glimpse

excited to get to do a little photo shoot of Nevaeh in the mountains.  i love that niece of mine!  i can’t get enough.

this is the beach where we have held our annual end of vacation cookout for over 20 years….our perfect picnic spot.

absolutely perfect weather, a spot to recline and watch the kids, i could have stayed forever…we all could have.

our annual tradition to visit the museum in rutherfordtown, nc.  we love this place!  the pictures tell why…

loads of downhills to ride, diving to practice, a lazy river to lounge, exotic crawlies to find…meant a relaxing vacation was had.

perfect weather (cool nights, warm days, not a spot of rain, and no mosquitoes, you heard me, none) + perfect friends (everyone had buddies to play with) = perfect memories.  hot dogs and marshmallows roasting on the fire, reading aloud in the tent after dark, plenty of woods to explore, a mountain creek, a lake beach, hiking and creatures to discover.  we should do this more often.

new goggles, very proud.

guess who’s not happy?  you only get one guess.

a very, very happy dog…look at that smile…outside with us the entire weekend with many little ones hugging and lounging on her constantly.

smores and checkers.  life is good.

their own personal pool.

in case you were wondering what dillon eyes look like…hint: they’re HUGE.

slumber party on lam’s playroom floor.  the stuff memories are made of.

the dog-cousins came up too.  they’re getting so big!  sydney loved the action.

remie and ruger were not excited about learning to swim.

thanks to lam’s hospitality it was a wonderful weekend, full of yummy food, relaxing afternoons and water, water, water.  thank you God for the rain!

so for our last field trip with our king’s friends we went to the ga aquarium.  good times.

when we noticed that the penguins were off display we asked at the front desk and were kindly excorted to their temporary holding tank.  we had such fun watching them dive and swim right up close!

we also paid to see the titanic exhibit and it was worth it!  as we walked in we were given boarding passes with names on them.  the boys received male names and the girls females.  it was really intriguing to read about our lives and at the end of the exhibit to see whether or not we survived the disaster.  we were able to see actually clothes that had been preserved in a suitcase, dishes, a stateroom and a third class room all set up, touch an iceberg (really impressive to a four yr old), and see videos of exactly how they think it went down.  between all the dark halls and the moaning sounds of the ship, ethan was a little overwhelmed and had to be reminded that the ocean was far, far away.  

mandy organized a night out while she was in town.  such a fun night: la madelines for dinner, then coffee at cafe intermezzo.  a good, long chat. very nice.