Sea Island, Georgia

This past Friday through Monday, Ethan and I went on our first trip sans Eli since the little man has joined our family.  While we recently had our first overnight getaway for our 7th anniversary, this was the first time we actually boarded a plane and flew off without him.  We went to Sea Island, Georgia for a good friend's wedding and had a wonderful time.  While "Mom" especially was a little bit nervous leaving her baby, I knew that Eli was going to have a great time with his Mamie and that he was in good hands.  Sure enough, all went smoothly and the weekend was a success.  Eli and Mamie had a great time, Ethan and I had a fabulous trip, and our friends had a beautiful wedding.  Here are some pictures and stories from our Georgia wedding weekend...


Friday... D-Day (aka, Departure Day)

Look at that nice relaxed couple traveling without kids.  Starbucks in hand, this was the start of a great vacation. :)

Our room at The Village Inn and Pub.  It was a nice cozy little bed and breakfast and we really enjoyed staying there.

Rest of the room, us in the mirror :)

Me modeling on the balcony

After arriving and checking out our room, we unpacked our bags, changed clothes and set out to explore the town.

More of our resort...you will see in a lot of these pictures all of the moss hanging off of the trees.  It was beautiful and made it feel very "deep south."

The location of our resort was great because we could explore the town on foot.  There were a bunch of neat little stores and restaurants on a touristy little strip that made it's way to the pier. 

Hello ocean!

Me and Ethan at the St. Simons Pier

The pier was fun to walk out on.  There was a mix of people fishing and tourists walking around with ice cream.  The place had a very light hearted summer feel to it.

To the left of the pier was a huge park, a playground, and a community center.

As we were walking through the park, I saw this tree and found it mesmerizing.  It was much more impressice in real life, but the way the trunk and branches were all twisty I thought it looked like something out of a myth or a fairy tale.  I grabbed my camera and Ethan was like "really Jen, are we stopping to take a picture of the tree?" 

Little did I know that within a few more feet I was going to see two much larger, much cooler trees!  Again, you can't really see it in the picture, but there were two huge trees that were surely hundreds of years old!  Ethan tells me that apparently I have a growing obsession with trees, and with the number of "tree pictures" that there are from this trip I guess he might be on to something...

More trees...shocker. :)

Ok, I took a picture of this tree for Ethan's sake.  It was huge and actually grew into the ground, back up and sprung up about 10 more feet in the air.  It was crazy.

On the pier at sunset

Beautiful!

The St. Simons Lighthouse.  This site was settled back in the early 1800s and the lighthouse was originally built here in 1810.  Needless to say, this is not the original...but it is quite picturesque.

Saturday

Saturday was a full and fun day.  We began the day with a bridal brunch for the girls at the Cloister, the resort where the wedding took place.  Ethan hung out with Patrick, the groom to be, and the girls celebrated with the bride.  After the brunch, everyone spend the afternoon by the pool, relaxing and soaking in the sun.  Here are Ethan and I on our way back from the pool.

All cleaned up and at the rehearsal dinner.  The flash got a little messed up, but you can still get the idea.

Me and my beau

"Roast and Toast" at the rehearsal dinner where Patrick's two sisters had the whole room laughing.  The dinner was delicious and fun, and a special time where friends and family shared sweet memories and stories about the bride and groom.

Sunday

On Sunday morning, Ethan and I got up and went to a Community Church in the area.  It was great and we really enjoyed the time to worship.  It was a beautiful church.  Then we changed clothes and headed out to a historic site, Fort Fredrica. 

Fort Fredrica was built in 1736.  In the early 18th century, the English built this fort and town to defend the land from the Spanish in neaby Florida.  There were a few skirmishes in the area and the English were able to successfully defend their land.  We saw the foundation of one of the storehouses where John Wesley preached to the residents of the town.  While I didn't take pictures of the remains of these structures we both found the sites and stories very interesting.  Around the perimeter of the old town, you can still see where the walls were built.  There was a large outer wall, then a moat, followed by more inner walls and other means of defense.  You can clearly see where the earth is built up and then dips down where the moat was dug hundreds of years ago.

Of course, my attention was captured by the massive trees!  As you can see in the last few pictures and then this one, these trees were enormous.  It is crazy to think that surely many of these trees were around during the time of this town and are probably hundreds of years old!

