Myrtle Beach - November 2011

We were blessed to be able to spend a few days in Myrtle Beach in November. We went with my mom and we stayed in a new hotel.

Definitely a great place to stay!

The other side of the hotel was rounded. Every room has a view of at least part of the ocean!

Neal spotting some dolphin!

Ben celebrated his 14th birthday while we were there. In addition to a ticket to Word of Life Superbowl, he also received gold fish (his fav) and sunglasses.

Neal and I got up early so we could write this in the sand. It ended up staying the entire time we were there!

This was the view from Mom's bedroom balcony.

Cool view from the living room.

This was our first sunrise while we were there.

I love the pink hues!

Ben chose Chinese food for his birthday dinner!

Family! Myrtle Beach 2011

Hello there! lol

Beautiful Beth!

Fun shots under the pier!

Walking on the Boardwalk

Me and my hubby, Neal

My two beautiful children -- Ben (14) and Beth (17)

Movie Star Ben

Under the pier

I LOVE this picture!

A serious side of Ben

Lounging on the Adirondack chair

What a handsome young man!

Neal and Teresa

2012

A Little Get-Away

Neal and I were blessed with a little mini-vacation last weekend. We had a wonderful time getting away together. (I feel the need to mention that while we were having such a nice time away from home, we didn't know that my dear friend, Perri, was fighting for her life! You can read her incredible story here.) Anyway, it had been too long since Neal and I had gone away alone, so we decided to take a drive up in the mountains and spend the night in Charlottesville. Usually when we go on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we have a certain route we take and we always cover the same area. This time we turned right instead of left. :) And we thoroughly enjoyed the breathtaking views along the way.

There was a spot that had a Mountain History Museum and a recreated homestead. This is the chicken coop.

They had 7 chickens

This was an original cabin from the early-mid 1900's. Two adults and five children lived in this one room cabin with loft.

They moved this cabin from another part of the mountains and added a porch. There were several things they had to do to fix it up, but they've maintained the time period with this building.

This was on Skyline Drive. They made special note of the "hand carved tunnel" and we just knew it was going to be incredible. Well, as you can see, it isn't very long at all. When we saw daylight before we even reached it, we were a bit disappointed. I'm sure it was spectacular in the 1930's though!

These guys were repelling at one of the overlooks on Skyline Drive

Gorgeous!

Me and my wonderful hubby, Neal.

In addition to traveling in the mountains, we spent the night in Charlottesville. One of my favorite stores, Whole Foods, is there, so we spent a couple of hours looking at all the interesting foods. We bought various dried beans and sprouts, locally roasted coffee, Blue Agave syrup, trail mix and several flavors of tea. We also ate supper at a local Mexican restaurant. Their food was really, really good! Then the following day we had lunch at an Indian restaurant. They had a lunch buffet, so we were able to sample everything. It was good, but I prefer Mexican. :)

I'm so thankful for my husband and for the fact that we love spending time together!

Living Life

Living Life ... that's what I've been doing, but I haven't been recording it as much as I would like. Maybe that will be a new year's resolution, to spend more time on my blog!

As I go through the days of my life, I tend to think I will remember everything important that happens, and that I might even remember the not so important things. Now as I sit here trying to sum up the year, I find that I have forgotten a LOT! That's why I need to make this blog a priority, so that I can remember the important, and not so important, things in my life!

Thinking back over 2010, there was, of course, good and bad. I lost two special cousins this year. They were both named Richard. The first Richard, Richard Johnson, passed away in March. Richard had been in a wheelchair for probably 25 years or more. I always saw him with a smile on his face and he didn't seem to let his paralysis defeat him! He did however contract an illness from a blood transfusion and that was what ultimately killed him. It was a very sad time, but I believe Richard is in heaven now and I look forward to seeing him walk and run some day!

The second Richard, Rick Reynolds, left us very unexpectantly this summer. I saw Rick in July at our family reunion. It had been several years since I had seen him, so I'm very thankful for that last opportunity. Rick was in a car accident in August and hit a tree. He was killed on impact. He was such a talented and fun-loving man. He is missed by so many!

One thing I remember about 2010, was that it was an extremely hot summer! Hotter than any I've experienced here in Virginia! It was so hot that most days we didn't even want to go to the pool because the water wasn't even cool enough to be refreshing! Now, here in December, it's so cold that we could probably ice skate on the pool if it had water in it! :)

I didn't lose the weight I wanted to lose in 2010...probably gained about 5 lbs instead. :( Hopefully 2011 will be a better year to get focused and lose weight. I did, however, walk/jog in a 5K in October! It was mostly walk, but I DID IT and I FINISHED! Beth walked it with me and I so appreciated her company!

