Beach Vacation

We went to Ft. Walton Beach, Florida last week for a short vacation... It was Connor's first trip to the beach! We had some good weather and a great time, but it went by way too fast! But even though it was short-lived, it was so nice to get away!

Connor didn't know what to think of the sand at first, but he quickly got over it!

He spent the majority of his beach time napping... He's got the right idea!

First time in the water with Daddy. The water was nice and calm our first day.... so nice!

Playing in the sand with Mama.

Father-son time together.

We love the beach!

Look, a dolphin!

Pondering life...

Happy 1st Birthday, Connor!

The table is set...

The cake is made...

The candle is lit...

Birthday boy's chair is all decked out....

Time to eat his first cake!!

What is going on here?

I'm one!

Candice and Jackson

Connor with Aunt 'Neana'

Stephanie and David eating cake

Jeana, Ann, and Phil with homemade ice cream

Granddaddy's lap

Look at all the gifts!

A really neat new book

Some fun toys

More books and more toys

Whew! So much new fun stuff, it's overwhelming!

Boat Time... 'Bout Time!

We FINALLY got a boat.... check it out!

Saturday, we took it out on the reservoir for her maiden voyage....

Connor was NOT very fond of his life jacket. Talk about pitching a fit! The pictures don't show the fit, they were taken immediately after we put it on him... Meanwhile the storm was brewing!

Happy times!

Little Fish

Splish, splash!
Fun in the sun.
Pattycake-ing!
Splashing is so much fun...
Believe it or not, he was scared of the pool at first.... I think it may have had something to do with the big hippo face! But he got over it once he realized it was like a big bathtub.

Fun in the Swing

Near-Death Experience

I know that these are not the greatest pictures, but see that motorcycle underneath the Explorer? That was Jody's Harley. WAS. And thankfully, Jody didn't end up underneath there with it. He was slowing up to turn into our neighborhood, and the kid driving the Explorer apparently wasn't watching the road and rear-ended (more like ran over) Jody on his bike. Jody fell off to the left, rolled off the road, and the Explorer swerved off the road to the right and wrapped around the utility pole. Needless to say, the bike was totalled, but (THANK GOD) Jody just had minimal injuries. And I'm even more thankful that Jody has decided to wait and not get another motorcycle for a while! The sad thing about it: we had just (only like 2 weeks before) spent almost $700 on a new seat and sissy bar so that I could ride with him. I'd had my helmet for only about a week, and I'd only ridden on the bike one time - up and down our street the Sunday afternoon before the accident. Oh well.... One good thing about all of this: we're going to use part of the insurance money to buy us a boat! (Woohoo!)

Moo!

Or whatever sound an elk might make! When we were driving outside of Cherokee, NC we came across 3 elk crossing the road... this was probably the highlight of our trip! We'd never seen elk before, and we were a little bit scared since we didn't know how they'd react. In Mississippi, we're used to deer who like to be spontaneous and jump out in front of you at the last minute. Apparently, elk are slightly more laid back. Either that, or these elk were just used to being around cars and the road. They just mosied across the road and started walking down the side of the road, while playfully bucking at each other. Apparently they were youngsters, since their racks were not fully developed and still fuzzy.

This dude was being a show-off and sticking out his tongue for the camera!

Here's his buddy crossing the road.

Now a couple of random pictures:
Here's me and my lil' man after church on my first Mother's Day.

This is the whole family after church on Easter Sunday.

First Family Vacation

A couple of weeks ago, we went on our first vacation as a family to our second home in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. It was a wonderful, relaxing week! We didn't really get to do much that we normally would have done (raft the Nantahala River, day hike in the Smokies) because Jody was still recovering from injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident about a week before we left to go on the trip. (I'll have to post pictures of that later.) But regardless, we had a good time and a nice visit for a couple of days with my parents and brother. I don't have many pictures, but these are the ones that had people in them!

Hard to Believe...

Just droppin' by to say "Hi!"

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!