Savannah

Ladd was super fabulous and took a couple days off work to stay with the girls while I took a long weekend trip to Savannah, GA with a friend. It was so relaxing and fun to get away for a few days. There's a lot of history and pretty old houses in Savannah. Here are a few pictures I took...


This is down by the Savannah river, the wall in the background (behind the people) is from the days when the cotton trade was in full swing. There was a large bell that rang (like the stock exchange) to start and stop the bidding. I think they said 70% of the cotton came through Savannah. Some of those old rock walls date back to the 1750's, there are markers with the name and date from when they were constructed.



I took this picture from our hotel balcony. These HUGE ships came and went all hours of the day and night. It's truly amazing to see these ships in person. One time we were on the ferry waiting to cross back to our hotel and we had to wait while one of these passed by. Do you see how tiny the tug boat looks? They said the port in Savannah is the fastest growing port in the US.

Here's a picture of the old cotton building...

This is one of the many churches in Savannah, in fact America's first Sunday school was founded there in 1736. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism began preaching there as well. They filmed the movie Forrest Gump in Savannah as well, the part where Tom Hanks is sitting on the park bench talking to different people about his life was in front of one of the many beautiful squares there. They dropped the feather that floats down in the opening scene from the tower of this church.

Here are some of the many beautiful Live Oak trees in Savannah. There are 21 squares encompassing the three-square-mile historic district. All of the squares have huge trees, and most of them have a statue of some important person, there are lots of important people buried there as well.

One last picture of me by the River...

Another interesting story...after the Revolutionary War the celebrated war hero, Mr. Nathaniel Green moved to Savannah with his family. He was only there about 4 months when he died of heat stroke. His widow then hired a tutor, Mr. Eli Whitney to come teach their children. He is famous for inventing the cotton gin.

There are lots of other interesting tidbits but I will spare you for now. If you ever get a chance to visit I recommend going in the fall, the mosquito's were bad even in mid-October!

1/2 Birthdays

Popcorn is now 5 1/2! She wanted the exact same cake as last year so I made a bunch of mini cupcakes and frosted another pumpkin. Everyone loved the cupcakes, every time I walked by I noticed another one missing.


I don't get them gifts for their half birthday (OK- they do get one dollar spot item), but Grandma and Grandpa sent a fun package. Here is Popcorn with the new Halloween outfit for her bear...


Sweetie is now 8 1/2 and she's posing with the purple witch outfit she got, which she of course put onto her purple bear...

I was on my little vacation so I missed Sweetie's half birthday fun, but I left instructions for Ladd to take at least a couple pictures. Here's what I found on the camera. By the way, he left for a business trip this morning (after I got in last night) so we didn't get around to discussing what they did. The girls do look happy though, and I think they had some sort of pie with ice cream...

More pictures later!

Pumpkin patch

After the funeral (see post below) we went to the pumpkin patch! It's been a few years since we've experienced a real fall season, and I forgot how much I love the fall. It was cool and cloudy (and VERY muddy). If I had been planning better we would've worn different shoes. We had to hose off our shoes and even the car when we got home.

Here are some pictures...

Gathering the pumpkins, it was a huge field. (This is just the middle looking toward the street).



Popcorn liked the 'bumpy' pumpkin as she called it. She is also holding the remnants of our lunch, I should have had her put the nugget box away!

Filling the wheelbarrow...

Posing on the decorated truck...

The whole gang; I always like to sneak into a shot or two just to prove that I was actually there!

I'm going on a little trip with a good friend so I will sign off for a few days. Ladd is being SUPER fabulous and is making it possible for me to go get some R&R. I will try to persuade him to post about his 100 mile bike ride (which took over 6 hours!). Why you would want to ride a bike that long is beyond me...maybe he will explain.

Unknown Soldier

Some of you may have heard about the remains of an Unknown Soldier that were found in our very own Franklin, TN. We took the opportunity to attend the funeral on Saturday. In truth I was the only one that wanted to go but the rest of the family were troopers and came with me. It was easier to get into town than I thought and we were able to hear and see (a little) of the ceremony.

I had to hold my camera as high over my head as I could in order to get any decent pictures, and had varying degrees of success. Thank goodness for digital cameras, I took about 100 pictures. Often I would only get the back of heads (as you can see below) but I actually kind of like this picture because you can see the re-enactors in the background.

This man spoke about the sacrifice this soldier had made and how the events of the Civil War shaped our country today.


Quite a few people dressed in period clothing and took part in the funeral. Here are the mourners...

These men did the 21 gun salute. They loaded their guns (by hand of course) and shot 3 times. Unfortunately I didn't get a good shot of them actually firing. (But if you click on the link at the top there are several blog posts and lots of other photos).

Here is a picture of the limestone monument next to the grave. I was aiming for something else, shot a little too high, but also rather like my accidental photo.

Sweetie's baptism

On Saturday, September 26th Sweetie was baptized! She was very excited and had been waiting for several months. She turned 8 in April but with the move and everything we decided to wait until we were more settled. Then we were going to do it in Seattle but unfortunately we didn't make it up there this summer. When the big day arrived she was ready!

Here she is with Ladd...

All of us together...

Sisters...

We were very lucky to have Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt CJ join us for the special day!

We love you Sweetie and are proud of your decision to be baptized!

New look

Here's the picure I was trying to post the other day! This is Cutie Pie's new hairdo...the pig tails. She's also displaying her latest skill, giving kisses.

Cutie Pie also has been telling a new knock, knock joke.
CP: Knock, knock
me: Who's there?
CP: Piggy
me: Piggy who?
CP: Piggy tails! (At which point she laughs because she's so pleased with herself)

I'm back!

Good news- Ladd figured out how to fix my computer and I'm back online! It feels so great to type on an full size keyboard. I've had to use my phone for all emails and Internet for the past couple weeks. Let me just say that typing with one finger gets old real fast.

However, I just tried to upload a picture on Cutie Pie and I can't get it onto the blog. Bummer. Hopefully that will be fixed soon too.

We've been busy with all sorts of things lately: Sweetie was baptized last week, we have family in town and have been working on different projects around the house, Ladd is training for a 100 mile bike ride on Saturday, and I'm the leader for the photo club at the elementary school.

There are lots of things to post about so hopefully I can get the pictures up soon!