Big "G", Little "o"...Go! Go!

Grace cheered at her first game Saturday morning in Mauldin. It was super hot but the girls kept upbeat and kept the crowd excited. We've only mastered about 5 cheers so far so they repeated a few throughout the game, but I don't think anyone noticed. It was fun to watch them and then to also see the pee-wee teams play. The boys looked like bobble heads running up and down the field and then they'd slam each other. I was definitely entertained.

Hang Ten Dude!

We had a really fun experience the week before school started. We took the kids to Folly Beach, right outside Charleston, SC, to a surf camp for autistic children called Surfers Healing. It's a non-profit organization that brings professional surfers to various coastal towns to surf with autistic children. It was pretty incredible and both of our kids had a blast. Grace got up on the board basically everytime but Tristan wasn't so sure of it. He suctioned himself to the front of the board each run but finally felt comfortable on his last one and stood up. Too cute. He's mimicing a lot more these days, which is fun to see. The pictures speak for themselves.

Back to School

Grace on her first day of 2nd grade

It's been awhile since last I posted. I think preparing for the first day of school took over, but now I'm back and did I mention free?!! Yes, I love the first day of school. Summer vacation for the kids is officially over and MY vacation begins. Lazy days. LOL Ok...maybe not "lazy" since I still have to get up at 5:30am to get the kids ready for school. Yep...that's no typo....5:30am..and it's pitch black outside. Ugh. Gone are our 9am wake-up's. Tristan's school is about 20 minutes away and he's the second pick-up on his bus route at 6:25am. Again...it's still dark outside. It seems criminal to put my child on a bus that early. Let's not forget how much my neighbors "love" me when this loud bus comes through the neighborhood with its flashing strobe light and "beep, beep, beep" everytime it backs up to get out of our culdasac. I can say I'm not making new friends in the neighborhood for it. I did have one neighbor tell me it's basically her alarm clock. Ummm...you're welcome???

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July holiday. Our great friends from Orlando came up to visit for the weekend; Todd & Maria and their son Austin. We visited the Biltmore Estate during the day (see prior post) and then stopped and stocked up on fireworks at the state line. Can you say trouble? Our neighbors invited us over for a BBQ that was so incredibly good. Ribs, chicken, shrimp on the barbie...my mouth is still watering. Top it off with Paula Dean chocolate cake, sweet potato pie and the most incredible sugar cream pie (think warm sugar cookie in a pie form)...yummy!

We then pulled together our arsenal of fireworks from 5 different families. Keep in mind that South Carolina is that place people visit to just get fireworks. You can buy the big boys here and we definitely did. Dale and the rest of the men were in their happy place for over an hour. We only had two incidents...yes, it could of been worse if you knew how much fire power the had. The first was a big one that the guys lit and dropped into the pipe (one of the big exploding ones you see at Disney World) and it shoots out only like a foot and then drops back into the pipe. It explodes outward at eye level and gets everyone. We only had one person get burned...and unfortunately is was a little girl that was already scared to death of them. Can you say therapy? Poor thing. So the first one was definitely a dud and an accident. I wish I could say the same regarding the second. Dale and our friend Todd couldn't get one lit. It would burn and then fizzle out. By the time it lit it only had a wick on it about 6 inches long. They lit it not thinking and dropped it in the tube to shoot but it launched so quickly they didn't have time to set it down and direct it upwards. Instead, Dale was holding it against his chest and pointed it away from the group of people and towards our house instead. It launched, kicked back on Dale and exploded in our cul-de-sac. It lit up all of the houses on our street. Everyone in unison said..."Whoa". It was a good laugh...afterwards of course.

Our Visit to the Biltmore Estate

Playing Victorian games of the area..."Hello...anybody there?"
"Games of Grace" (games that taught ladies to be graceful)

Gracie thought it was cool they named it after her. I didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise.
The Biltmore Home in the background

Dale, Tristan, Austin, Grace, our good friends Maria & Todd

Dawna & Dale in the Biltmore gardens

For those of you that have never checked out Asheville, NC and the Biltmore Estate...you're missing out! This was our second visit here and just as fun and interesting. Built by George Vanderbilt in 1888, it is the largest privately owned home in the country to date with over 175,000 sq ft...that's no typo. It's huge! It includes a 70,000 gal indoor pool with underwater lighting and bowling alley. It's an amazing home and the gardens surrounding the property are stunning. It covers about 8,000 acres now but was originally 125,000 acres. The acreage was sold to the US govt. in the early 1900's and preserved as National forest. This is a definite must see if you're ever in the area. Call us and we'll join you, we're only 2 hours away!

