Road Atlanta/Seth's Birthday

Seth's birthday and the Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta have always coincided. The race was Friday, so the team started trickling in Monday (they stay at Seth's parents house, a hotel, and Dan and Crystal stay with us). We had a fun week having Mr. Dan at our house and his wife, Crystal, flew in Wednesday evening. We just love spending time with this Alaskan couple! Seth's parents hosted an awesome end of the season dinner at their house Wednesday evening and my parents came in on Thursday afternoon. It was a busy, but fun week!

The race was Friday around 12:30. The kids woke up READY to cheer their Daddy on! Unfortunately, these 5 pairs of sunglasses were not at all needed. The forecast called for rain, rain, and more rain. :(

Dean and James had fun playing in the paddock before the start of the race. How cute are these two?

Of course, we went to the fan walk and took a family picture!

We headed to turn 11 to cheer the team on. We had a nice lunch spread, a couple tents, and some chairs and made the best of the COLD, RAINY race. 

James snuggled up with Nana and took a nice, long nap. I don't think she minded too much!

Thomas snuggled with Melissa

Emily and Grandpa

Jeff and Dean

Adelyn even took a short snoozer with Grandma

My dad invited one of his customers from Charleston to come. This is Billy and his buddy. (Billy took us on an amazing boat ride this past summer on our beach vacation. Super nice guy!)

Seth and Dan ended up finishing 5th, which was great! 

The next day, Saturday, was Seth's birthday! We got him the Star Wars Millennium Falcon Lego Set.

No, it's not his 13th birthday. Yes, this is what he asked for. 

Seth spent all day (with the exception of our nephew's birthday party and Seth's birthday dinner) pouring over the 63 page manual to put this thing together. He drank his coffee, relaxed, and built. I guess that's a happy birthday? :)

Our nephew, Thomas, celebrated his 8th birthday by playing football in the backyard. It was another rainy day, but the boys didn't care! 

That night, we met friends and family (12 of us total) at a nice restaurant. It was a great meal!

Cheers to my sweet, hot, funny husband for another year that I get to live life with him! 

Cheers to another racing season that ended better than it started!

Austin

Seth had a race in Austin, TX on September 17th. I can't pass up a trip to that cool city, so we tagged along. 

First stop.... donuts at Krispy Kreme! They were promoting their pirate day, so the kids got the pirate donuts. 

Afterwards, we went to Zilker Metropolitan Park. We rode the Zilker Zephyr, a little train that rides all over the park. 

I actually thought Adelyn had outgrown the park (we went 2 years ago too), but at the end of the trip she said this was one of her favorite things. 

Fire truck playground equipment is the best!

The park has a spring pool and Ladybird Lake backs up to it (the pool is the fenced in area behind Adelyn). Adelyn was upset that I hadn't packed her bathing suit. The spring pool was 18 feet deep!

On Thursday we went to The Thinkery, the children's museum. I have been to a lot of children's museums and this one is probably the best one I've been to. James and Grandpa had fun building pulleys and all kinds of things!

Meanwhile, Adelyn got her paint on! This is a huge plexiglass wall that kids can paint, spray with water, and squeegee it clean. 

James is controlling a hot wax machine. They conveyer belt would run every couple minutes and the wax would cool and harden, making cool shapes. 

They had an entire room devoted to light play/glow in the dark things. My kids loved that room! 

This is the playground just outside the museum. It was very nicely done- Ipe wood and strong rope. The kids climbed all the way to the top. 

This is the public playground across the street. They had playground equipment I have never seen before! So neat!

They had this beautiful mosaic dragon outside the park. After I took the picture I read the sign saying no climbing. Whey would they put this structure outside of a children's park then? 

After the museum, we went to the race track to watch qualifying. The kids helped change a tire with Marks. 

There was a ferris wheel at the track! It was cool to see the entire track from up high!

We ate dinner at Ironworks Barbecue and walked to the Congress Avenue Bridge to watch the bats fly out from beneath. Every night around sunset, millions fly out at once. The bridge was packed with people waiting to see this. It was really something else!

Seth loves Mr. Dan! (Seth's co-driver). It was Dan's birthday this day!

Friday was race day! We went to the HOT fan walk. I was pouring sweat- it was 95 degrees. 

