September 17, 1916 - August 27, 2012

My Grandmother Elizabeth passed away today just a few weeks shy of her 96th birthday.  While it's always hard to lose a loved one, I'm happy that grandma filled her nearly 96 years with the things and people she loved.   She enjoyed gardening, traveling, entertaining, and really knew her way around the kitchen.   She introduced me to needlework and preserving, and had a thing or two to do with me learning nice manners.  She dressed for church and for dinner, and made the best chutney and pickles in Lexington.  She was the most generous person I've ever had in my life, and I will miss her greatly.   Rest in peace, Grandma.   We love and miss you.

August Celebrations

Last weekend, we celebrated a baptism and a birthday with the Kahlan family.   Here are my favorite photos from the day.   And yes, I think Greg and Avery planned to color coordinate!

 

Little Ballerina

Avery stared dance class last week after shopping for pink tights, a pink leotard and pink ballet slippers.   She eally enjoyed her first class and can't wait to go back this week!

Folly Beach 2012

We are fresh off another great family vacation to Folly Beach, SC.   We packed a lot into our visit in between the pool - beach - pool rotation including paddle boarding at COA, visiting the SC Aquarium, and eating as much seafood as possible.  Of course, we enjoyed spending time with Meme and Pa and hosting Heather and Luke for the first part of the week.

 Avery loved the beach this year.  She kept busy jumping the waves, building sandcastles, chasing seagulls, interfering with bocce matches, looking for "cool shells" and flying her puppy kite.   The swimming pool offered lots of entertainment as well.   Who knew stingrays could bite, do super jumps, and liked juice boxes?

 Special thanks to Meme and Pa for hosting our beach trip and for letting us win at Scrabble, golf, tennis, and Go Fish!   Next year, Greg hopes to add pool to that list!  

See you next year, Folly Beach!

My Sous Chef

I've had a little helper in the kitchen these days.   I try to involve Avery in dinner prep when I can, so she has a lot of experience dumping pre-measured ingredients into mixing bowls and stirring.   On Sunday, she worked on her assembly skills and helped make pizza.   She really liked rolling out the dough because she had to use her muscles.

Even though her help leads to bigger messes, sharing something I enjoy doing with her is worth a little extra cleanup!

Last weekend, we celebrated Meme's birthday with a family trip to the High Hampton Inn.  The Inn, situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Cashiers, NC, has served as a family friendly vacation spot for generations.   I've been five times now and had the pleasure of introducing the spot to Greg.   Of course, now we enjoy taking Avery there, and this trip was her second.

The highlight of the weekend was not Greg and Dad's hiking odyssey or my paddling around the lake on a paddle board or kayak, but Avery fishing for the first time.   Equipped with a brand new Barbie fishing pole, tackle box, and her Dad's fishing skills, Avery found that the fish were biting!

 Avery caught a lot of Bluegill, and had no qualms about touching them and posing for photos.

Avery really enjoyed sharing the experience of fishing with her Daddy, and that will make this trip to the High Hampton one to remember for many years to come!

4th of July Company

This 4th of July, Greg's little sister Sara honored us with her presence and came to visit for a whole week!   Sara, owner of her own personal training company, had fun whipping us into shape with kickboxing, tennis, basketball, hiking and running.  When we weren't exercising, we showed off our diverse city.   On Sunday, we tolerated 103 degree temps to take Avery to her first Braves game.   Obviously, Sara and Avery know how to stay cool!  

 On the 4th, Sara joined me to run my 4th Peachtree Road Race.   We both enjoyed the scenic course and festive atmosphere of the 1argest 10k in the world.  

 Aunt Tara arrived on the 4th to spend a few days with us as well.   We all really got a kick out of  taking Avery to her very first fireworks show.  

 On Thursday, Greg discovered a turtle in our yard, which Avery promptly named "Pete" and wanted to pet. 

 After Pete went on his way, we headed to Gibbs Gardens, a 300 acre private garden turned public in Ball Ground, GA.   Below, Avery hitched a ride while visiting the Rose Garden then had fun checking out all the sculptures in the Children's Garden.

 We really enjoyed hosting our visitors and Avery especially loved all the attention her aunts lavished on her.   What a memorable 4th of July!