The SC Daugherty's

Welcome to Bikini Bottom

2009-02-09T18:03:00.000-08:00

Grace being goofy with Sponge Bob and Katja
Happy 8th Birthday Grace

Tristan took a turn throwing up a pizza pie

Loved the cake!

Grace had a delayed birthday party this year. She basically celebrated a solid week. Spoiled girl! Here are a few pictures from her pizza chef party. The kids got to learn how to make pizza and then run around high on sugar playing in the arcade. As a parent, I've learned it's sooooo worth the money to have it somewhere other than you're own house. Much more relaxed and I don't have a worry in the world. Fun was had by all...plus did I mention that Stevi B's Pizza has some pretty "exotic" pizza....I had a really good macaroni and cheese pizza and Dale loved the loaded baked potato pizza. Too fun!

Utah Ski Trip

2009-01-26T18:06:00.000-08:00

Dale on the ski lift at Sundance
Mount Timpanogoos, UT

Dawna & Dale on the ski lift

Thought you might enjoy a few pictures of the ski trip Dale and I took a couple of weeks ago. I only have what we took with our phone while on the lift at Sundance as we didn't really take too many pictures.

We went to Utah for 6 days...without kids. It was so fun and definitely refreshing to have some time alone together. We also spent some time with Dale's brother's (Chad, Elvan, & Freddy)who live there in Utah. We ate a ton at all our favorite restaurants (Rumbi's, Tepanyaki, Bajios, Zuppa and of course, Cafe Rio. (3 times!) We were able to go to the SLC temple and stocked up on Utah stuff galore. We skiied at Snowbird and Sundance during our visit. Besides the blizzard conditions on arrival, the week turned out great. I miss Utah, but definitely don't miss the cold.

Grace's 8th Birthday

2009-01-25T18:17:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Grace!

Pop Pop & Mimi at dinner with us

Dawna, Tristan, & Grace having a great time at dinner

Tristan, Dale, Grace, Aunt Libby, & Addison at Wasabi!

We celebrated Grace's birthday with dinner out. Every year I love going to a Japanese steak house (the one where they cook the food in front of you) and this last June we took Grace with us. She was in love! She adored the show and the food and proclaimed, for everyone to hear, that she was going to go there for her birthday next year. Well, sure enough, she made it known that she wanted to go out to eat to the Japanese steak house like Mom. So we were able to take both her and our family as well as her Mimi and Pop Pop and Aunt Libby and cousin Addison to dinner. The chef was hilarious and kept us laughing most the night and Grace's favorite parts were the little toy man that squirt water on the fire (it looked like it was peeing...bathroom humor is big with eight year olds as you know) and the smoking volcano/train. It was quite entertaining. She loved that they sang "Happy Birthday" with the drum and gave her fancy chopsticks to take home. She kept a smile of her face all night.

"Eight is Great!" Grace's Baptism

2009-01-25T18:05:00.000-08:00

Getting ready to get baptised...

Grace and Dale on her special day

Today Grace made the decision to be baptised. We are so proud of her and she positively glowed all day. We know she'll never forget her special day since it was on her actual birthday. About 80 people attended and we asked each person to write a small message on a 3x5 card as a keepsake for her and hope she will always remember her special day.

Queen for a Day

2008-12-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

We celebrated our YW in Excellence last night and had a pagent theme. Ms. Faith, Ms. Divine Nature...you get the idea. It turned out really cute. The girls did their pagent wave at the end and to ham it up it little more, I wore a ball gown. Yeah...it didn't quite go over as well as I liked. I thought being so over the top would get some laughs...instead I got a lot of stares and "no comments"...oh well. I think overall the girls did fantastic and were able to showcase a lot of the projects they've been working on throughout the year.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T15:40:00.000-08:00

We had a quiet little Thanksgiving holiday this year. We stayed in SC and had dinner at our new house with my Mom and stepdad Lonnie. It was very relaxing and included no holiday driving marathons...ahhhhh. My brother went up to VA for the holiday break and it took him 11 hours to get home rather than the normal 7 hours. Ick. Yes...a quiet Thanksgiving was so nice. We threw our traditional pie party that evening. We had a few families over and enjoyed a great variety of yummy pies. I made homemade apple and pumpkin pie as well as a chocoate mousse. We also were graced with a peanut butter mousse pie as well as a delicious apple praline cheesecake...YUM! It was all worth it...and yes...even the extra few pounds.

