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Hey Everyone!!

Oh My Goodness... I have missed you all sooo much! Going 11 days with out internet is never...never ever.. going to happen again. I mean I feel like I left a bunch of girl friends back home when I left :)

All of that said we had an absolute blast! I will be working hard tonight and tomorrow to try and get all my pics done and show ya what we were up too. (may be like a 3 part post or something.. just sayin' )

So no gooey fun details tonight.. lots of blog reading to catch up on.. but hopefully will get some pics up tomorow!

Hope everyone is doing great! Talk to yall soon :)

Pardon the Interuption

Hey Everyone!!!

I just wanted to let you all know that we are beach bound.. for 12 days! (well only 7 for Derek and E.. the last few days are a girl trip!)  I was all excited packing and doing my thing and then it hit me. Surely this place has wifi right!?!? WRONG!

I will have no wifi access in the condo... I will be missing you all very much! However I will be looking for wifi hotspots and try to quickly check in every few days or so!!

So please pardon the interuption while we go soak up some of this....

pics from our vaca last year this time.. same place as this year!

view from the balcony..looks over the inlet

See you soon!!!!

Not So Wordless Wednesday

Many of you met my sis yesterday with my "Splash" post or in a few other previous post. She is such a wonderful little sister. We are 11 years (and five days to be exact ;) apart and I love our relationship. Just enough apart to be able to offer her some guidance and direction but still close enough to have lots of fun together.

She is also really close with Emma. They enjoy every minute they have together.. and I enjoy watching them together! So cute!

With a teenager around also comes all the "teenager" things that go with it! I think my little girlie thinks she is 1 going on 13 LOL..

sharing the ipod

She is learning how to change the songs

quite proud of herself too.. even though Aunt Lauren prob. was not so excited about this ;)

LOVE!

PS.. we will be heading out tonight for the beach!! I wont be home until not this Sunday but the next.. AHHH! No worries.. I will have my computer.. just may not be hanging around quite as often ;)

Splash!

Some of you may or may not know that I enrolled in a photography class for the month of July. Faith over at Simplicity is the one hosting the class.. she does fab. work! I hope I am able to learn a thing or two and apply it to my growing love of photography!

Anywhoodles I met a new bloggy friend through this class named Christy! She takes some rocking pics.. if you have not checked out her blog.. you really should.

Christy has a photo challenge she does and this week the topic is: Splash!

This weekend since we spent alot of time around the pool I knew I had a splash shot or two.. so here ya go!

My lil sis taking a dive after being a princess by the pool and sunbathing all day. Ahh to be 14 again!

A full weekend!

This weekend was crammed full. I loved every minute of it.

My little sis called and said she wanted to spend the night Sat and Sun. We were so excited to have her around. Emma adores her and we all know "Aunts are much more hip than mom"

We spent sunday hanging by the pool. We swam and soaked up some rays ;)

 Little E jumping off the board

Catching some rays.. in the shade (shh dont tell her ;)

E and Aunt Lauren

After hanging by the pool and grilling out we went home to rest up for the fireworks. I was really concerned about how she would react to the fireworks since the night before she seemed really skiddish when they were going off in the neighborhood.  Ends up.. she LOVED them. Everytime they would go off the would say "pretty" or "cool" LOL.. she cracks me up.

Emma with her godparents!

The whole way back to the car (we had to do like this mile hike...) she kept saying "more, more" I was so glad she enjoyed it as much as we did.  It was fun day for sure :)

Meeting A New Friend pt 2

Alright.. now that this slacker has put off posting part 2 of this post for several days I think I should get busy!!

If you missed part 1.. dont worry! You can catch up right here.

oh yea... *another set of not so great pics... * I know what is with all these sub-par pics!

Anywhooodles...

On day 3 with Uncle C.. (our last and final day..) We decided we need to show him some fun here in the NC/SC area! So I handed over all baby duties to my sweet mom and we headed out to an awesome theme park!

Cool huh? The NC/SC line runs right down the middle of the park! Notice those storm clouds... yea they hung around ALLL day.

This my friends is the newest roller coaster. It is called the intimidator (from Nascar's own Dale Earnhardt).. and lets just say this coaster lives up to its name. This pic right here is of the first hill.. straight up and then straight down (257 ft to be exact) All I have to say is it is VERY scary! Like VERY. I mean this momma was almost to tears. I was about ready to cry for my momma if they didnt let me off that ride. LOL.. Yes I am a wimp.

Uncle C, Lil Sis Lauren, Pop

Do you see that HUGE arch right there?!! That is the skydiving thing they have at the theme park.. something that I have never even walked over close to because remember.. I am a wimp. Anyways this little chick right here...

My sis

... decided that the skydiving looked like FUN?!?! FUN! No way.... well to each there own I guess. She did it.. and totally rocked. Not a slobbery blubbery crying mess like I would have been!!

yea its.. dark.. and stormy.. and you cant even see her.. but just had to show ya she did it! ;)

We came home from a wonderful, fun, scary, and a little bit wet day at Carowinds and mom had dinner waiting on us. She is the best. We ate a yummy dinner, hung out with Uncle C, and dried off!

We had a blast with Uncle C! Hope he makes it back down really soon!!

A meeting of a new friend! PT 1

Update!

I totally did not forget to do part 2 of this post but this day has been a day full of craziness! I will get part 2 up tomorrow. So sorry I missed 5QF action today! Hopefully will be back in my groove for it next week ;) Happy Friday! Yay for a looong holiday weekend! Hope everyone has a great one!

*Disclaimer* these are alot of unedited shots.. due to lack of time.. sorry!

Alright let me preface this post by kind of giving you some history here! Meet Pop...

"Pop" is my mom's man. I can't say her husband because they aren't married yet but he isnt just a boyfriend either. They have been together like 8 years or something...so def. not just a boyfriend anymore. He is like a father to me and he is Emma's "pop"... anywho.. Pop's parents have both passed away with in like 6 years. It completely devestated him and his younger brother. His younger brother "Uncle C" is living at home (back in Ohio) and Pop lives here in NC so their visits with each other are very few and far between. In fact I had never met him!

 

He is a wonderful, sweet, very gentle, kind person. I just instantly loved him and felt like I knew him forever.

While he was here visiting we had lots of family time and did some super fun things. First day we just kind of hung out and went to the local Ice Cream that is like a trade mark of my home town. (yes ding dong forgot her camera the first day.. so no pics of Uncle C with his first Tony's milkshake..sorry *hangs head in shame*)

We did go to lunch and a visit at one of our parks later on in the week..

 

Grammy, E girlie, and My lil sis Lauren

Pop and Uncle C

This sweet girlie was RUNNING to the park she was sooo excited.. neat shot I thought!

Emma and her Pop.. sorry its a little dark

Our stay at the park was short lived because of a passing thunderstorm..  but no worries we had more fun in store for the next day......

stay tuned.. part 2 coming this evening sometime. Ya know when I have some more peace and quiet to actually finish ;)

Have a great day everyone!