Wilmington

We have been so blessed this year with not just one trip away but two! A friend's parents invited us to their house while they were away on vacation. I got to go to the beach! We got to go to the beach together as a family!
Emma LOVES the beach! We had such an enjoyable time. We went to the beach Friday afternoon, even though it was chilly, we still had fun. We couldn't get into the water but got in enough to get water to make sand castles.
Thank you Lord for such wonderful friends and their parents who wish to bless us in such meaningful ways!!!

Making a sand castle w/ Daddy. Getting this time w/ her daddy was such a joy for the girlie!

Look! Mommy does exist.

Mommy's first sand castle! Ever.

What a glorious day!

Special Olympics

Doing our warm-ups

The gang

She is so attached to her teacher! She didn't want me only Ms. Edwards.

The look

Playing w/ the parachute was her favorite activity!

Receiving her medal

Driving her race car

Hugging Sonic the Tot

It was a wonderful day for Emma's school to compete at the Special Olympics. Emma couldn't do any of the major events because of the age limit, but they did have lots of activities set up for the younger kids to do. She did an awesome job and was very excited to receive her medal. The most hilarious part was watching her "buddy" chase her around all morning, which gave Mommy a nice little break. They ended the day w/ a hot dog and chips lunch, then the kids returned to school. After they return, it is tradition for all of the other classes to line the halls, while they parade through w/ their medals, and everybody cheers for them! How very sweet of the school to do that for them!!!

Gatlinburg Day #1

Cousins

Can you tell she didn't get to sleep until late?

The winery

The Titanic museum. We didn't go this trip because we didn't think that Emma would enjoy it too much. Maybe next time. But thankfully nobody minded we stop so that I could get pictures from the outside.

We were able to meet Kurt, Jennifer and Haley in Gatlinburg for a quick weekend trip. We arrived late Friday evening and stayed through Sunday morning.
On Saturday we took a "small" hike to an observation tower. Emma very quickly wrapped her Uncle Kurt around her little finger, and next thing we knew, he was carrying her on his shoulders both up and down. The view from the observation tower was not very good because it was quite foggy, but it was still neat to see. After the hike, we went for lunch at the Applewood Winery. They had a Christmas shop, grill, and a winery area. The girls seem to really enjoy the Christmas shop and all the decorations. Then we were off to play mini golf. Emma had never played before, so we weren't sure how this was going to play out. But overall, she did extremely well! She enjoyed playing and didn't whack the ball very hard too often. By the time we were all finished, everybody was pretty worn out, so we headed back to the condos to crash for the evening.

Gatlinburg Day #2

The trip quickly came to a close, but it was great being able to see Kurt, Jennifer and Haley. Nathan and I decided that since we had an early check out; instead of driving straight home, we would drive around the mountains some and see what we came across. We happen across this waterfall on the way home.
Emma did such a good job the entire weekend, even with less sleep than usual. We were so proud of her!