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!

Life with Lottie - 13 Months Old

It seems like Lottie is up to something new every day. Her mischievousness is also becoming apparent (I think we all know who this comes from).

 We definitely laugh a lot.

She still loves loves loves airplanes. Our adopted SC grandparents, Kay & Randy, gave her a big book of airplanes, which we read several times a day.

Another love of Charlotte's is her puppy dogs. I can't say that the dogs always enjoy her affections, but most of the time they seem to appreciate it or at least tolerate it.

Note the super sweet Daddy love at the end.

Lottie has a thing for shoes. Like mother like daughter. The best part is that our shoes are too heavy for her, so they throw off her balance and she has to heave them everywhere. Cracks us up.

Victory!

She has started coloring as well. She colors on a dry erase board with dry erase crayons during church.

We do the usual Aggie brainwashing training. If you listen closely, she does the Hullabaloo rhythm (she just drops the brush in the middle).

We also do weekly trips to the library where we sometimes catch storytime or just play in the kids section.

But mostly, this little girl wants to be outside. She doesn't know how to say "outside," but she will point to the door and say "Airplane?" since we go outside to look for airplanes flying over the house. She recognizes the sound of an airplane flying overhead and will look for it. She also knows that jet streams equal an airplane even if you can't quite see it. 

Pointing out an airplane

She really enjoys walks in her wagon and will even leave on her sunglasses.

She still loves her water table of course.

However, grass is not her thing. This is what happens when you place the princess on grass.

The pathetic half-hearted fuss just kills me. I lose it every time (laughing), which of course is not the reaction Lottie is striving for.

I did finally get this picture in front of our knock-out roses. She is sitting on my stomach while I crane my neck up to get the picture.

While Lottie and I are enjoying life, Chris is doing this in the background:

Occasionally, we steal him away for a study break.

Family ice cream break

The second picture set is from the mall. Walking with Chris carrying Lottie on his shoulders made me feel like a parent. I had one of those when did we reach the age of my parents (you know--the age your parents will stay forever in your memory)??? It was crazy. The picture on the far right I like to call the "But we don't want to go home so Daddy can study!"

And of course, May is the month of Mother's Day. I had an incredible 2nd Mother's Day. Chris took the day off to hang with us, which was a gift in of itself since we hadn't had a full day with him in weeks. We decided to pick an episode of Pioneer Woman and recreate all the recipes. So we watched the episode, made a list, went to the store, and then came home and cooked everything. It was a blast, and the food was incredible. 

We chose the Pickup Picnic episode (from the season on Netflix). The menu included:

Deviled Eggs

Spicy Roasted Chicken Legs

Cowboy Bacon Beans

Chris did not have time to get me flowers this year. He was disappointed, so on the way home from the store, he stopped at a field and gathered a very pretty wildflower bouquet. I loved it. 

The cowboy beans were absolutely ridiculous. Everyone should try these. Chris and I dream of making them again. And as you can see, Lottie agrees.