Arrrgh Matey!

2008-11-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

Almost forgot to include a photo of us together on Halloween night. Our entire family dressed up as pirates. Dale's "tattoos" were courtesy of Grace and a sharpie. My personal favorite is the hangman on his forearm. I'll take an "a" please. And that's a real goatie he grew in just for the occassion. Only thing is his beard is naturally blond and he of course wanted it darker. So he asked to use my mascara...ha...I don't think so. So he used the next best thing...black shoe polish. It was definitely dark...for a very long time.

Halloween

2008-11-01T21:14:00.000-07:00

Racing the rubber duckies
Yeehaw Cowboy!

Jason, Libby, and Addison on our hayride

Literally swinging from the rafters

We've done a lot of activities this Halloween season. We took the kids to a really cool farm about an hour away that had the corn maze with a ton of other fun activities. They had a barn full of hay with ropes tied to the rafters...crazy but fun. They had a corn cob gun, hayride, pumpkin patch, cow train, and even funnel cakes! Here's a few pictures for your enjoyment. My brother Jason, his wife Libby and my cute niece Addison joined us for the day.

Trunk R Treat

2008-11-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

So I participated in our church Trunk r Treat this year. I actually dressed up and decorated my car. If you know me well, you know that's not too hard to believe. Our family LOVES Halloween! We lived in Florida last Halloween and they are crazy there. Full on theater level props on their cars, stake level chili cook-off, EVERYONE dresses up...you get the idea. Well, I was thinking the same here, not so much. I'm the ONLY adult dressed up. Several people had to do a second look and someone even called me "Sister Sparrow". I can at least say I had a really good time and wasn't lacking for conversation.

Party in the Hood

2008-11-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

Bobbing for Apples
Our 1st & 2nd place Chili Cook-Off Winners

Donut on a string...hilarious!

Tristan the pirate

Tons of good food...check out our ballot box...it was official!

Yes...I know it's a been a LONGGGGG time. I've been busy.

I'm the Activity Committe chair for my neighborhood HOA....aka "Sucker". (I'm the only one that'll do it.) Well, we don't have too many kids in our neighborhood (probably around 20 tops) but I still needed to throw a party that interested both adults and kids if I was hoping for any type of turn out. Hence we successfully threw our 1st annual Savannah chili cook-off/halloween kid party. I've included a few pictures from the event. We had about 60 people attend. Not too shabby considering we only have 49 houses in our entire neighborhood. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We had some fun games for the kids. I did a "ghost hunt" (lollipops dressed up like ghosts hidden through the backyard), apple bob, donut on a string, and my best creation...the cupcake walk! We had about 9 chili contest entries and a mother/daughter team took 1st and 2nd place. The entire event was exhausting, but it's all worth it if everyone has a good time.

Big "G", Little "o"...Go! Go!

2008-09-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

Grace cheered at her first game Saturday morning in Mauldin. It was super hot but the girls kept upbeat and kept the crowd excited. We've only mastered about 5 cheers so far so they repeated a few throughout the game, but I don't think anyone noticed. It was fun to watch them and then to also see the pee-wee teams play. The boys looked like bobble heads running up and down the field and then they'd slam each other. I was definitely entertained.

Hang Ten Dude!

