Sarah's trip

Sarah just got back from her "3-year-old" trip to Destin with my mom and dad. She did many of the same things Beth got to do on her 3-year-old trip in '06. They went to Build-A-Bear and made "Aurora" the bear, who proudly wears a Sleeping Beauty dress, shoes and a gold crown! She went to the Gulfarium and was about half as impressed with it as Beth was. Mom said "she blew through it" and was almost as impressed with feeding the pigeons as seeing the dolphins! They did fancy dinners, hot dog parties, new restaurants and old favorites (Dewey Destins and Baytowne) soccer shopping, feeding seagulls, and more! But the best thing was the Gulf was CALM...so calm that there were basically NO WAVES for almost 4 full days. She swam her heart out, so I hear. I'm glad she was able to do that, because both times we've been this year in May and July, the waves were scary!!! Here are some pictures from her big 'ole trip! But, I'm sure glad she's home, even if she did wake up with horrible Kentucky allergies this morning!

Outside a family favorite restaurant- Captain Daves:

Feeding seagulls:

At Build-A-Bear making "Aurora"


At another family favorite- Dewey Destins! LOVE IT!

Having a hot dog party on the deck with cousins David & Sherry. Notice Aurora attended, too!

Notice how calm the Gulf is! Looks like the Carribean!

At the Gulfarium:

The QUIET and MOVIE REVIEWS

Last Friday, Beth went to Murray for the weekend, Sarah went to Florida for the week, and Bob and I stayed home to be complete vegetables and revel in the silence! Friday night, we ate Chinese take-out and watched a great movie, 17 Again. SO CUTE! I highly recommend it. While it was cheesy in some parts, it was great! I'm sure every parent of a teenager wishes they could do what is done in this movie. It has a lot of great funny one-liners, too! No terrible language, either. Plus, Zach Efron (sp?) is a cutie...and I totally feel weird saying that about a 18-something guy when I'm 33.

After 17 Again was over, we popped in KNOWING. TERRIBLY STUPID MOVIE! Don't waste your money renting this one- it has the stupidest alien ending - so awful.

Saturday I did my normal morning routine of Farmer's Market then YMCA. I also got a little shopping in at a local boutique that had a huge sale - unfortunately, I got there too late to score anything I really wanted. I also spent some time with an old friend and go to FINALLY hold one of her adorable twin boys! Saturday night - leftover Chinese takeout and the movie BEDTIME STORIES. I bought this movie a LONG time ago and put it away for a movie night with Beth, but she saw it at school one day, and neither Bob nor I had seen it. I thought it was such a sweet feelgood movie. It made me laugh. Appropriate for all ages, in my opinion.

Sunday - Church by myself, then off to Murray to get Beth. She spent the rest of the day a complete vegetable on the couch watching Scooby Doo. I didn't mind too much, this time. I knew she was worn out from the weekend and needed to "rest."

Its so weird not having Sarah aroung. Quiet & Easy, but weird. She's having a great time, though! I can't wait to see pictures!

Anticipation and "Turtle bay"

The girls start(ed) ballet yesterday and today. However, they just HAD to try-on their ballet outfits on Sunday! They are SO EXCITED! In fact, Sarah cried and cried yesterday when it was time for her class to be over. I hope Beth has a fun time today, too! I'm excited for them to dance! I LOVED dance as a kid.

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon and evening on Kentucky Lake. We did a LITTLE bit of swimming, but had to cut that short in order to make it to Cypress Springs Resort to eat some catfish with Bob's mom and stepdad - or affectionately known to the girls as Gramma and Papaw. It was about a 40 minute boat ride from where we put in, so it was a beautiful trip back to the ramp after dinner- at sunset on the lake- see below post. Anyway, Cypress has a MASSIVE amount of turtles that live under the walk-over from their marina to the restuarant. They LOVE leftover hushpuppies and frenchfries and beg for food! They were like ducks - once one realized there was someone feeding them, 100 more swam as fast as they could to get some food, too! And whoever said turtles are slow didn't see these suckers move for the food! And there were teeny tiny baby turtles in the mix, too, just getting kicked around. We tried so hard to make sure they got some food, but if it wasn't the big turtles stealing their food, it was the big fish from underneath! It was amazing to watch!!

Why I love the area where I live

There isn't anything prettier than the sunset on Kentucky Lake:

Four First Days

Beth has had 4 "first" days of school now - let's see how she's grown!

3 year old 2006:

4 year old 2007:

Kindergarten 2008:

This year- 1st grade 2009:

"Last" day of Summer and"First" day of 1st Grade

A few pictures from our last "summer" weekend at the YMCA pool!

Beth & Bob:

Beth going down the big slide:

Sarah & Bob:

Sarah jumping in the "deep" water!

...and here are some of our "traditional first day front porch" pictures of Beth's first day of 1st Grade! She was a tad nervous, but all went well!! I hope all our mornigs are as smooth as this morning!!

Yes, I realize I'm a slacker!

I'm sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while. Lots going on!

Bob finally got home from North Carolina and then the girls went to Chatanooga for the weekend with mom and dad = nice, calm weekend for Bob and me. I had meetings galore last week and this weekend....so we've been busy!

School starts in a week for Beth. Open House is this Thursday. I'm sure hoping that helps her get over the nerves a little bit. She's not excited at all, except maybe she's a little excited about her backpack!

I have no new pictures to share - sorry! I promise to get back in the swing of things soon -sorry!