Asheboro Zoo

The kids had a teacher workday today so we decided to get out of the house and enjoy the zoo. Our North Carolina zoo is in Asheboro (http://www.nczoo.org/), which is about an hour and a half from our house. It's quite a drive but it is well worth it. The zoo is so nice. It is set on 500 wooded acres and all of the exhibits are natural habitats. It is also at the foothills of the Uwharrie Mountains so the scenery is beautiful. The zoo wasn't crowded at all and it was a nice day. The kids had a great time and we even got to see the gorilla feeding!

Erin's Birthday Party

Erin the birthday girl!

James and Lilly had a birthday party to go to today. It was our friend Erin's 5th birthday. The kids made crafts, ate cake and ice cream, and played outside. They had a great time at the party. Lilly especially loved the fairy theme!

Spaghetti Dinner

We had a spaghetti dinner tonight at Lilly's school. It was nice to not have to worry about what was for dinner one night and not have to clean up the dishes! Everyone enjoyed it, as seen by Lilly's picture above!

Sweden

Swedish Flag

Todd left for Sweden again this morning. He will be gone for a week. It's bound to be a long week with little sleep! I will be driving Trevor to school everyday, which means leaving the house by 6:30 AM. I am already dreading it!

Wedding

A friend of Todd's, Anthony, got married today. The wedding was an evening wedding at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens (http://www.dsbg.org/index.php). The gardens are beautiful and they also have an Orchid Conservatory with thousands and thousands of butterflies. Dinner, drinks, dessert, and dancing followed the wedding. We had a nice time and enjoyed some time with each other.

Are you ready for some football?

James has always loved football and wanted to do everything that Trevor does. He is finally old enough to play a little football, although it is only flag! He has been excited since we signed up and today was his first practice. I hope he understands the concepts of the flags!!

Fall Ball

This time of year not only brings new school years, season changes, and cooler weather. It's also time for some fall ball. Trevor's fall baseball games started this week and we were excited to begin a new season.

Blues, Brews, and BBQ

There is an annual event in Charlotte called Blues, Brews, and BBQ. It is held in uptown and several blocks are closed off during the event. There is a BBQ cook-off, lots of vendors, pig races, and musical performances. The event starts Friday at lunchtime and ends on Sunday afternoon. We decided to check it out and see what it was all about. The streets were pretty crowded, so there wasn't much running around for the kids. They did enjoy watching the pig races. James and Lilly really got a laugh out of that. The bands sounded good and the food was excellent. How can you go wrong with blues, brews, and bbq??

And the picture is actually really disgusting. This pig head was sitting out on one of the smokers! The kids were not interested in taking a look at it!

Nana's Makeup

Lilly loves to get into Nana's bathroom and go through all of her makeup. She pretends she is putting her contacts in and says that she's "putting her eyes on". She always gets into the lipstick and says that she's "putting her lips on". This morning, she came down stairs looking like this! You just can't help but love her!

Lilly's Haircut

Before

After

I took Lilly today to get her hair trimmed. This was only the second time that she has been to get a hair cut. Her hair is so thin and fine that it just looks messy all of the time. I didn't get much cut, but it looks alot better!

Trevor's Birthday Celebration

Trevor's favorite "nice" restaurant is The Melting Pot (http://www.meltingpot.com/). The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant where you cook your food at your table and have a variety of foods, sauces, dippers, etc. to choose from. We started out with a cheese fondue, followed by a salad. Next came the main course of shrimp, salmon, steak, and chicken with all the veggies you could ask for. If that wasn't enough, we had the chocolate fondue to wrap it up. They even put a candle in the plate of food that you dipped in the chocolate (which consisted of cheesecake, strawberries, bananas, brownies....etc!) The dinner was quite long, a little over 2 hours, but the kids enjoyed every minute of it. This was James and Lilly's first experience with fondue. They did very well considering it took us so long. This was Trevor's night and he had a great one. Although dinner was great, he couldn't wait to get back home to open his gifts.

Happy Birthday, Trevor!

Trevor and I at Henry's Fork River

Last Chance, Idaho

picture taken July 2007

Twelve years ago today, I gave birth to my first born son. I cannot believe that he is twelve years old. Where does time go? I couldn't be more proud of my son and all that he has become. He is strong, brave, smart, active, caring, sensitive, athletic, loving, and beautiful. I can remember when he was a newborn, the first time I saw him. He has touched my heart in a way that no one else can.

Good-Bye Grandma

Grandma left this morning going back home. Mom dropped her off at the bus stop and she was on her way. We had such a great time during her visit. It was so nice to have her in my home and be a part of our day to day lives. My Grandma is very special to me and we share a strong bond and many memories that will last us a lifetime. I feel very lucky to have her in my life and can't wait until she can come for another visit!

Old Salem

This was the last full day of Grandma's visit and I wanted to make the most out of it. We have been talking about going to Old Salem (http://www.oldsalem.com/) but we've never gotten around to it. Grandma visited there a while back (about 10 plus years) and said that she would love to go again. Old Salem is located in Winston-Salem and it is about an hour from our house. We packed up the car and left on our journey. We ate lunch at the Village Tavern and had their house speciality, the chicken pie. After lunch, we walked through the town and toured the houses and museums. We finally made our way to the bakery where we stopped for a treat (of course!). The kids were so good the entire day. Trevor is quite interested in the history and enjoyed it the most. James and Lilly really could have cared less, but they have a good time anywhere they go! We had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect, the crowds were small, and the smiles were big. This is a day that we will all cherish for a long, long time.