Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from us all. We had been very good this year because Santa brought tons of gifts for us.

Reptile park

We visited a very cool reptile park where you could pet most of the animals, including the snakes. Emmie loved the kangaroos and would go up behind them, push on them and say; jump, jump!

Terregal Beach

One of the beaches around the corner from us. The water was surprisingly cold. The kids didn't care though!

Taronga Zoo, Sydney

Australia

We had a fabulous vacation in Australia. We went with our friends the Toner's from Cincinnatti (Gary, Suzy, Georgia and Tommy). Gary is from the Central Coast so he took care of booking and organizing everything. We rented a house on the beach in North Avoca for the first 2 weeks, and finished our trip with 3 nights in Sydney. During the 18 days we ended up seeing and doing a lot of stuff and we had a great time.

Fripp Fest 2009

Every October there is a festival at Fripp with all sorts of fun stuff including a 5k race. We have participated the past 3 years. This year the author of Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy and his wife Cassandra King (they live on Fripp) had a booksigning. The weather was great and we got to play on the beach and ocean. Unfortunately, it was not as great of a weekend for the 77 year old man that lost his arm to an alligator while playing golf! We all got to keep our arms though.

Moose safari

10 minutes from Perstorp is a Moose safari. Or that is a very fancy word for it. Two moose families in a fenced in area. Anyway, the kids had fun running around trying to spot the moose.

Kids are swinging at Mormor and Morfars house. Petting some huge bunnies at a bird park outside Helsingborg.

European vacation

We went to Sweden and England during the last 3 weeks in June and did lots of fun stuff and visited family and friends. It's always great to catch up with everybody and the kids did amazingly well going all over the place.

First up was a visit to Helsingborg and my oldest friend Elisabeth and her family. Our kids are the same age and played very well together although they really couldn't communicate that much. This is from the playground.

Baseball End of the Year celebration

Tonight we had our end of the year celebration for baseball. Hayden has really enjoyed playing especially since Uncle Alan has been the coach. We all went to see the Gwinnett Braves play and had lots of fun.

Kindergarten graduation

Hayden graduated from Kindergarten today! It's hard to believe he's finished his first year of school already. Graduation was a big deal where all the students received their diploma in the gym, and also sang and performed for their families. Hayden was selected to stand up with 5 other students and say the Pledge of Allegiance in front of everyone. Enough to make his mom tear up...

After graduation they had a reception in their class room and they got to say good bye to their teachers, Mrs. McDuffie, Mrs. Lisa and Mrs. Jamie who all have been wonderful this year!

Hayden's field trip at Elachee Nature Center

Hayden's kindergarten class had a field trip to Elachee Nature Center this week. They learned about wild animals, hiked through the woods, and got to pet a snake. As always, the best part is when you get to sit down and eat your lunch...

Emmie's Spring consert

So Emmie had a concert at her preschool. Emmie's room were too young to really sing and participate, butthey all still managed to stand up front dressed up as butterflies while the older kids sang. Emmie did really well until she saw me and started yelling "Mommie, mommieeeeee..." but maybe it was only loud to me. She did end up standing in her place the whole time so that was good.

Easter at the beach

We went to Fripp over Easter and Spring break and it was a fun week. Since the Peck's house is now finished and huge, we all went over there every night and had dinner together. Another family from Atlanta joined us too with theire three kids, so some nights we had 12 kids running around. It was crazy but so much fun. The kids felt like they were at camp, but with the parents there. My camera died so I don't have any pictures to post yet. I'm waiting for some to be sent to me.

Swimming Reunion

I haven't written in ages, been to busy! This past weekend I went to Athens for a swimming reunion. It was great to see old friends, who all still looked absolutely fabulous. I realized when I was driving to Athens that I'm now twice the age of kids going to college!!!
I only went on Friday although the whole weekend was filled with activities. Staying out until 2am in a bar, almost did me in, so there is no way I could have made it another night. But it was so much fun. The next morning I got up early and went for a 10 mile run with Kelly. It's so much more fun running with somebody else, time seems to fly. It was also fun running through campus and see how much it has changed since we went to school there.
PS. if you are looking for me, I'm not in the group picture but I thought it was such a nice pic.

Celebration of Gary

Here are some pics from our celebration of Gary. We had about 50 people that came even though it was freezing cold and had rained the entire weekend. The beer warmed us up though and we all shared some good laughs and memories about Gary. The bench will also have a plaque naming it Gary's bench. Thanks for everybody that came, it was great to see you all. And also thanks for all the kind emails, cards, phonecalls etc. during the week.

A day we will always remember!

A year ago I received the dreaded phonecall from the gym, "your husband has collapsed and is having seizures". In my mind I was cussing at Gary since I thought he had low bloodsugar for not eating prior to heading to exercise. Little did we know that less than an hour later, Gary was declared dead! What followed was just a daze, making phonecalls, decisions etc. How do you pick a funeral home when you were just discussing ordering pizza for dinner!! Thanks to all our amazing friends, neighbors and family we made it through this past year.


We are doing better, the kids are amazing, and we have slowly adjusted to a life without Gary. In all my wildest dreams I never thought I would end up as a widow at 38, raising two little kids by myself. But it is what it is, and as one of my neighbor's girls said "you get what you get and you don't pitch a fit" (although she said that after the election, and not to me ,but it is still very wise especially since she is 5).


Today I've chosen to have a small gathering in Gary's honor up at our pool pavilion. Some neighbors got together and ordered a bench in Gary's honor that will be placed there. So hopefully the rain will move out and we'll be having a nice afternoon remembering an amazing man, friend, husband and dad. We will always love you Gary!