Panama City Beach Vacation

We finally made it to vacation time! Our plan was to go to the beach kind of late in the summer...our logic: the older rachel is, the more fun both she and we would have. Then there was the oil situation...we were sweating it all the way up until vacation time just wondering if we'd even be able to go or have to change locations. It all worked out perfectly. We went to Panama City and there was no oil anywhere to be seen. Needless to say, we were super excited! Here are some pics from our trip.

Rachel in the car on the way. She did great! It took us 10 hours to get there and we only stopped two times: once for breakfast and once at a rest stop so she could eat her lunch. I was impressed!



Me and Rachel at a rest stop...



Family pic at Captain Anderson's...Rachel wasn't too sure about the gentleman who volunteered to take a pic of the 3 of us...note her angry face wondering why someone took daddy's camera away from him;o)

"Picture night" was so much fun! We got all fancied up and headed to the beach to take some pics. There were so many good ones, it was hard to pic just a few to post on the website!

Riding the carousal at Pier Park...

Hanging out in Pier Park listening to some live music...fun times!

At the McDonald's playplace on the way home from the beach. Coming home took almost 12 hours compared to the 10 hours going. BUT, we stopped alot more to let Rachel get out and have some fun. The difference was not getting up so early to leave...but all in all, a great trip back home as well.

Playing in the sand...

Scooping sand with daddy...

Enjoying a Juicy Juice box...she LOVES those things!

Cool shades...

Fun in the pool...

Family pic on my birthday...Rachel was loving on her souvenir "Periwinkle, the kitty"...

July

July continued to be busy, but fun! Below are some pics from our adventures...

Play date with Lauren and Kate...



Rachel is stylin' in her first pigtails ever!



Headin' to Nashville Shores...our summer pasttime since it's been SO HOT!

Playing in the bubbles at Bren & Larry's on July 4...

Play date with Cade & Laura at Nana's...of course, they're in the pool...it was too hot to do anything else!

Laura in her Ms. USA crown on July 4...

Rachel and Kassidy...

Laura stopping for a pose...

Cade having fun in the pool at Nana's...

June Joys

We had lots of joyous times in June!

Story time with Nana, Cade, & Laura before VBS...



Rachel had fun riding to VBS in Aunt Christy's SUV because she has a DVD player!



Singing at VBS...

Trying out daddy's shoes...

Rachel and Pa had on matching outfits and it wasn't even planned!

Milestone: Rachel's first kid's meal (at Logan's)...

Playdate with cousin Kate...

May Memories

We've been having so much fun and doing so many things, I have not had a chance to update the website lately. We've taken so many pics of our adventures, it would take all day to put them all on here. So, I've just picked a few to share.

Rachel posing in front of our house for a pic... (while laughing at Nimbus)


Nimbus in the tree...



Waterplay fun...



Storytime with daddy (and Mickey ears)...

Before church one Sunday...

Cool cat Rachel in her hat and sunglasses...

Excited that she figured out how to climb on top of her toy box all by herself...

April Fun!

April and May have been pretty busy months! From playing at home, to playdates with Cade & Laura, to visiting Adam at work to take him to lunch in the park, to the Country Music Marathon...we've been on the run!

Here's Rachel enjoying the water table she got for her birthday...

Cade giving Rachel a ride in the Jeep on a playdate at his house...

Sweetie pie Laura...

Hanging out at the Country Music Marathon...before the rain came...

Enjoying the slide after lunch in the park with Adam...

Fun at home...

Nimbus in the tree...

In her swimsuit on a hot day...

Wearing her Mickey hat from Ms. Stephanie...

Kate Elaine is Here!

Little Kate Elaine is here! She was born on Saturday, May 8 at 2AM, weighing 9 lbs 2oz and 22 inches long. Lauren is a super mom who labored 26 hours! We are so proud of her! We are also a proud uncle, aunt, and cousin!

We were out of town in Gatlinburg for our anniversary so we didn't get to see Kate until we got back. Here are a few pics from our visits with her this week. Adam took Nate & Lauren dinner on Monday night, but Rachel and I didn't get to go b/c she hadn't been feeling too good. We needed to get an o.k. from the doctor that she wasn't contagious before we took her down to visit. Pam watched Rachel on Tuesday night so Adam and I could go visit again without Rachel since she still had a cough and runny nose. Rachel finally got to meet her cousin Kate when she was a week old on this past Saturday.

Adam's first time to see Kate on Monday night...

My first time to see Kate on Tuesday night...

Rachel's first time to see Kate on Saturday...

Rachel playing with Aunt Lalo's sunglasses during our visit while Kate was eating...

Proud Uncle Adam holding Kate on Saturday night...

The Flood

Here are a couple pics from the flood. We are thankful (at least for now) that we only had a little water come into our garage.

Here's a pic of our back yard after the common area filled up and flowed over into our yard creating a big river right through it. You can also see the barricade Adam set up to keep the water out of the lower level of our house. It's worked so far. We were really scared before he got the water diverting this morning. The water was about 4 inches from coming in the door on our lower level. He had just torn down the stairs going to our deck a couple of weeks ago. He is going to build new ones. God works in mysterious ways because he used all that wood to create this barrier which ultimately saved our house from flooding.




This is the drainage ditch next to our house. Water came up within 10 feet of our house on that side during the worst part of the flood.