handsful

So, my last post was a month ago.

Oops.  Getting major slack from my kids about this.

It’s not my fault!  Summer has sped by!  I’m still waiting for those lazy summer days so I can tackle a few projects.

(The kids dual enrollment classes and Abbey’s community college classes begin Aug 18th.  Our other courses at home will begin the following week.)

Who am I kidding about projects?

But, I’ll still share a few of our favorite pics from the last month.

Buckle up.  This will be long.

I think I mentioned that I took Marley and her friends Kylie and Kailee to Hilton Head for a weekend.  It was her 16th birthday wish, rather than a big party.  Since I got to enjoy a first-ever trip to HH, I whole-heartedly agreed!

This is Marley checking out the view from the Harbour Town Lighthouse.

I also took them to go para sailing.  Randy and I did this in Mexico last summer, I knew the girls would love it.

One of the girls was a little nervous, given the height and water thing, but she immediately said she’d do it again in a heartbeat.  I’m protecting her identity ;)

Coming in for a landing!

View from our balcony…Randy’s traveling = hotel points. Our stay was free.

It was a great weekend, despite a few too many clouds.  They had their beloved beach day, we ate some delish food, and we spent both nights taking LONG walks on the beach.  I had such a great time with these girls!

Another summer highlight was our Family Weekend Vacation.  Despite our best efforts, we could never find more than 3 days that we were all available..no one working, or had other commitments with friends, etc.  I’m learning that, as they get older, they have these LIVES that don’t always include us. Makes me happy (they’re becoming independent young adults..gulp), and sad at the same time. I find myself wanting to re-live when they were all little.

Hindsight, ya know?

We decided a nice weekend in Atlanta would hit the spot…especially if we included a Braves game.  That always makes us happy! We also visited the Georgia Aquarium, which was super crowded, but also really fun.

After spending 5+ hours (yeah…) at the aquarium, we decided we were hungry.  And, since the theme for the weekend was “follow the crowd”, we had no choice but to head here.

Where is “here”, you ask?

The Varsity.  The ultra-famous burger joint that serves 2 miles worth of chili dogs per DAY.  It’s been open since 1928.  I mean, Elvis used to order cheeseburgers to-go several times a day.  It’s a legend.

But, when Randy saw that line, he gave me that “are you kidding me??”  look.  But, being the great dad that he is, we ventured in and enjoyed our Varsity lunch!  The kids were thrilled, because they’d come here on Testify tour a couple years back.

We then fought the traffic (again), and  made our way back to the hotel, and got dressed for the game..

I LOVE going to Braves games.  And, we’ve been to about 4 in the last few years.

They’ve won all 4.  We’ve got a good record :)

How much do I love this picture?  A lot.  These are the “Braves Girls”…we asked Dylan if he wanted a picture with them.  He sauntered right up there and smiled big.  Heartbreaker.

Abbey-girl.  The girl is busy being a young adult these days, and isn’t around as much as she used to be.  They’re all growing up so dang quickly.

Sigh…I digress.

I call this one “Payton contemplating entering the scary crowd of people”.  Remember the theme?  Get over your claustrophobia, dude.

Before the game, we hit the Braves store (of course, it was crowded), and picked up a few new T-shirts, etc.  Payton bought this…fans of Evan Gattis (Braves catcher) call him El Oso Blanco.  It means White Bear.  Good luck getting this back, Tater.

Braves win!!

The required pic of Randy and me, after the game.

Back to the hotel, and then we headed home in the morning.  But before we did, Randy managed to find a few locations in Atlanta where the Walking Dead is filmed.  This is one of their fav shows.  I always wimp out and go to bed when it comes on.

Zombies, ewww.

They’re sitting in front of someone’s house.  Rick’s maybe?  I dunno.  But, they were pretty psyched, as you can tell.

Ethan would have been in the pic, but he’d been sick off and on since the day before, and was feeling pretty lousy that morning.

Thankfully, he made the trip home fine.

What else this summer?  Lainey and Dylan went to a week of Y camp. Marley and Lainey had a week of Acrofitness camp.  We all had an awesome week of VBS, where the big kids helped in elementary classrooms (Ethan and Marley), a group of girls learning a dance for the week (Abbey), and as skit characters named Zip Quick, Wormy, and Billy Bass (Payton).  Marley is currently in the middle of two weeks at the beach with Kylie, and Abbey left this morning with Daniel for a few days at the beach with his family.

As is usual for us, our summer was full.

Maybe Fall will be a better time to finish those projects?  :)