At Fort Fredrica National Park.  After we left the park, we walked over to a nearby cemetery by Christ Church, a very old church.  We saw many graves from people who fought in the Civil War and even one from someone who fought in the Revolutionary War!

Back to the tree growing in the ground...quite a comfy chair

At the wedding!

Me and my mister.  The wedding ceremony was in a gorgeous little chapel and the service was beautiful.

Ethan with his tie straightened..oops!  :)

After the ceremony, we had a "bagpipe procession" that led us to the reception

Delicious dinner, now it is time to dance!  Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Temple. Thank you for inviting us to your wedding, weare so happy for you guys and had a great time!

The next day, Monday, was supposed to be a nice smooth trip home.  While is was a little less than that (delayed flight, missed connection, more delays, uncertainty of getting home, and finally arriving but finding out that they lost your bag), we were just glad to be home safely at the end of the day.  When we did arrive home, we found out that our power and some of the neighbors had lost power.  We had a nice candlelit evening catching up with Jamie and Eli until the power came back on just before midnight.  Tuesday morning, Eli and I went up to the airport and were able to successfully track down our bag!  While the last day was a little less than ideal with the crazy travel, the trip was still a happy and fun one overall.  A huge thanks to Mamie and Pops for babysitting so that we could go!! 

  

Music Mania

It will be interesting to see if Elijah's recent obsession with all things music will be a two year old fad or a lifelong interest for him.  He has been very into guitars (aka goo-tars) for a while now.  Just the other day I was talking to his Sunday School teacher about this.  She was telling me of a time where he picked up a toy firetruck and began strumming it like a guitar.  She said she suspected that this interest would stick, as she had never seen a little boy use a firetruck as a guitar before...go figure. :)  

His interest in music is not confined to just guitars.  We have some drums and a little piano for him to play with, and he often recruits Mommy and Daddy, or anyone he can find for that matter, to be a part of "his band."  If he doesn't actually have his toy instruments nearby, he will create them with something around him.  This morning he found an empty shoebox in my closet and grabbed two pens nearby to play his makeshift drum for daddy while he was getting ready for work. :)  He will frequently play the air guitar and his favorite clothes are certainly those with a guitar or some fashion of instrument (or sports gear) on them.  He will notice if we have the radio on in the house, the car, or even if it is playing in a store and point out that he hears. 

And his musical interest broadens yet more... Today before laying Eli down for a nap we were reading a new book that we had just checked out from the library.  It was a story about a boy taking his first airplane ride...nothing whatsoever to do with music.  In one picture it shows the little boy's room.  We were pointing out balls, teddy bears, etc, when he asked me, "Where is the piano, Mommy?"  I said, "Well, he doesn't have a piano."  Then he said, "where are the drums, Mommy?"  And again I replied, "He doesn't have any drums."  He then proceeded to tell me how he didn't have a trombone, a saxaphone, a clarinet, a flute, a french horn, or a trumpet in his room either (one at a time or course). :)  I thought...crazy, what two year old knows about all of those instruments?  People who are around him think that Ethan or I must really be into music and are usually surprised to find out that neither one of us are career musicians. 

Just in case this interest does stick and he becomes a famous musician someday, I thought it would be good to have a little evidence of how far back this love of his went.  Here are a few sweet pictures of him playing a few of his many guitars. :)  So, without further ado, here is our budding little musician in the making...

Eli putting on the straps (or as he always likes to say, "E-i putting on the traps")

These guitars are for the Wii game Guitar Hero.  Ethan and I got it before Eli was born and haven't played it much since we had him.  We considered getting rid of it at one point, but as you can see that won't be happening any time soon!  Eli has now confiscated them as his own. :)

Our little Rocker! :)

In these next few pictures, Eli is playing a little guitar that he just got in the mail from my parents.  They recently took a trip and sent this to him as a souveneir, along with the cute shirt.

Strumming his new guitar

"Wow, it has a surprisingly great sound!  And to think this puppy is just the right size for me to take with me everywhere I go..."

And off he goes to join the band!

