Bucket of Fun

We got back from a great family vacation yesterday after a week with my parents, sister and friends at Wild Dunes on Isle of Palms. Once I gather all our pictures, I'll post them.

We got so used to going to the pool or beach every day, so today we found an alternative water source to play in - a bucket. Finn loves water so much that even a bucket provided loads of fun for him.

We were so happy to get an extra day with Rachel before she heads back to Colorado.

Another fun thing today was having Jeremy home and rested. We hung out in the backyard with him while he did some yard work.

The Big 3-0

I'm a little late with this, but someone had a big birthday - my wonderful husband turned 30! It ended up being spread out over a few weeks, but who doesn't mind a little extra celebration?

I'll take you through the quick timeline.

Tuesday, April 10 I went shopping for his "big" present - a fly rod & line to go with his fly reel he received for Christmas from his dad. There were a couple things I learned.
1. Those things ain't cheap! 
2. I don't need to get "big" presents until the day of a celebration. Our neighbor, Rhett, helped me with knowing what to purchase. Also, he was taking Jeremy fishing that Saturday for his birthday. So with my excitement and Rhett's convincing, I ended up giving it to him that night. I actually went inside my house to get a drink and came out with his present. Aigh ai ai.

The next scheduled thing was his cookout. This was supposed to be Saturday, April 14th. I had most of the party all ready to go, but I knew that it was pretty tentative since Jeremy's grandpa was on the verge of passing. Since he did pass a couple days before, we ended up postponing for a couple weeks.

Thursday, April 19th was Jeremy's actual birthday. Our wonderful neighbors & friends, the Harters, watched Finn, and we went to grab a quick dinner, followed by cake (actually, key lime pie) with the Harters and our kids.

Finally, on Saturday, April 28th, we had our big birthday bash. We had lots of friends and kids over to cook out in the front yard, play corn hole & wiffle ball and eat a lot. Times like this really make you know how blessed you are for having such great friends. It was an awesome time of fellowship as a big family.

Mmmm...Publix cake.

 

My birthday boy!

Quick Visit in Dillon

*I apologize for the many pictures that will follow. I think my mom will be the only one to look at them all. :)

When we went to Raleigh last weekend, we broke up our trip so that we wouldn't have to drive the 5 hours all at once or get a hotel there. My mom happened to be going to see my grandma in Dillon the same day we were leaving for Raleigh. Since Dillon was on the way, we decided to stay there for the night and make the remainder of the trip the next morning.

I haven't been to Dillon in a really long time. I have so many wonderful memories of going, like riding 4-wheelers (my favorite), playing with my cousins, brushing the horses' hair, driving my grandpa's pickup truck and loving the open land. These memories came rushing as soon as we were pulling into my grandma's drive.

I was so glad for Jeremy and Finn to see a place I had so many good times too. We all enjoyed being in the country and made a day of memories ourselves.

[So much room to roam and run.]

[Finn's favorite thing right now is trucks. So you can imagine his wonder when he saw all these. Let's just say there were a ton of "trucks!" "honk hoooonk's!""wow's!" & "whoa's!"]

 [If Finn was in heaven seeing all these trucks, Jeremy was equally in heaven seeing his favorite trucks, the International Scout, that my uncle has. I believe I heard a few, "whoooa's!" out of him too. In fact, this is the first time he's asked me to take his picture. I know one day he'd like to restore one like the beautiful one my uncle did.]

[Here's a 1957 Chevy truck my Uncle Charles restored. It has all original parts and so it took 15 years to complete. How cool is this?]

[We couldn't pass up seeing the chickens and horses.]

[So if you're stuck it out til here, you can see we made our rounds on our short visit. We got to see our family's farm fields, lots of trucks, animals and family. It was a great visit & want to make it back soon!]