2008-08-28T04:09:00.000-07:00

We had a really fun experience the week before school started. We took the kids to Folly Beach, right outside Charleston, SC, to a surf camp for autistic children called Surfers Healing. It's a non-profit organization that brings professional surfers to various coastal towns to surf with autistic children. It was pretty incredible and both of our kids had a blast. Grace got up on the board basically everytime but Tristan wasn't so sure of it. He suctioned himself to the front of the board each run but finally felt comfortable on his last one and stood up. Too cute. He's mimicing a lot more these days, which is fun to see. The pictures speak for themselves.

Back to School

2008-08-28T03:48:00.000-07:00

Grace on her first day of 2nd grade

It's been awhile since last I posted. I think preparing for the first day of school took over, but now I'm back and did I mention free?!! Yes, I love the first day of school. Summer vacation for the kids is officially over and MY vacation begins. Lazy days. LOL Ok...maybe not "lazy" since I still have to get up at 5:30am to get the kids ready for school. Yep...that's no typo....5:30am..and it's pitch black outside. Ugh. Gone are our 9am wake-up's. Tristan's school is about 20 minutes away and he's the second pick-up on his bus route at 6:25am. Again...it's still dark outside. It seems criminal to put my child on a bus that early. Let's not forget how much my neighbors "love" me when this loud bus comes through the neighborhood with its flashing strobe light and "beep, beep, beep" everytime it backs up to get out of our culdasac. I can say I'm not making new friends in the neighborhood for it. I did have one neighbor tell me it's basically her alarm clock. Ummm...you're welcome???

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

We had a great 4th of July holiday. Our great friends from Orlando came up to visit for the weekend; Todd & Maria and their son Austin. We visited the Biltmore Estate during the day (see prior post) and then stopped and stocked up on fireworks at the state line. Can you say trouble? Our neighbors invited us over for a BBQ that was so incredibly good. Ribs, chicken, shrimp on the barbie...my mouth is still watering. Top it off with Paula Dean chocolate cake, sweet potato pie and the most incredible sugar cream pie (think warm sugar cookie in a pie form)...yummy!

We then pulled together our arsenal of fireworks from 5 different families. Keep in mind that South Carolina is that place people visit to just get fireworks. You can buy the big boys here and we definitely did. Dale and the rest of the men were in their happy place for over an hour. We only had two incidents...yes, it could of been worse if you knew how much fire power the had. The first was a big one that the guys lit and dropped into the pipe (one of the big exploding ones you see at Disney World) and it shoots out only like a foot and then drops back into the pipe. It explodes outward at eye level and gets everyone. We only had one person get burned...and unfortunately is was a little girl that was already scared to death of them. Can you say therapy? Poor thing. So the first one was definitely a dud and an accident. I wish I could say the same regarding the second. Dale and our friend Todd couldn't get one lit. It would burn and then fizzle out. By the time it lit it only had a wick on it about 6 inches long. They lit it not thinking and dropped it in the tube to shoot but it launched so quickly they didn't have time to set it down and direct it upwards. Instead, Dale was holding it against his chest and pointed it away from the group of people and towards our house instead. It launched, kicked back on Dale and exploded in our cul-de-sac. It lit up all of the houses on our street. Everyone in unison said..."Whoa". It was a good laugh...afterwards of course.

Our Visit to the Biltmore Estate

2008-07-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

Playing Victorian games of the area..."Hello...anybody there?"
"Games of Grace" (games that taught ladies to be graceful)

Gracie thought it was cool they named it after her. I didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise.
The Biltmore Home in the background

Dale, Tristan, Austin, Grace, our good friends Maria & Todd

Dawna & Dale in the Biltmore gardens

For those of you that have never checked out Asheville, NC and the Biltmore Estate...you're missing out! This was our second visit here and just as fun and interesting. Built by George Vanderbilt in 1888, it is the largest privately owned home in the country to date with over 175,000 sq ft...that's no typo. It's huge! It includes a 70,000 gal indoor pool with underwater lighting and bowling alley. It's an amazing home and the gardens surrounding the property are stunning. It covers about 8,000 acres now but was originally 125,000 acres. The acreage was sold to the US govt. in the early 1900's and preserved as National forest. This is a definite must see if you're ever in the area. Call us and we'll join you, we're only 2 hours away!

