Wedding Pictures

The Wedding

This past weekend we were blessed to be able to attend the wedding of one of our favorite babysitters, Kimberly and her new husband, Brandon. Kimberly and Brandon had asked several months ago if Kayla would be a junior bridesmaid and if Tyler would be a ring bearer, and, of course, they both agreed. This was truly one of the sweetest weddings that I have been too, from the rehearsal dinner to the reception. Brandon is a huge movie buff so the rehearsal was done in movie theme. Brandon's mom and dad outdid themselves with this! Each table had popcorn boxes filled with candy for party favors and then in the center of each table was a BIG popcorn box filled with the movie size candy and popcorn. Tyler ended up winning the popcorn box from our table - you can imagine how thrilled he was with all of that candy! He was also very thrilled when they gave him his "groomsmen" gift and it was a Bible commentary! Brandon's dad is a pastor and Tyler opened the wrong gift by mistake! It was too funny. Kayla was so thrilled with her goody bag that she got!

Kayla and I got to spend most of the morning with Kimberly and all of the bridesmaids and she just had the best time. She got her hair done and her nails done, and ya'll, she looked beautiful and so grown up! I'm so thankful that she loves Jesus and is more concerned with her inward appearance than her outward appearance. That doesn't mean that I'm still not considering locking her in her room until she is old and gray! She did a great job being a junior bridesmaid!

Tyler was basically at the church to torment the groomsmen, I think! I could just see in his mind that here are all these young guys and they are all here to wrestle with me and let me jump on their heads! A very special thank you to Andy and Ryan who I think got blessed with the majority of the torment! He looked very handsome in his tuxedo and I think he did a great job. He only dropped the pillow once when he got on stage and Andy was kind enough to pick it up and hold on to it. Thanks Andy!

Our pastor and Brandon's dad officiated the ceremony and they did a great job. It was very relaxed and I was so glad about that for them.

I don't even know where to start with the reception. It was gorgeous! I'm thinking that Craig and I should get married again just so that we can have a reception like this! The room was beautiful, the food was delicious, and the music and dancing was a ton of fun. The bride and groom left under a spray of sparklers and I hope that they are having the best time on their honeymoon! To Kimberly and Brandon, thank you so much for including us in your special day - we love you and wish you tons of joy and happiness!

Snakes and Reptile Pictures

Cumberland Island Pictures

Pictures of Day 1

Snakes and Reptiles!!! Oh My!

We have now arrived at Day 3 of the Great Adventure and it was our final morning at camp.

Our last class was about reptiles and snakes. This was one of the coolest experience of the whole trip in my opinion. We got to pet baby alligators and see various kinds of turtles in the natural habitat, not just behind the glass.

However, the most exciting part was when we went into the snake room. Now, let me tell ya'll that I am NOT a lover of snakes. We have had two snakes in the yard this year and it just completely freaks me out. But something came over me when I entered this snake room! :) Kayla and I both got to hold our first snake. Not just pet it, hold it! I think it was a king snake, but I'm not sure. I cannot even begin to explain how it feels to hold these creatures. It takes both hands to hold them and they just coil themselves around your hands and arms just as if they are coiling around a tree branch. The snake that they guide was holding actually managed to get it's tail through the belt loop on her shorts and then down into her pocket. It was crazy! I can't explain it, but it was just a really neat experience. Pictures to come soon for those of you who haven't already seen them on facebook.

That was the end of our great adventure. It was a great trip and I am so glad that I got to go with Kayla. She had a blast hanging out with all of her friends (and her mom too)!

Cumberland Island

Day 2 of our field trip began with a very early morning breakfast and then about an hour drive to the place where we would get on the ferry to head over to Cumberland Island. The ferry drive lasted about 45 minutes and then we finally arrived. Ya'll - this island was beautiful. The island is full of these live oak trees that just make a canopy over the island - it reminded me of the rain forest.

This was a really long day and we were all exhausted by the time we got back to the ferry dock. We walked about 4 1/2 miles and saw a lot of stuff including several different kinds of crabs that I had never seen and many wild horses. Fortunately we did not see any of the snakes that they talked about or alligators or anything like that!

We started off by walking to the beach and dredging the ocean floor to see what kind of creatures we could come up with. That was just a very cool experience to see all of these kids out in the ocean with this huge net working together to bring up any treasure they could find. It turns out that the coolest "treasure" that we found was caught in a bucket closer to shore by one of the other moms. It was a moonshell crab that had been taken over by a hermit crab with two sea anenomes on it and in between the sea anenomes was the tiniest baby crab I have ever seen. Very cool. I had no idea that there were so many different types of crabs... ghost crabs, huge horseshoe crabs, moonshell crabs... you name it - it was crazy! I have never seen a ghost crab before and guess what? They are white and blend in with the sand, like ghosts. Hahaha!

So, from there we walked and walked and walked down the beach looking for washed up treasure and shells. I have to tell you that we didn't find too much, but there were a ton of horsehoe crabs in various stages of death and decay. We walked over the sand dunes until we got to Dungeness. I think that is how you spell it. There was a ton of history involved in that house and the outlying buildings. Since I am not much of a history buff I will just tell you that if you want to know more about all of this, ask Kayla. She is my history girl! Once we got to the house, and I use that term lightly - mansion would be a far better word, there were wild horses all over the yard area. It was amazing how close you could get to these creatures. Apparently, the Carnegies were the last family to live there and it was in Mrs. Carnegie's Will that upon her death the horse should be let go to roam the island freely.

All in all it was a good day, but very long and tiring. We got back to camp that night and after dinner we did the fireside circle. The guides that did this little program were hilarious. They told funny stories to the kids and sang crazy songs. The kids loved it! Ask Kayla to sing you the song about the moose and to tell you about... The Boyscouts of America....

Up next... Day 3 and the snakes!