Welcome!

I want to offer a warm hello to those of you stopping by from Kelly's Korner.  This is obviously a topic near and dear to many of you so I'll give you a bit of background on our story while you are here.

The story of our dear Megan Grace is actually a timely one for today since we will be presenting a scholarship in her memory for the 3rd time tomorrow!

Megan Grace was born and passed away on 06/29/2009.  We learned at 20 weeks that we were having a little girl however she would not be with us long once she was born.

4 weeks later in a dark ultrasound room at Johns Hopkins, we learned that it was Osteogenesis Imperfecta Type 2 that would ultimately claim her life.

With a diagnosis firmly in hand we traveled home to prepare for the remainder of the time we had with our daughter here on Earth.

She was born at 35 weeks and lived physically only a matter of minutes.  We miss her every day!

As a way to remember her and create something positive from her short life, we established a scholarship at my alma mater.  Each year, we travel there to present it to a very deserving student.

Also, as you can see she also now has a little sister that we love dearly.  One day when she is older, we will share the story of Megan Grace with her.

If you want to read more about Megan Grace, the blog lets you search by tagged posts and they should all pop up under the tag Megan Grace.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Climb

If you have a really good memory and have been reading this blog for 3+ years, then you know I actually admitted to liking The Climb by Mylie Cyrus at one point.

For the record, I still like that song.  It applies to my life both mentally and physically all the time it seems.

This weekend, it was physically.  

The Cooper River Bridge Run has been on my "to run" list for a few years now.  

On Saturday, I stood in my corral along with my sister-in-law while we endured a 1 hour delay for the start of the race.

It was a little nerve wracking but not too bad.  At the end of the day, I still really enjoyed the race.

 

I'd been told by many that this was a fun race and not a PR race, so I did my best to stick with that thought process.

Around 9:15am (maybe even later), our corral finally crossed the timing mat for the start of the race.  I never even turned my Runkeeper app on to see how I was doing but decided to run by how I felt based on the advice I'd received.

I felt great!  

Mile one took us up and over the tiny (in comparison) Shem Creek bridge and then down hill all the way to the bottom of this monster.

 

Mile 2 is at the bottom of this bridge and mile 3 is at the top.  A 1 mile climb.  It wasn't bad at all.  Long but not steep and I just kept on running until I reached the top.  It was literally all downhill to the finish from there.

Mile 4.5 is at the bottom of the bridge and from there you run through downtown to the finish.

The crowd support was amazing!  I still felt great all the way through the finish which takes me to the Tarheel 10 miler in a good place mentally.

My only complaint was that due to the late start, it did start getting too warm for my preference when it comes to running but being a short(er) race it really didn't play a factor.

Chip time: 1:11:43.  I truly arrived at the finish still thinking maybe I had a PR but it wasn't even close.  Apparently, cruising past a bunch of walkers makes you feel like you are running fast but nope it was my typical 11:30 minute/mile.  Yuck.

On to the next race!

Pigtails and Personality

This little lady is 17 months old!

She is bubbling over with personality.

We can now ask her for a hug and she comes over to give it to us which I just find adorable!  Who cares if all 27 inches of her are hugging my knees.

I'm also loving that she understands when we ask her to do stuff now and DOES IT!  This is awesome.  The word NO is surely right around the corner but for now we are soaking it up.

Lauren, please take out the trash.  Done.  I never knew just how much it would come in handy to have a toddler around to help with household chores.

A word explosion also appears to be on the horizon.  Just today, she spotted a couple walking in our neighborhood and said "who is that" in toddler talk.  I could have misunderstood but this has been happening a lot lately so I think she is actually starting to pick up more words.

The other day when I asked her where Tonka was, she said over there pretty clearly as well while also looking in his direction.

She definitely doesn't say these things all the time but we can really tell her little mind is hard at work.

Right now, her independence is really fun.  I just love being able to have her help do stuff like get herself down the steps and into the car each morning with beside her instead of carrying her.

It will be fun to see what month 18 has in store!

16 Months

This post must be completed before Lauren turns 17 months in a few days.  Or does she actually turn 17 months this month since there are only 29 days and she was born on the 30th?  Hmmmmm.  These are thoughts I ponder while running on the dreadmill as I just did while she napped.

Maybe I can also get this post up before she wakes up?   