Here Batter Batter!

2008-07-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for the game...play ball!
Grandpa Buckley got Grace a Drive foam glove...charge!!!
Dawna & Grace having fun
Dawna, Grace, Tristan, & Dale at the game

We had a fun experience last Thursday. We met up with my brother and his cute family as well as my Dad and stepmother (visiting from VA) and attended a Greenville Drive game. The Greenville Drive is the farm team for the Boston Red Sox. This was the kid's first experience with baseball (besides T-Ball) so it was a toss up as far as if they were going to enjoy it. The weather was perfect, slight breeze and the atmospere counldn't be beat. Add some popcorn and cotton candy and all was good.

Our Visit to Historic Charleston

2008-06-17T16:51:00.000-07:00

Tristan, Dale, and Grace had a blast on our carriage tour of the city.
This is the cobblestone road made from English stones.
Southern Bell Grace with Tristan & Dale by the bay
Look! They named it after me!

Well, it was a fun but very quick visit to historic Charleston, SC. It was suppose to be a 4 day family getaway but ended up being just an overnighter. Let me begin.

Dale's job. His work schedule changes often and this week was no different. After already booking our hotel for the week, we found out that he had to be in Virginia on Wed. and Thur. Dale still had a demo scheduled about an hour outside Charleston, so we decided to join him anyways.

We drove into Charleston around 4pm and went to the carriage company first thing. We were able to take a tour via horse carriage through the historic area of Charleston. I personally LOVE history and archeticture so I was having a great time, the kids, not so much. I kept hearing "MOM! When can we go to the hotel to swim?!" It was somewhat enjoyable. Afterwards we got some icecream from Maggie Moo's (Best Dark Chocolate icecream EVER) and walked about 8 blocks down to the ocean. Grace had the blue Cotton Candy icecream...she had permenantly blue teeth afterwards. (Check out the pics)

We walked through the residential area and it was amazing. Money, money, money. Nothing was under $2 mil. and those that were for sale were $9 mil + Yowzers! One of the fascinating things about the houses was that most of the structures were original from the civil war period and they were wood. Cypress to be exact. I learned that cypress not only repels termites but also water which makes it perfect for an oceanside home. That explains how these homes are still standing too after so many years.

One of the streets was fit with thousands of cobblestones...very large ones. The tour guide said that all of the rocks came from England. All of the ships had to load their cargo holds with rocks to keep the top level during their journey to America. On arrival , they would unload and the locals would use the rocks on the road. The story is that the king of England found out what the settlers were doing and began taxing them for the rocks they took from the ship. Crazy, huh?

We ate dinner after our long walk to the bay and came back to browse through the downtown market. Lots of vendors were selling everything from hand woven baskets to "I love Charleston" t-shirts. Grace bought a southern bell fan (pink of course) and Tristan found a laser light that had over 42 different light forms...he was happy. We ate dinner at an awesome little place called Tommy Cordons. I had the BEST shrimp and grits ever...and I don't even like grits. I always try to eat what an area is known for. I'm glad I did.

The kids were ready to swim so off to the hotel we went. Tristan was a little anxious when we got down to the pool as Dale was determined to get him to jump from the deep end. We were the only people in the pool until one lone guy from the gym can in to swim laps. Tristan is literally kicking and screaming as Dale is trying to get him to jump in the deep end. After about 10 minutes, he decides to jump...onto the guy swimming laps. LOL I was shocked and mortified but I have to admit I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Tristan took him right down to the bottom of the pool (9 ft) and the guy resurfaced with Tristan death gripping the guy around the neck. I can't tell you the last time I laughed so hard. The good thing is the guy was very understanding about the whole thing and very sweet. Thank goodness! We laughed and laughed about it afterwards. Whew...good times.

