Vacation Day One-Part One

Our vacation this year was a VA and DC trip; with a trip down memory lane at Liberty :)  We left around 2:00 on Saturday, June 29, and made it to Lynchburg, VA in time to get to bed.   We met my sister's family there on our little adventure.  My mom also joined in on the trip.  (Dad had to take the next week off for Grammie Camp so had to miss most of VA)  After breakfast on a cloudy, rain threatening morning, we went to Appomattox Courthouse.  Here are some pictures of the first part of our first day.

 

 

 

Camden somehow put on Dave's shorts by mistake!

 

 

 

Josiah and Camden ready to be Junior Rangers!

The men of our trip

Josiah and Camden in jail

The gang of cousins...at least all the ones that are born :)

Taking a Civil War style picture...no smiling

Scoot over..my turn on the potty

A little privacy please

Amy and Dave

Grammie with her five favorite people

20 years ago...

...I married my best friend!  It is true that it doesn't seem like it could have been that long ago.  Life just keeps moving along.  But I am extremely glad that I have had Dave to share these last 20 years with.  I love you, Dave!  And I wouldn't change anything...well maybe the colors we chose in our first apartment :)  We have grown together through the good and the bad and have evolved as people and a couple.  Gone is the hunter green and burgundy (well not in our pyrex), and we are now in middle of the child-rearing years...about to start the teens...yikes!!  

When we first were married, Dave told me thay he would take me to Austria on our 10th anniversary.  Well, we made it to downtown Charleston.  So the next goal was the 20th.  We got a little farther and made it to Hilton Head.  (We do have BIG plans for a week getaway in February though.  Who knows where we will end up)

But Hilton Head was a nice weekend excursion.  We stayed on the beach in a lovely hotel with a great view.  We ate too much (the food was awesome!), slept in, went zip-lining (we would highly recommend this adventure), hung out at the beach and pool, and rented bikes to explore the island.

Our trip was sort of interesting in one little circle of events.  On our honeymoon, we stayed at the Inn at Mystic in Mystic, CT.  The restaurant at the Inn is the Flood Tide and we had dinner and breakfast there.  One night watching Restaurant Impossible, we saw them featured!  (They had gone down since we had eaten there).  On our trip to HH, the last place we ate was Robert Irvine's restaruant, Nosh!  And his restaurant was very yummy and not in need of his overhaul!

It was very nice to get away and just be a couple for the weekend.  Here are some pictures of us 20 years after our first vacation together!

The view from the restaurant where we ate the first night

Hanging at the beach

The view from our room

Lots of relaxing on this trip!

Getting ready to jump off some tree stands!!

Bike riding around Hilton Head

Dave at the beginning of the trip before he started relaxing :)

Our goofy close-up pic

Because Kids Matter to God!

Tonight was AWANA awards night at our church.  It was a special night for me because of Nathan finishing up his AWANA career.  I tried to mention that right before my Cubbies started, but instead I started crying. So here is what I wanted to say.

I have been working in Cubbies for 9 years now as the Director.  It can sometimes be a hard job, well, more tiring than hard, but definitely rewarding.  When I started in Cubbies, Nathan was in his first official year.  His friend was also in his first official year.  (They both went to Cubbies for 3 yrs instead of 2)  Tonight they both received their Timothy Award.  Although this is not the highest award in AWANA, it is the highest for our church's program.  So this is the first year for me to see a child that started out in the beginning of Cubbies go all the way through.  And one of these children belongs to me :)

Nathan and his friend happy to have earned their Timothy Award

Here are my Cubbies singing our favorite butterfly song.  "If I were a butterfly, I'd thank you Lord for giving me wings...."  I love being a Cubbie leader.  One of my favorite titles has been Mrs. Amy, but this year I also got the title of Cubbie Bear!  And I am also the best friend of one of my little Cubbies :)  It is fun.  Although I have to admit, I am glad for the summer break!

This was Camden's first year in Sparks and he did great!  I was so impressed with how hard he tried and how well he memorized his verses.  He finished his book and his review book.  One leader that listened to his verses a lot asked him how he knew all his verses.  He said they were in his head!  But I am really proud of him inviting two of his friends to Sparks.  Although both friends are from Christian homes, they still are learning more of God's word by coming to AWANA.

Camden with his leader and his friend

Nathan got to give his testimony tonight

Nathan with the other 2 6th graders.  At our church you can choose between youth group and AWANA.  I am glad he had two good friends that also stayed in T&T.

Tonight was also extra special because we had a child baptized at the end of the service.  She got saved last year in AWANA, and this year got baptized.  It was awesome!!  Yes, kids matter to God!

I am so proud of both of our book finishers!!  Although they learned their verses to earn an award, the verses will stick with them long after their trophies are collecting dust in the attic.  And that is why I do what I do every Wednesday night!

