Pumpkin Carving

The third week in October appeared and with it come another visitor. CC, Travis' sister, started Fall Break from high school on Thursday. So, Travis and I drove halfway Wednesday night to pick her up. The new furniture arrived just in time to let CC have a place to sleep! She did some relaxing Thursday while Travis and I worked. We had dinner Thursday night and rested up for our big day Friday. CC came to school with me on Friday! The kids were very interested in her; even some boys began "showing" off for her on the playground! It was cute.
After arriving home Friday night after dinner, we discovered the power was off! Apparently the neighborhood has been asking for some branches to be cut. Needless to say it finally got done after they began to catch fire! So, we three decided to carve the pumpkin. The sun was actually starting to "cook" the pumpkin, so we needed to do something with it quick! Travis finished carving the pumpkin as we two held flashlights. All in all, I think it turned out pretty neat!Here it is all lit up! We are becoming expert pumpkin carvers!!!

BIG Birthdays!

October 9th was Travis' mom's 50th birthday. October 10th was his niece's 1st birthday! It was a big celebration week!!! Travis brother, sister-in-law, and niece came up for a few days. They arrived on Zion's 1st birthday. So, Travis and I had dinner and a cake just for the birthday girl! We all headed down to Augusta on Friday in preparation for the 1st b-day celebration on Saturday. Sunday, we brought Trooper home!!! It has been a great few weeks in the house! I'll have to take some pictures of the new place soon.
We are getting ready for Travis' sister to come stay for a few days. It's her Fall break. So, she will be spending Thurs-Sunday with us. Like I said, reservations are filling up fast!!!! :)

Shop Til You Drop!!!

The first weekend we moved into our new place, Travis went to Chicago and mom came up to keep me company. I think she was just really interested in seeing where her daughter was now living! Either way, I enjoyed the company. We started out by 9:00 at the stores after showering and finishing breakfast. It was a day full of buying and returning until the perfect needed items were found for the house. It's almost all complete!
In between shopping, we took a small break to see Looking Glass Falls in the Pisgah National Forest. Which, by the way, is only a few minutes from my house now!!! It was a great, but too short weekend.

September

September has been full of trips! Labor Day weekend I spent in Cary/Apex visiting friends. Of course I forgot my camera...all memories are in my mind!
The next two weekends were spent traveling to Georgia for 1st birthday parties! Cameron, Travis cousins' baby, turned 1 on September 12th. So, we headed down to Augusta the previous weekend. The party was filled with lots of kids, a mini water slide for the older kids, LOTS of presents, a yummy cake, and football watching until midnight! Sawyer is of course the most beautiful boy, however, Cameron is a close 2nd!
The following weekend, we traveled down to Athens for our friends Chris and Brandy's baby's 1st birthday! She turned one on September 13th. So, we were able to make the party the weekend after her birthday. I did not have my camera ready when she finally dived into the cake (or maybe it was she had cake smeared on her face?!) She was also too busy to look at the camera, so I got a nice side shot!

Nags Head

August 11th, I set out with my parents for Nags Head. My mom's side of the family got together for a week at the beach. We haven't been together at the beach in over 15 years! Growing up we used to take a yearly beach trip together. All 20+ of us couldn't be at the beach the same days, but we shared a week of great memories!
Aunt Kathryn took great pictures which I figured out Monday morning. So, my pictures start Sunday and end Sunday! Sunday was Sawyer's 2nd birthday; so we celebrated in style! We had such a great week! I can't put it all into words, so I'm just going to include some pictures. Hopefully I can get my hands on Kathryn's pictures soon and can share those!







Is Sawyer drinking a "cocktail" too?! Looks like he takes after his GG....but, don't let PaPa fool you with that bottle of water!

July Beach Trip

July 15th, we headed to the beach to meet up with our friends Chris and Brandy. We saw Yonder Mountain String Band play Sunday night at Myrtle Beach and Monday night at Isle of Palms. It was awesome! They played at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach. The venue at Isle Of Palms was much smaller and filled with many more people!!!

On Wednesday of that week, we headed down to Hilton Head to spend the rest of the week with Travis' family. His parents and sister had already been there since Saturday. We joined them on Wednesday; and his aunt, 2 cousins, and 1 baby joined us all on Thursday. Cameron, Anna and Graeme's baby, is 11 months old now. So, of course, the days and nights were spent watching his every move!!! Fun, fun!

Coming soon: August beach trip with the Petty's (my mom's side of the family)!