Flowers Galore

2008-06-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

Flowers from my honey, Dale

Flowers from my in-laws: Sandy & Leon

I was very blessed this year for my birthday. I felt special in many ways but nothing says "I love you" like flowers....delivered! I've been trying to convince Dale for the last decade (yes...10 years) that flowers from Costco that he sticks in a vase from home aren't quite the same as professionally arranged and delivered. He's finally caught on and really wowed me this year.

My in-laws also did not disappoint with their own special delivery. I thought it was incredibly sweet of both Dale and my in-laws since I know they hand picked almost every flower in the bouquets sent. Yes...I felt very loved this year!

Last Day of School

2008-06-09T07:07:00.000-07:00

Grace received a Super Terrific Kid Award
Grace & her buddy Grayson at their end of year luau
Tristan receiving his award for participation in Special Olympics
My luau princess

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or bad. Ok...probably both. Good for the kids...bad for Mom's everywhere. Last day of school. Tristan and Grace's vacation break has begun and mine has ended until the end of August when they return to school.

The kids had a great school year and ended on a good note here in SC. A lot of changes happened this year with the move from Florida and new schools, but they did awesome. I'm really proud of them both.

Memorial Day Celebration

2008-05-28T13:40:00.001-07:00

Tristan loved the trampoline
Tasty fresh cut carny fries for Tristan
Grace and Tristan building their bird houses
Riding the train
We rode with them for free...thanks to the super nice train conductor!

Keep dreaming Dale!
Grace is all smiles
Look how high Mom!
Dale using his own daughter for target practice
My Patriotic Princess

We got to enjoy a local festival here in Simpsonville on Memorial Day. It's called the "Freedom Aloft" Festival and it's got a ton of hot air balloons that take off every evening from the venue..probably close to 100 ballons. We saw some over our house Sunday night and it was pretty fun to see. Over at the fair grounds we were able to sample a bunch of the local foods and ate some traditional goodies like cotton candy. We watched some of the frisbee dog trials which were amazing. The kids both tried out the suspended trampoline. I tried to persuade them to flip but I think both were a little overwhelmed at how high they were jumping. We also ran into a funny clown that put these weird coned helmets on the kids heads (yes, that includes Dale) and they played ring around the head. The pictures explain it better. Jason and Libby (and Addison) were able to meet up with us at the festival too. We ended our day with building wooden bird houses (free activity..too cool) and riding the train at the park. Exhausting but fun day!

Sleepover with Addison

2008-05-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

Aren't I too cute?!
Tuckered out!

We had a fun weekend here in Greenville, SC. We didn't go out of town like most with it being a 3 day weekend as we had the opportunity to watch my baby niece Addison overnight...FIRST TIME EVER. Her parents (my baby brother Jason and wife Libby) have never left her with anyone overnight before and this was our trial run. Keep in mind that this is only an overnight visit...one night...24 hours. They dropped her off at about 3pm and picked her up by 4pm the next day. They brought over 4 huge bags, her pack n play crib, outlet plugs for the entire first floor, dated all food with what time it was to be given even and a baby gate for the stairs. Wow is right. I was seriously impressed. We wanted to have the chance for Addison to get use to us as we're getting her for 3 days next weekend when Jason and Libby go to Hilton Head for a wedding. She's an awesome baby and didn't cry once...ok..besides when we woke her up from her nap when her parents came to pick her up. Like I said, excellent baby. Too cute!

Personality Test

2008-05-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

I just took this personality test and I have to say it was pretty dang close...it actually made me laugh outloud...it was THAT close. I've included the link below so you can take the test yourself. It's definitely an eye opener...enjoy!

You Are An ESTJ

The Guardian

You're a natural leader and quick, logical decision maker.

Goals are important in your life, and you take many steps to acheive them.

You enjoy interacting with others, mostly through work related activities.

