summer snapshots

This summer before we transitioned from Tennessee to Georgia, we took some time to relax, unwind, and recharge. We traveled 5,000 miles in 5 weeks! It was quite an adventure! We found a house in Georgia, went to the beach, and visited some sweet family and friends. Here are a few summer snapshots. 

 

 

sister/cousin trip 2010

This year's annual sister/cousin trip was in Nashville!! Everyone was sweet to come my way from Texas and California this year, since I can't travel too far from my doctor at this point in the pregnancy.

My mom came a few days early. We had lots of fun hanging out, marking things off of my pre-baby to do list, cooking, washing Carson's clothes, and making homemade laundry detergent, thanks to Laura!! I'm excited to save money by only spending 14 cents a month on laundry detergent!!

We rented a house in Franklin for a few days, and my sister, Misty; aunt, Paula; cousin, Nicole; cousin, Staci; and Staci's two sweet kids, Wyatt and Raquel joined us!!! We had a wonderful time together. We talked, played games, saw the sights of Nashville, and ate some Tennessee favorites. They even got to come to church with us that Sunday and be here for my baby shower (shower pics coming soon!)

my sweet mama and me

I am blessed to have the best mama/friend ever!

I'm so thankful for her!

I hadn't seen my sweet sister since December, back when Carson was about the size of a bean:)!! It was so much fun to spend time with her!!

When we lived in Abilene, Misty and I hung out several times a week, so we did our best to soak up every minute of our sister time while she was here!! I love that girl!

me, Misty, Staci, Raquel, and Nicole before church Sunday morning

There were lots of funny photo ops in our tour of Nashville:)

cowgirls

biggest ice cream cone EVER!

Staci and I got matching sunglasses

Raquel and her grandma, Paula

could that sweet baby girl be any cuter?!!

cute big brother, Wyatt and his aunt, 'Cole

the whole group!!!

summer rewind #1...vacation

As you can see on Keith's arm, the spray on sunscreen is not all it's cracked up to be. We both had blotches of burn after day one at the beach:(

Back in July, Keith and I had a vacation! It. was. so. much. fun. We went to Gulf Shores, Alabama and we LOVED it! Here are a few pictures from our week of fun!

our nice, comfy, relaxing condo!

hanging at the beach!

our camp

big outlet mall!

date nights!

with lots of YUMMY seafood!

deep sea fishing

the serious fisherman...his less-serious fishing buddy got sea sick:(

before

after...we fried Freddy

and grilled Greta.

sporting our souvenir shirts for one last delicious blueberry biscuit at our fave place

If you ever get the opportunity to go on a beach vacation, GO! It was so much fun, so relaxing, so wonderful, we loved it!

Long Time No Blog

So, I hesitated to start a blog, because I really didn't want to be one of those people who starts and blog, writes for a while, then just stops....and that's just what I did, but only for a few weeks and I've still been reading all of your blogs faithfully:)

Here's what we've been up to the past few weeks:

*HUGE highlight for Keith--he got to go the NCAA Final Four basketball games in San Antonio and cheer on the Memphis Tigers with his dad. This was such a dream come true for Keith. His favorite team made it to the final four, which just happened to be within driving distance! He LOVED every minute of it--except when the Tigers wimped out and lost the championship game in overtime:( I really need to get pictures of this from my sweet FIL!

*Having a slumber party with my parents while Keith was at the Final Four.

*Hanging out with good friends: Lauren and Nick, Whitney, Kina....too bad I didn't take pictures of any of these lovely people:(

*Playing putt putt! Abilene has a new place called Primetime and it's so cool...it's got putt putt, bowling, go carts, and video games and rumor has it they may even add a waterpark and resort...in Abilene? you ask....and the answer is yes, we just get cooler all the time;)

*Hanging out and working out with my sister.

*Watching great television like The Biggest Loser, American Idol, and The Office. Grey's comes back this week as a birthday present to me:) YAY!

*Seriously pondering for the first time in five years if teaching first grade is really the job for me since I cannot get my crazy kids to stop talking for more than two minutes.

*Visiting the home of one of my students and having my eyes open to the reality of her little life.

*Wondering and hoping that the time I spend with these sweet children each day is enough to make a positive difference in their lives.

*Going to school, getting lots of big hugs, sweet pictures, and kind words reminding me that teaching first grade is the perfect job for me, even if they make me crazy and want to pull my hair out sometimes:)

*Working on the t-shirt quilt.

*Jury Duty: This was a first for me, but they ended up settling without a jury, so it didn't get too dramatic!

*Getting out of jury duty early this morning and going to Walmart at 10:00 am. This was seriously wonderful. The best Walmart experience of my life. No one was there, but it wasn't like when I go at midnight to avoid the crowd and am surrounded by stockers either...just calm and wonderful:)

*Booking a condo in Gulf Shores, Alabama for a VACATION this summer. We are so excited to celebrate Keith's graduation and almost five years of marriage! The condo looks fabulous, the beach looks gorgeous, and there is a lot of fun stuff to do there like playing in the waves, fishing, dolphin and alligator watching, outlet malls, playing games, watching movies, and going on dates!! I'm ready to go right now!!!

*Counting down til Keith graduates. Only 18 days and one paper to go!