This is her 16 month picture.  Yep.  Fancy.  It just so happens to be the only picture of her I haven't posted from the trip so there you go.  I took about 7,000 pictures of scenery and wildlife and maybe 10 of people.  

What is she doing now?  A lot.  This kid is busy!

Her two favorite forms of entertainment lately are throwing the ball for Tonka and relocating all of the spices from the spice cabinet.  Both of these activities = hilarious laughter.

Throwing the ball for Tonka is self explanatory.  Relocating the spices?  Not so much. 

Our spice cabinet is within her reach and contains nothing of harm, so we continue to allow her to use it as entertainment while we cook each evening.

She opens it up and proceeds to carry each spice container one by one into the living room and sits them on the table before returning for the next one.  Rinse, wash, repeat times about 30.  For whatever reason, she LOVES this game so we let her do it. 

I can't wait to tell her about this when she is older because it is so random.

Her vocabulary continues to grow.  In the last week or so she had added "Huh?" and "Stop It!" to her collection.

It seems like each time I speak to her lately she looks at me and goes" huh?"  Awesome.  I now feel like I'm speaking to a mini version of her father.

"Stop it!" is very new.  Not sure how I feel about this one since it has been added to" all through" when I'm changing her diaper.  "All through mommy stop it!"  Yea....no kid it doesn't work that way.

Other than that she has about 16 teeth and is still only about 2 feet tall.  Actually, I think she is 27 inches and 18 or so lbs. 

I've been going through her closet pulling out things to sell at the daycare consignment sale.  It amazes me the sizes she can still wear at almost 17 months old.  6-9 months clothes still very much fit along with a few pieces that are in even smaller sizes.  She is just such a peanut!

Hopefully, in the next little bit I'll pull my camera back out again.  Since I packed it up to come home from vacation it hasn't really been used because I feel like we are still catching up.  No, I do not need a reminder that Thursday is March 1st and that vacation was a month ago.  Denial.  I'm there.

Speaking of which it is time for me to go get some stuff done around this house!  Until next month......

Wild Wild West Vacation Part 5

And then it was the last full day of vacation.  The next 2 days would be consumed with travel as we drove back to SLC and then flew home the following day.  This was the final day of vacation shenanigans. 

Just to be sure we had gotten what we paid for in the weather department......

 

It snowed.  A lot. 

 Sadly, this was also the day we decided to take family pictures.  Not the best choice we made while on vacation.  Oh well! 

These pictures very clearly summarize our vacation so there is that I suppose.  Snow, snow, and more snow!  It was great to see especially considering I've seen all of 1 inch or so in North Carolina this year.

 

We also took a group visit to see our mountain goat friends again since not everyone had been on the first outing. 

Nephew snowboarded perfected his snowboarding skills while the rest of us had lunch in town at Cadillac Grille.  Bison burgers all around.  If you are ever in town and want a good bison burger this is the place to go.  It was yummy!

After lunch, we burned off a few calories doing some last minute shopping in the best tourist fashion possible before heading back to watch the newest professional snowboarder come down the slopes for a bit.

Do you see all that snow?  It was snowing!  Crazy right?

At this point, it was nearing time for figuring out dinner and then packing up to head out the next morning for our drive back to SLC.

So long vacation.  Until next time!

Wild Wild West Vacation Part 4

The next day it was finally time for the rest of our group to hit the slopes.  Again, the rest of our group.  Not I, said the one who gets scared when going downhill with no brakes.  I'm just here for the pictures.  Don't mind me.

We all packed up as group to head over to the ski resort.  It was just around the corner from our house.  Definitely 5 miles or less. 

There are no photos on my computer of the weather that day but it was snowing.  Hard.  Even if I enjoyed skiing, I'm not sure I would have done it in these conditions.  This was the day where it wasn't sunny and it wasn't just snowing.  It was actually the nastiest weather day we faced.  At any point during the day, it was raining, sleeting, and/or snowing.  It was actually kind of yucky but hey whatever works right?

Once at the resort, we got everyone who was skiing setup with their rentals then did lunch as a group.  Once we were done eating they all headed up to the top of the mountain on the gondolas.

I stayed in the lodge and watched L nap while having a couple of beers.  I'm no fool.  The wind was blowing and the visibility was near zero.  There was no way I was getting in a box and riding up to 10,000 feet especially knowing full well there was no way I was coming down with any pictures worth having.

