Before School and Backyard Water Play

I try and take pictures of the boys every morning because unless we end up doing something after school (park, play date, etc) I don't usually take pictures. I'll post them on Instagram a lot, but I like to put them on my blog too, because it'll be fun to have these for comparisons later.

Friday before school.

Saturday, it was rainy and nasty. Greg took the boys to the gym and then the indoor pool while I stayed home and did all my schoolwork that was due before my final next week. I had 3 assignments, a take home exam, and a lab practical to study for. My lab teacher offers 15 points extra credit if you donate blood or bring in cat or dog food to be donated to the local animal shelter. So, after Greg got home with the boys, we headed to Petsmart so I could get some pet food and the boys could see the animals.

Since it was Saturday, it was super busy. They had a few animal shelters there with dogs and cats that needed to be adopted and the store was full of people who were in there shopping and had their dogs with them-so the boys had a blast!

They love looking at all the fish. Who needs to drive to Atlanta for the aquarium when we can go to Petsmart for free. ;) I'm sure the employees just love when parents treat it like their own personal zoo. haha.

Checking out all the fish and frogs that they had.

Sunday was also rainy (It rained for about a week straight) but it wasn't raining when we walked into church, so I snapped our weekly "before church" picture. I have no idea what Evan is doing--they are a mess!

Monday's before school picture. It finally cleared up a little and the kids were actually able to go outside that day at school.

Carter insisted that I get a picture of his bandaid.

Carline pictures on Wednesday.

I had to post this one because they look so cute and happy in it.

And then they insisted on a silly face picture.

Wednesday, it was beautiful and sunny. Greg had to work late, so the boys and I went outside from the time they got home from school until it was time for dinner. They wanted to play in the water table and I needed to clean some stuff off to sell, so they changed into their bathing suits and played in the water.

I emptied out their cheap, bucket that I store toys in and filled it with water and they had the best time playing in it.

I washed off a few things that they don't use anymore and listed them online. I'm trying to get rid of everything we don't use before moving. It'd be much easier to load it up and take it all to Goodwill, but it's worth the extra effort of taking pictures, listing it and selling it.

I have to roll the boys new summer shorts because they're a little big and too long, so Carter has started doing it with all his shorts, pants, underwear, bathing suits, pjs, etc.. Haha, these are last year's bathing suits, but he still insisted that they be rolled and pulled up all the way. :)

Old Mcdonald Fish Camp

Last Friday night, we went to dinner with my parents and sister to Old Mcdonald Fish Camp in South Carolina. My parents have been a couple times before and they thought we'd all like it and a lot of people around here recommend it for seafood. It's not far from our house and we finally all decided to meet up there for dinner.

They have ducks and goats outside and food that you can get to feed them. It was raining when we got there, but the front of the restaurant is covered and the boys were able to feed the ducks without getting wet.  

The boys were so excited. They love eating out, they love seeing my parents and sister and it was a new place with animals to feed--so they were hyped up. We got there when they opened at 5, but still had to wait awhile for a table, which ended up working out well. We were the only ones waiting outside for our table (everybody else was inside) and the boys were able to run around and explore outside while we waited. (and get all that energy out)

Feeding the ducks.

The view from the covered porch we were waiting on. So, there was a lot for the boys to look at.

Checking out the goats who were trying to stay dry.

We were all ready to eat when we sat down. Greg got a catfish po'boy, I got fried shrimp and cat fish, and the boys got chicken finger kids meals. They have free hushpuppies and grits that you help yourself to after ordering. Carter stuck with his chicken and fries, he was not a big fan of grits or hushpuppies. Evan, however, ate the hush puppies and then several of my dad's oysters and some of his fish.

Our table was neat with the view behind us, but I don't think the boys turned around once to watch the ducks--they were serious about their coloring. I told the boys I wanted to take a picture, so Carter picks up a crayon and posed like he was in the middle of coloring--haha!

After dinner, the boys took all the fries that were left over and went outside to feed them to the goats. They love feeding animals and the rain had actually stopped, so it worked out perfect.

I know these were all basically the same picture, but the boys love feeding animals and I just think they're so cute--so I can never have enough of these types of pictures to look back on.

The boys loved this place and were so good there. The wait time ended up being perfect since they were able to get out a little energy. I'm glad that we finally made it out there to try this place since I've been hearing about it for so long and it definitely did not disappoint!

New House

We signed a contract on a new house and we're moving in towards the end of the summer! Greg and I talked about houses our entire trip to Athens and back. We've actually been talking about them since we lived in our house in Virginia. We would sit around and say "In our next house, I want...." So, Greg and I knew exactly what we wanted in a house before we started officially looking, so it didn't take long before finding the one we wanted.

