the part that makes me so excited. I started with Miss Julie when I was Parker’s age, and was in her very first dance class when she started many moons ago. I LOVE that Parker is now taking from her. In her class there are several darling little girls, some of whom I know their mommy’s, and the others I don’t. Parker’s friend Morgan is taking the class with her, and they both looked so cute today, actually all the little girls did! I am SO THANKFUL for Morgan’s mommy Miss Sally, as she has graciously agreed to take Parker back to school for me after dance class is over. Nana will be taking Parker, and today I decided to tag along to make Parker feel comfortable about the driving arrangements. I think she was a bit cautious today as she wasn’t quite sure of the plan. Parker is my girl who came out very serious, and studied people and the surroundings….as soon as she’s got it figured out, she comes out of her shell and turns into Ms. Chatty Cathy! Today was a day of looking around. I am so excited for her, and seeing her today in her dance outfit makes me realize how big she is getting…I can’t believe it!!

Morgan and Parker

Miss. Julie, Parker and I

The Boat

This is the last post in my vacation series. Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bob live on Lake Marion which is absolutely huge! The water was a little low while we were visiting, but when it's not, they've been known to go out for a morning stroll or evening strolls on the lake with access from their dock in the back yard. We didn't get this access due to the water level, but we did get to take a couple of evening rides. The girls LOVED the boat rides. We ate dinner at a burger place on the water one night which was fun! The first night was during the week, and I'm pretty sure we had the entire lake to ourselves that night. What a relaxing way to end the evening. As I mentioned before, I forgot my camera on the days we went into Charleston. We decided to stay a night there and spend a couple of days walking around the historic district. We took the girls to the aquarium and ate wonderful seafood for lunch and dinner. I LOVED Charleston and highly recommend going for a visit if you haven't. Such a neat city with TONS of history. The houses were amazing, the view of the water and Ft. Sumter was cool and the shopping is great too. We did lots of walking and still didn't get to see and do everything we wanted. All in all we had a great first family vacation. Thank you again Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bob for opening your beautiful home to us!

The Beach

On the same day we went to Brookgreen Gardens, we also stopped by the beach to see where it was located, as we planned to take the girls there the next day. This was Parker and Brecken’s first look at the beach and ocean and they LOVED it!! I loved it for them!! It was a very windy but sunny afternoon and we only spent about 15 minutes before we headed out. Brecken was SO MAD and didn’t want to leave. The next day we went back and spent a few hours playing in the sand, and water. It was overcast, but we still enjoyed the day. The last 30 minutes Brecken had had it, and was ready to go and take a nap. The last photo is of her in the car before we even left the parking lot! We had a great day and hopefully a day that the girls will always remember!

Parker checking out the sand..

Brecken really mad that we were leaving the beach..

The girls playing in the sand..

Parker building a "sand castle"

Daddy and Brecken in the water

Parker enjoying the waves

Brecken in the car after crying for 30 minutes..

Moving On To South Carolina

Chris, Parker, Aunt Nancy, Brecken, Uncle Bob

After our short stop in Atlanta we pressed on to South Carolina where we stayed with Chris’ Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bob. I have to share a quick story about Parker in the car. She did great, but every time she needed to stop and go potty, she wanted to use the “training potty” we brought along for the “just in case” scenario if we needed it. I kept telling her that we would only use it if we couldn’t find a restroom to use…needless to say, every time we stopped at a gas station, she would say “if they don’t have a potty here, can I use my blue one”..towards the end of the trip, Chris and I were so annoyed that she kept asking it almost became funny…our response became, “yes, if they don’t have a potty, you can use yours”. To her delight, we did come across a gas station whose women’s restroom was out of order, so she did get to use it once on the trip! Anyway, we made it and enjoyed several days with Bob and Nancy. They were awesome hosts and took us around to new places such as Brookgreen Gardens, a fantastic restaurant for lunch called Drunken Jacks, which had the most amazing hush puppies I had ever tasted and the best She Crab soup we had all week! They also showed us to the beach so we knew where to go the next day with the girls. A few days later we all went into Charleston and toured the historic district, to which we thought it would be worth bringing the girls back for a couple of more days on our own, which we did. Unfortunately I left my camera at home on the Charleston days, so I have no pictures of us there, but we LOVED that city, and have decided it is worth going back for a long weekend without kids and seeing everything else we didn’t get to do. The time we did spend at Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bob house, we enjoyed the boat rides on the lake and swimming in the area pool and nighttime walks around the neighborhood.

Family photo at Brookgreen Gardens

Brecken thought it would be fun to push her own stroller around for a while!

The flowers and statues were amazing

I LOVE the live oak trees in the south!!

Family Vacation Part One-Atlanta

Brecken, Grant & Parker

When we decided to go on vacation and that we were heading to South Carolina, I was thrilled at the opportunity to visit my best girl friend Emily and her family in Atlanta since it was on the way! Emily and I have been friends since junior high school, and have known each other even longer. I love the fact that we have not gone to the same school since, and have remained very close friends talking on the phone at least once every couple of weeks. Her husband was unfortunately working that weekend, so we didn’t get to see much of him, but we had a ball watching the kids play together, and we wore Emily out with the constant chatter amongst the girls. She took us on a little tour before heading to lunch, which was the 1st day of getting us totally off schedule, to which she told me to get over it:) The other fun part of this stop on our trip is on the tour of her area in Atlanta, we drove by Alton Brown’s house from the Food Network, and then headed to another part of town for lunch at the OK Café, and who do we see standing in line in front of us…Alton Brown…how funny is that! Our stay was short, but I LOVED every minute of spending time with Em and Grant, and having a couple of drinks with Brooks when he finally got done flying the skies!

I had to include this photo as it was too funny. I looked back at the girls to find them both sleeping, and this was Brecken asleep in the back on the way to Atlanta.

Here we are on our tour, and the kids fell asleep before we even had lunch..

This is Em, Grant, Brecken, Parker and I at the OK Cafe...I so badly wanted to take a picture of Alton, but knew it was totally inappropriate!

Vacation

We made it back home from our first family vacation on Tuesday. We had an amazing time visiting friends and family in Atlanta and South Carolina! We decided to pack up the kids and make a road trip out of it, and I can honestly say this was my 1st real road trip that I can remember. (I don’t think the Dodge City family vacation counts when I was little) Anyway, we drove across the country and saw states that I loved, and a few that I would rather not go through again, even if it’s a fun one to spell…Mississippi! The girls did amazing in the car for the 20+ hours we drove. We stopped in Atlanta and visited my girl friend Emily and her family for a few days, and then continued on to South Carolina for the rest of the week and spent time with Chris’ Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bob. They were all gracious hosts and we are so thankful for them in allowing us to invade their world for our vacation. I’ll break up the rest of the posts on our vacation with pictures to follow. We’re glad to be home, and getting settled back into a routine…for those that know me well, I THRIVE on routine!! You’ll be happy to know that I was really good about being flexible and going with the flow. I was just glad that Judy and “school” got to be the ones to get them back on schedule for me:) More posts with pictures to follow soon!