Wild Hill MTW 2007

"There isn't much better in this life than finding a way to spend a few hours in conversation with people you respect and love. You have to carve this time out of your life because you aren't really living without it."

This past weekend was our annual MTW trip to Wild Hill, and what a great weekend it was! I have come to rely on these rare weekends with my friends as time to recharge my "mommy" and "wife" batteries... I have realized that I am better at both roles when I have a chance to be "Amanda" for awhile. There is no better way to do that than time with amazing friends.

We spent time eating, laughing, eating, talking, eating, sleeping... did I mention that we ate well?
We even played blackjack for peanuts!

We attempted to determine the sex of Baby Bair (with Melinda's twin boys as an example),
but no luck... I think we are all just as anxious as ever to find out!
We really did have the best weekend with the best of friends. I can't tell you how blessed I feel to have been embraced as completely as I have by these amazing women. Thank you, Nancy, Aileen, Melinda, Caroline, Katharine, and Dorothy, for a great weekend and for your love and encouragement!!

"See, you and me

Have a better time than most can dream

Have it better than the best

And so can pull on through

Whatever tears at us

Whatever holds us down

And if nothing can be done

We'll make the Best of What's Around"

-- Dave Matthews Band

Edisto Beach 2007

Last week was our annual beach week, and we headed to Edisto again this year. We were joined by Granny & Grandaddy, and Uncle Scott, Aunt Amy, Lindsey, Kaila, and Connor. It was a fun week, and we had a great time watching all of the kids play, play, play at the beach.

Our first night there, we headed to the Sound for a "quick beach walk". We should have known that it wouldn't be quick, nor would it be a walk. Before we could blink, all of the kids were in the water! There was a beautiful sunset that evening, and it was a perfect way to start off the week.

Kaila, Lindsey, Harris and Aunt Amy building a sand castle.
This is how Jason and Jackson spent much of the trip! Jackson LOVED these innertubes, and he spent hours just floating and playing in them. He was a little fish... it was rare that he left the ocean by choice... we usually had to drag him out.
Grandaddy with his two little ones, Connor and Harris.
We fished several times while we were there, not catching much more than a few whiting. This was Jason's first fish, and the girls we so excited. They both tried to fish for a bit, but unfortunately, no luck.

We made a big family trip to the Edisto Serpentarium where we saw lots of snakes, turtles, and big aligators.

We made it just in time to see them feed the gators... each gator got one piece of chicken thrown at him, and they were satisfied. We were told that gators normally don't eat daily, as they eat one huge meal every once in a while. However, to impress their visitors, the serpentarium feeds them just a little once a day. It was interesting to hear all about the gators and to see them all together, the feeding was a little over-hyped. I can say, though, that Harris LOVED watching them eat... he immediately started laughing and saying "Ali EAT!!", entertaining all of the other onlookers!

Theat is Big George the gator behind us... it is hard to tell here, but he is huge!
Harris and Connor were helping grill dinner.
We played frisbee,

and T-ball.
One evening, we headed out to the beach to try to get pictures of all of the kids together... so crazy!! I think I have about 20 different attempts at getting them all looking happy, but this was the best I could do. Hopefully Granny & Grandaddy were more successful!

The rest of the family left on Friday, so we had a few days to ourselves. We headed to the Edisto Beach State Park for some shell hunting and big waves, and we had a picnic lunch at a small park we found last year. While we missed everyone else, it was nice to enjoy some quiet family time, too.

Jackson called this area on the sound beach "his pool" (I even caught him telling some other little boys to get out of HIS POOL!). When the tide was coming up, it filled in this little tidal pool in which he loved playing and searching for shells. We had a great time this year, both spending time with family we don't get to spend much time with and spending time just the four of us. Jackson brought home tons of shells so we wouldn't soon forget all of the fun times we had at the beach. Thank you to the Ayers and Barfields for a great time!

More Beach Photos

Creativity

Just wanted to show a little bit of creativity from Jackson today. This is Leo from the Little Einsteins... the glue stick is is conductor's baton!! I love getting little glimpses into his mind!

Cutie #2

Wouldn't be fair to Harris not to show off some of his cute pictures, too!!

Cutie

Just some pictures from our morning out... he is such a cutie!

Who is He?

Harris is in camp this week, so I have been trying to plan fun things for Jackson and me to do with our rare time alone. Today we headed to the Children's Museum. There were lots of fun things to do, and he kept me running from one end to the other. However, his favorite part was the castle with all of its fun costumes. He tried on one after another after another until he had tried on almost all of them. These were some of his favorites...