Your high energy level means you are great at getting things done!

In love, you tend to bring stability to relationships.

You feel comfortable being in charge, and you enjoy being a provider.

At work, you take charge. You thrive in structured environments and don't mind enforcing the rules.

You would make a great teacher, judge, or police detective.

How you see yourself: Realistic, stable, and pragmatic

When other people don't get you, they see you as: Rigid, bound to rules, and a bad listener

What's Your Personality Type?

Mother's Day with Mom

2008-05-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

My brother Jason with his wife Libby and my sweet niece Addison
Mimi (my Mom) and my niece Addison
Dale and my Mom

This was an extra special Mother's Day for me as I was able to spend it with my own Mom as well as my brother Jason and his new wife. We typically don't have the opportunity to spend many of the less recognized holidays with family since we've always lived a great distance away. I'm able to see my brother Jason often(we go to lunch together every week) now that we live in Greenville and with my Mom now RVing full-time, she's able to travel to us.

On Sunday, we were all able to go out to dinner together at a nice restaurant and then came back to my house for Cheesecake Factory cheesecake...yum! I do need to mention a quick story about the day. My brother and wife enjoy drinking wine and so on their way back to my house, they decided to take a detour and stop for a bottle of wine. After they've bought the wine, they stop at a gas station to fill up. A little lightbulb goes off in Jason's head as he's standing silently pumping his gas and he walks over to the window of his SUV and says "What's the chance that Dawna will have a cork screw?"Ding, ding, ding. You are correct...I don't drink, hence I don't have a cork screw. To make a long story short, I am now the proud owner of a new cork screw, a gift from my brother. Jason said to not be surprised when I get wine glasses for Christmas so he has something to drink from when he comes over. I'm starting to feel like the wife that gets the new bowling ball with her husband's name engraved on it.

After chatting and spending some time together, my Mom and step-dad Lonnie went back to their trusty RV to feed their dogs and Dale and I were able to challenge Jason and my sister-in-law Libby to a game of Catch Phrase. If any of you know my brother, you can understand how competitive he is, especially when it comes to competing against his big sister. Let's just say it wasn't a good evening for Jason...hee hee hee. Dale and I smoked them bad...maybe next time Jason! LOL

Our House...Before and After

2008-05-14T07:28:00.001-07:00

Before
After

My new hobby...organic gardening

Thought I'd send an update of our house and a couple of pictures to show some of the improvements we've made since we've moved in. We had to do a ton to the yard to get it up to par. The previous owner was trying to xeroscape the lawn and had put a 3 foot perimeter around the entire yard of red lava rock...yuck! Poor Dale shoveled all if out (it took him a good 2 weeks straight) and hauled it to the back of our property line. Talk about back breaking work. Ugh. We also cut back a lot of overgrowth, laid 2 pallets of sod, installed over 20 cubic yards of mulch (that's an entire dump truck full), seeded like crazy, and revamped the sprinkler system. Not to mention, we installed a small organic garden (my little hobby). Not too shabby for only living here 3 months. LOL As for the house, we finally installed my new mahagony front door and my handy Dale put in a nifty drip system for my hanging ferns. He's so good to me! I've included a couple of before and after photos for your viewing. We're definitely having fun.

Nascar...here we come!

2008-05-14T06:58:00.000-07:00

Tristan ready to ride!
Grace is team leader
Ready to rock 'n roll!

So we took a little trip over to the local amusement park on Monday night, Frankie's Fun Park, for a little "Nascar" driving with the kids for family home evening. My little brother is the GM of the park so we scored some free ride tickets from him. Definitely a perk of living here.
Thanks Jason!

