Ryan's birthday

This is how I spent last Sabbath morning - driving. The trip from Winston Salem to Collegedale takes about 6 hours. I miss that drive through the mountains!

Flags at the Tennesee Welcome Center. I made really good time driving and as you can see, the weather was perfect. I finished listening to Renee's Ben Carson book while I drove.

When I got to Collegedale, everyone but Randy decided to take a nap. Stephanie became one with the recliner for several hours.

While everyone was napping, I walked around outside and tried to find birds to take pictures of. This is a sneak peek of a white-throated sparrow through the brush.





I snuck up on a phoebe, but by the time I peeked around the tree, it was a bluebird instead!


Saturday night, we played a few games of Settlers. I think Mary Jane ended up winning after Stephanie gave her some free cards!

This game didn't end until about 12:40a, so Stephanie tried to get in naps in between her turns.

After breakfast, Ryan opened his presents and he got lots of nice stuff!

He even got to play tennis on his birthday against not one, but two competitors.

He tried out a racquet that cost less than $10 and he actually liked it. Here are some pictures with that racquet.







Eric Baerg and Andrew Bauer met Ryan at Southern's courts and enjoyed the warmer weather.







Here's Eric trying to salvage a game against Ryan and Ryan serving. Ryan played against both of the guys later.


Grant got Randy's guitar out and played Moonlight Sonata for us before lunch.





Xavier came over for the birthday lunch too. He's back in Collegedale now after finishing his degree at AUC.

We decided that Ryan was turning 32, or 2^5. We had pizza, veggies, ice cream, and birthday cookie.

After we got home, I gave Ryan his last present, a new waffle iron! This one actually was slightly damaged before it shipped so the company sent another one for free! So he got two!








He had no idea what was in the box. I'll have to post pictures of the first time he uses them.

Carson's first birthday

pre-birthday party TV watching with Grandpa

waiting for some excitement

Carson's favorite - spaghetti & peas

Olivia teaches the ways of birthday celebrations

Carson thinks the sprinkles look the best.

It was a well-documented event!

"Hey! This stuff is on me!"

Clean-up's not half the fun . . .

Carson would rather look at pictures of himself than open presents.

Aunt Renee helps Carson open the Skippyjon Jones books we got him.

Carson opens one by himself.

This is really a blackmail picture for Becky, but Carson sure looked darn cute with his little bow.

edible hayride & other outdoor adventures

I went to Collegedale this weekend to see Ryan. I stayed at the Heilmans' for the first time this weekend. It was really fun and relaxing to be away from stuff here at school. I didn't get the camera out until late Sabbath afternoon.

Ryan and I ran into Swaffords on our way into church. Dr. Swafford suggested using the Goliath Wall for our wedding, which seconded Jaclyn's idea that we do it there.

I really want to do it outside, and I think it would be a neat setting. I've always liked being outside better than inside anyway. ;) We went over there just before sundown to check it out.


Our self-portraits are getting even more elaborate. In lieu of traditional wedding photography, we're just going to carry our own camera around and have all of the pictures look like this. Anyone who disagrees with this idea can make payments to my wedding photography fund (I accept PayPal).

Ryan and I had a couple of other appointments for today fall through and Jaclyn was at work. When I called Grandma Dut on Friday to see if we could come down tonight, she told me that Ella's 4th birthday party was this afternoon.




This is a Jeremy face, correct me if I'm wrong. This face makes me want to tell all cats to run away or they might be handcuffed to a table leg!!! Ethan was so funny. We tried to convince him to like spiders, but he seemed to side more with Alison than Jeremy, Grandma Dut, or I.

They had the party at Joy's friend Christy's house. Her family raises Shire horses and they have lots of other animals. The kids all had fun riding Sunny the pony and playing with Dora and Boots, Ella's goats. Ethan was very excited to get a chance to ride. Ella helped lead the pony around after she was done riding.

Evan's stoic cowboy impression. I couldn't tell if he liked the horses or not. He only sat there for a minute. His outfit was pretty cute. The bandanna is a bib! He turns 1 on December 8, which is also Jeremy & Alison's anniversary (I think).

Ella had a horse cake, complete with boy plates and girl plates. Aunt Tonda made pumpkin pie that was really good, as always. I had a lot of it! The green frosting turned all the kids' mouths green (& Ryan's pants where he sat on some!)

All the kids wanted to be right next to Ella. She got down to the last candle and wouldn't blow it out. She pointed to another girl and said "You do it!"






Next was a hayride through the pasture. Evan thought stealing Ella's cowboy hat was pretty hilarious.





All of us were given carrot sticks to feed to the BIG horses. The cows chased us first, but didn't stick around. It felt like meals on wheels. The horses immediately chomped down on our straw bales when the tractor stopped. Joy sat up on top of the tractor and videoed the whole thing.

Grandma Dut made friends with the horses, even though she's allergic to them!


Evan's little Carhartt hat was so cute.

Overall, we all had fun and good snacks and drinks . . . and I mean all of us. Ryan witnessed a kitten drinking someone's hot chocolate just before I took this picture.






I asked Ella if she wanted to be a flower girl. She shook her head "no," then I added "in my wedding," and she changed her mind. I didn't even tell Joy or Bobby that I asked her, but apparently she was pretty excited about it when she got home.




Jeremy and Alison asked Ethan if he wanted to be the ring bearer (Bible boy) and he said "Yeah, I can do that." He had fun chasing me around today.






Ella and Ethan took a ride together.







Then Evan joined the ride, but only for a minute.








I think Ryan had fun getting to be around everyone. It was the first time he's been down there with me and gotten to meet the Reeves clan. Jeremy and Grant will like having another tall person in the family!