Visits and Celebrations

Summer is so GREAT ~ one of the things I love to do is visit with friends and get caught up. One of the benefits of having TIME during the summer days. I love it.

Today I went up to visit a friend, Toni, that lived in our "old neighborhood" ~ our kids are about the same age and we have just kept in touch through the years. We enjoyed each other....talking about kids, grandkids, and life. We laughed. We are connected once again. :)

An added pleasure, I visited a sweet friend of ours, who happens to be a friend of Courtney's ~ Jenny. They grew up together and have stayed close friends. Jenny lives only minutes from my friend Toni, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see her and her precious kids. Thanks for just letting us "drop in" on you, Jenny! I loved seeing YOUR neighborhood, house and kids! All are incredible! I loved being with you!

Yesterday, I spent the day with Courtney ~ visiting, enjoying the kids while she ran errands and got ready for Sawyer's 1st b'day! What a fun day it was!!!!

making our way to the playground

Whose feet are who's???????

I see you Sawyer!

BaileyJoshua

and Rebekah!

Checking out the sights and roly polys.......

Then arriving home to b'day party sights

yep....someone special is turning 1 :)

We readied for Rebekah's swim meet.....braiding Rebekah's hair

and proudly watched Rebekah swim freestyle and back stroke!!!!!

then ..........began Sawyer's b'day party ~

Sawyer is 1

proud mom and dad much fun was had by all.......

and boy did we sleep good last night. :)

Happy 11th Anniversary Courtney and Pat

Oh what a wonderful day that was 11 years ago.....lovely day, mid 70's, no humidity (just like this week!) and a day full of wonderful memories, as you two committed your love and life to each other, to serve the Lord together ~ July 11, 2008

Wonderful family and friends ~ celebrating with you

From this moment........

Happy Anniversary ~ 11 years......wonderful life and memories

...and more to come.

July 4th Festivities {and Wimbledon}

Our families love tennis.....mostly to watch, but we enjoy "playing" occasionally. And WOWEE......the men's championship game yesterday was FANTASTIC! Read what happened:

Roger Federer beat Andy Roddick

5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5), 3-6, 16-14 (!!!!!!!!!)

for his record 15th Grand Slam title and sixth Wimbledon championship on Sunday. It was the longest men’s Grand Slam final in history at 77 games. The previous record was 71 games. The previous Wimbledon record was 62 games (last year’s Wimbledon final between Federer and Rafael Nadal).

Roger Federer came to Wimbledon as a huge favorite and is leaving Wimbledon with the championship -- and a piece of history. It took him about 4 hours and 20 minutes to do it, but in beating Andy Roddick on Sunday at Wimbledon Roger Federer now has 15 tennis majors, more than any other man in the history of the sport.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, what an AWESOME match this was! We have it recorded and will enjoy this tennis for years to come.

Now............on to a wonderful day we had July 4th.

We had the pleasure of spending the day with Susan and Richard (Dorian's sister and brother in law from Richmond) AND with Phill and Christy and their family, plus Christy's mom, Cindy and step dad, Tim (from PA). We all headed downtown to the Potomac River to enjoy the afternoon with each other, eat dinner, and watch the fireworks together.

yep, even Ayden enjoyed the fireworks! He watched with AWE. :)

the fireworks and the day were just wonderful!

A wonderful day to celebrate the freedom we have in the USA ~

with special people in our lives.

Happy July 4th ~ First, fun with Cassadas

Happy Independence Day ~ we are thankful for our freedom and grateful to those who serve our country to make it so. Our nation is blessed ~ by our Almighty God.

Pictures will be up tomorrow of today's events, but first we have some fun pictures from our evening last night. Courtney and Pat went out for an early anniversary dinner........

Happy 11th Anniversary Courtney and Pat!

Alden and I enjoyed our time with their kids, and what fun we had! playing outside ~ in the GORGEOUS weather, and yep...isn't Miss Bailey adorable in her precious tutu and sunglasses! What a hoot!

Rebekah ~ twirling in her pretty dress (that Courtney wore to my friend's wedding when Courtney was 7 years old!)

Chick Fil A on the porch for dinner ~ how much better can you get than that! the boys

Rebekah reading me a story she has written

enjoying sundaes (with LOTS of sprinkles!)

watching 30 minutes of "Love Bug" (calming down before bedtime)

tickling Papa.......:)

precious

Kids in bed......Alden and I retreating to the porch for our own date......then visiting with Courtney and Pat when they returned.

Ahhhhh, wonderful evening.....memories and relationships. Content.

Great Day with Hannah

I love entering Hannah's world! I got to spend the day with her and what fun we had. We drove to Old Town and Hannah did an errand....what? I go to Old Town for an outing, but that is her "back yard". We enjoyed her house ~ which is adorable and in such a cozy, friendly, close to DC area. It sure makes her commute to work easier too (AND her housemates are great friends)!

living room

Hannah picked up some lunch for us

at a fun area near her house

home to enjoy it :)

and yum ~ how good it was!

We enjoyed her back patio

fig tree (can't wait til they ripen)

flower garden

herb garden

cute bedroom

we finished off our afternoon at her pool ~ ahhhhhhh Thanks Hannah for a fun day! Your mom had a great time ~ enjoying a summer day with YOU. :)