Well, Dale and I each were able to let the kids ride tandem with us as we rode the fast carts. The kids had a blast and I would also like to mention that Dale is a total road hog, he wouldn't share...he just had to be first. Punk. Anyways, afterwards Gracie is begging to drive and she's not tall enough so we see that they have a rookie course for kids. Tristan is eyeing it also and so we decide to let him take a whirl too. My nerves are shot now as he doesn't really understand consequences, like hitting a wall with a go-cart at high velocity. Well, they harness both kids in and I have to say that they did awesome! Both Grace and Tristan stayed on the track the entire time...well except the one time Tristan hit the wall pretty hard because he was memorized by the lights on the slippy slide next door. It so fun to watch...this will definitely be a repeat activity.

Chef Grace and Sous-Chef Dale

2008-04-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

Grace decided on Saturday that she wanted french toast and Dale offered to make them for her (big surprise considering Dale doesn't cook). Grace wanted none of that and demanded that she be the "cooker", as she likes to say. They both prepare by donning their aprons and getting out the needed supplies. Dale helped with the process but Grace did almost everything herself, including flipping the toast in the pan. I think she's going to turn out to be a great cook!

Special Olympics with Tristan

2008-04-09T19:58:00.000-07:00

We had the opportunity of attending the Special Olympics at Furman University today. Tristan competed in 3 events and placed in all! We were very proud of him. He ran the 50 M with a fourth place finish. He would have done better but he actually stopped and let the rest of the boys pass him so he could chase them. He laughed hysterically the entire time down the track. I just shook my head as that's Tristan for you. It was pretty funny. His next event was the softball throw. This is typically his worst event as he's always placed poorly when he was in Special Olympics in Florida. Just no interest really in throwing a ball. Well, you could tell he'd been practicing and he actually won a silver medal. His last event was the 100M relay. He was first leg of the race and Dale decided to run in the inside of the track (no one is allowed to help the person) so Tristan would have someone to chase. He did awesome although I think Dale was a bit out of breath afterwards. But with Tristan's great performance and those of his 3 classmates, they took the gold medal! I included a cute picture of the four of them together. Ross is got his arm around Tristan and he was actually chosen to sing the National Anthem for the entire event. It was pretty amazing...he's only 11 years old. Overall...great day and awful farmer's tan for us all. Ugh. (I forgot sunblock...oops!)

My Maiden Blog

2008-03-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

Me and my husband Dale

Going to battle..Captain Tristan with Lieutenants Grace & Dale.

Permission to board the "Susan Constant" mate!

This is what you do to your kids when they don't listen.

I'm just a southern bell ya'll

Tristan & Grace in Williamsburg, VA

Grace & Tristan at the Chattanooga Choo Choo pool

After much insistence from friends (you know who you are!) I've broken down and started this blog. I have to say that the arguments were valid as I'm horrible at keeping a journal and all of those funny statements from my kids have basically dissolved from my memory.

What better way to launch a new blog but right after a successful trip. We just returned from a visit to Colonial Williams burg and Jamestown in Virginia. I decided the kid's spring break was a perfect opportunity for an educational vacation. I loved it...the kids and my patient and loving husband...questionable.

Before we drove up to Virginia, we accompanied Dale to Chattanooga, TN. He had a business meeting Monday morning and thought it would be fun to bring us along. I stress "thought". It actually came out later that he wanted us to "experience" what he goes through each week. Nice, huh? Yes...he's a big meany.

So we loaded up the truck after Church and we're gathering last minute items. I ask Grace if she's got everything she wants to bring with her and she says "no" and turns to run up to her room. In our new house, the entire first floor is basically hardwood, including the stairs. Add some socks and it's a disaster waiting to happen. Grace is wearing socks and takes the stairs and slips. She doesn't catch herself and lands head first into the edge of one of the stairs. She starts to scream and right above her right eye starts to swell immediately. It literally got as big as a golf ball within seconds. Poor kid. We checked for a concussion and put ice on it pronto. (Check out the pictures of her throughout the week...the swelling had gone down but she had a black eye) Dale is still on a mission to take us along so we load up the last minute items and I jump in back with the kids in order to hold an ice pack to Grace's forehead. She's crying in pain. I'm sure you're asking yourself, boy...sounds like a fun getaway! I'm just getting started.

