Colorado Girls Trip

How fortunate am I?  In September, 1997, I made the decision to join Zeta Tau Alpha sorority at Samford.  I quickly became great friends with several of these girls, and I loved our next four years together.  It's so hard to believe we graduated 20 years ago!  Twelve of us got together four years ago at Mom and Dad's Beach Club condo to celebrate the 20 years since we pledged Zeta together.  To celebrate this 20 year graduation milestone, six of us were able to get together in Breckenridge, CO.  We missed terribly the other six that could not join in, but we had an absolute blast together!

Christy Pearce offered for us all to fly out and stay at her second home in Breckenridge; her family lives a little over an hour away in Colorado Springs.  Emily Whitehead and Becky Richardson flew out to Denver on Wednesday night and spent the night before driving over on Thursday.  Claire Baker, Erin Turner, and I flew out to Denver Thursday morning, met up at the airport, and then drove down.  It was a beautiful day and drive, and it was so great to be back together again!

On Thursday evening, we went to Breckenridge Brewery for dinner.  It was a lot of talking and catching up which was wonderful.  Afterwards we went home, put on comfy pjs, and stayed up talking for hours.  It was a great way to start our trip.

Christy had rented a pontoon boat for us to use on Friday for several hours.  We had a lot of fun floating around, laughing, and eating lunch.  Claire and Emily were our fearless captains who thankfully knew how to drive the boat.  We couldn't get over how gorgeous it was every direction we looked.

Little did we know that Christy and Becky had been working on a surprise.  One of our other sorority sisters, Lena Gross, actually lives in Colorado Springs near Christy.  She drove down to spend the evening with us!  It was a great treat to have her join in for a bit too!  We drove into town and enjoyed a delicious tapas dinner at Mimo Fancy Tapas.  We walked around a little after that, and then enjoyed another late evening of talking.

Saturday promised to be another beautiful day.  Everywhere you go God's design, beauty, and creativity are on display!

Christy had brought all six of her family's bikes down for us, and we went on a ride into town.  I'll be honest...this kicked my tail!  I haven't ridden a bike in approximately 30 years.  The saying is true though, and I was able to get back in to it pretty quickly; thankfully I never lost my balance and fell!  I don't exercise much though and combined with the high altitude, it was an incredibly tough ride for me.  Bless my precious friends though who encouraged me, rode slow with me, and helped me through it.

After we made it into town, we stopped for lunch at a crepe place.  I wasn't feeling well after that ride, so I hopped over to a smoothie place to pick up just a cold smoothie and little energy ball.  We hung out for a bit in town and then decided to ride the gondola up the mountain.  This was just before we got on the gondola.

I've never been to a ski resort town like this before, so it was really fun to ride the gondola through and above the mountains.

Christy and Claire decided to hike from here back to the house because it was only about a mile over.  The other four of us walked around the little resort area.  It was interesting to see how they added activities to give people things to do outside of ski season.  It looked fun, but I could totally see how this is a fantastic place to come if you enjoy skiing.

Saturday evening was our last night together, so Christy made huge charcuterie boards for us to enjoy for dinner.  We just sat out on the back porch, nibbled for hours, and talked our ears off.  It was perfect.

Sunday morning came faster than we wanted, but we enjoyed breakfast and some last quiet time together.  We spent a little time in prayer for one another, and then it was time for four of us to head to the airport.  Becky's flight wasn't until much later, so she stayed behind to help Christy clean up.  We gave lots of big hugs as we said goodbye.  

I found a quote by Ed Cunningham that says "friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer."  That's what I have found in these ladies, and I am so incredibly thankful.  While we all lives miles apart from one another, when we're together, it's as if no time has passed.  What a blessing it is to have good friends.  We've nominated Becky to host us in Nashville sometime sooner rather than later, and I cannot wait for that time!

Start of a New School Year

It's time for school to start!  I think we were all ready.  The girls were excited to get back to seeing their friends each day at Stonehaven while Ryan and I were glad to get back into the school routine.  It's great that both girls are in the Upper School now since Lily is in 9th grade (high school!!!) and Mia is in 7th.  School was actually delayed by a week this year.  Stonehaven purchased a new Lower School property, and they couldn't get the certificate of occupancy in time from the county.  It's all good though now that school is underway and back into the routine.  We're ready for a great year!

Lily, Nate, and Avery are ready for their eleventh year of school together!

Upper School retreat came at the end of the second week of school.  The 9th and 10th graders left on Wednesday morning while 7th and 8th grade went on Thursday.  They all stayed at Camp Highland until Friday afternoon.  They had the house sorting ceremony for the new students on Thursday afternoon and then snapped this picture of all the kids in their house jerseys.  This is always a great getaway for the kids!

Mia and the 7th grade girls were ready to head to Camp!

I love that the staff snaps pictures all during the day so we can see some of the things going on.  Here's Mia doing one of the team exercises with some friends.

Our friend, Hannah Hanbury, just moved back to Atlanta with her family this year, and we are thrilled she is the new Spanish teacher at Stonehaven.  We were super excited when she got sorted to be in Cambridge house with our girls!