Dick's Sporting Goods

One of Elijah's absolute greatest joys in life is spending time in his favorite store...Dick's Sporting Goods.  We have a Dick's about a mile down the road and frequent it often.  Many a day, Eli will wake up talking about going to Dick's or reminiscing on fun times Eli and Dada had playing there.  In his sweet little sing song voice, he will say "Go Dicks" and then bust out an enormous grin.  This kiddo is getting good at working Mommy and Daddy, that is for sure, because when he asks so sweetly and smiles so broadly he will often get his wish. :) 

Dicks also happens to be located directly across from our gym, so after working out he will always see it and ask to stop by.  While we don't always go by, we will probably stop in about once a week (and also sometimes on weekends).  There is a man who always stands at the entrance and greets people.  For the first few visits, he would kindly greet us and ask if he could help us find anything.  I would politely respond that we were just coming to "play" since it is our 2 year old's favorite store.  Now he pretty much knows us and stops asking if we're looking for something, knowing that we just come to explore all of the exciting sports gear. :)

Initially, Eli was mainly interested in "playing basketball and golf!"  While the baskets are covered, this really makes no difference to him since he can't shoot it that high anyway.  He will dribble the ball and shoot it in the bin.  The putting green is also always a fun time for Eli.  There is one little kids club that floats around and he has deemed it "Eli's golf club." 

Lately, Eli has started to gain interest in other sports equipment too.  He loves to look at the canoes and the kayaks, the deer in the hunting section, the bikes, the tennis rackets, and the new favorite...baseball gear!  We will play with the bats and balls and gloves, and below you can see him wearing a youth batting helmet.  However, since he only associates helmets with football at this point, he grabbed a football from a nearby bin and was off to make a touchdown. :) 

Thank you, Dicks, for the endless hours of fun that you provide for our little sports fan!

A Most Happy 7th Anniversary

Today marks 7 years of being married to the love of my life.  I am blessed beyond words to share my life with such an incredible husband!  This past weekend, Ethan surprised me with a wonderful anniversary present.  Here is the story below...

Ethan took the day off on Friday and we spent an enjoyable morning going for a walk to the coffee shop and browsing around the library.  Shortly after we returned home, we received a knock at the door.  Ethan's mom, from Shreveport, was there and "just happened to be stoppng by to drop off some books for Eli."  I was very surprised to see her, but something seemed a little suspicious with my smirking husband. :)  I thought he was most likely behind this little surprise visit and must have something up his sleeve.  And indeed he did!  He told me to pack a bag and let me ask yes or no questions to determine what I needed to pack.  After throwing a swimsuit, a dressy outfit, and other casual clothes in a bag, we gave instructions to Mamie about watching Eli and set out.  Eli was more than excited to see his Mamie and didn't miss us a lick while we were gone!

Much to my delight, we arrived at the Gaylord for the start of our romantic surprise anniversary getaway!  After strolling around and taking in the beautiful scenery and landscaping, we checked in and got settled.  Our room was a gorgeous suite with a great view from the balcony, complete with champagne and cake balls!  We toasted and enjoyed some treats and relished the time to sit and reminisce without dividing our attention on a 2 year old (sweet as he may be).

Dinner was another surprise, and we headed over to a nice restaurant called Trulucks.  It was delicious.  We shared an anniversary feast for sure...calamari, scallops, steak, dessert and coffee!  It was a special time proving all those people wrong who said we'd never make it. ;)

The next morning I had another surprise awaiting me...an hour long massage at the spa!  Ahh...it was fantastic.  We then dined together for brunch at "the Riverwalk."  After another nice meal, we went for a walk and were then lured in by the pool.  The Gaylord just added on a really cool waterpark area called Paradise Springs.  We changed into our bathing suites, checked out, and headed over to the pool for a few more hours.  We enjoyed floating on the lazy river, going down the water slide, dipping in the water, and laying out in the sun.  It was a great day.

After a nice getaway, we loaded up and headed back home.  I am so thankful for a husband who still loves to plan special dates together and so thoughtfully surprises me.  These past 7 years have been the best in my life, and they just keep getting better and better.  I look forward to all of the joys and surprises the next 7 bring, and a lifetime after that!  I love you, Ethan, Happy 7th Anniversary!

Ready to go...

...even though I had no idea where we were off to!

What a welcome :)

Champagne and Cake Balls, my way to celebrate!

To the bride and groom

Cheers!

Dinner at Trulucks

Yummy Anniversary Dessert!

To the babysitter who made it all possible...thanks Mamie!! :)