Brian's Birthday

 

Our family was invited to celebrate Brian McCulloch's 60th birthday today with a surprise party! It was so much fun catching up with lots of Carmel people and celebrating Brian.  I do have to say that talking to Maddie (Brian's daughter), our *little* flower girl who is about ready to be a SENIOR in college made me feel quite old. But it was still a super fun day!

Lake James Adventure with the Poats

 

Savannah left on Tuesday for her Bible study group adventure to the lake. She has been waiting months for this special time with her small group at Mrs. Poat's lake house.  So after her dermatologist appointment, we met up at Chick fil A and the girls all headed to the lake.  On Wednesday I was at the pool with Preston and his buddy when Savannah texted saying that Mrs. Poats invited the moms and boys to come up for the day on Thursday.  Of course, we were SO excited.  It took a little wiggling of our plans, but it all worked out!  Preston ended up skipping his coding camp and going to the Marion's mountain house Wednesday night so they could arrive at the lake early on Thursday.  I had a couple orders to do Thursday but arrived at the lake well before lunch.  

It was such a fantastic day chatting with Kristin, Stephanie, and Mrs. Poats and also watching our kiddos have the time of their life on the water.  We were on the boat for at least 5 hours before heading back in to pack up and head home.

We are so blessed to have such amazing friends . . and also to have Savannah so connected to such a godly woman who encourages, challenges, and loves on their core group so well.  

Just the Girls/Guys Time

 

Friday morning Dave and Preston headed to GA to take Papa to an Atlanta Braves game; it was his Father's Day gift. :)  Although the Braves ended up losing in the 10th inning, the boys still enjoyed a fun day at the ballpark.  Today they were able to enjoy a little time in their neighborhood pool before lunch and heading home this afternoon.  

While the boys were away Savannah and I enjoyed a fabulous (quiet) Friday with dinner out at Duckworth's and then watching Ever After.  Not sure why it's taken me this long to let her watch one of the best movies ever, but we both enjoyed it!  Today we started our morning at the Market to get some baked goodies from Cakeable's stand.  Then we went shopping and also managed to squeeze in a few shipt shops before heading home to enjoy our last bit of quiet before the boys returned.

It was such a fun weekend and a great way to enjoy some one-on-one time with the kiddos!!

A Reward for My Assistant

 

So this week Savannah and I are running a few errands (okay, a LOT of errands) and doing a little Shipting in the afternoon while Preston is in camp.  Every time we have been to Costco she has mentioned wanting this ceratin pack of highlighters . . so today I surprised her with actually buying them!  I have never seen anyone so thrilled over getting highlighters, but apparently, the purple ones are rare. :)  So glad one little purchase could make her happy; it's a small price to pay for having an assistant this week!!!

Lack of Zen Tubing

 

After many discussions about when and where to meet up, we all agreed that Zen Tubing in Asheville had the best reviews and was a good option for tubing today.  Although it was a bit tricky getting there due to heavy traffic and a few accidents on the interstate, we finally made it just in time for our 2:15pm reservation.  However, we quickly discovered that there was no way we were going to be tubing anytime soon.  

First of all, the location was totally full, with ZERO parking available.  They directed us to a church about a half-mile away to park where they set up an overflow parking/check-in.  Only when we tried to check-in they said that we had to wait for tubes to be able to check us in?!  Okay, so we waited until it was finally time to get life jackets for the little kids and get checked in . . . only then there was no bus available to shuttle us to the start of the tubing.  So we waited some more.  Finally, we boarded the bus and headed to the start of the adventure.  I'm thinking thank goodness this chaos is over and we can finally enjoy some Zen on the river.  LOL 

 Much to our surprise (anger), when we arrived at the start of the trip and got off the bus we discovered that there were no tubes available.  They continued to bus people to the start and the line grew longer and longer of people waiting to get a tube to start the journey.  Finally, over 1.5 hours after our reservation time, we were stepping into the river.  The sky was beautiful and the temperature was great  . . and we were all so thankful to finally start our 3-hour tubing journey.

However, after about 75 minutes down the river, the sky got really dark and we could hear thunder a bit away.  Trying to weigh our options we realized there was really only one . . to keep going and get off the river as quickly as we could, but we knew we had at least another hour plus to go.  We paddled hard and tried to navigate through the intoxicated people and rocks as quickly as we could as the storm grew closer and closer.  Then it started to rain, a cold rain too.  I was a bit panicked, but thankfully we made great progress and safely exited the river in just over 2 hours.  Of course then we had to wait for another bus to take us back to our car and there was no place to change at that point.  So we said our goodbyes, quickly jumped into the car with our wet suits and headed to the nearest Chick fil A for dinner.

There was absolutely nothing zenful about this adventure and I'll definitely be leaving my online review to make sure future guests are prepared for the disaster that may await them.  BUT, it was fun to be able to see the Weninger crew and Corey for the afternoon!

Happy July 4th!!

After a very eventful Saturday, we played it low-key today.  Dave and I taught preschool at church this morning and then we headed home for lunch.  After a few Shipt shops for me, we decided to head to the pool for just an hour before they closed.  It was a nice break in the afternoon.  We enjoyed burgers on the grill for dinner, ice-cream out at Coldstone, and then watched fireworks from our driveway to wrap up the holiday!

 

Saturday Pre-Fourth Festivities

We were so excited to find a date that would work for us to meet up with the Page cousins again to spend some time at the Bullhole!  Yes, the "sand" is as orange as it looks. :)  I think Uncle Denny may have had the most fun, but they all seemed to have fun doing down the little river.

Then, we went home and cleaned up to head to the Knights baseball game with Savannah's work. They had a luxury suite that came with a complete dinner and AIR CONDITIONING!!!  Honestly, the afternoon was so cool we didn't even need the air, but it was nice to have somewhere to sit and eat dinner as we watched the game. 

Preston was overjoyed to have not only a mountain dew, but also a plate of rolls, ice-cream, and a cookie AFTER dinner.

The home team was losing by a landslide, so we opted to leave early as we were all pretty exhausted after a full morning at the Bullhole.  Of course, Dave needed to take a picture with this crazy statue as we were leaving.   
 

This is the Wednesday Cakeable crew.  Renee, the founder, is right behind Savannah and is the sweetest, most genuine woman.  She invited us to come tonight to enjoy the suite with her family and a couple of students too.  This job is a perfect fit for Savannah. . . she is learning so much and LOVING every minute teaching and baking in the kitchen.  We are beyond grateful for this opportunity and can't wait to see how God uses her in this role.

Pine Cove City Camp 2021

Preston had the pleasure of attending church camp on campus this week.  I will say that he was a bit bummed that they didn't offer a sleep-away camp option for his age, but at least he was able to get rowdy with kids his age all day for a solid week!

They did a variety of activities both inside and outside the church, including water games and jumpy houses.  They ate well (Chick fil A, Publix subs, pizza), played hard, and hopefully learned a lot!  So thankful he was able to spend the week with Ben, Hamilton, and Cole!