Here Batter Batter!

Getting ready for the game...play ball!
Grandpa Buckley got Grace a Drive foam glove...charge!!!
Dawna & Grace having fun
Dawna, Grace, Tristan, & Dale at the game

We had a fun experience last Thursday. We met up with my brother and his cute family as well as my Dad and stepmother (visiting from VA) and attended a Greenville Drive game. The Greenville Drive is the farm team for the Boston Red Sox. This was the kid's first experience with baseball (besides T-Ball) so it was a toss up as far as if they were going to enjoy it. The weather was perfect, slight breeze and the atmospere counldn't be beat. Add some popcorn and cotton candy and all was good.

Our Visit to Historic Charleston

Tristan, Dale, and Grace had a blast on our carriage tour of the city.
This is the cobblestone road made from English stones.
Southern Bell Grace with Tristan & Dale by the bay
Look! They named it after me!

Well, it was a fun but very quick visit to historic Charleston, SC. It was suppose to be a 4 day family getaway but ended up being just an overnighter. Let me begin.

Dale's job. His work schedule changes often and this week was no different. After already booking our hotel for the week, we found out that he had to be in Virginia on Wed. and Thur. Dale still had a demo scheduled about an hour outside Charleston, so we decided to join him anyways.

We drove into Charleston around 4pm and went to the carriage company first thing. We were able to take a tour via horse carriage through the historic area of Charleston. I personally LOVE history and archeticture so I was having a great time, the kids, not so much. I kept hearing "MOM! When can we go to the hotel to swim?!" It was somewhat enjoyable. Afterwards we got some icecream from Maggie Moo's (Best Dark Chocolate icecream EVER) and walked about 8 blocks down to the ocean. Grace had the blue Cotton Candy icecream...she had permenantly blue teeth afterwards. (Check out the pics)

We walked through the residential area and it was amazing. Money, money, money. Nothing was under $2 mil. and those that were for sale were $9 mil + Yowzers! One of the fascinating things about the houses was that most of the structures were original from the civil war period and they were wood. Cypress to be exact. I learned that cypress not only repels termites but also water which makes it perfect for an oceanside home. That explains how these homes are still standing too after so many years.

One of the streets was fit with thousands of cobblestones...very large ones. The tour guide said that all of the rocks came from England. All of the ships had to load their cargo holds with rocks to keep the top level during their journey to America. On arrival , they would unload and the locals would use the rocks on the road. The story is that the king of England found out what the settlers were doing and began taxing them for the rocks they took from the ship. Crazy, huh?

We ate dinner after our long walk to the bay and came back to browse through the downtown market. Lots of vendors were selling everything from hand woven baskets to "I love Charleston" t-shirts. Grace bought a southern bell fan (pink of course) and Tristan found a laser light that had over 42 different light forms...he was happy. We ate dinner at an awesome little place called Tommy Cordons. I had the BEST shrimp and grits ever...and I don't even like grits. I always try to eat what an area is known for. I'm glad I did.

The kids were ready to swim so off to the hotel we went. Tristan was a little anxious when we got down to the pool as Dale was determined to get him to jump from the deep end. We were the only people in the pool until one lone guy from the gym can in to swim laps. Tristan is literally kicking and screaming as Dale is trying to get him to jump in the deep end. After about 10 minutes, he decides to jump...onto the guy swimming laps. LOL I was shocked and mortified but I have to admit I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Tristan took him right down to the bottom of the pool (9 ft) and the guy resurfaced with Tristan death gripping the guy around the neck. I can't tell you the last time I laughed so hard. The good thing is the guy was very understanding about the whole thing and very sweet. Thank goodness! We laughed and laughed about it afterwards. Whew...good times.