the park

Yesterday Ryan and I went to the park and met up with some of our buddies. I managed to get Ryan's wagon down the stairs and into the explorer while holding Ryan and the diaper bag. And it was so worth it; he looked super cute riding in the wagon! Noah even sat with him for a little while. Notice how chill Ryan is - he sat back with his foot up the whole ride, not a care in the world! He had a great time at the park and was so happy and calm.

Love ya partner

So today I have to play a tennis match without my partner. That's right, Mom's not available the rest of the season thanks to a broken wrist. While practicing yesterday she went for an overhead and landed on her left wrist and head. After x-rays and a cat scan, she's home with lots of meds and a cast. While it's going to be a rough six weeks for her, I'm thankful it wasn't worse. It's scary seeing your mom go down like that and not bounce back up. I love you mom, and I hope you have a quick and painless recovery. And I'm looking forward to your hard cast; I've got my sharpie ready!

Merge

Tailgate merge! Cool design, eh? :)

great fun, check it out

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Only two weeks...

Only two weeks until Ryan's 1st birthday! It's so hard to believe how fast this first year has gone! At first I was a little sad about my baby growing up, but I realize how lucky we are to have him in our life and what a great 12 months its been. Sure, it was hard at times and Ryan was quite fussy for six months straight, but in the grand scheme of things, it was all still great and I wouldn't change a thing (okay, maybe I wish he had slept through the night sooner!). So with that perspective, I'm looking forward to a great birthday weekend and spending time with family and friends and celebrating the wonderful baby that God has blessed us with!

Gameday pictures

GO DAWGS!! Check out Ryan's super cool red overalls! He had a great time sitting in Daddy's lap watching his Bulldogs beat South Carolina.

Alright, so I know this was actually last week against Central Michigan, but this was an amazing run by Knowshon Moreno and worthy of being included in gameday photos!

Lake Lanier

As many of you probably know, Coleson and I used to have a boat. This was back before a hefty mortage payment, tuition for a master's degree, and a baby :) We kept the boat in our garage and would put it in at War Hill Park, I'd say an average of once a week. It was a wonderful summer and I have lots of great memories of our boat (and of course bad ones too, like Coleson yelling at me when I'd try to drive the boat up on to the trailer; Coleson likes to say if we hadn't sold the boat, we'd probably be divored by now.) Anyways.

So yesterday afternoon, Ryan and I decided to get out for a walk and some fresh air. I headed up to War Hill Park, which I hadn't been to in probably two years. Now, like everyone else in Georgia, I know Lake Lanier is way down. But I didn't really know it until I saw it firsthand. And saw it somewhere where I have clear memories of the old days, thus allowing me to really put it all in perspective. I was totally caught off guard. The boat ramps are of course closed; there'd be no way to get a boat into the water. Then there's the metal dock where we used to swing back around to and pick up our passengers once we were in the water. Yea, that dock is dry and sits probably 30 feet from the new waterline. It was just crazy.

I think what really got me though was how deserted the whole place was. I'll give you that it was a Wednesday afternoon, but still there was no other signs of life anywhere. I really felt like the world could have ended. There were no cars, no boats on the water, nothing. And get this, I actually walked to what used to be an island; I had driven a boat across where I was walking. Kinda hard to believe. It was all very humbling.

I felt sad at first, that we had allowed this to happen. That we had ruined something so beautiful. But then I remembered that Lake Lanier is man-made, so I'm not really sure what to make of that. We created it, but then we destroyed it. Not sure how that fits into the big picture and being good stewards and all that, way over my head. All I know is, what was once a beautiful and fun-filled lake is now, for all practical purposes, gone. Yes, they advertise that 70% of the lake is still there on those feel-good boating commercials, but I don't know that I would go out on it. There are trees sticking up out of the middle of the water. It's a totally different lake than it used to be and I'm not willing to risk my marriage by driving a boat across a newly forming island. :)

Monday morning highlights

We had a great time in Destin this past week. Only one day of slightly bad weather thanks to Gustav, other than that it was beautiful. We enjoyed spending time with family and bonding and playing games and eating good food. Barbara and Sarah even made me try yoga by the sea (it's as goofy as you'd think it be!). And of course the beach and pool and long walks and shopping. It was also nice to spend some time with Tyler and Jennifer as they are working through the wedding plans. There's a good chance it will be in Destin so we had a fun time driving around and checking out resorts and restaurants and whatnot.

Other weekend highlights included:

- Game day Saturday! Go Dawgs! We watched the Dawgs beat up on Central Michigan with Kevin, Colleen, and Baby Lucas

-Sunday morning nap time, going in to pick up Ryan and seeing him standing in the crib waiting on me!

-Renewing our vows at MLC as part of the marriage project series

-Ryan eating pancakes with Grandpa Sunday morning

- Mom and I playing a great, but unfortunately losing, tennis match

Ryan looks more like Mommy!!

I saw this on David's website and thought it looked like fun. But wow, I didn't expect this result. I bet no one saw this coming! This makes my day! :)

Hey everyone, Love Ryan