Lily and her friends enjoyed hanging out a ton during this trip.

Lily's glad to have "Wilford" (aka Will Scott) join her in the Upper School.  Will's big sister and Lily's dear friend, Emma, may not be as thrilled!

Mary Preston and Lauren are such sweet friends!

Not 100% sure what Addison is doing here, but I'm glad they're having fun!

Addison, Raegan, and Lily goofing around.

A couple of weeks after Camp Highlands, Mia had a great opportunity to celebrate her friend, Yabsera.  Yabsera was born in Ethiopia and adopted into the Wilkinson family six years ago.  We are so very thankful how God orchestrated bringing her into this family which then extends into being in our lives.  Every year, the Wilkinsons celebrate her adoption day by eating together at their favorite Ethiopian restaurant.  This year, Yabsera asked about having a few friends join in the celebration.  She's rightfully proud of her heritage and excited to share it with her friends.  Mia appreciated being invited to join in and help celebrate Yabsera with Faith, Olivia, Kiev, and Danielle.  She loved this whole evening!

She tried lots of new foods, and said it was really good.  What a great evening!

What a great start to the new school year; we expect it to be a great one!

Summer Wrap Up

We had a great last few weeks of summer.  We had a nice time in Florida.  We arrived in Clearwater Beach on Wednesday evening to enjoy several days with David and Jan.  I realized after the fact that we didn't take a single picture!  It's always nice to visit with them though.  On Sunday, we drove across the state to New Smyrna where we stayed with my family through the next Saturday.  There were 71 of us this year!

Of course, hot dog day with a fabulous fruit salad is my favorite event!

We enjoyed some beautiful weather most days.

Lily and I went down each day.  We enjoyed sitting under the umbrella and reading for hours at a time.  What a great way to pass the day.

You knew when most of the group was together! We aren't easy to hide.

Even an upcoming storm couldn't scare some of them off the beach.

We made it to Bubba Gump's in Daytona one evening too.  My favorite fried shrimp anywhere!

I am so thankful for this group.

Bama came over to keep Decker most of the time while we were in Florida.  We really appreciated that.  Plus, it's always fun to see her!

Who doesn't love a nice ride on someone else's shoulders?

Love when Lily's craftiness comes out! She made this fun painted letter one evening and helped Emma and Addison (her weekly babysitting charges) make one for themselves.  So cute!

Thank you Hendersons!  We sure did appreciate some last minute tickets to go to the Braves' game one afternoon.  They gave us their tickets which includes tickets to the Delta Club.  Not only did we enjoy some delicious food there, but it gave some much needed shade for an inning.  Hey, it's hot on a July afternoon game!

Crystal took Lily and Lucy to Superica at The Battery one evening.  These three have lots of fun together!

I always like to post pictures and remember the fun foods we enjoy!

Lily made these absolutely delicious strawberry cupcakes; we couldn't get enough.  We ordered a meat and cheese board from Oakville Grocery in Napa Valley.  We always love to visit that store when we go, so Goldbelly helped connect us in early July.  This order included a McKinley Cheddar and Point Reyes Toma cheese, Proscuitto San Daniele and Oakville Salumi meats, Castelvetrano olives, Turkish apricots, and Marcona almonds.  What a fabulous dinner!

I may have been a little excited on Goldbelly this month, so I also ordered a six pack sampler of gelatos from Nancy's Fancy Gelatos.  The flavors were Italian Custard (with a Marsala and citrus caramel swirl), passion fruit, salted peanut butter, bourbon vanilla bean, butterscotch budino, and coconut stracciatella (cookies and cream made with coconut milk).  Winner winner.  I made a huevos ranchero breakfast for dinner one night thanks to Piquant Post.  It was very tasty and a fun change-up!

Lily learned to make soft pretzel bites.  They were so good!

We had a fun July 4th meal.  I made pigs in a blanket in puff pastry and cut them into stars.  A few other little yummy sides rounded out the meal.  They turned out pretty cute.  I also used Piquant Post's rosewater parfait.  Technically this is a dish from Lebanon, but it was so perfect with its red, white, and blue theme.  We enjoyed these with Crystal and Jamey which was fun, and then we all watched the New York fireworks show and played spikeball on our deck.  It was a great evening.

Ryan took Mia to Chuck E Cheese one day for an end of summer treat.  Turns out they had done the same thing 5 years ago to the day!

End of July means back to school shopping!

After school supply shopping, we stopped to get new school shoes.  Little did the girls know that Aberle and Ms. Brandy were back in town from Missouri.  We surprised them in the middle of the store!  It was a nice little reunion, but too quick.  We hope they come back through soon!

Mia made and hung up an awesome collage of summer camp pictures over her bed.  It's so fun for her to look up each evening and see all these wonderful friends; she can't wait for camp next summer!

It's been a great summer, even though it was a little slower than normal for us.  Sometimes that downtime is exactly what's needed.  The girls are ready to head back to school now and get back in to our Fall routine.