Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween! We had a great one despite the constant rain. We dressed Lottie up as Amelia Earhart since she loves planes. I made the whole costume for under $15, and I must admit that I think it came out pretty well.

We started the festivities the night before by decorating pumpkins. We thought Lottie could help clean the big pumpkin, but she wanted nothing to do with it.

So Yaya took over the cleaning of the big pumpkin, and Lottie started painting her little pumpkins.

And if you are going to paint anything, you must paint yourself.

Poppa took over the carving, and we ended up with our trio of pumpkins.

On Halloween, we took Lottie to our church's Trunk or Treat, which had to be moved inside due to the rain. It was a fun way to enjoy trick or treating while staying dry. Lottie enjoyed watching all the kids and adults in costume.

Our church also served dinner. Lottie was thrilled to pieces to eat a hot dog, chili, and a cookie for dinner.

We ended up not tricking or treating in our neighborhood because of the rain, but Lottie did not seem to mind. She was perfectly happy having a sugar high at home.

It was our first halloween trick or treating, and I think Lottie would call it a success.

Parenting Ups & Downs

So parenting is full of highs and lows, sometimes several in a span of a hour.

Sometimes you are Parent of the Year...

and sometimes you are not

We're Back!...Starting with our weekend with the Martins

Gonna drop a bomb…we moved!

Gasp of surprise…y’all moved? <you pause while taking this in> Oh, wait, Beth, you mean the move that happened one and a half months ago? A little delayed on the posting, are ya?

So yeah. I may have let the blog slide, but here’s to a huge catch-up over the next few weeks! We are in process of unpacking the last few boxes and decorating, so hopefully a post on our new house will come shortly.

In my last post, I mentioned that Chris was done, which was so incredible after 3 months of barely seeing him that we may have spent our last few days in Spartanburg having more fun than we really had time to be having. But hey YOLO! (For those not in the know that is the abbreviation for the trendy phrase You Only Live Once.)

The last minute event that we were beyond excited worked out was a weekend in Charlotte with Jack and Brittany Martin, some of our most favorite people in the world. Jack has been stationed with the Air Force in England. We see them almost every year, but in March, they moved the AFB in North Carolina. We were pumped when we found out they would be only 4 hours away until we found out we would be moving another 6 hours away. We decided we needed to have a quick getaway to take advantage of our close proximity. Charlotte ended up being the best option, and we had a blast with them as we always do.

Since Jack and Brittany are airplane aficionados and Chris, Lottie, and I enjoy them as well, we went to the Charlotte Aviation Museum. It is a great little museum.

Checking her instruments

 Not only are airplanes Jack’s hobby, but he flies F-15s (you can see why Chris thinks he wrote the Book of Awesome). He had a wealth of knowledge about each of the planes, which made the museum even cooler.

A little background on our friendship. Brittany and I have been close since freshman year of high school when we ate lunch together. I quickly made myself at home with her family. She has one of the coolest families, and her family is the main reason I want to have a large family. Her siblings are so close, so it really was impossible to be best friends with Brittany without becoming friends with her siblings, especially the oldest 3 girls. Her parents also adopted me. Her dad even gave me interview training when I had to interview for scholarships. I still cherish my memories of time at the Oligney house, and Chris and I have even dropped in on Mr. and Mrs. Oligney when Brittany isn’t in town in the past few years. All that to say that Brittany is one of those best friends who you can call even after not chatting for a couple of years and feel like y’all never stopped talking. And we didn’t keep in touch for a couple of years really (other than attending our weddings and such), but we decided to meet up a few years back. We only met for lunch, but you would have thought Chris and Jack were the ones who had known each other since high school. They are like 2 peas in a pod. To hear Chris tell it, the guys are the real reason Britt and I are still friends. Anyways, I just want to say that we love this couple very much and are so thankful that God has blessed us with such incredible lifelong friends. We just soaked up this weekend with them.

After the aviation museum, we visited the NC Raptor Center. I love the Raptor Center. I may have knowledge vomited the whole time.

The only picture I took

Lottie was very interested in my facts

Our last activity was to head to the Charlotte InternationalAirport Overlook Park to watch the jets take off and land. Lottie loves this.

"Buh-bye Panes!"

A lesson in aircraft engineering

Mimicking Aunt Britt-Britt

Needless to say, the weekend was awesome! We are sad that we won't be 4 hours from them for the next 2 years but having them back in the USA should equal more opportunities to see them.

First Day of Summer!

So this guy is done with his second year of med school and Step 1 boards!

And we could not be more excited to have him back! Since the second week of April he has only taken 2 full days off: Mother's Day and Father's Day. It has definitely been the hardest block of med school, but we survived and are on the other side! We celebrated by giving him a large mouth bass hat card (naturally).

For his first official day off, we headed to Hollywild Animal Park, which is a zoo that includes a safari ride among loose animals. We have been waiting to go until Lottie was old enough to enjoy it. We had an incredible day. We saw and fed several animals.

The goats were very eager of course.

Lottie did not know what to make of them at first.

But eventually, she fed them.

She thought it was especially funny when the goats tried to eat her shoe.

She really loved feeding the fish.

Several of the animals had been in TV shows, commercials, and movies. We even met the horse from Pippi Longstocking!

We went on the safari ride to see all the loose animals.

We fed bison (his tongue was soooo rough), a highland cow (he was our favorite--super goofy & cute & soft), deer, and several other types of cows. 

We tried to get Lottie to feed the animals. She took the cracker.

But she wasn't super thrilled with the idea. Note the "ewww, no thank you" look.

 

We had a great day--it was beautiful weather-wise, and it was amazing having an outing as a family.

Lottie seemed to enjoy all the animals; however, she was very ready for her nap by the end of the day.

 Now onto packing!