So I waited.  Drank beer. L napped.  It was actually pretty glorious.

Upon their return, we parted ways with the guys.  They were off to ski/snowboard and the girls were off to town to shop.

We visited every.single.store in the town along with every coffee shop we could find. 

Tourists.  That was us.

Finally, it was time to head back to our condo to meet up with the guys and discuss dinner plans. 

Just before the turn off to get on the road that led to our condo, some other tourists stopped their car abruptly.  After saying a few choice words, I realized they must have spotted some wildlife. 

I looked off to the right and spotted this guy!  Bullwinkle!

My wildlife mission for the trip was almost complete.  Now I just needed to locate a bison and I'd be all set to head back home.

 We enjoyed a dinner of leftovers along with some relaxing before heading to bed. 

One more day in Jackson Hole to come and then it would be time to start our journey back home.

Wild Wild West Vacation Part 3

In the wee hours of the next morning, we all awoke.  The rest of the group, minus myself and the 2 youngest girls, were headed out to snowmobile through Yellowstone National Park.

I've done it and we had a toddler in tow so I made the choice to stay behind with her and our niece.

The van was scheduled to pick them up at 6:15.  We were all awake.  All of us.  The entire house.

As soon as they left, I looked at my phone to see what time it was....

They won't be home for 12 more hours and I'm responsible for 2 kids.  Ruh roh.

Soooo, we had breakfast, picked up a bit, and got dressed to walk to the coffee shop.

I made both kids walk uphill both ways the quarter mile or so to the coffee shop in the snow.  Well, one rode in the stroller while the other walked.  Either way, I needed coffee so I could map out a plan of attack to get through this day.

Upon our return, I still didn't have a plan of attack.  Honestly, I was kind of tired because we had been on the move since Friday essentially so the thought of packing them up to go anywhere seemed a bit daunting.

While pondering this dilemma, I decided to take some photos from our living room.  This was our view each day from our condo.

Truthfully, we only had 3 sunny days the whole trip.  The good news is they could not have been better time to fit our needs.  The drive from SLC to JH, the day everyone snowmobiled, and the day we drove back to SLC from JH all looked like this.  Every other day it snowed all day long.

It was all beautiful whether it was snowing or sunny.  There was only one day that was kind of iffy.  We were greeted by a very mercurial Mother Nature one day which included rain, snow, and sleet with changes from one type to the other with little to no notice.

This condo was just perfect for our needs.  The way it was setup worked wonderfully for our group.  Our little family stayed in the master downstairs while the rest of our group had the 2 bedrooms upstairs.  We hung out in the living area on the middle floor. 

At this point, I've been happily snapping away when I realize the kids are still in the living room looking at me like ummmm, lady what are we supposed to do while you take pictures?

So outside we went.  It was only 8:15 at this point.  Crap.

We get outside and L decides she isn't really a fan of the cold white stuff. 

10 more hours.

We decided to walk around the neighborhood for a bit.  I think that lasted 5 minutes?  Once that commenced, the older one decided she was having a sock malfunction and wanted to sit down and take her shoe off to fix it.  Having been down that road with her brother at another time and place in my life I decided it was time to go back inside.

I surrender. 

Once back inside, I decided we needed to regroup.  L needed a nap (as did I) and our niece is too old for naps.

Sooo, I did what any genius adult would do....

I put L in bed and set our niece up in her bed with my laptop, some movies, and as many pretzels as she could eat.

The rules were we will all "rest" in our own space quietly until L wakes up.

Thankfully, she slept 3 hours.  In that 3 hours, I was able to regroup considerably.

Once she woke up, we did lunch and then packed up to go exploring. 

We were headed to the Elk Refuge again. This time we were going to look for moose and bison instead of gazing at the elk.

We found deer.  This was in a neighborhood on the way to the Elk Refuge.  There were 3 of them just standing in someone's front yard.  It kind of felt like I was at home.

We found mountain goats.

And pretty scenery.

No moose or bison.  It was getting close to sunset, so we headed back after a quick stop at McD's for ice cream to reward ourselves for making it through the day.

Not long after we returned so did the rest of our group.  We chowed down on baked spaghetti and garlic bread before crashing for the evening.

Wild Wild West Vacation Part 2

For our first full day in JH, we decided to play tourist as much as possible since we had a a lot of plans in the days following such as snowmobiling, skiing, etc that didn't lend themselves well to group trips into town.

