Vacation Day 2 (Monday)

On Monday, we had another low-key day.  Kevin played golf, and Kate and I visited with a friend from my home town and her newly adopted daughter, Laney.  Katie and her husband started the adoption process around the time that Kate turned 1.  We've compared notes a few times about how this whole adoption process works, and it has been encouraging to have a friend to bounce questions off of!  We have prayed for them through their journey and are so happy that this sweet little girl is in their family!  On another note, it was also fun to see Kate's reaction to being around a newborn baby.  She was SO concerned when Laney cried, and immediately ran to get her Doc McStuffins doctor bag to "give her a checkup". This big sister thing is going to be interesting!

Later that day, we took part in some typical summer fun- POPSICLES!

And of course that night, we went on a leisurely boat ride.  This is Kate's standard "spot" on the boat. 

And then later Captain Kate had to take the wheel...

Vacation Day 1 (Sunday)

We are back from vacation and now I can catch up on my blogging. I've got lots of pictures, so I'm going to be breaking this up into quite a few posts.  Here we go...

Kevin and I had been going back and forth for a while on when to leave for vacation.  We couldn't decide if we wanted to leave Friday after work, or wait and leave on Saturday to go over to Lake Keowee, where a lot of my family was getting together for an annual Lake Weekend.  In the end, we decided to pack up and leave on Saturday morning... which turned out to be a great decision since we got a phone call about 11:15pm Friday night from my parents.  My cousins went to the airport Friday night to pick up another one of my cousins, and on the way to Lake Keowee they hit something on the interstate. They blew out 2 tires and were stuck on the side of the interstate.  Luckily, they were only about 10 minutes from our house so Kevin went by and picked them all up. They spent the night at our house and the following morning we were all able to go to the lake. 

We spent the day at the lake with lots of family... boating, paddle boarding, swimming, rock jumping... you know, the normal lake stuff.  And then Saturday evening, Kevin and I left to go to my parent's lake house (on a different lake) where we spent the rest of the week.  We went to church Sunday morning and then came back to the lake house to take a swim.  Kate has been taking swimming lessons the last 2 weeks and LOVES LOVES LOVES the water!

Other than going to church and swimming, Sunday was a pretty lazy day for us.  To be honest, a lot of our vacation days were "lazy days", but that's what made them so perfect and vacation so relaxing!

Carowinds

We JUST got back from vacation a few hours ago so I've got some blogging to do on that trip, but before I get there, I wanted to catch up from our Carowinds trip about a week and a half ago.  We typically take our youth group here once a year, but it has actually been a few years since I was able to go so I was pretty excited for this trip!  Here is the group before we all headed out. 

I'll just say, man it is hard to get a group picture with everyone actually looking at the camera. That was the best I had of multiple shots.

We all headed straight for The Intimidator roller coaster first, and since one of the adults had been to Carowinds earlier that week, she watched Kate for us so that Kevin and I could both ride the ride.  Then Kevin, Kate and I made our way over to kiddie-land.

All three of us got on a hot air balloon ride.  It went up and then went around and around and around.  Kate loved it.

Kevin did not. 

This was his first and last kiddie ride, since it seemed like all of the rides Kate was tall enough to ride just went around and around and around.

There were a fair amount of rides that Kate could do by herself though- and she rode every single one.  

We all had a great time, but Kate especially.  It was a thousand degrees outside but that didn't stop her!  

Carowinds with a kid is a totally different experience!  Kevin and I were talking about how you enjoy the park for different reasons once you have kids.  When we were younger, our idea of fun was riding the roller coasters as many times as we could fit in during the day.  Now, we both have so much fun just watching Kate enjoy herself, and we wouldn't have it any other way!!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to three special Daddies in my life- my dad, my husband, and Kate's birth father! All three of you have made many sacrifices for both myself, and for Kate, and for that we are both so thankful! We love each one of you so much!

And because I just couldn't choose which was my favorite picture of Kevin & Kate from today after church, I'm sharing a couple more. We are so thankful that our family gets to celebrate this day as parents! 

Kristi Got Married

Be prepared for a super long post because there are TONS of pictures in this one!  Kristi and Davis got married about 2 weeks ago!  I normally take tons of pictures, but since there was a photographer (the talented Sabrina Fields), I took maybe three pictures total.  I figured I'd just wait on copies of the professional pictures, and I'm so glad I did!  The wedding was so pretty, and of course a very happy occasion.  Instead of words on a screen, I'll let the pictures do the talking, with just a little bit of commentary here and there...

Kate was so excited to FINALLY be able to wear her "princess dress".  She arrived at the church a little later than everyone else, and Kristi was not in the room when she was getting dressed. Kristi walked in a few minutes later and Kate saw her in a white dress too.  Her first response was "No. Not you too. Take it off!"  She apparently thought she was going to be the only "princess" at the wedding!  In typical toddler fashion, she thought the wedding was all about KATE.

Of course we started with all of the pre-wedding pictures...

And then it was wedding time!

It's pretty special when your sister gets married, but even more so when your daughter is the flower girl and your husband officiates the service!   Apparently Kristi appreciated what Kevin was saying.

Mr & Mrs Davis Griffin!

The next picture cracks me up.  It is a great picture, but what makes me laugh is if you take a closer look at Kate.  For most pictures, the bridesmaids only question was "what do we do with the flowers"? For this one, Sabrina told us to just hold them down.  Well Kate heard the instruction but didn't know what that meant. So she was making sure to hold her flowers upside down.

I have to point out that the tiara that Kate is wearing has been used in 4 weddings so far, and all 4 people were actually in the bridal party.  I wore it first, on my wedding day.  Then Julie wore it on her wedding day and Tara wore it on HER wedding day.  And now Kate wore it in Kristi's wedding.  I would say that we have gotten our money's worth out of that thing!

Kate also makes me smile in this next picture too!

She was so upset during the first dance, which was followed by the father/daughter dance, which was then followed by the mother/son dance.  She kept asking "is it my turn yet?" and finally just gave up and got comfy.

Then it was finally her turn to dance and I think she danced the entire night long.

 

  

 
But paused to "help" cut the cake, until I pulled her away...

And then it was back to dancing.

Congratulations to the newlyweds, and welcome to the family, Davis!  We love you both!