See you in the funny pages :)

I love reading the funny pages.  In fact, that is the one part I make sure I read daily.  You can find out lots of things in the comics.  Every time the Post Office increases the cost of a stamp, I learn about it in the comics.  And if it is some special day, I am reminded of it in the comics.

And comics remind me of life, but in a funny way.  I am in the habit of cutting them out and putting them on the refrigerator.  Nathan has started doing it too, although his never seem as funny to me as they do to him.

Recently I read one that you can relate to if you are a woman.  (if you click on it, it will get bigger)

And of course this one is definitely one we can relate to at our house :)

As you can see here!

                                             

So after listening to talk radio in the car all day, I think I will skip all the heavy, depressing, political, left-leaning articles in the paper and just see you in the funny pages!

Senior night

It was Senior night at AWANA tonight and Camden had  a great time dressing and acting like an old man.  His hair actually looked grey with all the powder in it!  He wanted to wear reading glasses, but these were the best we could find; even though they actually make him look like an old nerd :) 

I was able to borrow a walker from work to complete the look.  I will admit that dress-up nights tend to stress me out.  But this was a pretty easy dress-up.  And Camden really had fun doing it!

Cookies!!!

And pie!

 

I have started reading a new series of books that is set in a cookie store.  Since I started reading books on my Ipad, I have found different authors in the free section of Kindle and through the library.  Some have been good, some so-so, and others plain bad.  I have also noticed that there is a trend in books in which many are set in places like bakeries and diners.  And somehow, the owner of each place finds dead bodies!  Cookies and murder...what a great combination. 

 

 

The series of books about cookies is called the Hannah Swenson Mystery series by Joanne Fluke...with recipes!  They are fun books to read, sometimes predictable, but interesting.  At least the first few I have read.  The only bad thing is weight gain.  Not only do they have good cookie recipes in them, they also make me want to eat cookies as I am reading them.  And when reading them on my Ipad, all I have to do is take a picture of the recipe :)  

 

So far I have made really good peanut butter melts (the addition of  molasses was a good twist), good chicken noodle soup, okay cinnamon crisps, and a pretty lemon meringue pie (how it tastes is still TBD).  I am very interested in making the blueberry muffins and the praline cookies she wrote about!  There are also recipes for molasses cookies, lemon bars, black and whites, and butter-scotchies.  And I have only read 4 of the books!  I may be baking cookies for months to come!  I wanted to put my favorite recipes on my blog, but didn't want to break copyright rules. 

 

But if you are interested in any, you can find them in the following books:  Lemon Meringue Pie Murder has the pie, the cinnamon crisps, and the praline cookies; Blueberry Muffin Murder has the muffins and the PB melts; and Devil's Food Cake Murder has the chicken noodle soup.

 

So if you are a murder mystery buff and interested in reading some fun books, try this series.  Just don't blame me if you put on a few pounds...you can always run it off!

 

  



A good weekend for a run!!

 



This weekend was the Bridge Run in Charleston and I got over it this year!!  My friend, Kelly, and I have been practicing running the bridge most every week since August.  We also ran a half marathon in the meantime.  But the bridge was our goal today.  And to finish in less than 60 minutes.  Well, we did it.  Of course Kelly finished before me, but I finished in 58 minutes, 47 seconds!  That is the fastest I have ever run a 10K. 

I timed myself and haven't deleted the time yet!!

Mom was able to take my picture as I FLEW by!?!?  I am the girl in the green shirt in front of the pink shirt girl.  I had been keeping track of my time throughout the race to make sure I was on target, but had been getting discouraged about it because I did not see the 5 mile sign and I thought I was really slowing down!  But when I saw the 6 mile sign, I knew I could do it.  But I did miss seeing my mom and boys while I was rounding the corner.

 

On Friday was the kids' bridge run; although is was not at the bridge, but at Hampton Park.  Nathan was planning on running the mile and Camden the 1/4 mile.  But when the race was starting, I figured out that all kids were running the mile.  Well I couldn't let Camden run by himself, so I had to run the mile with him in my jeans!  Nathan started well ahead of us and was finished by the time we started (the race was in a loop), but Camden also did a great job.  He ran the whole way and ran fast.  I tried to get him to stop so I could use the bathroom, but he said that he had to keep running!  It was a crazy, chaotic day at the park...about 2000 kids were running!   

 

Pre-race picture with the crazy hats!

Nathan rode and fell off of the bull!

Grammie with her boys

Camden running the obstacle course

Camden trying out yoga for his pre-run stretch

Camden with his medal after finishing the mile!  He really earned it!

The wiener-mobile...took this picture for Shannon!!

 

 

So this was our running weekend...and it was a beautiful weekend for it.  I love Charleston weather!!