In June we went to the annual homeschool conference. We went as a family this year and thoroughly enjoyed our time away. We stayed near Neal's sister, Janet, so we were able to spend time with her as well. It was a fun weekend!

We had a great trip to Ohio/Indiana/Kentucky in June/July. My brother, Darrell, celebrated his 50th birthday on June 25th. We were able to go celebrate with him, so that was a special treat! We also were able to spend time with my brother, Robert and his family, and my aunt Alberta. At the end of the trip we went through Kentucky to go to my family reunion. It was so nice to see aunts, uncles and cousins that I hadn't seen in a long time! After the reunion, we went about an hour and a half away to spend the night with my mom's sister. That was a sweet visit, too!

August brought our annual camping trip with friends. Although it rained, we still had a great time! We had great hopes of camping once more this year, but it did not happen.

In September, Neal's cousin Ruthie and her mom, Mary Beth came for a week. We had such a nice visit. We went on a couple of walks together, went up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, went to the D-Day Memorial, and to Colonial Williamsburg. I loved spending time with Ruthie and Mary Beth...I wish they lived closer!

September also brought Myrtle Beach! Mom, Beth, Ben and I went to the beach for a few days. It rained every day, but we still had fun! Well, I take that back, it didn't rain on the day we left. :P We were blessed with a beautiful sunrise that morning and Ben and I took a quick morning walk on the beach before we had to leave. Ben and I also went for a walk on the beach at night. That was fun!

October brought the women's conference from church. It was a good time of relaxation and refreshment in the Word.

November brought a round of birthdays: Neal, Ben, Mom and Beth. Ben became a teenager! I can't believe both of my children are teenagers now. Beth turned 16! Wow! It's hard to believe that my kids are getting that old!

Now December is upon us and it's been busy, busy, busy! The kids had their Christmas cantata at church, we had a 90th birthday party for Neal's grandpa, Beth started working, Neal and I had a fun date night while the kids went to the youth Christmas party, and Mom and I went to Colonial Williamsburg for two days. Now to enjoy the rest of the month and celebrate in our Savior's birth!

God bless each of you as you celebrate Christ's birth this holiday season!

More Shadow People

For those of you who have been reading my blog the last few months, you've seen our shadow people make appearances at Myrtle Beach, an amusement park and various other places. This time they followed us to Colonial Williamsburg!

We were done shopping, but the shadow people were lagging behind.

I think they spent some money, too!

Here they are standing at the stocks.

Oh no! Her head is stuck!


Mom found these people on the side of a house.

Okay, I know I'm weird...but we have lots of fun taking pictures of our shadows! It's the little things...ya know?

Colonial Williamsburg

Two weeks ago today, my Mom and I went to Williamsburg, VA. We did this last year and had so much fun that we decided to do it again! We left Friday morning and arrived in Colonial Williamsburg three hours later. All of these pictures were taken there. I took a ton of pictures, but these were the ones I thought I'd share.

This was one of our first stops. It was a little garden and a place where the workers made wreaths, table toppers, etc. This cute little fireplace was by the entrance and we warmed up before we headed on down the street.

This is a view of one side of the street. I love these houses and how they decorate at Christmastime.

Here's a shop where a couple of the "Colonial people" were outside. You can see the firewood stacked up...now just imagine the smell of wood smoke and you'll know what we were smelling.

Here are some of the decorations.

A Colonial Woman staying warm.

There were several horse and buggies traveling along the streets.

Another "Colonial Woman" walking across a lawn.

Do you see the apple in the wall? There were recessed areas about every 1 1/2 feet on this house. They alternated red and green apples along the front of the house.


The Governor's Mansion

I love this candle holder. Maybe I should try this with one of Neal's Granny Smith apples!

Another decorated door.

Mom and I had lots of fun looking at the decorations and going in the shops. After we finished here, we went shopping and out to dinner. We ate at a nice steak house, which was unfortunately too expensive! We didn't want to walk out, so we ordered the cheapest thing on the menu. My meal ended up being better than Mom's, but we wished we had chosen a different restaurant! Live and learn!

On Saturday we spent the day at the outlet stores. That was lots of fun! I did a bit of Christmas shopping and Mom bought me a new purse from Aigner for Christmas.