Beach, birthdays, back to school and new lot

We've been busy over the last couple of months. The kids are growing up and keeping us busy as well as our jobs. 

At the end of July, we made it to the beach with my family. We had a great time and I think everyone enjoyed the beach this year and playing in the sand. We found a great place that was walking distance to the beach and the pool was right outside our window. With all of us, it is hard for us to get a photo with us all looking at the camera. That's the joy of having a family of five. 

When August rolled around, we started birthday season for the kids. Jay had his first sleepover with a few friends his age. The boys played video games, ate ice cream, watched movies and just had a great time. Jays now trying to plan his eighth birthday party. We keep reminding him it is another year away. 

This year Jay wanted to play football. Tackle is a bit much, but we wanted to find a flag football league. A church right around the corner started a league this year. We had a great time meeting new people and playing ball. If our church doesn't have it next year, we definitely will try there again. 

School is back in session for Jay and me. Jay is a big second grader and I get a whole bunch of ninth graders in math I. Everyone is doing well so far as we come to the end of the quarter in the next two weeks. 

In September, Taylor turned 2. Somehow we lucked out with a very nice weekend for a little pool party for her. She seemed to enjoy her self and had lots of fun. She is talking a lot (at least to us, not anywhere else). She is hanging in an acting tough with the boys as well. 

On October 1st, Mason turned 4!!  Yes this little guy is four. He and Taylor are almost the same size and he still wears 2T clothes and we get asked all the time are they twins. His birthday party was with a fire truck. Unfortunately the party had to be in doors because of the rain we received the last few weeks. It didn't stop Mason from running to the truck and getting in the drivers seat. He loved every minute of it. 

Mason will be getting his 6th set of tubes this Wednesday along with a hearing test to see if he has any hearing loss. He's been a champ the other times, so I expect the same this time. 

Lastly, Garrett and I have been searching for land. It is every architects dream to build their own house. We wanted a lot near down town mint hill. We didn't want to change location too much. We found a great one acre lot two miles from where we are now. We look forward to building in the next year or two. 

anniversary vacation

this past weekend, garrett and i left on a three night vacation to the beach.  we left the kids with my parents to have a weekend without them to celebrate our 10th anniversary.  although a little early, this is when we could fit it in.  we were lucky at getting a place to stay for free.  garrett has been working with a couple doing some side work for them and they own a place on a private island called debordieu island (between pawley's island and georgetown) that they let us stay in.  there are some huge, beautiful houses on the island.  we would drive around the island just looking at the houses each time we got in the car.  on the beach, there was hardly anyone beside us.  it would usually be a couple hundred feet before we reached another family.  the scenery was beautiful and relaxing.  it was the perfect place to get away from everything.  this was probably the first time we had left the kids for an extended time away.  having three kids and dumping them on someone isn't easy.  even though we had no kids with us, we found ourselves waking up before 8:00, eating breakfast on the back porch and eventually making our way out to the pool or beach.  we usually were one of the first wherever we went.  we spent our days just relaxing on the beach or at the pool and long walks on the beach.  i think this is the first time we had nothing planned.  no where to be at a certain time and nothing to do.  two nights, we made our way to historic georgetown and had dinner and the last night we just ate at one of the dining rooms they had on the island.  all in all, a great vacation.  make sure you make time with your spouse to get away from everything.  it's much deserved and you just need to spend time with one another.

enjoy some of our pictures from our weekend.  sorry none of us.

our view outside of the back of the house

the back porch

garrett and i tried to have some fun on the back porch with our cell phones and the camera

this was one of the houses at the end of the beach.  it was being worked out.  definitely huge!!

on one of our walks on the beach.  we saw all sorts of wildlife on our weekend.

this was a house garrett liked the most.  some aspects he likes for our house we will build some day.

a view from within the living room of the house

these are some shots from an old bridge they use as an observatory/fishing place now in georgetown

and apparently they have trouble with people dumping cats there as well

(this was one of the funniest things we saw)

the last 6 months

so it's been a while.  whoops!!  when we've both been working full time jobs with three kids, a house to keep up, sports to play and other extra activities, there isn't much time to post pictures and write.  most down time is spent on the couch watching tv or in my case, falling asleep on the couch.  having three preps this semester has kept me quite busy.  not to mention sometimes having the kids to myself some nights as garrett as been traveling a little more often.

 in january we left off with jay playing basketball.  they did pretty well.  jay didn't get a basket, but he was pretty good on defense and hustled a lot.  at the end of the season we had a small banquet after their last game.  this was a picture of the team and their trophies.

these winter months we were able to get some snow.  the kids played in it some until they were wet.  here is a shot of the kids in their snazzy outfits.  they each had tons of layers on.

 i've been busy since january.  through the week i would run 3 miles 2 to 3 times a week and then would do a long run on sunday's.  i trained for my first half marathon.  my goal was to beat 10 min miles, i beat that and came in at 2 hours and 7 mins and a few seconds.  pretty proud myself.  it was definitely a freezing day.

two weeks after the half, i was able to run in my first dash for down syndrome.  it was great to see so many families out there and everyone with down syndrome out there.  it was definitely a family atmosphere.

We had a great easter as well.  as usual, we spent the morning/lunch at my parents and then went to garrett's parents for the afternoon. the kids definitely had fun doing the easter egg hunts.  and of course we had pictures.

and here's a couple of pictures to capture the kids.  mason and taylor have become the best of friends. taylor is talking up a storm nowadays and copying everything we say.  its really cute.  hopefully mason will catch on.  jay will be finishing up the first grade in the next two weeks and has exceeded all expectations.  he is well above average for math and reading.  that's awesome considering he is one of the youngest in his class.  the other week mason went in for his 5th set of tubes.  you know you've been to the surgery center a lot when the nurses notice you and say how much bigger mason is.  this will be an on going thing with mason.  the last ones lasted almost a year.  we will see how long these last.

this year jay participated in awanas at our church.  this was the first year they had it.  since he was in the first grade and to complete the sparks part of awanas, students would have to do three books by the end of their second grade year, jay was able to do two books.  he memorized tons of scripture as well as all the books of the bible.  pretty proud of him.  even on the awards night, he was able to say one of his scriptures on stage.

we've really been enjoying the outdoors.  after dinner you find us outside our house on our bikes, hitting baseballs, and such.  nothing beats the great outdoors.

jay is playing baseball right now.  i don't have any pictures of ball games, but i did snap a picture of these two at the game.  this certain day we found out that these two would sit in their seats and eat suckers.  it made for a little less chasing around.

taylor loves these boots by the way.

until the next time i update, i hope everyone has a great summer and be safe.