A Fun October

We had a beautiful, fun, and slower paced October.  It was wonderful!

We definitely ate well this month.  Lily found a recipe for a Creamy Shrimp Pasta with Spinach, Garlic, and Bacon.  It was amazing!

Lily learned how to fry chicken, and man it's tasty!

Our friend, Sherilyn Johnson, sold cakes as a fundraiser for the school recently.  She makes beautiful cakes that I've always wanted to try, and this seemed like a perfect reason to purchase one.  We ordered her Reece's cake and it did not disappoint!  It was so rich and delicious, and now I want another one.

I received two Lego sets for Christmas last year, and for various reasons had not yet completed them.  I decided to give them a go recently, and they were so much fun!  I didn't realize just how much I would enjoy putting these together.  The first set was a small Great Wall of China, and the second set was Central Perk from Friends.  These were great!

Ryan had the chance to go back to the ballpark to watch one of the NLCS games between the Braves and Dodgers.  Our friend, Doug Rohan, had a table in one of the specialty areas, so they had comfortable seats from which to watch the game.  The Braves won this game, but unfortunately lost the series in Game 7.

Mia came and cuddled up with me one afternoon.  She is still so cuddly, and I love it.

Mia sure does love Decker.

Stonehaven celebrated Reformation Day, and Mia had a fun time manning a booth that had water guns in it.  She didn't mind that her princess dress got a little wet because it helped keep her nice and cool!

Mia rocked her Spiderman costume for Halloween!

Mia had fun going to Arabella's house to go trick or treating.  They were joined by their friend Abby Kate and Abby Kate's older sister.

It was hard to tell that Lily dressed up as Woodstock for Halloween until she got next to Emma who came as Snoopy.  How fun to have coordinating friends' costumes!

Lily had fun trick or treating from Emma's house.  They were joined by their friends Trey and Westray plus Emma's brother, Will, and their friend Carson.

Both girls brought home tons of candy and very strategically traded amongst themselves.  Ryan and I were the recipients of several gift pieces too...woo hoo!

Overall, this was a pretty quiet month, but it was wonderful.  I love time with my family!

Happy 14th Birthday Lily!

Lily turned 14 years old at the end of our Fall Break trip this year.  It's hard to believe how quickly time if flying right on by.  Ryan and I are so incredibly proud of her and the young woman she is becoming.  She loves the Lord, and we can see her relationship with Him deepening.  She's a fiercely loyal friend, and she has some great ones.  She's incredibly bright, and she's willing to help others when they are struggling with a concept in school.  She's got an amazing wit and great sense of humor.  She loves to read, play the piano, watch movies, find fun things on Pinterest, and bake.  I love spending time with her and hearing about the world through her lens.  

We recently went through our list of "favorite things" that we like to do each year.  Here are her favorites at 14 years old:

Color - Pink

Movie - Little Women

TV Show - Guy's Grocery Games

Book - The Hunger Games series (she's loving dystopian novels)

Drink - Cherry Coke

Food - Queso

Memory from this last year - Camp Highland retreat with her school friends

Friend - Avery Hobson

Bible verse - 1 Peter 3:3-4

School Subject - Science (Mr Cown is a great teacher and she likes Earth science)

Activity - Volleyball

Place to Go - Disney World if it can be anywhere; Aquarium if it's around town

Game - Throw Throw Burrito

Restaurant - Superica (where we went for lunch on her actual birthday)

Animal - Otter

Most Thankful For - Her friends and family

Goal for this year - To make as many new friends as possible - Since there are some new kids at school, and we have recently changed churches to be a part of First Baptist Smyrna, this seems like a great and obtainable goal

We are so unbelievably proud to call Lily our daughter.  She is lovely and wonderful and all around incredible.  We are thankful for her every day.

Fall Break in North Georgia

Our Fall Break didn't go exactly as we planned this year.  Originally, our family was going to go on a cruise that left from New York City and went north to Maine and Canada.  Then as the pandemic hit, all cruises were cancelled.  We had planned to go to Hawaii in May earlier this year, right when school got out, but we postponed it to Fall Break.  Well, Hawaii is currently still closed to mainlanders, so we have cancelled it too.  We decided to go with an easy plan that we knew wouldn't fall through - a cabin up in North Georgia.  We visit here just about every fall, so we knew this would be a wonderful time to go.  We decided to add a little extra in though.  We rented a larger cabin and let the girls bring friends with them.  We started with one friend each, but then we saw one of the rooms was actually a bunk bed room.  We decided since Lily's birthday falls over the break, we'd let her bring three friends, so they could stay there.  The weather was absolutely perfect while we were there, and we all ended up having a great trip. We went up late Wednesday afternoon and came back on Saturday morning.  So, even though it wasn't our original plan, it worked out really well, and I'm so thankful we had the opportunity to get away.

The cabin itself was pretty nice.  Lily and her three friends (Avery, Emma, and Hannah) all stayed in the downstairs bunk room, while Mia and her friend (Frances) took the two rooms on the main floor.  Ryan and I had the master which was built up in the loft.

The downstairs had a full entertainment area too, with a foosball table, big screen tv, and several couches.  Lily and Mia set up the bar area with everyone's favorite drinks and candies.

These are the mugs Lily bought for herself and her friends.  They cracked me up!

These girls are awesome.  From left, Frances, Hannah, Emma, Lily, Avery, and Mia.

We celebrated Decker's birthday while there too.

Tetherball was a big hit from everyone!  Foosball is always fun too.

Lily and her friends enjoyed the hot tub as well.

Ryan, Decker, and I liked the calm that came with just sitting on the deck and enjoying the view.

We decided to drive to nearby Ellijay for lunch one day, and then we walked around this cute little town a bit.  It was a nice place to visit.

We also stopped at Mercier Orchards to pick up some cider donuts, fudge, and fried pies.

We made mountain pies for dinner one evening, just like the Keesee family taught us.  A couple of us had grilled cheese while most made pizza pies.  We used the beautiful big firepit at the cabin.  It was delicious and fun!

We decided do the 20 inch multicolor sparklers that evening too, once it got dark enough.  These are always so cool to play with!

The next day we decided to go for a hike at Falls Branch Falls.  We've gone here several times and knew it would be a good one for us.  Beautiful and challenging but not too crazy of a hike.

I sure do love my family.

We went in to Blue Ridge for dinner that evening.  As we walked to and from our car, I spied this little planter, and I thought it was so cute.  Love it!

Once it got nice and dark, we made s'mores over the firepit too.  I forgot how much I love s'mores until I make them.  They are so good!  Once we were all finished with those, we had fun with the packs that make the fire change color.  We all enjoyed just sitting around the fire talking and watching the colorful flames dance around.  Ryan and I stayed out even after the girls went back in because it was enjoyable.

We drove back on Saturday morning and dropped Frances off at her house.  The rest of us continued on into Midtown to visit The Sugar Factory for lunch.  We let Lily and her friends sit at their own table.  The other three had never been here before, so they were in for quite the surprise and treat!

Ryan, Mia, and I sat together and loved watching Mia's cool drink come out and be poured.  These are so neat.  We ordered our food, and then a manager brought over their weekend brunch special of rainbow pancakes.  He said they were free and asked simply if he could have a picture of Ryan and Mia with them for social media purposes.  We gladly said yes to that, and then we thoroughly enjoyed the pancakes!

Again, not the break we imagined, but tons of fun nonetheless.  Being with family and friends is always a win!