Fun Times

This has been the month for seeing old friends! Not old friends, but friends of old. :) Remember, we saw (some of) the Bethels, and the Spences. This past Monday, we saw the Riddle family!! Brad and Carrie are dear friends of ours from North Carolina. They are a very special family. Brad outranked all the guys at our church (by a LOT), but he made a point to never let that be an issue. He told Brian on one of the first visits to the church, "We are all the same rank in the eyes of God." I'll never forget that, because Brian was very intimidated and Brad put him right at ease. I'll also never forget the first time Carrie invited me over to her house for dinner. I think Brian was deployed, and I was SUPER nervous. I had a toddler, and while Carrie also had toddlers, I just knew that Emily would go in and ruin everything she had. Afterall, they lived in a commander's house!! I could not have been more wrong. I was very at ease in the house. Brad and Carrie, you guys have been good friends and mentors to us over the years. We appreciate your friendship more than you know!!

They are also friends with Tim and Sarah, so they came over to grill out and enjoy a good time!!

Back Row: Sarah, Carrie, Brad

Front Row: Andrew, Jonathan, Emily, Katy

Eleven Years!

Eleven years ago today, Brian and I started dating. Two weeks later, he told me, "I'm going to marry you." I told him he was crazy! Well, evidently he wasn't too crazy. :) I love you baby!!! It's been the best 11 years I could imagine!


Look how young we are!! We weren't even officially "dating" here. I had just returned from a trip where I had broken up with my boyfriend. ha ha


I remember my mom saying, "Excuse me?" We were engaged here.


My college graduation!


Yay! Our wedding day!


Then our family started growing....


Another addition....

The final family....no more to grow. hee hee

We Are Family!

One thing we really enjoyed on our trip was all the time we got to spend with family. We were with my family at the beach, then on the way home, we stopped in Hot Springs for a couple days to be with Brian's family. We come from two very different families, but we enjoy our visits with both sides.

This was the story of the week.Savannah could lead her Papa anywhere.

We had fun with our friends, my parents

This is Brian's Aunt Lucy and Uncle Denver...and Allison (the dog). They spoil our girls like another set of grandparents. We love, love, LOVE, going to their house.

The girls enjoying Brian's grandma.

Brian and his dad.

We also really enjoyed just being able to be with our girls and not focusing on work, housework, or anything like that. It was a special time.

At one of the hot springs in Hot Springs. (they were SO hot!!!)

Me and Van at a rest area (slash get out some energy place)

Brian and the girls at the Tennessee Welcome Center

Brian and Van hydrating at the beach.


OK. OK. Family Shmamily..I had to keep up with my friends. :)

Back to Reality

We returned home from our vacation yesterday afternoon. While we had an amazing time away, and thoroughly enjoyed everything, we were very happy to be home. I think all in all, I have 234 pictures from vacation. Don't panic!! I'm not going to put them all on here. I'm going to try to post a couple in the next few days of the hi-lites. I'll try not to subject you to endless pictures of my beautiful babies on the beach. ha ha

One thing we got to do while gone was see two different sets of VERY good friends of ours. The first was Melanie and 2 of her kids. We met in Wytheville, VA (which is very beautiful) for lunch. It was so good to see her again, and can't wait for next time when (hopefully) Matthew will be home from Iraq.


Savannah, Emily and Emma. Emily and Emma are like their mommies in that they can pick up exactly where they left off....several months later.


This was our first time meeting Noah. He is SUCH a good baby....(I can't believe you have a boy) :)


Here is our group...minus Callie.

On the way home we saw Aaron and Darla Spence and their 2 kids (+ one in Mommy's belly). We haven't seen Aaron in a long time as he has been faithfully serving our country in Korea, and then Iraq. It was fun to hang out with them in Nashville, TN.


Emily and Mason were adorable!!! They "had to hold hands" in the mall. Their daddy's rolled their eyes, sighed, and thought about dreaded days to come.


After a brief warming up period, Savannah and Maggie had SO much fun together.


Little Maggie is simply adorable.

The Spence family together again!

When they said good-bye, you'd have thought they were long lost loves.

More Beach News

We are having SO much fun here at the beach. Emily got a little dehydrated yesterday...ok, a lot dehydrated...who is her mother, anyway? Last night wasn't too fun for her, but she is much better today. I can't believe it's Wednesday already. Why does time go SO fast when you're on vacation? It's not fair. Who said life was fair...yadda yadda.

Keren came down last night and spent the night with us, and most of today. It was good to see her and get to spend a little time with her since we won't be in Goldsboro that much this trip. Here are some more pictures...just so ya'll can be jealous. haha


Keren and the girls playing on the beach!

Papa brought something to roast marshmallows on. He thinks of everything!

Emily loves the water.

A wise woman once told me...Mom's don't get vacations, they just take their show on the road. :)

Everyone has laughed at me for taking this picture, but seriously, have you ever seen so much goodness all at once. ha ha

Brian cooking ribs