Pictures from July 4th week...finally!

Aunt "Hey" and Sawyer


Yummy homemade ice cream MaMa!

Dad or PaPa

Mom or GiGi and Sawyer

Sawyer and Daddy

July 4th week

**Okay, I have had this post typed and ready to post for 2 weeks now. I have tried 4 times to get pictures uploaded, and for some reason they won't. So, this time, I am posting without pictures. I'll try again later to upload them!!!

I headed home for the week, leaving on Saturday the 30th and returning Saturday the 7th. Phillip, Jammie, and Sawyer came down for a wedding and a visit! It was a wonderful week of playing with Sawyer, exercising, visiting with MeMe and Grandma Gribble, going to the movies, and playing the Wii with family. I think I only took pictures on the 4th and maybe on the 6th...I was having too much fun the other days to stop and take pictures I guess!

Uncle Kyle, Uncle Dave, Uncle Jim, Aunt Kathryn, Phillip, Jammie, and I enjoyed two nights of playing the Wii. We were all getting into the games; some more so than others!!! Even though we had a whole week to be together, I feel like there was so much for us to do! Sawyer, of course, was the highlight of the entertainment. I won't tell too much since his site might have more! We did go to Gen's for the July 4th cook-out! It was even complete with fireworks!!!

Saturday was a hard day for us all. However, lucky us that all the Pettys will be meeting in 5 weeks at the beach!!!

Jammin' June

Well, the second week of June was filled with happenings!

First, it was the last week of school....hooray!

Second, it was coming up on my birthday weekend...hooray! Third, we were saying goodbye to our good friend Dana...boo hoo!

To celebrate the last day of school; Dana, Mandi, and I invited people over to the place for a cocktail hour honoring the last day of school and to say goodbye to Dana. We spent the evening sharing stories of the past year and hearing about Dana's new adventure. She and her husband left the next day (my birthday) for Colorado where she will be teaching.

So, my birthday started out with tears! After saying goodbye to Dana; Travis suggested we head down to the pool for a relaxing mid-morning/afternoon. We spent my birthday weekend eating at my favorite place: Flat Rock Grille, going to the movies, and relaxing. My kind of way to celebrate; now that I'm getting older!

Another weekend, Travis and I headed down to Iva, SC to see his dad's side of the family. After lunch, we headed to the lake. We enjoyed a relaxing couple of hours fishing and playing with Zion (Travis' neice). She is just starting to crawl, and as you can see from the picture...loved the water!!! The guys all did some fishing, and were able to catch a few. I was even able to drive the boat...just a short distance though! The first time I tried, the boat went in a complete cirle!!! Not sure what happened that time!

The rest of June has been spent either reading for class or being in class. I am currently in a week long, all day class that will end tomorrow!!! As of July 2nd, I will be finished taking summer classes, and will only have 2 more classes to go!!!

If you get a chance, click on the link and check out my web page I created this past semester. (I might have already sent this to you, so just ignore this if I have!)

This is my attempt to be as computer smart as the rest of my family!

Be sure to click on all the links and pictures...you'll never know what you might find!

http://paws.wcu.edu/bg17602/frames.html

Jill's Wedding!

It's official! Jill Fletcher has become Jill Hughes!!!!
Jill and Eddie were married yesterday in St. Mark's Chapel in downtown Raleigh. It was a very small ceremony since the church only has 11 small pews! The wedding was sweet...I don't think there was a dry eye!!! Afterwards, we went to Exploris (a museum) for the reception. It was a very cool place for a reception! There was dancing, cake, and a candy bar. That's right! You grabbed a bag, and filled it with your favorite candies. Twizzlers, tootsie rolls, M&M's, mini-candy bars, chocolate covered raisins, and ring pops!!!

Heather's oldest son was the hit of the dance floor! Nathan will be 4 in July and he was certainly cutting a rug! He was moving and shaking even during the slower songs! He and Jill got a few special dance moments on the floor together; as well as every other lady there. He will certainly charm the ladies one day!

It was a nice reunion. Lisa, Cole, and Olivia (almost one)were there. Heather's in-laws also brought her other son, Jack (6 months) to the reception. Elizabeth and Casey had their son Grant their too; however, Grant didn't last too long. He went home early with daddy. Lisa's parent's, Heather's parents, and Jill's parent's were there as well. It was nice to see them all again!

It was a beautiful day with a beautiful bride! We haven't seen Jill this happy before!

