Celebrating Colby

This weekend Colby turned 5 years old. He's such a joy to our family. I can't believe five years have gone by so fast. We celebrated his birthday this weekend with a little cookout at our house with some family. Here's a little slideshow from our five years with our little man.

First Day of School

Last week, August 11th, was the first day of school for Dalton and Colby. It was special this year because both Dalton and Colby are now going to the same school. They get to ride with Shane to school every day. I think Colby feels like a big boy going to school with his older brother at Covenant this year. The year has gotten off to a great start, and both Dalton and Colby really love being at school and love their classes!

One Last Fling of the Summer

The last couple of weeks have been busy! Shane had football camp at Jekyll Island a couple of weeks ago for 5 days, and then we had to get ready for school starting back. Since Shane was going to be down at Jekyll for a while I thought I'd go down with the boys for a couple of days as well. I asked my mom if she wanted to come down with us as well. A couple of days before we were going to leave, my mom had a mini-stroke and was in the hospital having lots of tests run to try to determine what was going on. She stayed overnight and was cleared to leave and was thankfully able to still go with us on our trip. We were so glad she was able to come and we had a lot more fun with her along. While Shane was staying with his guys at the 4-H camp down at Jekyll Island, the 4 of us stayed at a motel nearby. We didn't see Shane a whole lot but he was able to meet up with us to go to the waterpark that is on Jekyll. We had a lot of fun going out to eat, playing a little miniature golf, sight-seeing a little at St. Simons, and playing in the water. It was fun to enjoy one last little trip before school started!!

In St. Simons at the lighthouse

We also had a fun time going to Driftwood Beach which is located on the north end of the island. My friend, Rebekah, got married at this area in front of this same tree. The boys had a blast climbing on it while my mom and I nervously watched.

More 10th Anniversary Stuff

I made up this little slideshow of our trip to Anguilla as well as some snapshots from the past 10 years. Yes, it has been almost a month since our anniversary, but hey, we're still celebrating. Many pictures include the boys as well, because we just can't imagine the last few years without Dalton and Colby.

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10th Anniversary

Shane and I went to the island of Anguilla to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We wanted to go someplace very special. We had researched and planned for months before deciding to go to the resort of Cap Juluca in Anguilla. We were wanting to go somewhere that had a great beach and a place where we could afford to get a beachfront room. Throughout our research we found that this resort had all beachfront rooms no matter what category, and we also found that the island of Anguilla is known for its great beaches and beautiful turquoise water. I previously knew very little about Anguilla and had never even known anyone who had been there, but everything we read about it sounded awesome so we thought we'd try it out and go ahead and book our stay.
Everything we read about Anguilla and Cap Juluca turned out to be true. When we arrived at the resort we were just in awe. And when the lady at check-in told us we had been given a great upgrade we were just giddy. We just couldn't believe we had been upgraded to a pool villa!! We had our own private pool!! We just didn't know what to do with ourselves. When we were taken to our villa I just couldn't stop looking at the view and the huge villa that we were upgraded to. Shane and I just kept thinking there must be some mistake and someone was going to come and tell us that they've made a mistake and tell us we were in the wrong villa.

We've been to a few different islands in the Caribbean, but this was truly the most beautiful place I've ever been. The water was the prettiest I've ever seen and the beach was amazing as well. The resort catered to our every whim and was always there for us no matter what was needed. While laying out on the beach, a beach attendant would bring a chilled towel around 12:00 and complimentary sorbet around 3:00. And whenever you would go pick out your lounge chairs, the attendant would bring a cooler filled with iced bottled waters. Ahhhh!! So nice!! The island has an amazing selection of different fine dining restaurants for being such a small island of just 16 miles long. We rented a jeep for a couple of days to tour around the island to try out a few different restaurants. We went to 4 different restaurants and they were all just fabulous! I loved trying out such new places! Such fun!

I could just go on and on about how beautiful this place was! My theory about the Caribbean is that there are so many different islands with their own unique personality that why would I want to go to the same one again when there are so many other islands to explore. But Anguilla has kind of changed my mind about that. It was such a slice of heaven that it will be hard to ever go anywhere else!

Our villa and lounge chairs.

Fishing in the Gulf

A couple of weeks ago Shane, one of Shane's friends, and I went out fishing in the Gulf out on the flats of Steinhatchee, Florida. We went with a guide. We had been talking about going out with a guide for a while to try to learn a little more and catch a lot of fish. We got an early start and headed out on the water. It was fun to go with a guide because he provided all the bait and took care of everything we needed pretty much and he knew all the best places to fish. We were mainly fishing for trout, but we also went fishing for some redfish. I caught one redfish that was the biggest fish I'd ever caught in my life. It was 28 1/2" long and weighed over 6 pounds. Pretty cool. Here's some pics of some of our catch:

(Sorry, can't figure out why this is underlined)

Here's Shane trying to reel in a pretty good sized shark

Orange Beach 2010

A couple of weeks ago we went on our family vacation to Orange Beach, Alabama. It was such a relaxing time! The boys had fun playing in the pool and in the ocean as well as playing shuffleboard, going to play miniature golf, and riding go-carts. My parents came along with us, and Shane and I were able to get out on the links to play a little golf one day as well. This is the earliest in the year we've ever been on vacation to the beach and it was such a good time to go. The weather wasn't too hot yet and the crowds weren't all that bad yet either.

"Cannonballllll!!!!!"

Colby chillin' in the sand

We went out to eat at Lulu's Restaurant one night which is owned by Jimmy Buffett's sister. There was a long wait to eat, but there was a lot of things to keep the kids busy and active while they waited. Dalton and Colby joined in on a little volleyball game that was going on with other kids then moved on to building sand castles while we waited. Then, we enjoyed a nice dinner by the water.

We were treated to a spectacular lightning show the first night we arrived.

One of the big things on most everyone's mind down at the beach was the oil spill. We never saw any oil while there and the beach was still very beautiful. There were reports that the oil came ashore the day before we left, but it was reported as being a mile or two up the beach and was just cleaned up and the beach was fine again. Here was a picture of a couple of boats laying some boom in front of our condo where we were. Kind of weird though... they didn't leave the boom there so I was wondering if maybe there was some oil out there and they skimmed it up and then left.