Playdate

I took some photos from our regular play dates that occur about every two weeks or so with friends who live down the street. They always have a great time playing and the mom's have fun catching up. This day was bittersweet because Sarah's friend, Maura is about to move to Georgia due to her daddy's activation (he is in the Army Reserve). They are supposed to be gone for at least 12 months. We can't wait to have them back. Julie and I have gotten close as well.


This is my friend Julie and her 2nd child, Tristan. We met them visiting our old church almost two years ago and through idle chitchat realized that we were neighbors. We are so lucky to have found them, they are wonderful friends.

Here is a photo of Dawn and her new puppy.

This is a photo of Dawn's beautiful little girl Lily.

Here are the "three amigos" pushing the play car around the house.

This is a photo of Amy playing teacher for the kids. Her son, Liam is also in the photo with the girls. It is a rare sight to see all the kids interested in the same thing at the same time. Amy has a rare talent!

This is Sarah with baby Tristan (Maura's little brother). She absolutely LOVES this little boy. She talks about him and prays for him daily. She will miss him as well.
Sarah is holding the baby here. She sat with him for at least ten minutes! She patted, kissed and cuddled happily while the other kids played. We look forward to our get togethers with our neighbors and feel blessed to have them in our lives.

Daddy's Birthday

We decided to celebrate Chris's birthday a little early this year. We went to a new eatery in Frankfort (Cattleman's Roadhouse, I think) and we then went to Chris's parents for pie. Chris's family got him a Samsung digital camera. (He is opening it here)

You would've thought it was Sarah's birthday as well. Amy gave her this helmet and she spent the rest of the night "skating" around the house.
Here are the first photos taken with the camera. This is me in our kitchen.

This is the first outdoor photo taken just after church.

For "Daddy's Birthday" we took the whole family to see
Happy birthday Chris! We wish you many more to come...WALL-E at the movies. This is the first movie Sarah has seen in a theater and she was very excited. Amy got to go with us for the big event.




This expression says it all... She was overwhelmed with the whole experience.

Before we went into the theater, Sarah wanted to stop and inspect the giant WALL-E. Notice the popcorn in Chris's hands. Sarah was as excited about this as anything that day.


I snapped a quick photo just as the movie came on. She was awestruck.


After the movie, we stopped for one last look at WALL-E. She was able to sit through most of it (there was a lull in the middle in which we spent a lot of time in the bathroom... Sarah is wearing big girl pants now and I was more than happy to oblige her requests) . Overall it was a great evening with the family. Our little girl is growing up so fast!

Summer Vacation 2008

This summer, we opted for a two part vacation. Part one was a car trip to Myrtle Beach, SC (just the three of us) for a 5 night stay and then a two night family getaway with Mom, Dad, Jason and Ashley in the Great Smokey Mountains on our way back from the beach.


This is the lobby of our condo, All the frniture is very modern.


This is the street just outside our place. There was a lot to do during Sarah's naps (shopping, etc.). We loved it there!

As you can see, Sarah smiled like this the whole week while playing with her friend, Lauren from Columbus. They met halfway into our vacation and played every day from that point on. It was great for us because we could watch them play while relaxing in chairs at the edge of the water.






Sarah's friend Lauren smiling for the camera
We were given beach access through the Myrtle Beach State Park. It was great for us because we could drive right up to the beach, park and walk across the boardwalk. Since there were no towers around, the beach was relatively uncrowded.

More fun in the sun. Frisbee was the game of choice on this day. It was interesting to preschoolers try to play this game.

We also spend a lot of time at Broadway at the Beach. They had a little boardwalk amusement park that Sarah absolutely loved! The boats were a big hit!

The last evening at the beach, we decided to visit Warbird Park (just outside of the Market Commons, where we stayed). We were staying on a former military base, and they set up a memorial of that base in this park, next to the jetport. We looked at fighter jets and sat on swings watching jets take off and land. It was lots of fun.
See Sarah's expression, she is looking across the way at the jets below.

Later, we decided to take photos of Sarah in her white dress before leaving the beach.
These photos are a tradition we have kept every time we have gone to the beach. Hopefully it will continue in the future.




Sarah is definitely a Daddy's girl.

This is Sarah when we told her this was her last time on the beach. Her expression says it all. We can't wait to take her back... She is truly a beach bum!!! (Ha, Ha)

Vacation Part 2 was a trip to the Great Smokey Mountains with my family.

We stayed in a fantastic cabin on the top (and I mean top) of a mountain. This cabin was awesome! It had an out door hot tub, an air hockey table, and a plasma television. Sarah had fun spending the night in the bedroom with Mamaw and Papaw.Here was our view from the porch.

The first full day there, we travelled to Cade's Cove again to let my family visit. It is such a gorgeous place. Here are a few photos.

Aunt Ashley hugging on Sarah. My family Jason, Mom, Dad, and myself

On Saturday, we had an awful storm followed by the most amazing sight... a double rainbow. This is a vision that I will never forget. You don't get vantage points like this very often.
We took the opportunity to take some beautiful family photos on our front porch in front of the rainbow.




I will cherish these photos. Isn't it amazing the beauty of the earth that God made for us?




Our last night there, I snuck a photo of Dad. He looks sad to be leaving. We hope to come back here soon as well. What a vacation!!!!

Mountain visit part 2

This is the second part of our Jenny Wiley visit. We played at the creek way past Sarah's naptime. She splashed in the creek with Mamaw and "skipped" rocks again with Daddy. We look forward to going there again soon.