{"id":2894,"date":"2014-08-10T20:27:40","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T00:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.handsful.com\/?p=2894"},"modified":"2014-08-10T21:05:30","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T01:05:30","slug":"did-i-blink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2894","title":{"rendered":"Did I blink?"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, my last post was a month ago.<\/p>\n

Oops. \u00c2\u00a0Getting major slack from my kids about this.<\/p>\n

It’s not my fault! \u00c2\u00a0Summer has sped by! \u00c2\u00a0I’m still waiting for those lazy summer days so I can tackle a few projects.<\/p>\n

(The kids dual enrollment classes and Abbey’s community college classes begin Aug 18th. \u00c2\u00a0Our other courses at home will begin the following week.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Who am I kidding about projects?<\/p>\n

But, I’ll still share a few of our favorite pics from the last month.<\/p>\n

Buckle up. \u00c2\u00a0This will be long.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

I think I mentioned that I took Marley and her friends Kylie and Kailee to Hilton Head for a weekend. \u00c2\u00a0It was her 16th birthday wish, rather than a big party. \u00c2\u00a0Since I got to enjoy a first-ever trip to HH, I whole-heartedly agreed!<\/p>\n

This is Marley checking out the view from the Harbour Town Lighthouse.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

I also took them to go para sailing. \u00c2\u00a0Randy and I did this in Mexico last summer, I knew the girls would love it.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

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. \u00c2\u00a0I’m protecting her identity ;)<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Coming in for a landing!<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

View from our balcony…Randy’s traveling = hotel points. Our stay was free.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

It was a great weekend, despite a few too many clouds. \u00c2\u00a0They had their beloved beach day, we ate some delish food, and we spent both nights taking LONG walks on the beach. \u00c2\u00a0I had such a great time with these girls!<\/p>\n

Another summer highlight was our Family Weekend Vacation. \u00c2\u00a0Despite 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. \u00c2\u00a0I’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.<\/p>\n

Hindsight, ya know?<\/p>\n

We decided a nice weekend in Atlanta would hit the spot…especially if we included a Braves game. \u00c2\u00a0That always makes us happy! We also visited the Georgia Aquarium, which was super crowded, but also really fun.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

After spending 5+ hours (yeah…) at the aquarium, we decided we were hungry. \u00c2\u00a0And, since the theme for the weekend was “follow the crowd”, we had no choice but to head here.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Where is “here”, you ask?<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

The Varsity. \u00c2\u00a0The ultra-famous burger joint that serves 2 miles worth of chili dogs per DAY. \u00c2\u00a0It’s been open since 1928. \u00c2\u00a0I mean, Elvis used to order cheeseburgers to-go several times a day. \u00c2\u00a0It’s a legend.<\/p>\n

But, when Randy saw that line, he gave me that “are you kidding me??” \u00c2\u00a0look. \u00c2\u00a0But, being the great dad that he is, we ventured in and enjoyed our Varsity lunch! \u00c2\u00a0The kids were thrilled, because they’d come here on Testify tour a couple years back.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

We then fought the traffic (again), and \u00c2\u00a0made our way back to the hotel, and got dressed for the game..<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

I LOVE going to Braves games. \u00c2\u00a0And, we’ve been to about 4 in the last few years.<\/p>\n

They’ve won all 4. \u00c2\u00a0We’ve got a good record :)<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

How much do I love this picture? \u00c2\u00a0A lot. \u00c2\u00a0These are the “Braves Girls”…we asked Dylan if he wanted a picture with them. \u00c2\u00a0He sauntered right up there and smiled big. \u00c2\u00a0Heartbreaker.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Abbey-girl. \u00c2\u00a0The girl is busy being a young adult these days, and isn’t around as much as she used to be. \u00c2\u00a0They’re all growing up so dang quickly.<\/p>\n

Sigh…I digress.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

I call this one “Payton contemplating entering the scary crowd of people”. \u00c2\u00a0Remember the theme? \u00c2\u00a0Get over your claustrophobia, dude.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Before the game, we hit the Braves store (of course, it was crowded), and picked up a few new T-shirts, etc. \u00c2\u00a0Payton bought this…fans of Evan Gattis (Braves catcher) call him El Oso Blanco. \u00c2\u00a0It means White Bear. \u00c2\u00a0Good luck getting this back, Tater.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Braves win!!<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

The required pic of Randy and me, after the game.<\/p>\n

Back to the hotel, and then we headed home in the morning. \u00c2\u00a0But before we did, Randy managed to find a few locations in Atlanta where the Walking Dead is filmed. \u00c2\u00a0This is one of their fav shows. \u00c2\u00a0I always wimp out and go to bed when it comes on.<\/p>\n

Zombies, ewww.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

They’re sitting in front of someone’s house. \u00c2\u00a0Rick’s maybe? \u00c2\u00a0I dunno. \u00c2\u00a0But, they were pretty psyched, as you can tell.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, he made the trip home fine.<\/p>\n

What else this summer? \u00c2\u00a0Lainey and Dylan went to a week of Y camp. Marley and Lainey had a week of Acrofitness camp. \u00c2\u00a0We 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). \u00c2\u00a0Marley 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.<\/p>\n

As is usual for us, our summer was full.<\/p>\n

Maybe Fall will be a better time to finish those projects? \u00c2\u00a0:)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, my last post was a month ago. Oops. \u00c2\u00a0Getting major slack from my kids about this. It’s not my fault! \u00c2\u00a0Summer has sped by! \u00c2\u00a0I’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. \u00c2\u00a0Our other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2,29,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birthday","category-family","category-marley","category-trips-vacations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}