The Beach :) :) :)

I absolutely LOVE the beach!! We spent most of out time on the sand and in the water. It was so nice being just a few feet from the water. The only thing I don't like to do at the beach is eat (can't handle sand crunching in my teeth) so it was perfect being able to come and go as we wanted to get drinks, snacks, or just hang out in the shade on the deck. My good friend Jessica moved to Charlotte several years ago and since we were in Wilmington they stayed with us a few days too. Riley is actually not a huge fan of swimming in the ocean, so he asked me to take a walk with him and what mom could resist her teenage son's request for quality time :) I can't wait to go again!!!

Admiring the View

As soon as we got to the house we changed into swimsuits Just a few pictures of us admiring the view from the deck. Every morning we started our day with hot coffee, rocking chairs, a breeze, the sound of the ocean and a beautiful view!!! I think we definitely spent more time on the deck than anywhere in the house. I wish I'd taken more pictures of the house. The picture with the lightning was taken during a storm from the widow's peak.

Summer Vacay: Wrightsville Beach

This summer my mom treated us to a beach vacation in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.  She rented us an amazing, beachfront home in the town I grew up in. The picture of Bailey making her "packing list" cracks me up because she is so organized and prepared like her daddy. I mean really what 14 year old sits down to make a packing list?!?! For this trip we decided to fly and avoid the 20 plus hour drive and I'm so glad!! The rest of the pics are just a random sampling of us traveling. Notice all the smiles because we are super excited about our trip :)

Lake Murray

Over the summer Jesse took a welding job in Oklahoma, so everybody decided to visit. Jesse rented a boat for us and it was so much fun!!! The boat was two levels so we could jump and dive off the top. It was really high and scary (to me anyway). It took me awhile to muster up the courage to actually jump. We spent the whole day on the lake!! While we were cruising the lake we found these cliffs for cliff jumping. Jesse and I were not excited about this idea, but Michael, Riley, Bailey, Jeremy and Colleen thought it would be great. I literally couldn't breathe from the moment they jumped off until they surfaced again!!! Watching Bailey was the worst and I would not let her go twice. Of course, they thought it was one of the most exciting things ever!

Lynzie's 21st

Lynzie planned a trip to Austin for her 21st, so Colleen and I decided to show up and surprise her. It was an overnight trip so we didn't do much other than dinner and 6th street. Mike decided to come too, so we had our own security detail ;)

Swimming Again

Nothing special about this day. Just love the picture. We spend a lot of time at Jesse and Colleen's throughout the summer. Rudy is so much more fun in the pool now. He's much braver and loves to jump to you.

Swimming with the Vaughan's

We always love getting together with Robert and the girls for summer swimming. The girls had a blast jumping, whipping their hair around, and playing games in the pool. Mariana like's to copy everything that her big cousin does :)

Dirah's Prom

Nadirah searched and searched for the perfect dress with no luck. She ultimately borrowed Lynzie's dress and it was perfect on her. She looked beautiful and no one else had a dress like it :)

Meet Charlee

This our new golden retriever, Charlee. Bailey has wanted a dog since she was a little girl but Jeremy and I aren't really animal people, so we held off as long as we could. Finally, we gave Bailey a stray dog that Colleen found. He is a really good dog, but not a fun dog for her. So the begging started again!!! We had been looking and couldn't find one that was reasonably priced and not a lab until I stumbled across Charlee on Craigslist. Her first owner's have three small children and the mom quickly realized it was way too soon to have a pet. We drove way out into the country to meet her and immediately fell in love. The couple was so happy to find a family that really wanted her they gave us her, her crate, toys, bowls, leash, and food all for free! We brought her home to surprise Bailey and she cried she was so happy!!! She's a good and fun dog and we all love her. We had some issues naming her though. Her original owners named her Lily, which is cute but also the name of our niece so that couldn't work. Then we called her Chloe for a day and Riley decided he did not want to yell that name out in public :) Finally, we all agreed on Charlee. The first picture is one that we re-created for Bailey...long story. The second one is Bailey painting Charlee's toe nails (Riley was again not a fan) and finally the bottom one is Charlee now at 5 months.

Track Banquet

Riley decided to wear a bow tie for the track banquet, which sounded great until we tried to tie it ;) Of course we waited until he was getting dressed to try and figure it out. Well, that turned into a not so happy Riley. He tried first, then Jeremy tried, I tried, my friend Mickie was over so she tried, we pulled up youtube to try and nothing was working. I wasn't sure he was going to figure it out. Ultimately he figured it out once he calmed down and they looked so cute!!

Jill's Graduation

I finished my degree this May :) I completed three years in two, so there were many semesters that I took 18-21 hours but somehow still managed to graduate Magna Cum Laude. I was very undecided on actually walking, but decided I didn't want to regret it later if I chose not to participate. I was way more excited about finishing since it's been a personal goal than I was about walking, so I didn't think to take pictures of me in my cap and gown at school. My mom text me as we were headed home and wanted to see pics, so we stopped by the Keller administration building, I put my cap and gown back on and got the pics. We figured it looked like a campus building anyway so no one would ever know ;) To celebrate we went to dinner at The Woodshed in Fort Worth. It's a new, green restaurant that sits on the Trinity River.