PHS Soccer!!!

Things have been so insane for Preston lately . . between flight hours, working, soccer tryouts/workouts, and just normal summer stuff with friends, this kid has been nonstop.  He has worked so hard and found out Friday that he made the high school soccer team.  I'm not sure why, but I think I was even more excited than he was!  

The team decided that they wanted to wear white shorts for the first game today, and Preston didn't exactly have any so we had to improvise with taking the old club shorts and manually removing the number.  It actually worked!  Preston may have said "all my years of picking are finally paying off" LOL

The first game was today, and they did awesome!  5-0 win against Latin.  Preston really likes his team; they truly seem to be a great group of talented kids with good attitudes.  

It's going to be a super fun, busy Fall!!!!  

It poured down rain during warm-ups!  But the team came out strong!

 A little pre-game huddle by the starters, including Preston starting at center back. 

Preston's First Real Job!

Today is Preston's first day on the job at Harris Teeter!  He is way more excited than I thought he would be . . . so here's hoping he actually enjoys it!

UNC Move In Year 2 Chaos

Well, somehow summer is over, and it's time to move Savannah into UNC again. I'm not sure how that happened so fast, but nonetheless, here we are!  This year the feelings are all different since she knows what to expect and is SUPER excited about being an RA in the same dorm, but it's still an emotional time for us all.

Savannah warned us that the elevator usually breaks for RA move-in, but I was like no way... and guess what???  The elevator broke while we were trying to move her in.  I wish I could adequately capture the chaos of move-in this year, but there just simply aren't words LOL  

Being that she has her own room, she brought LOTS more stuff, and heavier stuff too.  Fridge, microwave, huge storage shelves, etc all was piled on the elevator only for it to break, with Preston on it!  He tried to call campus police to get him out, but the number was not working, so we prayed and did a lot of running up and down to different floors to try to get the stupid elevator to just move!  Finally, it did get to her floor, but the doors wouldn't open.  It was just insane.  He lived to make it to dinner, and we somehow got everything in her room (although only a fraction of the room was really set up before we took a dinner break and then had to travel back to Charlotte)

I'm so mad that I didn't get a picture of him sitting on the elevator filled with Savannah's stuff, but he spent his time sending video updates to his friends and this is the start of one of them. :)

Here is my girl, all excited about her single room and the start of a new year!

We had dinner at Buns before leaving her with hugs and good luck for organizing.

She will eventually get all settled, I think.  I plan to head back in a couple of weeks to take things that wouldn't fit into two SUVs . . . so it will all be okay.  But one thing is for sure, none of us will soon forget the insanity of the year two move-in (even though she was literally the only person moving in the entire building!)

Annual Poats Lake Adventure

Preston was SO excited to be invited to the Poats lake house again this year.  Although the weather was crappy, he made the best of a day on the lake.  Not many people wanted to ski and tube, so he was literally in the water for hours.  (Which is probably how he ended up with swimmer's ear)  

It was so good to catch up with friends and be treated like royalty once again with way too much food and just enough fun!  We had an earlier dinner, delicious BBQ and all the fixins, and headed back to Charlotte to get ready for Savannah's UNC move-in tomorrow!

Wilmington Getaway

We FINALLY made it away for a short family vacation.  After driving to Wilmington Friday afternoon, we had dinner at a recommended local place, Poe's Tavern, and then drove to walk the beach a little before bedtime.

We were up earlyish the next morning to browse the farmer's market, and then drove to the beach for the day.  It was a gorgeous day of fun in the sun and sand.

We heard thunder late in the afternoon, so we packed things up and headed back to the condo.  As we were driving back, the rain started, which made traffic crazy, but we eventually made it back and showered to walk to dinner.  There was a small wait, so we enjoyed (okay, sweated it out) walking on the Riverfront.  One of the main reasons we picked Wilmington was that the TV series we just finished watching with the kids was filmed there.  It took us about a year and a half to watch all of One Tree Hill, but we just finished once Savannah was home for summer.  So our first tour stop was the Riverfront table that was featured in the show.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Rooster and the Crow and then headed downtown to walk and see more of the filming spots.

Downtown Wilmington was super fun to walk around on Saturday.  We wrapped up the evening and then packed up on Sunday morning to leave.  We spent Sunday driving around town to see more favorite show spots and took a tour of Tric, the bar that was used in the show.

Savannah had to get a picture in front of Brooke's house!

Although it was fast, it was a nice getaway and a super fun trip to enjoy as a family!  

 

Preston's Lake Presentation (Beg)

 A kid at church invited Preston and a few friends to go boating on the lake one day this week.  Being the overprotective mom I am, it was an immediate NO!  I had no idea who this family was or who he would be hanging out with, and I mean, the lake is dangerous!!!  BUT, Preston was so determined, he did lots of research and assembled this elaborate PowerPoint presentation about why he should be able to go.  It included data about the lake and stated that a drowning had never occurred with anyone wearing a life jacket.  He also had researched the dad who would be driving and assured me he had passed his boat safety course.  So with the promise he would wear his life jacket at ALL times he was allowed to go . . . and did indeed have a blast!

A Very Low Key Independence Day

We had a super low-key July 4 as a family.  We went to the pool, grilled out, and watched a fabulous fireworks display at Food Lion.

The highlight of the day was probably when Dave found Preston's birthday gift from Uncle Mark (that we apparently received on 6/19) in our bushes!! 

 This kid is crazy . . if only I had a video of him singing God Bless America holding his sparkler!! LOL  Truly, we are thankful to get to live in the land of the free!