A Trip to NC, Part 1

At the end of February, we took a little trip up to where our hearts still kind of live.

We drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoyed hiking the places we used to spend our weekends when Claire was a baby.

My how things have changed since then!

These kids...

Oops.

Uh-oh.

Whew. That's better.

Be still my heart.

Throwback to the same spot, 8 years ago...

 

Aaannnd...back to the future.

We were able to spend the rest of the day and night with our dear dear friends, the Stewarts. My how their family has changed too! When we moved away from NC, Ivy was five and Hayley was a preemie who had just came into their lives.

Sunday was AK's birthday and of course Ms. Amanda had a surprise waiting for her at breakfast!

All of our kids connected so quickly. AK and Hayley played the whole time we were there...

Owen was happy sitting and the bar and eating, of course.

Ivy and Claire made some hilarious home videos.

And Charlie stared at the Coach the whole time, trying to figure out whether or not he was scary.

We miss these beautiful friends and their parents so much! So so so grateful for the time of encouragement we had at their house!

Savannah is One!

We were so excited to head down to Valdosta to celebrate sweet Savannah Reese's first birthday!

A lot of lately things.

Claire and I have recently discovered that "Supermarket Sweep" is on Amazon Prime, and we may have been binging a little. After the first episode Claire looked at me and said with wide eyes, "I love this show." Girl after my own heart.

We gave AK horseback riding lessons for her birthday. She had her first one last week and she did great. She rode a horse named Bailey and learned how to lead, how to walk/steer, and how to trot.

Owen is getting into drawing now. He likes to draw "people" (which translated means, circles with legs.) He draws "bad guys" and "good guys", and the way that he distinguishes them is insightful, as he told me this morning: "I only put pants on the good guys."

Owen (with tears in his eyes): Mommy I just put this carrot in my eye and it hurt!

Owen: Does paint have sugar in it?

Owen (handing me the mail): Here, this one is for you. It says "Mama Shugart" on it.

Claire is a natural big sister to all the kids at the park, whether they know her or not...

Claire helping out at the Peaches to Beaches yard sale...

Playing on Dobby's new swing at her house...

PawPaw gave the kids a ride in the backhoe...

All three kids passed something suspiciously flu-ish around a couple of months ago. It started with Claire, who is stoic and silent when sick. She never utters a word of complaint, just quietly survives the day, and says "I'm fine" when you ask her how she's feeling. Owen was hit the hardest, but he never once complained either. He just quietly endures it and then asks, "Do I has a fever?" whenever I take his temperature. And then there's Averi Kate, who goes out of her way to convince everyone that she's actually not sick; so for three days I heard yells of "This one is a fake" followed by a suspiciously realistic cough. I don't know how I ended up with three kids who don't know how to "milk it" when they are sick. I do think they're pretty great, though.