Toccoa Week

Bert led a mission trip to McCreary County, Kentucky a few weeks ago.  They had a great trip serving and ministering to the people there!  

The girls and I packed up and headed to Toccoa to spend some time with family and friends.  It was a great week for us too!  

I was able to go to Gainesville to spend some time with my friend Misty and her family!  My sweet Claire of course got to tag along since she still says "no thanks" to bottles.  Misty's been one of my very best friends since we were 5.  I'm so thankful for her and her friendship.  

I'm holding Misty's sweet little Ansley Grace and Mist is holding Claire.  

Mimi painting the girls' toe nails.  They were sooo excited!  

Sunday afternoon we headed over to Brett, Katherine and Jacob's house to play for awhile.  They have some FUN toys over there, so the girls are always excited to go to "Jacob's house." 

Another night we pulled out a little pool so that the girls could get wet.  I was trying to get them to look at me at the same time, so all the sudden I said "Look at me, look at me!"  I laughed after I saw this picture because I also caught my dad by surprise.  He had been working in the yard and was taking a break to hang out with us while the girls were swimming.  Ha! 

Bathtime...first bath with all three together! As they were getting ready to get in I asked them if it was okay if Claire got in with them.  Emily looked very concerned and said "But will she be okay!?  Is there going to be an adult in here?!"  It made me laugh because I've never even walked out of the room with the big girls in the tub, so I'm not sure why she asked if there was going to be an adult in there...but I appreciated her concern.  She's a good big sister!

Movie time with Jaca-boo!  Love him!  

A pre-dinner photo shoot one night! Sweet things!

I just thought she looked like a big girl with her arm all propped up and all.  Almost 7 months...wowzers! 

Goodness gracious she is cute!  

Aunt Ann and Uncle Bud (my mom's sister and her husband) were staying at their lake house in Hartwell for a couple weeks, so they came over and had dinner with us one night!  It was great to see them!  They're always SO excited to see our girls and play with them. 

Uncle Bud and Hannah

Aunt Ann and Emily playing tag...

On Wednesday my dad took the day off work and we headed over to the Atlanta Zoo.  It is an amazing zoo...I hadn't been since I was little.  I was impressed.  We didn't get to see everything, so we'll have to come back sometime when Bert's with us!  I didn't get a picture of me and Claire, but we were there!:) 

I loved this picture of my Dad, Emily and Hannah with Willie B!  Sweet! 

It took them about 0.5 seconds to fall asleep in the car after we left.  Please notice Emily's ring and necklace.  Mimi had given her some jewelry to wear that morning and she was sooo proud of it!  

Look at Hannah's scratched up knee's.  They pretty much stay like this these days.  She plays hard.  

Another night I met some of my high school friends at Los Amigos in Toccoa...it's still my favorite Mexican restaurant....I'm not sure if it's because of the memories or the food, but either way I'm always excited to go.  It was so much fun to catch up with everyone!  

Holly, Kim, me, Ashley and Misty...there is just something comfortable, familiar and sweet about being with lifelong friends.  They are a blessing.  

Ashley and I lived right across the street from each other growing up.  I'm pretty sure we played together for hours every.single.day.  Misty came over often and the three of us had more spend the night parties than I could count. I'm actually a night owl, but I would usually toss the towel in by about midnight or a little after.  Mist and Ash would usually still be chatting for hours after I fell asleep.  Such good memories with these two!  I don't see either of them as often as I would like, but this is for sure the type friendship where the time apart doesn't even matter...you just pick right back up where you left off. I pray that my girls are blessed with childhood friends like I was.  

My mom pulled out all of mine and Katherine's old Barbie stuff.  The girls had fun playing with it for hours.  

We took them to see the movie "Planes" at the Shaffer Center.  They were soooo excited to be at the movies!  Claire lasted about two minutes into the movie and then got fussy, so I walked out with her.  The big girls enjoyed it though.  In fact, we had to leave a little early, and Emily could probably have been heard crying for miles around.  It was quite special.  

Enjoying their snacks!  

I didn't get a picture of my sister, but we got to spend lots of time with her and Jacob and we so enjoyed it!  It was such a fun week in good 'ole T-town!!

PCB 2014: Family

This post is a hodge podge of different events throughout the week to wrap up the vacation posts...

This is how we traveled all week...all piled in (Bert was in the passenger seat and my dad was driving).  Emily and Hannah loved having everyone together!  Claire is not usually that fussy of a car rider, but for some reason she was this week.  Maybe the long drive down to PCB did her in, or maybe she could just see all of us and wanted to be held...who knows?  Anyway, we spent more than half of the time driving around PCB all singing songs to Claire.  It was actually fun and it certainly kept her happy.  The minute we all started singing she would stop fussing.  I told her not to get spoiled though, I'm not going to sing to her every time we get in the car.  :)  

One night we went to Boondocks.  This is probably our favorite restaurant in Panama City.  You always have a wait, but I actually enjoy the wait because you get to wait on these docks and enjoy the beautiful scenery.  Plus, all the waiting makes the food (which is already very good) even better! 

Claire Bear and Papa Stan

Claire Bear and Uncle Stan.  I thought their blue looked good together!:) 

Whole family minus the Sanders...they were missed! 