It's in the area we wanted, in the specific neighborhood we always saw ourselves living in one day and the house has everything we're looking for. We're really, really excited. We signed the contract with the builder and met with a bank last Friday and signed all the paperwork with them. We've picked out all the carpet, cabinets, countertops, upgrades, etc. We have a lot, an actual address, and a move in date.

The boys were such troopers while we spent the whole long weekend driving around and looking at houses. We spent a few hours just driving around and looking at neighborhoods, we checked out a few different houses, and spent a lot of time in the office of the neighborhood we bought it--signing the phonebook of a contract and picking out all the things that go in the house. The boys were perfect the entire time. I was so proud of them and they loved walking through the houses and checking them out.

The boys just loved exploring the model we picked. We're lucky that there was a house in the neighborhood with our exact floor plan we liked. Somebody built it and they don't close for another month, so we've been able to go through, take pictures and measurements. It's been really helpful. I don't know if we could have committed to the house, based on floor plans alone.

The neighborhood has a pool, so the boys wanted to go check it out. They agreed to pose in front of the sign, first.

I was trying to take pictures of all the rooms and all the angles as well as measure them all, and Evan was just so excited about the place. He kept talking about how cute the sinks were and how much he loved the rooms. He wanted me to take a picture of him in his future room. How could I say "no" to that.

We've bought a new construction house before and there was absolutely no problems at all, but with there being 3 months between us signing the paperwork and our move in date, I know that there's always the chance that something could come up (we highly doubt it at this point, since we've signed contracts and put money down, but you never know) We told the boys what we had to (in age appropriate terms) while we were there and looking around and when we went to the bank. But, I'm trying not to say too much about it around them, because it would break my heart if something fell through and we had to tell the boys we weren't getting it.

Evan stuck his smiling face at the bottom of my frame. :)

Haha, he was just following me around, posing everywhere I pointed my camera.

He's such a goober. Carter didn't have time for that, he was on the move, exploring the house.

The sales office had a great kids area with coloring books and toys. This is the main reason we were able to sign the contact and pick out the things for the house.

They never seemed to get tired of coloring. They didn't even know there was a bag of toys until the second time we went up there because they didn't even look, they were so happy coloring.

Staying busy.

If you follow me on Pinterest, you've probably seen the massive amount of home décor pins I've been pinning. I'm obsessed! There was no pinterest when we bought our first house! I spent this evening trying to narrow down paint colors. Greg isn't as excited about the décor as I am, but I did email him some ideas I have and he actually liked them, so he's going to help me with some décor related projects for the house. My goal this summer is to downsize and go through every item we own and decide if I want to bring it with me to the new house or get rid of it. I'm also going to be working on some projects--like a DIY headboard for our bed. In addition to going to summer school, taking the boys to summer school, volunteering at VBS, and trying to enjoy the summer with the boys before they start going to school 5 days a week in the fall. (sniffle, sniffle) It's going to be a fun summer and I'm so excited about moving. I've been wanting to post something about it for days, but we wanted to have our official meeting with the bank and sign all that paperwork before "announcing" it. Although, I may or may not have told everybody I talked to last week. Oops. ;)

Athens

Last week, my parents offered to keep the boys overnight during spring break. Greg and I had talked awhile back that we were going to go to Savannah on our next date night, so I immediately looked into that. It was spring break, so finding a hotel in the area we wanted to stay was impossible. We thought about Atlanta, but Greg wanted to go somewhere we haven't been. There's a brewery in Athens that he wanted to try and I didn't care where we went, so we decided on Athens. I spent a few days trying to find some fun things to do and see while we were there. My parents house is closer to Athens than we are, so we spent the night with them and the next morning we were able to get up and go straight from their house. We ended up leaving pretty early, maybe 7:30ish.

There's a couple ways to go, but we picked the route that goes through Oconee Forest. It was a beautiful drive and it was nice to talk on a car ride. The first stop we made was at Bear Hollow. It's a free zoo and park. They take injured animals and treat them there. Some of the animals are released back into the wild, but some end up staying there. It was a really pretty place and fun to walk through.

We were so close to the bears, we both commented that we've never been that close to a bear before. (except for the time I was at a park in middle school with some friends and a bear wandered on up to the park!!)