Luckily, Seth knows a very sweet lady who gave us passes to a suite. The suite was air conditioned and had drinks and food. It was decorated swanky with white leather couches and glass tables. We could walk outside and sit in the stadium seats. This is our view (cars lined up for the start!)

We were lucky enough to sit outside and watch the driver change. Dan got out and Seth got in. We were stationed right above the Bimmerworld pits. Seth and Dan finished the race in 5th place! This was their BEST finish this season! 

James with Eric after the race

I took a bunch of kids on a tour of the paddock so they could meet some drivers. I ended up hopping into this car. :)

I met one of Seth's friends from high school. She lives in San Antonio. I loved spending the day with her family! They even joined us for dinner that night. 

I keep joking that I'm moving to Austin- it's such a great city! We are proud of Seth for his great finish! 

Karate

James started Karate a couple weeks ago. He loves it! And I have to say, I am quite pleased too. Anything that promotes self discipline, manners, and respect is a-ok in my book. They do teach kicks and punches but stress this is not for people. :) It's more about controlling your body and gross motor skills at this stage.

To earn his white belt, he had to complete The Zero Rule (do 5 things you're supposed to do without your mom or dad telling you). This was hard!!!

Getting his white belt put on

High 5 from his teacher 

He was so proud! He would randomly shout to me during class, "Mom, I got my white belt!!". I know, buddy....I was there! :)

Here is a short little video of him demonstrating to the class what they learned:

http://youtu.be/Qom3jVYS7_I

Back to School!

School is back in session!! Woo hoo!!

Adelyn goes to a hybrid Christian school. She goes Monday and Wednesday and I homeschool her the remaining days. So far, we are loving it!

She loves Mrs. Gravitt! (Open House)

Adelyn requested pancakes and orange juice for breakfast on the first day of school. 

August 10th, 2015

She has to carry a rolling backpack to school in order to get all the books back and forth. 

James has two awesome teachers- Mrs. Jeri and Mrs. Pam. He goes 4 days per week to Pre-K. I have both kids on Fridays and am *hoping* to do some enrichment activities. 

James requested blueberry muffins for his first day!

September 1st, 2015

James recently started karate. He is showing us his poses!

I am hoping for a great school year, and I think we're off to a great start! 

Trip home

I had a family reunion (McComb- my mom's side in Hickory, NC) one weekend and a girls' trip the next weekend in Charlotte. Rather than make that 4 hour drive back to back weekends, we stayed at my parents' house for 8 days. I haven't been home for that long in FOREVER. It was so nice! The kids were pumped to spend that much time with Nana and Grandeddy. 

I loved seeing my cousins and spending time with their families. After the reunion, we went to Lake Hickory to swim. It was fun jumping off their 2 story dock! 

One night, we made fish tacos and the kids ate on the deck.

We spent all day Tuesday at Carowinds. I spent several summers of my adolescence here and it was fun to take my kids. It's definitely changed a lot! We had a blast!

We spent the bulk of our time in Planet Snoopy.

The kids loved it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clIXgftFbTE

After lunch we hit Boomerang Bay, the waterpark. You could seriously spend all day here. 

James clearly had worn himself out! I think my mom was happy to chill with him while Adelyn and I did the wave pool, lazy river, and water slides.

My mom and Adelyn rode Rip Roarin' Rapids. They both enjoyed that (especially the getting a little wet part!)

Standing on the North and South Carolina border

The next day, we walked to the park at the top of Tega Cay. Sometimes these two get along really well.

That night, we met my brother at a delicious Vietnamese restaurant. James tried a couple things, but Adelyn was gung-ho about everything! She loved the rice paper rolls!

I didn't take any pictures, but we spent the next morning at the YMCA pool. We've been the past couple of years and it never fails. It's an awesome pool! James has come SO far with swimming this year. He is rocking his free style and jumping in the pool.

Here is a video of Adelyn being spit out of the waterslide

http://youtu.be/1TnYdMNtRbE

I spent Friday through Sunday with girls I lived with my sophomore year of college. We had a girls' trip in Charlotte.

We ate dinner Friday night at The Crepe Cellar.

We spent Saturday at the Mint Museum and shopping around Charlotte.

Yum! Sushi dinner at Room 112

The night ended dancing to 90s music at The Roxbury. 

This was the perfect way to wrap up summer 2015. We had a week back at home and then it's time for school to start!