Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Texas

Two weeks ago my mom and I along with another mom and daughter headed to Texas to visit some friends and visit their church. 
On our way down we stopped in Alabama and stayed with some friends my mom knew in college.

Texas art.

On Monday our host family held a lovely tea and invited several families with girls our age so we could meet them. 

Hangin' out during the tea

The moms had fun too. :)

You can't see us but there were four of us that loved photography and we were all posing with our cameras

Jacob, son of our lovely hosts.

Lacie

Mrs. C. Thank you for allowing us to stay in your lovely home!
This is Fritz, he was very sweet and has another miniature dachsund friend who is dark brown named Heidi.

On Thursday we went to the historical home of Ima Hogg (imagine having that name!). Every room in her house is a different time period. Very interesting decorating style!

And the house is pink.

Evangeline (and baby Abigail :)) and Mom.

After Ima Hogg we headed to The Galleria, a fancy shopping center. Mom thought this ring above the intersection looked like it belonged in outer space.

All the stoplights in Texas were sideways, though I suppose it makes sense because of the wind. I still think it looks strange, I prefer them vertical.

My delicious lunch at a French restaurant in The Galleria


Mom thought this was adorable and was determined to get a picture of it. It was so funny to watch Mia trying to get some dessert off her mama's plate.   

Driving through Louisiana, there were lots and lots of swamps. I had never seen anything that looked like this before.

This was the first time I've driven across the Mississippi.

On our way home we stopped again in Alabama with another college friend of mom's. They had this adorable kitten that we were extremely tempted to take with us. Unfortunately Dad would not have thought that was such a great idea...

The sunrise as we drove out of Alabama on our last leg of the journey home after a fabulous trip.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Last weekend our family, along with three other families, drove to the Blue Ridge Mountains and stayed in a lovely cabin and hung out with each other. We had a wonderful time!

Mallory dear.

My great, amazing friend Kate.

This was the view from the house, pretty nice eh?

Hannah eating her delicious warm soup. (really like this shot)

Hannah again

And her sister Mallory, she's always smiling. :)

The rest of the crew waiting to leave for a hike at Moses Cone State Park near Boone.

Mom.



Part of our hike--the only flat portion too! Hard work for us flat-landed, coastal people. (not sure if that's an actual term...)

Christine and I at our destination, a fire tower with gorgeous views.

If you can't tell, Dad is trying to pour water on people.

Mr. and Mrs. L

Picnic on the lawn. 

Lovely and happy Mr. and Mrs. M.

The twins, Christine and Kate. I think they look really similar here. 

Hannah and Mallory dancing. lol


The next day we drove to Stone Mountain and hiked to the top. This picture includes almost everybody, one family had to leave early. 

My family

On the climb down from the giant rock the trail ends at this lovely waterfall. Though I shouldn't call it a water "fall" because it was more of a giant water slide. The water never fell from the rock, just slipped down it (for about 200 feet!). 

This is what we climbed. 

The group that climbed part way up the "waterslide"


Afterwards some of us (not me) went repelling. This is Carter making his descent.























Triathlon

Last year we had two members of our family in the triathlon and this year we had three. Emily and two of her friends decided to do a relay. Emily took care of the swimming, Annie Kate the running and Mallory the bike. They did wonderfully! Emily came out of the water with a really nasty jelly fish sting though. She has two nasty lines on her forearm. 



Mallory (Thanks Mrs. S for the pic!)

Annie Kate completing the final part of the run.

Mallory finished the bike strong

The three girls. And they all want to do another triathlon in the spring. 


Daddy finished the race. 

Mom and her hubby. 

Last year we had two people in the race. This year we knew a total of nine people in it. I had a wonderful time watching everyone and cheering them on. 







Tuesday, October 5, 2010

A bigger "family"!


Our "family" has grown by 50! Our new members are a week days old and are absolutely adorable.