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Hughes!

May Happenings

Since I'm far behind, I'll just share a quick monthly update. May was filled with finishing up Grad school classes for the semester, birthdays, Mother's Day, and unexpected visitors.

I was able to go home for Mother's Day to visit my mom and see MeMe. As Laura mentioned in her blog, several of us where able to meet at Salemtowne for a quick visit Saturday morning. It was great to see everyone, especially the west coasters. Now we only have to wait until August to see them again! I gave mom a book from Shutterfly all about our CA trip. I think it might have been a hit! I know I enjoyed reading the pages over again for giving the book to her.

The first week in May, Travis called me after school and said his brother, sister-in-law, and niece were on their way to the mountains. They left Augusta that morning not sure where they were going. Their choices were Charleston or Asheville...you know which one was picked! We had dinner with them that first night at a place in downtown Hendersonville. We were able to sit outside and relax. Zion was a hit with everyone passing by! The next day, the guys went fishing; able to catch up on things. I think that's about all that was caught!!! We had dinner together at a Mexican place that we used to love. Not sure if we'll go back again though. Everyone was able to go on a hike the next day while I was at work. That night, they left and headed for the beach for the weekend! What a great surprise to have them visit!

Memorial Day weekend we spent down in Georgia. Our friends, Chris & Brandy, were moving from an apt. in Atlanta to a house in Athens. So, we went down early Saturday morning and spent all day getting everything moved. We got back late Sunday evening worn out! I'll have to take pictures next time we are down there.

Lastly, Happy Birthday to: Phillip Gribble, Becca Posner (May 9th)

Jill Hughes (May 25th)

Jammie Gribble, Dinah Watkins (May 31st)

CA...The End

Well, I just realized I never posted the last day of CA back in April! Wow, where did the time go? I seemed to have taken a short break from this blogging business. I'll try and step back again.

So, the last day in CA was spent packing and making our way to the airport. Laura took us through the Stanford campus again; dropping us off at her favorite spot. Mom and I had just enough time to take a few pictures and stick our heads into the church. It was beautiful inside... paintings everywhere. I did not take any pictures of the inside. The archways surrounding the entire quad were beautiful. My pictures do not do them justice. However, I have still included them.

After rushing back to the car, Laura got us to the airport in plenty of time to catch our flight. Flying into Memphis was a little rough with thunderstorms surrounding the area. We had a slight delay taking off again. A little medicine certainly helped calm me for the last flight to North Carolina! I enjoyed my visit out to CA, but I was glad to have landed in NC!

Thanks again to Laura and Grant for letting us take over any plans they might have had for that week! I highly recommend a stay at the luxurious Williard house!

Day 4...CA

Even though I was on the opposite coast, I still had to make it to my computer class. Lucky for me it was all online right?! That meant I had to be back at the house by 2:00. Laura very graciously agreed to drive mom and I up to Muir Woods for the morning. The great part was that we had to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge to get there! I did not get any pictures of the bridge with my digital camera; instead I got two pretty good pictures with my camera phone. However, I have no idea how to get them from my camera to my computer...that's the next step right?! So, just imagine what it looks like close up!

Anyways, we set out for a quick trip to Muir Woods. None of these pictures will do any justice to the beauty of these trees. However, I have to at least include some of them. Looking up at those trees reminded me of the first time I ever stepped out of Grand Central Station in New York. I just looked up and stared in amazement at the massive buildings standing before me. The same was true for this adventure. I wanted to just stare up for days at the massive trees; however, Laura was pushing us to move on. We had a very limited time to be in the forest; and we all wanted to make the most of it. There was a "hole" in one tree (much like the one in the picture to the left) that I swear you could pitch a tent in! AMAZING!

After leaving Muir Wood, we swung by Stanford to pick up Grant (and his bike) and raced back to the house. Grant was quickly getting ready for a flight and I was quickly getting class started. Grant waved goodbye just as class was starting. It wasn't until he and Laura took off for the airport that I realized I wouldn't be seeing him until August. So, Grant...here's a long distance hug to make up for the one you missed! Laura fixed us dinner at the house again. We were joined by Maggie and Matt. Maggie explained all about her lab and what it is she really does. Surprisingly, I think I understood what she was telling me! For those of you that don't know, she's going to Stanford to get her masters/PhD in Physics! Way to go Maggie!

Laura, Mom, and I vegged out for our last night in CA.

Next stop...Stanford and Greensboro airport