At dinner I looked over and Emily was playing with Claire without being asked to.  She said that she was making Claire happy.  She's such a great big sister.  She's always looking out for Hannah and Claire.  

I came downstairs one afternoon to find Uncle Stanley doing perler beads with the girls.  So sweet!

Claire had her first sink bath while we were at the beach.  

She had to have help sitting up, so that she didn't slip and slide, but I'd say she enjoyed it.

One afternoon Uncle Stan was trying to catch a quick nap (he had been up half the night fishing on the pier with my hubby and dad) and the girls kept running over to wake him up/play with him.  I was trying to get them to be quiet and leave him alone, but he just kept saying it was no big deal.  He was happy to play with them even when he was exhausted.  He loves our girls so much and they couldn't have a better Uncle. 

Another night before dinner we stopped by the Pier to take a few pictures.  It honestly didn't go that great.  I was a little stressed out about needing to feed Claire and getting the perfect picture, so I'm sure I didn't help the situation.  Claire face planted into the sand one time, which she didn't really appreciate (I don't blame her), I threw my camera down into the sand when I was trying to catch her from face planting, which I didn't do.  Now the camera lens won't close.  It will still take pictures (sometimes), but after this accident it seems to be on it's last leg.  Thankfully it's just a point and click, but it's been a good camera for us for 5 1/2 years.  We did end up getting a few sweet ones.  Maybe next year we'll get the "perfect" beach picture.  Ha!:) 

Our last night at the beach just so happened to be the 4th of July!  We had a yummy Low Country Boil and then headed out for fireworks.  

We watched the fireworks from the pool deck by the ocean and all of the adults agreed that this was the best fireworks show that we have ever seen!  It was amazing!!  

We had such a great vacation and we're so thankful for the great memories that we made as a family!  See you next year, PCB!  

PCB 2014: Pier Park

One night we headed over to Pier Park to eat a quick dinner and let the kids ride some rides!  They loved it!  I got the picture below as we were walking from where we ate dinner over to the rides.  So sweet!  

Emmy was excited!:)  

They both were such big girls and were ready to jump on any ride!  Hannah wasn't about to let Emily do something without her if she could help it.   

Fun, fun, fun! 

The picture below is of the girls waiting to ride the boats.  You can just see the excitement in their stance.:)  

Cuties!  

This sweet girl just enjoyed all the activity.  By the end of the night she started getting a little fussy, so we had to keep the stroller moving, but I'd say she was very patient with her big sisters while they were having fun!  

Love the carousel!  

Hannah insisted that Uncle Stanley not put his arm around her.  She said "I do it by myself."  Ha!  We hear that A LOT around here.  

I actually hate the teacups.  I have bad memories from my childhood...all the spinning makes me sick every time.  I was planning on walking right past them, because I dislike them so much I can't imagine anyone liking them (you know the old saying...if Mama's cold everyone has to put on a jacket.:) ), but Emily kept asking to ride them...so we decided to let her.  She ended up riding them with this cute little boy.  He spun her around and around.  She had so much fun and laughed throughout the whole thing!  It was cute to watch!  

If you had asked Emily before this night what she was most excited about riding she would have said the Ferris Wheel.  She had talked and talked about the Ferris Wheel.  We saved it for the end of the night.  Mimi and Uncle Stanley were excited about riding it too.  Mimi and Hannah were going to ride together and Uncle Stan and Emily.  They were the very next people in line (it was a long, slow moving line) and Emily looked up with a very concerned look on her face and asked if the building right beside the Ferris Wheel was a bathroom.  I told her no and hoped maybe she wouldn't say anything else about it.  About 30 seconds later she got out of line and said she really had to go to the bathroom.  Poor girl!  I felt terrible for her.  It was the end of the night, Claire was fussy, the bathrooms were a little walk away, they were next in line, and I knew we wouldn't have time to wait through the line again.  I ran with her to the bathrooms (during the run, Emily said, "Hold on tee-tee! I'm coming!" Ha!) Mimi, Uncle Stanley and Hannah got on the Ferris Wheel since they were next in line, and Emily and I got back just as they were getting off.  Hannah loved it!  Emily was a little sad about not getting to ride, but we quickly told her we were about to ride our last ride, the train...so she got excited about that!  

Our little family getting ready to ride the cute train!  

Emily decided she wanted to ride in her own car.  The four of us sat together in the black car (above) and Emily wanted to get in this blue car right behind us.  Big girl!  She waved at people and smiled the whole time!  

About the time we got everyone buckled in the car to go to the condo Emily realized that she hadn't gotten to ride the Ferris Wheel and we were leaving.  And the wailing began.  Ugh.  We felt terrible.  She was a combination of exhausted and disappointed and it was pitiful.  After we got home Bert stayed outside with her for a few minutes just holding her and talking to her.  He promised her that before we left Panama City Beach he would take her back to the Ferris Wheel.  

We only had 3 days left after this and they were pretty jam packed at night, but we were definitely making time for Emily's Ferris Wheel ride.  

Emily and her Daddy about to go ride the Ferris Wheel.  (The rest of us stayed at the condo as we had just gotten back from playing at the waterpark all day.)

They had fun!  And I learned a lesson...just go ahead and have your 4 year old take a potty break before they get ready to stand in a long line.  

We had such a fun night at Pier Park...for sure a highlight of the trip!