Visit from Grandma Connie and Grandpa Frank

We always love getting visits from Grandma Connie and Grandpa Frank! It also made it easier on Cheyenne to leave them in Washington, when she knew she only had to wait 10 days to see them again. It was the cutest thing seeing her walk into security looking back at them, smiling holding up her 10 fingers, mouthing "10 days." So sweet. Anyway we had a great time with them as usual. I am always bad at remembering to take pictures. They got to do a trip to Hilton Head Island and Charleston and they also watched the girls for us so we could go to Helen. We did some fun things too, like go to Sandy Creek, go to the pool, go out to eat, relax outside with sprinklers and kiddie pools, played games, watched movies, they took the girls on a hundred laps around the neighborhood, Frank got to go to a football practice, missed a flight home due to insane traffic, got on the next flight and it was all good! Thanks for coming to visit, we look forward to the next time we see you, hopefully soon!

Flashback

Berkeley at 21 months

Cheyenne at 21 months

Brielle and Savannah

So our remember our friends who watched our girls while we went to Callaway Gardens? Well, last weekend, it was our turn to watch their girls! Cheyenne and Berkeley were so so excited for them to come. They were waiting outside for about 30 minutes before they got to our house. So I decided to take some pictures to pass the time. I loved their little skirts and boots:)

I love this picture of Brielle and Cheyenne

Here is Berkeley and Savannah. Savannah mostly just happily toddled around all weekend, while Berkeley was kind of sad she couldn't keep up with the older two.

We all went swimming at Sandy Creek Park Saturday, so I had to give them a bath to get all that sunscreen off Saturday night, since they had church the next day. I think it helped them go to sleep too, because we had no problems at bedtime!

I love this picture of Berkeley too. This is pretty much how she feels about me always taking her picture... and I love how Savannah is looking at her too!

I dressed Cheyenne and Brielle in matching dresses in church on Sunday, also with matching braids in their hair:)

Monday we played in the sprinklers and kiddie pool all morning long! It was a beautiful and relaxing day:)

The girls even had a picnic lunch.

Me and Berks:)

It was such a fun weekend. Their girls were so well-behaved. Cheyenne and Brielle always wanted the same toys, but they are still only 3 so that is expected I think. I was telling Jeff we should do this weekend swap more often! It is so worth it to get a weekend away!

7th Anniversary in Helen, GA

Ever since we moved here I have heard of this cute little German town called Helen. It reminded me a lot of Leavenworth. Jeff surprised me Saturday morning, the day before our anniversary and said to pack because we were staying in a hotel for our anniversary. It was perfect timing because Jeff's parents were staying here and so they watched the girls. Neither of us had ever been there so it was a good little adventure for us!

I was reading the 2nd Hunger Games book, Catching Fire, and I finished reading it on the trip. I tried to make sure I wasn't being too obsessed with reading though. When we got there we checked in to our hotel and then walked around and got dinner at this little Mexican place. I love that whenever you are in a touristy area where food is extremely overpriced, you can always count on Mexican food to deliver in being affordable and filling. 

After we ate dinner we got some candy at some shops and then headed back to our room. On the way back to our room we saw these guys with a sign that said something like "Gays are going to hell." We stopped to watch the guys talking to people. They were very confrontational, but I asked them what they were trying to accomplish with the sign... I mean, do they really think a gay person is going to walk down the street, see the sign and think, oh I better change my ways? It just gave me the sickest feeling seeing the sign and imagining if I was a gay person, how scary it would feel to see that sign somewhere and the people filled with such hate. 

The guys really just wanted to bible bash and started giving us all these verses about how God hates people and God hates gay people. It was so sad because they had this opposite perception of God that he was hateful and that Jesus was not forgiving, the opposite of the truth! Jeff got into a bit of an altercation with them, but managed to keep his cool. We finally walked away, but there were several people getting frustrated with them. It was funny though, because Jeff was wearing a striped shirt, he was probably easy to recognize, because like 3 people came up to him and were like telling him good job standing up to the guy and that he was right, etc. It was kind of funny, but we decided, next time we see crazies we will silently observe and not get sucked in! I just always feel so obligated to stand up for what is right! 

