memorial day weekend getaway

Over Memorial Day weekend, Kenton & I went to the coast (without the kids) with our friends, Carolyn, Jesse, Stu & Jacque! The house we stayed had a view of Dragon's Cove, a house we stayed at for my Mom's 50th birthday celebration.

We were spoiled on our first day with beautiful, warm, sunny, non-windy weather! :)

View from the front deck.

View of the rental house.

We walked down to explore the rocks.

Jacque's mock senior portrait. :P

Kenton's turn!

So relaxing to not have to worry about the kids while we explored near the ocean. :)

Jesse looking for treasures in the rocky sand.

Barney (Stu & Jacque's dog) got to come with us. He did great & only jumped into the ocean once. ;)

My turn.

It felt so nice to sit in the sun.

Kenton took a turn with the camera.

Great shot, Kenton!

At sunset, Carolyn & Jesse carried the bench out so they could sit comfortably.

Self portraits. Gotta love them!

Pretty sky.

Me & my love.

There was lots of board-game playing all weekend long!

Such a nice view from the main room of the house!

Making lunch & drinks!

Setting up another game. :)

We went out on Sunday to check out Strawberry Hill.

Stu's touching a sea anemone!

Pretty star fish.

Tic Tac Toe. This was right before the guys had a drift wood throwing competition. Or maybe there was not competition...just for fun. :P

We also stopped at Devil's churn, but it was low tide so there wasn't a ton of action.

The whole group!
So much fun - we'll definitely have to do it again sometime! :)

springtime sprinkler

Cedar got a fun sprinkler for his birthday & Finn has been asking to use it all the time. We finally had a sunny day & Finn decided it was warm enough to try it out. The sprinkler shoots balls out & the boys had a lot of fun chasing them around & putting back in the top!

Sweet Cedar

Saggy diaper. No need for swim suits in our back yard, right? :P

Finn has been really willing to smile for the camera lately.

So handsome.

The busy two-year-old is not so willing to smile for the camera. :P

memaw's birthday

On May 21st, we celebrated Memaw's birthday!

Couldn't resist taking a photo of me & my cuddly 4 1/2 year old! Such a sweet boy.

Cedar loved celebrating!

Yummy chocolatey fudgey cake!

As you can see, there are always lots of little helpers celebrating & trying to get a close-up view of the cake. :)

Papa & Memaw

Mom & her daughters

I liked this candid shot. Not sure what was so funny, but doesn't Mom look cute! And so happy. :)

Memaw & her sons-in law.
We missed you Erik!

All of the grandchildren!
Tyler (11), Sadie (7 3/4), Ronan (6 3/4), Cohen (5 1/2), Finley (4 1/2), Griffin (almost 4 1/2), Cedar (2), & Tate (6 months!)

Cute kids. :)

visit with miss chelsea

We had Miss Chelsea (the Children's Ministry Director at our church & the Grace Community Preschool Director) over for dinner a few weeks ago so that we could talk about details for the preschool website. But also, we really like Miss Chelsea & we were far over due for having her over!

Chelsea let each boy choose a book for her to read before they had to go to bed. I love the way Cedar is looking at Miss Chelsea. :)

Finley's turn. I think they may have roped her into reading more than one book, but who could deny these boys such a simple pleasure. They love Miss Chelsea & so do we! :)

haley's birthday party

Finley was invited to his classmate, Haley's, birthday party at a fun gymnastics place.

Griffin was there too! Look at their red cheeks - they played hard!
Finn has been such a good sport with his cast. He got it off the very next day!

The birthday girl opening a gift from the Ruddicks & us - a Tangled play set. :)

The babies:
Ismari, Tate & Korbyn

With their mamas:
Erin w/ Ismari, Gretchen w/Tate, & Lindsey w/Korbyn

Silent Auction & Dinner

On May 14th, Gretchen & I co-hosted a table at our church's youth fundraiser - Happy Days Youth Silent Auction and Dinner. It was a 50's theme & there was definitely a lot of Coca-Cola decor everywhere! We borrowed most of our decor from Mom! :)

Some other tables:

Stu & Jacque met us there & we all had a good time bidding on the auction items - some times against each other! ;)

Kenton & I ended up winning auctions for an oil change, a custom leather belt & some chocolates for the kids!

Stu's only auction win was for handmade Barbie furniture! We were all a little surprised at Stu's excitement over Barbie furniture, but they were really cool & the fridge even had drawers inside that opened a closed! Can't beat that. :P Also, he really wanted to set it up for his rats to play in. (I borrowed this photo from Jacque's Facebook page) :)

After the auction, we ate burgers & enjoyed watching the Elvis impersonator perform!

Me & my co-host!

They did such a great job decorating the church. We all had a great time! Special thanks to Carolyn & Jesse for watching our boys while we went out. :)