Track Conference Champs!!!

Preston was invited to run in the track conference championship meet today at Independence High School.  His event was the 4x200, and he was thrilled to be running with the fast seniors!  Dave was able to slide away from work (during month-end) to see him run, and then he headed back to work.  I was waiting for Preston to get his official time before we could leave and head home . . . and then he realized that they actually placed, and he wanted to stay to get his medal.  At first, I was like, can't someone just bring it to you at school?!  LOL  That was a hard no, so I agreed to wait.  While we were waiting, a kid who was supposed to run the 4x100 relay was injured, so Preston was asked to fill in for that relay as well.   And that team also placed so this freshman kid walked away with TWO medals at the conference track meet!!  Not only that, the PHS team placed first overall, so that meant that Preston wanted to wait until the VERY end for the trophy presentation.  Dave and I tag-teamed it, and he came back to the meet after he left work so I could get home (after 3+ hours at a track meet) to get dinner pulled together.  It was a very, very long afternoon, but in the end, it was worth it for this kid to be so proud and to be able to have this chance to celebrate with his team.

 

LDOC for Savannah ~ Freshman Year UNC

Today was Savannah's last day of class for her freshman year!  It's been a year filled with mountains and valleys, but overall, she has rocked it!  Words can't even express how proud I am of her and excited for the journey that still lies ahead.  She will be an RA in her current dorm next year, so we are all THRILLED about that.  Now to just wrap up those finals and head home to start her first official full-time internship. :)

 

Eagles Soccer Wrap Up

Today was Preston's last game with the Eagles 09 team.  It was a crazy season filled with lots of injured teammates, super long drives to practice, and more away games than at home, but somehow this team pulled it together and grew a lot this year.  It was awesome to see Preston score the last goal of the year too!!  We aren't sure where he will play next year, but are thankful for the experience he has had this year with the Eagles.

 

Happy Easter ~ He Is Risen Indeed!

It was sort of an odd Easter Sunday since we got back so late last night, but per the usual Dave tradition, he still wanted to hide the kids' baskets. We went to 8:00 service so finding said baskets had to wait until after church.

 It was a fun, relaxed day at home for all of us.  Savannah ended up waiting until Monday morning to go back to school (via Dave's early morning taxi service), so we enjoyed Easter Sunday together as a family. So thankful to serve a Risen Savior who has blessed us with ever so much!

DISNEY Spring Break Adventure

Of course we had to let Preston sit in the cockpit before we got off the plane :)

The kids have been begging to take a Spring Break/Easter trip, and somehow we pulled this last-minute trip to Disney off this year!  It took a LOT of work and was super stressful not having everything booked on Disney property through a planner, but we managed to pull it all together.  I do think it was a bit cheaper, but on the way home, we all agreed we won't stay off property again!!

We took a later flight out of Charlotte on Wednesday and caught the bus at 7am Thursday morning from the hotel to hit the best park first, Magic Kingdom.  We even splurged on lightning passes so that the boys could ride as much as possible in one *magical* day. :)

Savannah and I hung together and opted for a lot less scary rides!

The refillable popcorn bucket was a hit!

The race cars were crazy!  Preston almost got us thrown out of there by brake checking me

 

Getting out of the park was INSANITY!!! We stayed for fireworks, realized we never had dinner so we had to revise our plans and decided to try to leave the park by 9:45 so we could make it to the bus at 10:30 to the hotel.  We grabbed something quick to eat and then tried to get back to the 10:30 bus. LOL  The crowd was so massive we didn't even get near the boat or tram to get back to the ticket center before 10:15 so we ended up having to uber back to the hotel.  What a mess!

After the late night and crazy adventure on Day 1, we were thankful Epcot opened later so we could catch the 8:05 bus and still make it for early park entry.

It was a fun day, but we wrapped up early and decided to walk to Disney Springs after a quick stop by the hotel.  It was a fun night of shopping, dinner, and Ghirardelli sundaes!

Our last day was spent at Hollywood Studios.  The park opened at 8, but the boys caught the 7:05 bus and were super glad they did because early entry started even earlier, and they hit their two favorite rides TWICE each before regular people entered.  It was a bummer for me and Savannah because we got there right before the park opened for everyone, and they wouldn't let us use the early entry. :(  We rode a few rides, ended up waiting in line over 90 minutes for TOY STORY because it kept breaking down, and again grabbed ice cream Mickey sundaes before catching the bus back to the hotel at 3:30.  The one amazing discovery we found was the single ride line . . . instead of waiting 90 minutes to ride certain rides we literally waited 5 minutes and rode two and two instead of all together.  Hallelujah! 

We waited SO long for Toy Story!!!

It was a fun trip, and just what we ALL needed to escape Charlotte for a bit.  We do think it was less magical than before, mostly due to cast members not being as pleasant and friendly, but also because transportation was super inconvenient, not staying on the monorail.  So we made the most of it and enjoyed our crazy adventure and time together. :)  Now these two kiddos are officially on school countdown!

The Golden Egg

This kid, who will remain nameless, ran all over the neighborhood like a madman doing the scavenger hunt in search of the golden egg . . . and he was first to find it! Let's just say said kid was THRILLED to find the $50 Amazon card!

Charleston Cooper River 2025

 

We headed to Charleston Friday afternoon for the Cooper River Bridge Run.  Dave was thrilled to be able to run this year!  After checking into the hotel, our first stop was Hyman's for dinner (it's tradition and Savannah wouldn't even consider another option as she's looked forward to the chicken and waffles for months!)

Dave got up super early to catch the bus and did great in the race!

This kid was a bit over the moon that one of the main giveaways this year was Dave's Killer bread bars, his absolute favorite!!!  And from my perspective, they are super expensive, so I was happy to let him collect as many as my Ikea bag would hold. LOL

He even opted for a hat disguise to go back for MORE bars

After cleaning up, we headed back downtown to browse the Market.  It didn't take long before we were all super exhausted (especially one guy who ran over 6 miles), so we hit the road to head back to Charlotte.

But we made sure to get our annual CPI big red chair picture and photo booth strip. :)

It was a super fun, yet fast, weekend . . and it's always nice to have Savannah home for a bit!