South Carolina / North Carolina Vacation PART ONE

We headed up to Charleston on a Friday morning. We got a later start that we had planned and Avery wanted to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes or so. Needless to say it was a very, very long ride. Once we finally got into town we met my cousin and his wife at the restaurant and I think I must have downed a beer in less than 2 minutes. No kidding. Driving with these two can be rather stressful and I drove the entire way. Once we wrapped up lunch, we headed over to see DD (she came up and stayed the night at her neice Claire's house right up the road from where we were staying) so we could drop Avery off with her for the evening (actually, the next two evenings). It was such a nice night of no kids, good food and too many drinks, but it was all so very necessary - we were in need of some serious adult time. We were in Isle of Palms/Sullivan's Island to see JJ Grey & Mofro. We had planned to go Saturday night, but ended up going Friday night (last 6 songs) as well. They were great! Saturday AM about 11 we finally were ready to go to Charleston to have breakfast/lunch and I was the only one that was a little rough around the edges, but nothing that a McDonalds hamburger couldn't fix.

It was SO hot in Charleston - the car registered 107 degrees. That weekend was the tall ships festival, but it was entirely too hot to even get out of the car. We all met our other cousin Kenneth at Hymen's and enjoyed a few po boy sandwiches. I was lucky enough to sit at the very seat where Sandra Bullock had sat once before. This restraunt leaves little plaques where all the celebrities sit at the tables. Kind of cute. Saturday night we had a great meal and headed out to Sullivan's Island to see the concert. The concert was just as good as the night before.

Sunday morning we all got up and headed out of Charleston. We headed to our next vacation destination - Bennettsville, SC. We needed to go pick up Avery and spend the night on the farm with Grandad and DD. When we got there we were pretty much useless - all that adult partying had caught up with us, so we laid in the hammock and took it easy, cooked dinner and took a few 4 wheeler rides.

Charleston, SC 107 degrees

In Bennettsville, SC...
We took some pictures out in the fields.

Riding the 4 wheeler out to the fields.

Chillin' with her Daddy


Scott was trying to take a cool Stafford pic.

7AM 4 wheeler ride down to the pond to take pictures.

Delayed a bit

Sorry about the lack of bloggage. I am about 1/2 way through sorting and editing the vacation pictures. I hope I can get to it soon. In the meantime here is a picture of Avery on a hike in the woods on our trip to SC.

July 4th on I-75

We are on our way back home from a fun filled SC/NC week long trip.
More pictures and stories to follow tomorrow, but in the meantime, here is my view from the last 6 hours. Thank goodness for the wireless card. Now if I could just find that baby Sominex...

A day at the beach

Scott had to go out of town for Father's Day weekend, so we decided to spend some time over at the beach with a friend. It was beautiful, but VERY hot. That didn't stop Avery from loving every minute of it. We had a great time relaxing and spashing in the water.

Next week we are hoping to leave a little heat and humidity behind and enjoy some cool mountain air. I'm just hoping the heat wave leaves the south soon!

The water was gorgeous. And really quite cool.


She isn't too sure of her footing here.

Oonie, Kitties & Summer Colds

This week Avery's school was closed so Mom was able to come down and help with Avery while I was at work. When mom got here, I was on the couch with a terrible summer cold. On Sunday I started to feel a little better and that's when Paprika (the bright orange kitten) went missing. I was really, really sad - more so than anyone else in the house. I looked everywhere. It's a total mystery to me. Satsuma didn't even seem fazed by her sister missing either. She was becoming lonely during the week and a little more aggressive towards us, so I talked to Jayne at work about getting her other brother - he was the only one that wasn't given away from the litter. She thought about it and decided it would be good to keep them together. She now has her brother to play with and they are getting used to each other.

As I expected, mom got my cold. She is having the worst of it now. :( It's such a bummer too, because this weekend was the time we had planned to spend time together. Hopefully she will feel better soon.

I am finally feeling better, but I think I am on the verge of getting a sinus infection. I have had a terrible sinus headache for the last few days.

Here is Satsuma playing with Mom and Avery.


She likes to sleep hanging off things. I took this pic through the kitchen window, so it's not as clear.


She is not the most beautiful cat, but she has the best personality.

Last Day of School

Today is the last day of school and Avery was excited about all the fun activities they have planned for the day. We have seen so many positive academic changes in Avery, especially in the last 5 months. She will be in the same preschool classroom next year and this time she will get to be one of the older kids in the class. I think it will be good for Avery to be able to become a leader in class.

During the second semester parent/teacher conference I asked Avery's teacher if she should describe Avery in 3 or more words as she responded with, "kind, sweet and observant". She also added that Avery is in awe and amazed by all the new things she discovers. Overall it was a very positive conference. We are pleased with the school, how Avery is progressing and look forward to many great years.

North Georgia Birthday Weekend

A 4 day weekend away was just what the Dr. ordered. I met with some girlfriends for the long weekend up at a friend's cabin up in the north Georgia hills. We had the most relaxing time, good food, good wine and good times. It helped ease the pain of turning 35.


