Preston's Birthday Beach Trip

 For a couple of years now, Preston has mourned the loss of having a birthday party.  I mean summer gets so busy, and he's not exactly a kid anymore, but finally we struck a compromise and decided we would make a quick trip to the beach and he could bring some friends.  It was quite the feat deciding which friends to bring, but he chose a fantastic group!  So we left Friday at lunch and headed to Hilton Head.  The boys wasted no time hitting the beach as soon as we arrived.

I was shocked when they all got up early the next morning to go for a run.  In the heat.  At the beach.  On vacation!!!  I think Paxton ran the farthest, clocking in with 8 miles, while the other boys ran a good distance too.  Did I mention this group of friends were all athletes, that apparently take summer training seriously.  Anyway, after their workout, we had breakfast and hit the beach for the entire day.

One quick family photo before packing it up to head back to the condo. 

After everyone showered and had dinner, we headed to Coligny for some browsing.  Savannah and I realized we were twinning so we had to take a picture. :)

Sunday came all too quickly and we loaded up to head home.  Dave stayed back with the boys so they could enjoy a few more hours on the beach, while Savannah and I opted for shopping at the outlets on the way home.  It was such a fun weekend and reminded me once again how thankful I am that both kids have hand picked such great friends.

Preston's *Best* Summer Day

 

According to Preston, today was the absolute best day of summer so far!

He loves being on the lake so much . . .  add in some of his favorite frinds and it's a day made in Heaven!

He spent the day at Lake Wylie with some of his friends from church on Corbin's dad's boat and loved every second.  So thankful for this little group of good kids who enjoy each other so much.

Celebrating BIG!

Tonight we went out to celebrate with these two kiddos.  Preston's AP scores were released today . . .  and he scored a 5 on all three exams!!  Whoop whoop!!  That's the highest possible score, so he is thrilled to add 3 more college classes to his transcript.  Savannah has been anxiously awaiting her parking lottery from UNC to come out, and she found out today that she has the closest possible parking spot to her dorm!  Needless to say, I have two happy kiddos tonight; certainly worthy of Jeni's ice cream!

The 4th of July Inside!

It has been SO miserably hot lately that we decided our best bet was to celebrate the 4th of July indoors. Activate was doing a special if you wear red, white, or blue, and I had already purchased a gift card at a discount, so we made what is usually a super expensive event quite reasonable.  PLUS, there was no one there, so we didn't have to wait at any station and could do our favorite laser room over and over again.  We played it so much that we all came home with damaged knees. LOL

Toy Story was a bit more crowded, but we did find a matinee seating so we could finally watch the movie using Dave's blood donor tickets.  It was such a cute movie!  We had planned to go to Macado's in Concord (Savannah's favorite restaurant but we opted not to go to Boone) BUT realized at the last minute it was no longer in the mall and had been permanently closed.  So we had to choose another favorite, that was unfortunately, equally as far away. We ended up getting take out from Red Robin.

We ended the night watching fireworks at our usual favorite place, Food Lion.  Crazy enough, they had a little mishap and the fireworks started shooting towards the crowd!!! It was absolutely terrifying!  We were getting eaten alive by bugs, and were still startled from the mishap, so we left before it was over.  All in all, it was a fun, super low key, day celebrating our country's freedom!