First stop was the National Elk Refuge.  It did not disappoint. 

 Look at those antlers!  Each time I go through these pictures again, it makes me wonder what it feels like to carry around a set of antlers like that each day.  Amazing!

 One of the elk eating vegetation off the bank of the river.  We actually watched him get up out of the snow and wade through the river to get bank.  The sleigh driver told us why their legs do not actually get cold in the frigid waters but I was too busy watching this spectacle unfold.

 Some of the lead horses.  They use a different team each day in order to make sure each team is adequately rested.

 More of the lead horses.

 Another elk.  Again, the antlers.

 L was not impressed.  She took a nap while on the sleigh.  It was snowing and a balmy 15 degrees.  This kid likes to sleep and will go to sleep wherever she is once the mood strikes her.

 The RESS family with one of the lead horses from our sleigh.

 Our little family with the lead horses from our sleigh.

A Trumpet Swan swimming in the river with an elk in the background.

After we had completed the sleigh ride, we decided it was time for lunch so we headed over to Snake River Brewery.  The food we enjoyed was your typical restaurant fare.  Pizza and chicken nuggets with fries for the kids and the rest of us had burgers, soup/salad, and nachos.

The beer though......

I drank their beer all week.  My favorite was actually Pako's Eye-P-A.  It may have been the best beer I've ever personally tasted in my entire life.  It was citrusy yet still a beer.  Yum! 

Once that was done, I'm pretty sure we visited the grocery store and the AT&T store since someone who will remained anonymous left their phone on the plane (ahem..husband).

Then it was back to the house for dinner and more relaxing because the majority of the group had a big day of snowmobiling schedule for early the next morning.

Wild Wild West Vacation Part 1

We are back!  Our family, along with some extended family, took off out west on an 8 day long journey.  It was definitely a trip we will remember for a long time because of the beautiful scenery we saw along the way.

Our departing flights left RDU at 6:15 am on Saturday.  That made for an early wake up call to make sure we were prepared for the 4 am shuttle ride to the airport.

I think I got up at 2:30 am after finally falling asleep around 10 pm.  Ouch.

We all arrived at the airport on time and got checked in successfully.  Score!  We then waited to board.  Coffee and breakfast for all while we waited.  Thank goodness for Starbucks opening at 4:30 am! 

Our flight from RDU  took us to DFW, where we had a 3 hour layover before continuing on to SLC.  Once in SLC, we would be driving 5 hours to Jackson Hole, Wyoming after a 1 night stay in  Park City, UT.

Crazy right?  Totally worth it.

Our flights went off without a hitch.  4 adults and 3 kids ranging from 16 months to 12 years old.  They were all very well behaved, especially considering how long of a day it would be for all of us.  When it was all said and done, we arrived at our Park City hotel for the night after being up and on the move for 12+ hours.  It was a lot for the adults but the kids....they rocked it!

Nonetheless, we made all of our flights on time and arrived in SLC just in time for the beginning of a massive snowstorm to surprise the city with blankets of snow.  When I say just in time, I mean it was raining when we arrived and snowing as we pulled the rental car out of the parking garage.  Mother Nature flipped a switch.  Driving up the mountain to Park City was one the 2 most challenging parts of our trip.  Incidentally, the other also occurred in Park City on way back.  More on that later.

Finally, we arrived at our hotel where we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then hung out for the night before setting out on the drive to JH the next morning.

The next morning we all got up, grabbed breakfast, and got ready.

Time to drive!

Sunrise over Park City as we were loading up to begin our drive.

These were just so gorgeous in the morning sunlight.  They look like corn dogs to me :)

This appears to be a church next door to the hotel.  Again, I just thought it was pretty.

Snow covered mountains as we left town. 

We spent some time looking at these on the way back as we sat on the closed highway (more on that later) and now that I think about it, I'm thinking all of the snow was gone.

More pretty snow.  I just love how it hasn't been touched.  Mother Nature at her finest.

A frozen lake.  You see that crack right at the bottom edge of the picture?  On the way back through Park City, there were people sitting out on this lake fishing.  I'm assuming they were crazy because that just has BAD IDEA written all over it.

This was where we were headed if we had decided to do the whole cross country drive like my husband suggested.  Again, BAD IDEA.

One of my favorite images from the entire trip.  This will be one of the ones that gets framed.

 Daniel, WY.  Population = 89.