So we drive and drive (about 6 hours) and get there late on Sunday evening (10:30pm) and Dale had been promising the kids a swim in the pool all day during the drive. The pool closes at 11pm but Dale is never one to break a promise, so they changed into their suits immediately and ran over to the building that housed the pool. They came back to the room within 15 minutes soaking wet (no towels left poolside) and freezing. The nice weather we had the last couple of weeks was officially gone. A cold front was approaching and we hadn't even brought jackets. Oops. Dale had to leave by 6am in the morning to pick up a pallet of dry cement and then get to his demo which was over an hour away. Poor guy. The kids and I were going to make a day of hanging out at the hotel. It was a pretty cool hotel. It was the old Chattanooga train station that had been converted into a Holiday Inn. They had converted the actual Chattanooga Choo Choo train rail cars into hotel rooms. We didn't stay in one ourselves...but a lot of train enthusiasts would eat it up. If your kids love trains...it's a definite must visit.

The hotel property is huge. It includes the actual grand train station which houses a couple of restaurants, souvenir stores and a huge display of working scaled down trains with a replica of the city of Chattanooga...impressive. Of course we spent some of our time at the pool. Since we didn't have coats and we woke up to actual snow falling in the morning, we couldn't venture off the hotel property too far in fear that we could succumb to hypothermia. We didn't even have shoes for Grace...we had accidentally left them in the truck and the truck was with Dale. So it was flip flops with socks...our tribute to our time in Utah.

Well, Dale finally makes it back to the hotel right before housekeeping is going to kick us out....our hero. We load up and decide to head back to Greenville for a good night's sleep in our own beds and then drive to Virginia the next day. We get home, shower, sleep and all is good in our world.

We start the day off fresh and anew and drive north to Virginia. From where we live now in SC, it's only about 6 and half hours to Williamsburg...not too bad. I'm excited to go as this is the area I grew up in. I have a ton of great memories from Williamsburg and the rest of the Tidewater area. On arrival, we stopped at in old pizza place I ate growing up...Sal's Pizzeria. Yum...it tastes exactly the same. We checked into our hotel, had a dip in the pool and got ready for our big day in Colonial Williamsburg. My Dad and stepmom, Laura, were able to come down a couple of hours from northern Virginia to spend the day with us too. We toured a lot of the old buildings, the Governors palace, the first Capital...the kids had a blast running through the garden maze at the Governors palace. We ate at one of the old taverns and then stopped at the old bakery and got some goodies like old fashion gingerbread cakes...delish!

One of my favorite places to get dessert is at a place called The Trellis. It's in the historic Williamsburg market on Duke of Gloucester Street. The dessert is called "Death by Chocolate". It's the original and the best! It's a seven layer chocolate piece of heaven. I highly recommend this unbelievable dessert if you're ever in the area.

The next day we took the kids to the Jamestown settlement. Jamestown just celebrated it's 400th anniversary and even had an official visit from Queen Elizabeth of England to honor the day. The kids loved meeting the Indians and exploring all of the outside exhibits and seeing how the Indians lived back then. We got to explore the boats that the English came over on and learned that it took them over a year and a half to finally arrive. We then got to explore the enclosed village with the primitive buildings they lived in and watched one of the "settlers" load and shoot his musket. We then drove over to another area of the park. We went to the glass factory and watched how they blew glass and created bottles back then. It's definitely an art. After this, we drove over to the actual excavation site of Jamestown and explored. A lot of the buildings were located and you could actually walk over them as they had enclosed the areas in suspended glass. We really enjoyed our visit and learned a lot.

Lots more pictures available to view from our adventure at:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=126crf3z.7qllzqbj&x=0&y=2kfcqz&localeid=en_US

I have to admit that this wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. I hope to jazz up my blog sooner than later as I know it's not too exciting at this point. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.