2015 Highlights

I didn't do so well updating my blog this year! Here are some of the memories we made from 2015..

Over the summer, one of our highlights was driving to Alabama for our nephew's graduation.  Living in AZ we didn't have much opportunity for these special occasions, so we are thrilled! We took a few days and stopped in Atlanta on the way there..

My special gift to Chris - a tour of the back and inner workings of the ATL Aquarium

The big whale sharks are swimming behind us

CocaCola museum.. Chris's favorite drink!

The day before we left I twisted Chris' arm to go on a zombie tour of The Walking Dead filming sites.. sooooo cool!!

Terminus!!!

The King County Sheriff's station.. there is no King county in GA!

The hospital that Rick wakes up in after the apocalypse

The CDC!!! Mankind's hope is dashed at this very place..

Love that Carl..

Getting to spend the rest of the week with Chris' family in one big house was such fun! We enjoyed getting to know the nephews, who have no idea who we are really..

Table discussion of the activities for the day

A small celebration for the grad..

The super-smart oldest, and graduating senior, Cory, being embarrassed by Aunt Melissa

Very athletic and smart youngest, Ryan, enduring embarrassing aunt a little better

We successfully convinced Chris' older sister and her husband to come visit  us in NC.. We always have a great time with these amazing people.. Kathy wanted to visit the Biltmore estate, and we were amazing by how beautiful it was up there in Asheville, NC.  It was a pretty easy almost 3 hour drive up the mountain.  We left at 6am so we could do it in one day.

Wine tasting at the vineyard

Our roof-top tour was so worth the extra!

Fascinated by the architecture..

We had birds-eye views from the rooftops

The gardens were spectacular

This summer we had a little scare with our precious puppy, Soo.  She had a growth on her butt, and it was causing some problems.  We had to schedule surgery for her to get it removed.  I was scared for her, but told the nurse that I didn't want her to suffer.  If they found cancer that would require any treatments we would not be putting her through that at 13 years old.  I wanted them to just put her to sleep if that was the case, because I want her to go out with dignity and to not suffer.  It was terrible waiting that whole day until I finally got the call.. she came through and it was just a benign growth!

Our last few minutes before I took her to surgery.. gotta get my hugs from her

She is a little loopy, but ate all the chicken and rice I spoon fed her.. I think she will be fine!

Heading into October, I was thrilled to welcome my sister and my mom on a visit for Cassie's 40th birthday.  I had to do something big for her on this monumental occasion, so I planned and prayed for days.  I not only wanted to have some fun, but I wanted God to minister to her heart and comfort her spirit about getting older...

I prepared an Unbirthday tea party, since she was NOT happy to be turning 40

It was so much fun finding all these vintage Alice in Wonderland Unbirthday themed decorations

Whimsical!

No tea part is good without a few treats!

My second surprise for her was an instant camera.. I explained that we usually scrapbook our memories after the fact, but this time we would be doing it as we went along..

fun times!

Our cups for the weekend, for us to remember what we have to be grateful for

Comfy slippers for our NC cold floors!!

The next morning we went painting! I chose this design to help us remember that above all we are grateful for the cross, and that because of it we are flawless, no matter what age we are!

And lastly, we were so excited to be going to the last Women of Faith conference in Charlotte. So good!

Is there anyone in this room who believes in Jesus? Hold up your cell phone.. I had tears and goose bumps at all these women of God, declaring it and proud of it!

The 2-day conference is over and we are headed home.. 

Our last road trip together before Cassie goes back home tomorrow.

Moving on to Halloween, our one group of friends that are huge gamers invited us to a party themed like a game they like to play.  We all dressed up as one of the characters..

My attempt here is terrible, but it's possibly the first time in my life I've tried to make up a costume.  Chris is dead on..

The whole nerdy lot of us..

The three guys that dressed up as the same character..

For our birthdays this year we decided to both get boots, and go back to the Biltmore to see fall colors.  And of course you can't get boots and not ride a horse!

Getting the seguay lesson, this is the first time we've ridden 4-wheeling ones!

Taking a break with the Bilmore mansion in the background

We found a few fall colors, but we may have missed the best time to be there for that.. we will have to work on our timing!

Getting equipment for the horse ride.. this is NOT at the Biltmore.. we went to a stable here in Greensboro

He had the largest horse out there, and possibly the most low energy one too..

The best I could do getting a horse selfie..

That concludes the highlights of this year.  We are looking forward to Christmas coming up, and the new year once again.  Cheers!

2015 - The New Year

New Year's day found us once again on the road, headed back home from our Christmas vacation in Florida.  Chris has long wanted to spend some time in Savannah, GA, so it was a great opportunity to make that our stopping point on the way back home to North Carolina.  It was a pretty long drive, 6 or 7 hours, so we got in late that evening.  Dinner was first on our minds, we were hungry!  Had a fun time at the "original crab shack"

Our room was so nice, we ended up staying another night!  

Painted ceiling of the bedroom

The Original Crab Shack - a big property with lots of seating

Chris got crab and I got ribs

Trying to get us photo bombed by the gator!

The next morning we started to get ready to head into to town for our Segway tour of downtown Savannah, but when we plugged the address into the GPS, it looked like it would take us much longer than we anticipated.  Tybee Island is where our hotel was, and I guess we didn't realize we were that far out from town! No problem, we re-scheduled our tour for the afternoon, which then left us with some time to spare.  First up, an early morning walk on the beach just out back of our hotel.

On our way into town, we discovered a zoo!  Why yes, of course we would like to stop there...

Can you just imagine how beautiful this would be in spring or summer? 

We had to be out of there by noon, so we could make it to town in time to eat lunch before our tour.  Enjoyed a wonderful little bistro where were had soup and sandwiches, a short walk from the tour company.

It was the first day they had patio seating - they just got the tables and chairs

Chris getting his lesson the Segway

Some sights in beautiful down-town Savannah.

Chris had so much fun on his first Segway tour!  He learned it really fast, and said that it was probably the best way to take a city tour that he'd ever seen.

Dinner that night was delicious! We ate at Anne's, in the downtown market quarter. 

 The next morning after checking out of the hotel, we did some sight seeing on Tybee Island.

One last stop for lunch, I couldn't leave Savannah without eating at Paula Deen's restaurant! We had to make reservations the day before to get in for lunch.. It was yummmmmy!

Cheddar biscuit and corn cake

Fried Green Tomatoes

and of course, had to try her famous fried chicken, which was totally worth it!

How did I miss this in all our tooling around?? Next time then..

For a short visit, Savannah sure was fun! We will have to plan on going back for a little longer, much more to see I'm sure.  It was a great and adventurous start to 2015!