If you ever get a chance to stop by a North Georgia winery this one is the best in my opinion.


The view

The white tasting.

Birthday card from my mom.

Our makeshift wine chiller.

Photo A Day

I have been toying with the idea of doing a Photo A Day project for quite some time now and I have decided to finally commit to doing it. I feel it will help improve my photography skills(hopefully in full manual mode) and capture our daily moments without having to actually post to the blog everyday. For those that really know me (and for those that actually read this blog) know that I am more of a visual person anyway.

So here goes, my commitment to take a photo a day. I can't guarantee that I will post it daily, but I will try. PLEASE CLICK THE PHOTO LINK OF AVERY HOLDING THE UMBRELLA AT THE TOP RIGHT OF THE BLOG TO VIEW THE DAILY PICTURES.

I am still playing with a few free websites online to see which ones works best for me, but I have put up a temporary link to the top right of the blog. Check it out and tell me what you think? Or if you know of a better system yourself. Thanks!

Wedding

Scott's brother Andrew was married to Allyson last weekend and it was such a beautiful wedding. We had such a nice time and it was so fun to see all the family and meet Aly's family.

Candid G Family


Cheese display

I really loved the simplicity of the wedding cake. Just gorgeous!

Jenny leaves with presents and flowers (Aly if you are missing a William Sonoma present, you may want to check with Jen) :-)

Mr. GQ Jonny

GG looked so beautiful and happy.

Bob enjoying himself at the reception.

Cathy was lovely in her dress. Probably the most beautiful dress I have ever seen her in.

The wedding cake was beautiful. I loved all the limes.

I had a difficult time getting a perfect shot of Andrew and Aly because I really didn't want a posed picture. This was one of the best from the day. I probably took at least 100 blurry candid pictures of them that day! I guess 1 out of 100 isn't too bad.

Another Cake View

Coming back from pictures with the official photographer.

Family Gathering

Friday evening we headed over to Crystal River to hang out with the family. All 11 grandkids were together in the same place (well kind of). I took about 5 pictures and this one was the best. Scary, huh? Even though they all were not looking at the camera, at least we managed to get them all in one picture.



Avery playing by the pool.

New Kitties

Two months ago cats set off our burgular alarm and we found that a cat had kittens in our warehouse. One of our employees offered to take the momma and her kittens home until they were ready to give away.
Fast forward to today - she brings the kittens into work and we unexpectedly came home with two orange kitties this evening. We think they're both females, but we are not for sure. I've been tossing a few names around: paprika, satsuma and tater tot. No official names have been given yet.


If I had to name them tonight the one on the left would be Paprika and the one on the right would be Satsuma. Satsuma was the runt of the litter.

Swim Lessons

Avery started swim lessons today. We have been wanting to do lessons for some time now and since both her tubes have fallen out, we feel more comfortable about it. She really does need to learn to swim and she seems ready. We have lots of water plans this summer, so hopefully she will learn quickly. The pool was very chilly and Avery was really cold after about 20 minutes, but I think it was a nice start to learning to swim. We'll be going twice a week until she learns.

Mother's Day

On Sunday we headed over to Cedar Key to visit with the family and consume a lethal amount of calories.

The pictures below were the better ones I took that day. They're totally random.


Little Leif Pants


Aiden - the Stephenson's new puppy (and Avery was terrified of him)


Mmmmm, blue crabs!


Alyson & Sean did an amazing job cooking the chicken in the extreme heat. Thanks guys!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend.

Below is my gift made by Avery. They made these in her class at school and the picture was taken last week at the Piggy Opera. Too cute.

Biking

We started biking this week. Yes, we wait until the weather is nice and HOT before we start our outside exercise. It's been great though. I really hope we can stick with it and bike at least 3 times a week. I'm not sure how many miles we go, but we bike for about an hour.

Tonight we planned to get subs and bike up the trail and have a picnic. Scott got home later than we all had hoped, so our evening was cut shorter than we wanted, but we still had a nice time and I was able to get some pictures.

Happy weekend everyone! Tomorrow morning we have a birthday party and then Sunday we will head to Cedar Key to visit the fam.

Three Piggy Opera

This past Tuesday Avery was in her first preschool musical - "The Three Piggy Opera".
She played the part of a little pig that lived at the brick house. She had a singing part in the musical and we are so proud of her. She is normally very shy and even though she didn't sing real loud, she did such a great job performing.
We are still trying to figure out our video, once we do I will add some clips to the blog.

None of these pictures are all that great. The lighting was bad and my external flash was no help this time.

Here she is before the show with the assistant teacher of her class, Ms. Beth


In the classroom before the show.


This was moments before her singing part. Unfortunately I couldn't get her singing because someone in the audience was right in front of her.


Part of the class toward the end of the show.

Singing with the group. Looks like she is singing "Oink, Oink, Oink" here.

After the show she went straight to the refreshments. Chocolate and sweet tea?!

Wordle

I came across a Wordle today and did one with my blog.