Preston and Nelson come to visit

My friend Michelle was going to a funeral the other day, and she asked me to keep her boys. Of course I was thrilled since I don't get to see them nearly enough!! As you can see my kids loved having them here, and Addyson really played and shared SOME with Preston- a first for her!! I love the one of him mowing and her following with the baby to make sure he does it right : )

Robert's visit

Robert is our friend that was at UGA with Brad. He has been living in California and is moving to New York, where he is from. He has not met Addyson, so on his way to New York, he and his friend Allie stopped by to visit.

July 4th with the Smiths

Good friends, Good food, Good fun...

The Grand Canyon

Day One: Met Tom and Dianne in Grenada, loaded the Sequoia with seven people, and left around 4 pm. We arrived in Oklahoma City around 1 am. Slept 8 hours then packed up for day 2.
Day 2: Everyone is in good spirits. Nice breakfast, nice lunch, enjoyed checking out historic Route 66.

As we approach Albuquerque... BOOM... Addyson is throwing up. We make a couple of more hours to Gallop, NM with me holding the paper towel as she dry heeves. We arrive around 8 pm and she is finished throwing up before we put her to bed. This is the low point of our trip- the realization that we will all likely be throwing up soon brought our spirits down dramatically!!
Day 3: Only four hours until we reach destination-enough to cheer everyone up. We begin to notice signs for the meteor crater-the place where the crater hit that might have led to the extinction of dinosaurs. We decided that was worth seeing. So we stopped for an hour or so, and it was well worth our time.

However, we were anxious to move on to the GRAND CANYON. We arrived around 2pm and our rooms were ready. We stayed at the Best Western Squire Inn. I highly recommend it. Wonderful, hot breakfast included, shuttle to canyon, bowling alley and arcade in hotel, and the rooms/bathrooms were HUGE. Anyway, we unpacked then headed to the IMAX movie of the bottom of the canyon-very entertaining. Next we headed to the south rim. The Grand Canyon was breathtakingly beautiful.
We walked about 3 miles on the rim to the Bright Angel Lodge for dinner. Then back to hotel for good night sleep. Brad, Tom, Laken, and Cade were planning to hike 6 miles the next morning...
Day 4: The hikers were up and ready around 6 am. They set out with lots of enthusiasm. Addyson however, took a turn for the worse. She was throwin up again, so mom and I took turns having breakfast. Then I called our pediatrician who gave me dehydration signs, but she didn't seem to have any thank goodness. The hikers arrived back after lunch. The kids were real troopers. Total round trip down and UP was app. 6 miles!!


Mom and I left Addy with the hikers and went to lunch. When I returned, Brad said he wasn't feeling too good. The rest of the crew went bowling. When we got back to the room Brad was throwing up and Laken didn't want supper because her stomach was hurting. This was pretty much an all nighter- Brad and Laken back and forth...
Day 5: No one is throwing up!! However, Brad and Laken were not up for sight seeing and mama and I were not feeling 100%, but we heard Desert View was a must see, so we were able to find the energy to make it there- the whole crew except for Brad and Laken. Desert View was definitely the most beautiful view of the canyon. I'm glad I "toughed it out".


We went back to the room and rested up. By supper time everyone was ready to go again. We decided to catch a sunset and "say goodbye" to the canyon.

Day 6: Time to go!! We had plans to meet Brad's dad, John, for breakfast on our way back. It was very nice to see him after way too
many years.
Then we traveled for about 11 more hours to Abilene, TX. This was a really long day in the car for all of us. Then we rested up about 8 hours for day 7!!
Day 7: We decided the kids needed a travel break!! Abilene is only a couple of hours from Hurricane Harbor (6 Flags Water Park) in Dallas. We booked a room in Dallas and spent this day at the water park!! All three kids and their parents : ) had a blast.






Day 8: Time to go home!! We left Dallas shortly after breakfast, dropped off my parents in Grenada, then made it to Starkville before dark. It was a wonderful trip, that we will always remember (well maybe not Addy), but it's always good to be home!!