After Bear Hollow, we went to the UGA campus. I read about the Georgia Museum of Art, so we checked that out. Another free find! It was fun to look through and we had no specific plans or anywhere to be all day, so we just took our time. Also, we found out the hard way after walking on campus that nothing makes you feel older than being surrounded by college students!!! Greg kept asking me "is that cool now? Is that in style now" Like I knew! Haha, I was as clueless as him.

After the museum, we went and grabbed an early lunch at a brunch place that got great reviews. It was small and there was a little bit of a wait, but it was worth it.

I got the breakfast tacos with grits and Greg got the pimento burger. I wanted the grilled pimento cheese sandwich, but switched to the tacos when I found out Greg was considering them--I thought it'd be nice to get something we'd both like and split it. After tasting the pimento cheese on his burger, I regretted the tacos--I should have got the pimento sandwich--it was amazing!!!!

Greg is always such a trooper with me taking pictures. At least now, I can take one on my phone really quick without anybody even noticing. But, he was a trooper back in the day when I had to get my "real" camera out and take pictures.

After brunch, we decided to go see if there was any chance we could check into our hotel early (like 4 hours early) And we were, and we got to upgrade our room for no extra charge! It wasn't a fancy hotel by any means, but it was in the best location and we were able to walk to almost everything. So, we unpacked and walked to a bar and had a few local beers.

I don't know how people traveled before the internet. We looked up "good bars in Athens" and within seconds had a list of bars, their ratings, menus, prices, list of beers, etc. Trappeze Pub was highly rated, so that's where we went and we both really enjoyed it.

We went back to the hotel and took a shower (and a tiny nap) and then we got to Terrapin Brewery right when they opened at 5:30 and there was already a line. We've been to breweries in Atlanta (sweetwater) and Virginia (Star Hill) and we really enjoy them. I like doing tastings of different beers, you get a fun souvenir glass, and you can get a free tour, which we always think are fun. 

Our first samples. It's so fun to try the different beers they have. For some reason, I always like whatever Greg gets more, so we end up switching a lot.

 

They had live music, corn hole, picnic tables because you can bring your own food, set up outside so you could be outside or inside and it was a lot of fun. I enjoy people watching. There's such a variety of people that come to breweries. Couples, groups of girls, groups of guys, families with kids, young, old, the group of people there was just all over the place.

After having a couple beers, we went on the guided tour. It's so fun to hear the story behind the brewery. Who came up with the idea, where did the name come from, how much they've grown since when they sold their first beer. I enjoy it. Greg was ready to take this with us. ;)

Floor to ceiling beers!!

Proof that I was there, frizzy hair and all.

After Terrapin, we went to check out another Brewery called Creature Comforts. We got there about 45 minutes before they closed, so we felt rushed, it just had a different feel to it. The beer was nothing like the beer at Terrapin and we missed the tour. :( So, we didn't love this one as much, but, it may have just been our specific circumstances that night. I'd give them another try if we were in town again.

My beer tasted like an Arnold Palmer, which grossed Greg out. But, I liked it.

Posing in front of the Creature Comforts brewery stuff.

They had an instagram challenge and it was fun to look at the one that hashtagged the special word--that's all it took to get picked and put on the wall. But, it was fun to look through the pictures.

I had to put some pics of the two of us, so there's proof that I'm actually here, too.

After an early brunch, a bar, and two breweries--it was time to eat. We picked a place that came up high rated online and it did not disappoint. We got some chips and queso and spicy pork burrito that was actually spicy and delicious.

We ate our dinner and then went back to the hotel room to figure out what our next move was. It was about 8:30, so our next move should have been shower, pjs, and watching tv--because we're old, but I insisted that we get back out. We can't go back to the hotel at 8:30 when we're kid free. So we went out on a hunt for a snack to eat in the room while watching tv. We did a lot of walking, which was good for us. We passed by the Georgia Theater, so I was able to get a picture of that. yay.

After a couple miles of walking, we were able to go back to the hotel and get ready for bed and watch mindless tv for about 10 minutes before we passed out from exhaustion. We're old. Getting up early, all the walking, all the drinking, we didn't stand a chance of being cool and staying up late. :)

We got up the next morning pretty bright and early. We had breakfast and then we left and drove back to Dearing, GA to get the boys. They seemed very excited to see us, but only so they could tell us about all the fun things they did with Mamaw and Papaw.

We had a great time, we could have gone anywhere and had a great time. We're very lucky to have my parents who are willing to keep the boys overnight like they do for Greg and I to get this time to do things like this. And the boys were so excited about all of it and had a blast..

Our next trip will be to Savannah or to Dahlonegea (where all the wine vineyards are) I'm putting it in black and white on my blog. Non negotiable! :)