Anyway... on to the rest of our vacation... the next day we slept in, then ate our leftover dinner as a brunch and headed out to tube down the river. It was so much fun and on the way home we got ice cream cones and then stopped by a fruit stand to get some peaches.

It was a fabulous anniversary and we had kind of a joke the whole trip I would look at Jeff and say "7 years." At first it started out to be sweet, but then we were saying it all creepy like... think of Better off Dead, "I want my two dollars." hahah... 7 years really has flown by and I just feel so incredibly blessed, because really, I am living the life I always pictured and dreamed of and most of that is thanks to the man I chose to spend eternity with!!

Here are the pictures:

The river we tubed down the next day:

Our awesome little hotel room that Jeff surprised me with A heart shaped hot tub in the room, so romantic! hehe:)

 Fire with a tv above:

 Our room was under the windmill! So cute!

 Hotel from a distance:

 Eating breakfast the next morning with the hotel in the background:

 Walking around... they always had these weird people in the square doing some sort of thing. This guy was frozen, but he came to life when you put money in his pot he would play this little routine like a wind up toy and then go stiff again. It was pretty creepy funny.

I just threw in another random picture of one of our Friday Night Date Nights... We only have about 2 months left of them:( We switched gyms and now we have a gym that is half the price but they don't have date nights for kids under 4... boo:(

Dress up

My girls have been really in to dress-up lately which is great because all my garage sale dress up finds are finally getting some good use! Berkeley puts on Cheyenne's cowboy boots every day, she can't wait until they are hers! Cheyenne will be very sad when they don't fit her soon.... We are so so so blessed Berkeley came to us when she did! Cheyenne and Berkeley are the best of friends and love to play together every day. Cheyenne even gets mad now when Berkeley has to take a nap.

OH and on a random note, Berkeley just started saying her name and she says it, "dee dee."

Rainbow Magic

Thanks to my friend, Rachel Meynders, for the awesome idea of Rainbow Magic!! My girls loved it! You put vinegar in the cupcake tin with food coloring in it and then you have a pan full of baking soda, when they drop a spoonful of colored vinegar on it it fizzes in that color. Berkeley was so funny because she was super excited every time she would see the fizz. Cheyenne loved it and did it like three times, I just kept changing the baking soda. A great rainy day (or over 95 degree day here) activity! 

P.S. I took their shirts off so they didn't stain them...

Visit from the Savages

We were so excited to get a visit from my friend Amelia, and her two cute kids, TJ and Ayla. It was perfect timing because her husband, Trent, couldn't come and Jeff was gone at football camp, so it was a great girls weekend!

Here is Cheyenne and TJ eating breakfast together, Amelia and Ayla on the side:)

 Isn't he the cutest little boy ever?

 Cheyenne with her breakfast:

 Baby Ayla:

 We had planned to go to Sandy Creek, but Berkeley was burning up with a fever so we had to hang around the house and try to keep her quarantined from the other kids...

 TJ climbed out of the crib and after Amelia and him spending 3 hours in the emergency room, discovered he had broken his wrist... so sad:( Here are Cheyenne and TJ jumping on my bed.

 Cheyenne loved Baby Ayla and always wanted to hold her:

It was so fun to see them! We also went to the zoo, went swimming, and the gym. I think some more stuff, but I am not remembering right now. It was so fun and thanks for visiting Savages! We will hopefully come visit you soon!

Chic Fil A Cow Appreciation Day

Last year we discovered Cow Appreciation Day at Chic-Fil-A for the first time. This year, since we have like 5 locations in Athens, we decided to go for Breakfast, Lunch AND Dinner:) I thought I would feel really sick after eating three meals of chic-fil-a, but I didn't at all! It was so delicious and just made me crave it more. That's how you know you like a restaurant I guess! Each time the total was around $20 so we got about $60 worth of free food! I'm already looking forward to next year:)