Cabin Extravaganza 2012

Last weekend was this year's trip to The Cabin with Mimi and Bop Bop. We missed the Gillies dearly, but it was still a sweet time of enjoying family, God's creation, and a precious pocket of land. These annual trips with Ken and Sandy are also fun opportunities to look back on the previous year and see how differently the kids enjoy the cabin as they grow up!

Blythe and Joy's official occupation of the trip was rock reallocation and movement. If you need any work done on a creek near you, call in my two-year-olds.

This is Blythe's consistent signature follow-through on her throw. She's honestly got the best arm of the three girls. Maybe basketball potential?

One of the best parts about the adult to child ratio on this trip was that each child was able to get individual time with adults. Here is big girl getting in some pre-breakfast creek surveying in with the grandparents.

We got in several walks and hikes.

The girls have this little joke amongst themselves where they sing about cows giving egg and chickens giving milk. They think it's hilarious to switch it up. So click here to see Joy singing uncharacteristicly shyly in front of a cow pasture.

We also met some friendly horses that actually let us feed them! Abby Jane named them Polly and Mrs. Polly, after Blythe's snuggly little bedtime friend... Polly.

Blythe and Abby Jane were keen on the horses... Joy kept a 10 foot radius.

Mimi and Bop Bop also brought the Gator, and Abby Jane and Blythe put a few miles in over the weekend on it.

The fruit of these guys' labor was one of the highlights of the weekend- The Cabin's first tree swing!

The twins' favorite swinging turned out to be "spider-style".

We also just enjoyed simply playing out in the field.

The weather was perfect outside, but it got cool enough at night to make inside feel snuggly. And the necessity for s'mores does not depend on the weather.

The key to dressing in the spring is layers... so there's nothing wrong with just a fleece and a diaper, right?

Besides, you can always take that fleece off.

And just go for it.

This lady has been a junkie for swings her entire life. She was almost inseparable from this one.

Here are Mimi and Bop Bop sitting on what Abby Jane has named: "The Storytelling Rock" after Mimi  told her a few good ones while they sat here.

On Abby Jane's suggestion, we took a "long hike in the woods" on our last morning. I didn't bring my camera, so this was during the after-hike creek party. We encouraged the twins to walk the majority of the time, and they mainly did really well. It was a beautiful morning in the woods. But here are a few phrases Jake said on our hike that made me laugh: "We are a non-fussing hiking family." "You got mud on your shoes? Yea! That's great! That means we're hiking in the woods." "OK, girls, you need to finish strong. That means no fussing. You need to persevere."

As always, we are so thankful for the opportunity to be so "away", in such a peaceful place, enjoying God's beauty along with our family.

Bubbles and Pollen Feet

Twin time last week while Abby Jane was at school...

This was the week that the pollen count broke records. Not even worth hosing down the furniture. Thus the pollen feet.

 Grass is greener.

Playdate extravaganza!

On Monday, we had the second annual playdate extraordinaire at my sweet friend Beth's home in Jacksonville, AL. Last year, all these one year old boys were newborns! This year, sweet little Rinnah was our newborn- just two months old!  

Jackson- 13 months; Cooper- 13 months; Bella Grace- 2 years; Rinnah- 2 months; Abby Jane- 4 years; Blythe- 2 years; Joy- 2 years; Tucker- 13 months!

'

Cooper is as photogenic as his beautiful mama!

 Sweet Jackson on the swing!

 Tucker content on his blanket. (Sidenote: this happy kid was hospitalized the next day, Tuesday, for pneumonia, and he just got sent home today. Thankful for his recovery, and a reminder of how tough and resilient kids are- he must not have been feeling well, but he was sure a delight on Monday!)

 Aunt Steph took Abby Jane aside to have some big girl time snuggling Rinnah. It meant the world to Abby Jane to get to hold that beautiful baby girl and help Aunt Steph dress her! Excuse the ragamuffin hair- sometimes we seem get a little impatient with our bows and just prefer the natural look.

GORGEOUS!!!! Steph was one of my roommates- it is such a delight to meet your precious friends' absolutely cherished little ones!

All the big girls having lunch outside.

Em and Bethie- OH I love these girls!! It was such a tease to spend a morning together, but not get to truly catch up. I realized when I got home that I didn't know the answers to most of the questions I wanted to ask of my sweet friends. It was fun just sharing real life (as in a particular pair of two-year-olds being extra dramatic)... and getting to lay eyes on all of these friends and their little people!

Em gave some special love to each twin at different times. I loved them getting to be around girls so dear to me.

We wanted to attempt a pic with the moms in it. This was an Abby Jane shot.  Maybe we'll revisit her as our photographer at a later point.

 Thank goodness for a timer!

My other thought that night was how in college, all we had to do to hang out with each other was walk into the next room, down the hall, or walk over to get coffee together. Now we drive 4 hours for a cumulative 20 minutes of adult conversation! Despite how it takes a little more to make things happen now, I am so grateful for these relationships with women I love so dearly!

Publix Half

Last Sunday was a warm, beautiful day for the Publix Half Marathon. Jake wins all the awards in the world for mobilizing our little family to be there to cheer for me just before the finish line and meet me afterwards! It's so fun to share this exact moment with the girls, and for them to talk about watching Mama and wanting to run, too. 

 The details of my race itself are probably not interesting to most of you, but just for laughs, you should know that the first four miles, my pace was to hit a time eight minutes faster than I actually finished in. The next four miles, my pace would have been for a finish time five minutes faster than I actually finished in. Then the last five miles, I totally fell apart and ended up with the exact same time I ran in the Thanksgiving race. But who's counting, right? :) Whatever. I ran and I finished. I just wish my mom would quit signing up for that hilly son of a gun. As long as my 60-something mom is running it, I have
no excuse.

My good buddy Jeff, who was in a corral behind me, caught up effortlessly on the last mile and tried hard to be my cheerleader and help me finish better, but I was pretty much beyond repair at that point. This photo was after we discovered how disgusting it is for runners to get too close after a  race.

Em is a friend of ours from Auburn. She and her husband were in Jake's masters program, and they started dating the night of our wedding! It was great catching up with her.

 We discovered the fun ponds and fountains at Centennial Olympic Park. Haven't been there in a while, but it was a great venue after the race.

 We kept seeing friends! Traci and I worked together in my favorite nursing job, and we got to see her, our other sweet friend Kelley, and Traci's sweet baby girl, Medley!

 Grammy was greeted by a few of the smaller members of her fan club. They were so excited to see her and tell her good job!

 As always, I'm so proud of my mom! Hope I'm still running when I'm a grandma!

"Brothel" author speaking

Hey y'all! I mentioned this extremely powerful book called "God in a Brothel" earlier in the year. For anyone who is interested, here is a link with more information about a live call tonight at 9 EST with the author of the book, Daniel Walker. He'll share about his experiences as an undercover investigator and will take questions from callers.  It should be a pretty amazing opportunity to hear from a guy who made huge personal sacrifices to help free trafficked women and children.

The rest of St. Pats

Family picnic dinner. Not pictured: all the neighbor kids camping out on the perimeter of our yard to whom we explained a few times that this was going to be a time for just our family.

Daddy decided that the perfect spring family day called for another round of treats, so he emerged from the house with three bowls of ice cream. Here is Blythe contemplating the depth of her love for treats.

We wrapped up the day with watercoloring with our new paint from Andy's goodie buckets. Precious times.