Pompano Beach

Our little family of four headed south a bit over a week ago, for a 12 hour drive and 10 day trip in sunny, south Florida! We stayed part of the time with Joe's wonderful Grandma (Mere) and Aunt Mimi who live in Ft. Lauderdale. And the other time was 20 min north at the lovely Pompano Beach:

Happy beach girl

Our seven days at Pompano were spent at the beach!! It was a "resort" (well, actually a timeshare resort that my Dad blessed us with!). which meant lots of amenities, but also plenty of people. We've been spoiled with the secluded NC beaches of late!

But one thing that Florida beaches have on NC beaches is the gorgeous water color! It was warm, calm and crystal clear. My photos barely capture the amazing color.

Our baby beach bum

There was lots and lots of sand castles being built. The beach really is the ultimate playground for kids! They were happy as can be for hours with a bucket and shovel!

We also spent LOTS of time in the ocean. The was the first time we've taken the kids all the way in! It was so inviting and the beach was so hot, so we put floats on the kids and headed in for a swim quite often. Abigail, being her independent self, always wanted to float by herself.  It must have been quite the sight seeing a "baby" floating by herself in the ocean. We always kept her in sight :) I have no pics of the ocean because we all four went in together..oh well!

This was the view from our balcony.

Joe with his favorite Aunt Mimi.   

Our family in Pompano

This was part of the resort we stayed at. It was across the street from the beach. 

Another part of the resort was on the beach, and we spent most of the day there.

Back on the beach after dinner. My favorite time at the beach.

Mere came up for a yummy seafood dinner one night.

We must have seen 50 iguana's this week! Seriously!

The most awesome seafood restaurant. We cooked most of the week, but went out for one incredible lunch and dinner at this ocean front beach restaurant.

Love my girls

Such silly girls. They kept doing this on the beach.

Love them so.

And they love their Daddy so!

Dancing together

Pompano Beach

Hello Handsome!

(BTW, anytime Joe is on vacation he never shaves...I think it looks cute)

Shell (or "treasure") hunting was a nightly activity

We spent as much time at the pool as we did at the beach.

Alathea was serioulsy a fish! We must have taken her to the pool 3x a day!

One month ago she would barely put her face in the water. We bought her these pink arm floaties and she started to think she could "swim". By the end of the week she took these off and could swim a good 20+ feet underwater by herself! It was quite the transfermation. I think the newness of learning how to swim made her almost addicted to the pool!

Well, that was the Pompano Beach part of the trip! Sweet family times!

Next up is the Mere & Mimi times...

7 Amazing Years

It is truly hard to believe that I was just 17 when I met you...fresh out of high school, my first week of college, with huge dreams of missions and nursing, and definitely not even a thought of marriage being right around the corner. But then I met you. And my life has changed forever. You always said that God writes far better love stories than we ever could...and how true that is! While I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd be married at 19 and moving far away from my family and friends, when I met you it was the easiest and happiest decision of my life! Thank you for being the most amazing husband to me. You truly are the man of my dreams in every way. And now seven years and two kids later, somehow I love you even more! God has been so good to us!

The morning of our wedding, just hours before I became your wife,

 I read this and wrote 7/27/02 beside it (how true it is!):

"Many, O Lord my God,

are the wonders you have done.

The things you planned for us

no one can recount to you;

were I to speak and tell of them,

they would be too many to declare."

Psalm 40:5

Happy 7 Year Anniversary, My Love!!

Silly Girls

I'm still trying to get just one great picture of the girls together... seemingly always without success. This day at the pool I never got my perfect shot, but I did capture the sweet silliness between our two little ladies. Alathea truly has a way of making Abigail laugh (and cry) hysterically like no other person!!!

 I just love watching them together...

I think she was telling Abi "I'm gonna eat you" or something like that :)

We've absolutely loved watching these two girls grow as friends. 

It's one of the sweetest things ever. 

A whole lot of visiting

This summer has been sprinkled with many wonderful visits from family!

To kick it off was (and always is) my most favorite visitor of all: Julie!

I posted weeks ago of her and Alathea splashing in puddles and dancing in the rain (in PJ's). She's simply the best sister and auntie. 

We did lots of other fun stuff together...our traditional trips to Birkdale for Brixx, splashing in the fountains and Cold Stone (somehow I never get tired of Birkdale :)

We went to the pool, saw movies, ate & laughed. Ahhh, nothing like a sister...

...or an Auntie! 

Julie & I also drove down to spend a lovely day with my Grandma Bowers. 

She lived in Maryland until two years ago when she moved to Columbia, SC to live near my Aunt & Uncle. We used to see her almost every day growing up. I'm grateful she lives close by again.

Then... Mere came in town!

We love her annual two week summer visits.

Alathea was particularly smitten with Mere, saying "Mere is my most best friend, Mommy!"

During Mere's visit we spent LOTS of sweet time at Jon & Heather's new beautiful pool in their backyard. Alathea loved swimming with Grammy and Cousin Andrew, but Abi & Caleb like chillin' by the gravel rocks instead :)

I LOVE that my girls BOTH have cousins the exact same age!

Heather is now half way through pregnancy with baby boy #3 due in November.

I must admit when she got pregnant I was concerned I'd be getting pregnant too! It seemed that we'd always be having babies together. Looks like she'll be flying solo for a little while this time :)

We also had a visit with Joe's other Grandma who lives in New Mexico. I have only met her once before, so it was  a treat to spend time with her again. 

We are very blessed to have such wonderful family who comes to see us! In August my Dad & Rachel will visit. We can't wait!

Lake House Birthday Trip

A few weeks ago it was Joe's birthday, followed by Fathers Day, so the girls & I surprised him good with a driver that he's been wanting! He was genuinely excited (I love that. It's hard to surprise Joe!).

We gave him his gift early that morning because Joe & I got to head out for a three day trip just the two of us!! It had been almost two years since we'd gone away alone (last year we did a number of trips with baby Abi in tow, but this was way better :) 

We were priveledged to stay in a lovely cottage on this beautiful lake Keaowee in South Carolina! (For free thanks to a good friends generous parents who own the place). 

The Cottage was right on the water and the lake was incredibly quiet and peaceful!

We wanted this trip be simpler than the fast paced other get-a-way's we've had. We love exploring and having fun, but wanted to take more time to read, relax, sleep and talk this time. And this place was just perfect for that. The first day we spent reading, taking walks around the lake, swimming in the pool and playing a few games of pool. It was simply lovely!

The second day was Joe's actual birthday! So we spent a good part of the day playing his very new hobby- golf. He finally caved in to all his friends about two months ago and played one tournament... now he's hooked. 

We found a gorgeous golf course at the foot hills of the mountains with beautiful views. It was so fun watching him play and driving along in the golf cart. Maybe one day I'll play too :)

We had an incredible birthday dinner that night, then enjoyed more swimming, finishing a John Adams movie series and more reading. It was sooooo nice to have no agenda! And sitting in these chairs by the window had an amazing view of the lake and a wonderful breeze.

This is the view from the house:

I love this boy SO much!

Little Cupcake

Abigail is known quite well for her passion for food :) Her favorite kind of food, of course, is the one with the most sugar! So after not eating much for a week, she really enjoyed this cupcake, made by her big sis just for her. She ate it down to the last drop!

We think she may be trying to "re-pack" on the pounds to keep up her "chubby baby" identity after loosing a good bit of weight last week :) Doesn't she look slimmer? (Hehe...I've never used the words "slim" and "Abigail" in the same sentence before!)