The entrance to Grand Teton National Park.  I'd say this section of the drive was the most beautiful.  There was a river that wound through a lot of the parts we drove though that just made the scenery amazing!

 You can kind of see where the snow was sliding a bit on the bottom edge of this one, through the center of the photo.  We also drove through another section of GTNP where they had cleared the road after the snow had slid down making the road impassable.

Breathtaking.

 Snow clouds over the mountains.

Finally, in our neighborhood.  This is how tall the snow banks are from where they have to clear the roadway each day.

And finally, time to burn off some energy and decompress from 2 days of travel!

Who Says Racecar Drivers Can't Wear Skirts?

This one does!

Over the New Year's Eve holiday, we headed out of town to visit some friends.  We had heard they were hosting a smashing party.  It was definitely the party of the year for all 5 people in attendance.  You may recognize them from  here and here.

The guys golfed during the day so we took the kids to the local Discovery Place. 

It was really a really nice place and I will definitely take L back when she is a little older.  There was a ton of stuff to do but she was really only interested in each station for .2 seconds before moving on to something else.

One of the things she was really interested in wasn't even an activity.  They had this incline ramp to walk up and apparently that was the most fun activity ever.  Either way, she was worn out once we headed home that afternoon.

This picture pretty much sum her up right now.  In one word: curious.

She is curious and busy because of it.  Exploring her environment all the time.

This water activity was a really big hit.  She loved splashing the water with her hand while laughing hysterically.  Hearing her laugh with amusement was quite possibly the cutest thing ever.

Lately, she has been quite the character.  Here are some of the high points:

• Just this week, she has learned how to say yes and no in an appropriate fashion.  My favorite was asking her if she wanted to go to bed and her shaking her head up and down in response. 
• Both at home and at daycare she has taken to throwing things away on the sly.  Daycare said they found about 6 items in the trash before figuring out the culprit. 
• She is very polite even when doing something she shouldn't.  Thank you is one of her favorite things to say.  She says it appropriately the majority of the time.
• She now loves to say "all through" verbally and using the sign.  My favorite is her telling me she is all through when doing something she doesn't want to do such as getting her diaper changed.
• Still sleeps 12ish hours per night and is generally a really happy toddler.
• Tiny.  Weighing in at whopping 17 lbs.  She loves to eat but I have no idea where it goes because she is tiny.

Overall, she just continues to be more fun all the time.  We are so thrilled to have her around.

The Best of 2011

Since one of my goals for 2012 is to get better at knowing how to use my camera, I decided to review my photos from 2011.

There were some (ok...a lot) of bad ones.  A few others that weren't bad.  Then there are these, which in my opinion could actually be placed in a frame to display.

Almost all of these were taken after the birth of my shiny 50mm 1.4 lens.  The only one that wasn't was the first one.  It was taken about 2 weeks prior. 

 I'm actually only including it because my husband is actually smiling for the camera, which is a rare occurrence.  You are more likely to get Swine Flu than get him to ham it up for the camera.

Without further adieu....

Big Rock 2011.  These 2 have been friends for almost 20 years.

Lauren on her big sister's birthday and just one day shy of 6 months old.  This was also moments after opening the box containing my new lens.  In love already!

 

Lauren 9 months old playing in the bathtub.

 

A sunset wedding captured of the deck of Breakwater Restaurant in Hatteras, NC. 

11 months old playing in the front yard.

My debut as a sideline photographer using this lens. Thanks to a good friend for trusting me with it for the day.

 It was a good time but also really humbling.  I truly admire those guys/girls who do this day in and day out because it is truly challenging.  My goal for the day was get a few good shots and not get run over by one of these guys.  Much harder than I originally imagined.

Lauren's only other girl cousin at her 1st birthday party.

Lauren showing off at her 1st birthday party. 

Lauren and Tonka on Halloween.  This picture is hands down my favorite photo of the year!

One of Lauren's cousins who used to love being in front of the camera.  Now, not so much.

His brother with Lauren.  He loves Lauren.  Absolutely.Loves.Her.  I love this picture of them together.

Christmas morning 2011.  This pretty much sums up her personality.  Happy and curious all the time.

Finally, the day we went to see Santa this year.  The picture with Santa wasn't bad but also not one of my favorites. 

This picture is probably my 2nd favorite for the year.

There you have it, the year in review through photos.