We had quite a bit of fun this summer in addition to our fantastic European adventure and the girls' time at camp. Here are some pictures of the activities we enjoyed.
I took Mia, Lily, and Lauren Martin down to The Fox to see Le Miserables. This is still my most favorite musical. It's absolutely beautiful, and this performance was wonderful!
We were happy to share some of our yummies from Istanbul with our Tuesday night community group. We had six different types of Turkish Delight, roasted pistachios, and pomegranate tea. We also cut up and bagged a lot of Turkish Delight to share with other friends.
Father's Day was in mid-June. We were happy to celebrate Ryan and my dad. These two men are certainly my favorite!
Ryan attended the Repairing the Ruins conference for classical schools at The Galleria. Many teachers and board members as well as a few students were there; Ryan was able to pick up some helpful information to bring back into his classroom this fall.
Many girls from the varsity volleyball team (and their parents) helped set up for the conference before it started. The school was given $1,000 for this help, and they used that to further the volleyball program.
Cute pic of Lily and Peter hanging out on our back deck.
Couldn't help but snap this picture as we headed to M&T for dinner one evening.
Yep, just two cute pictures of Decker cause he's adorable.
One of my Christmas presents to Ryan was tickets to the Alanis Morrisette concert at Ameris Bank Amphitheater. The concert date finally arrived in late June! It was hot as blazes before the sun set, but once it went down, it was a gorgeous night out. Morgan Wade opened the concert, and while we didn't know her, she was great. Then Joan Jett came out to perform; it was so cool to hear live some of her most famous songs like I Love Rock & Roll, Cherry Bomb, and Bad Reputation! Alanis then came on to perform, and she put on an amazing show. Her voice has always been unique, and we love it. She sang all the classics that we wanted to hear such as Hand in My Pocket, Head Over Feet, You Learn, Ironic, Thank You and Univited.
Ryan and Lily had a lovely daddy-daughter date night at Canoe before we took Lily up to NC for camp.
New Smyrna Beach was a little different this year for us as neither girl was with us. Lily was already at camp. Mia stayed home (thanks for coming to stay with her Bama!) so she could attend Brylliant Acting's two-week drama camp. We actually headed south a few days before New Smyrna so we could spend some time with David and Jan which was a lot of fun. It was definitely a quieter week for us, but we enjoyed it.
Hot dog day never disappoints, and we loved Wayne making grilled cheese sandwiches on the beach for everyone one evening!
I'm thankful for my family.
There were 74 of us in and out during the week. What a fun tradition!
We left the beach on Friday and headed back home. We were excited to see Mia and friends perform Into the Woods on Saturday! Mia was cast as Rapunzel's prince, so she got to sing what's likely the most famous song from this musical, "Agony." Part of it is a solo while part of it is a duet which she performed with Cinderella's prince (played by Brad Coleman). This song was anything but agony to watch! They did a great job!
The most fun part was when Mia got to pull out her very real sword from Toledo!
This fairy tale cast made this show a lot of fun.
Ryan and I had a couple of date nights while both girls were out of town. One evening we enjoyed dinner at Bar Blanc. This is a French steak and pommes frites house. It's a prix-fixe menu, and you literally have a choice of two types of steak; we both went with the delicious spinalis cut. First they bring you a simple salad (large strips of parmesan and a delicious vinaigrette - it's *chef's kiss*) as well as a fresh-baked baguette. Then your steak is delivered sizzling in a small cast iron skillet with some rosemary and garlic gloves on it. On the side are the best pommes frites I've ever tasted; they were incredibly crispy and perfect. A side of bearnaise tops it all off. We passed on dessert because a slice from Great American Cookie sounded better. Overall though, this was a delicious meal. I'm really glad we tried something new!
Another evening we headed down to the Benz to watch Chelsea take on Club America. It was a really fun soccer game, and Chelsea brought home the win. We both enjoy watching live sports.
Of course, we've had our fill of sports over the last couple of weeks as the Olympics were in full-swing from Paris. We loved watching gymnastics and swimming, but we also enjoyed watching synchronized swimming and diving. Breakdancing was something new this year, and we caught several games of soccer, handball, water polo, horse dressage as well as lots of track events. It's always a fun couple of weeks to watch and cheer on America.
It's hard to believe, but Lily and I went to have her formal senior picture taken just before camp. It's near impossible to capture just how stunningly beautiful she is, but I think the photographer did a great job!
This summer has gone quickly, but we've had a lot of fun and made a lot of great memories!
