Swim, Tennis, and All The Things.

 I cannot believe I never posted one single time last year. Not having blog posts anymore makes me so sad. I have SO many sitting in drafts that have just never been published. I post way more often on Instagram and I know that there’s probably no one following here anymore, but I still love looking back at this for my own memories. 

We have just wrapped up the longest, hardest season of swim EVER. For a variety of reasons, it was a rough road for James this year. However, he qualified for STATE in one of the very first meets and was able to extend the season just a little bit. He also wound up training with a new coach in a town about 45 minutes away and we LOVED him. I’m so hopeful that once he takes a much-needed break, he’s willing to go back and absolutely kill it for two more years! He qualified this year on a relay team, but he’s THISCLOSE to qualifying for an individual event and could even get a second qualifying time if he gets his head right and works. His confidence got a kick in the gut this year, unfortunately, so I’m just hoping he can learn from this season an grow!

Will has just started tennis season and when I picked him up today, he, too, had gotten a gut punch. He’s playing doubles again (which he much prefers), but unfortunately they didn’t win their challenge match so he can’t play in tomorrow’s match. It’s such a bummer, but I’m hoping that he will be a GREAT teammate and cheer for the kids that won and will dig in and WORK. He’s been working with a college tennis player and I have HIGH HOPES that Luis is going to really push Will in the right direction with tennis and grow his confidence this season!

Since swim is over, James has immediately pivoted into a brand new sport - skeet shooting. He joined the 4H team in the county over (we don’t have one here) and has one practice under his belt already. I’m hoping he really loves this new activity!

2026 is all about TRAVEL for me. Somehow, I’ve gotten myself a few trips and vacations booked and I’m not sad at all about it! (In January we only traveled for swim meets!) We’re booked to go to Clemson, South Carolina, Asheville, North Carolina, Italy, and possibly Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio, just in the first six months of the year! Woohoo! When I return from Italy (I’m going with Mom and Anna), it will be the week of Spring Break, so I’m trying to decide if I have it in me to swing something else for the boys that week. Or maybe I’ll just lay in bed and rot! Time will tell!

The boys are growing up FAST. James is 16, driving, working, and never home anymore. His schedule couldn’t be more busy if he tried to make it. (It could. I’m exaggerating. But it’s pretty jam-packed.) Will is turning 14 THIS WEEK and I cannot figure out where my little baby went. He has a girlfriend (!!), LOTS of opinions all of a sudden, and is almost taller than me.

Overall, we are doing really well! We stay pretty busy these days (there was a time before James was driving that I was in the car for almost 3 hours a day just taking them where they needed to be!), but are pretty happy and thankful for all the things that keep us going!

 

SeaWorld Orlando!

I LOVE a Fall Break family trip! I've been planning this one for a few months and even though several things tried to derail it, we were able to go!

Mom has a condo just south of St. Augustine, Florida, and we used that as our home base this week for a few day trips of places we hadn't been or hadn't been in a while! We were up BRIGHT AND EARLY on Wednesday and left the house at 6:45 to head to Orlando to SeaWorld! The boys have been in recent years, but I hadn't been since they were toddlers and Eddie had never been before.

The weather was cool, the crowds were low and we had just been there for a minute when we were on our first ride of the day! (As I've gotten older, I MUCH prefer Disney's version of rides - "family" rides - and like roller coasters less and less. I think I rode TWO rides all day - and that was enough for me!)

I was there for the ORCAS. Wooohoooo! So excited to see these beauties!!! We went to SeaWorld when I was in middle school and I LOVED seeing them then. I'll have to dig up our old pictures. When we went in 2014, the orca stadium was closed so we saw them swimming, but nothing like what we got to see Wednesday. They're incredible. I'd LOVE to see them in the wild! James was amazed because he thought they were 8-10 feet. He's been to SeaWorld in the past 3 years but they didn't see the orcas at all (middle school trips = roller coasters only!) and he expected them to be about shark-size. Imagine his surprise!

I made the boys stop and look at ALL the animals on this trip!

Last time we were there, the dolphin tank was a touch tank. The keeper said that the dolphins had gotten really good at snatching phones and people had decided to feed the dolphins so they backed us up behind a rope unless you paid to do the close up viewing. Bummer!

At the end of the day when the boys had ridden everything, we let them go off on their own (!!!) to ride anything else they were interested while Eddie and I took in the second orca show of the day. I'm telling you, my whole ticket was purchased just to see them. If I'd gone alone I would've sat and watched their tank all day! 

We enjoyed our time at SeaWorld. If you've never been, you need to know that it's not Disney, but it has stepped up the theme park side in recent years. I suspect that the orcas' days are numbered since their breeding plan has ended. I know that's what is best so I wanted to be sure I saw them again before they aren't there anymore. SeaWorld felt smaller to me than Disney's parks. It wasn't crowded at all, but I can imagine on a crowded day it would feel tight quickly. The weather was AMAZING when we were there - we were never hot. Enjoying this in the "off season" was perfect. I'll also share that we bought our tickets online while standing in the security line to enter. The ticket booth price was DOUBLE the online price and they wouldn't have told me that if I hadn't known. If you see a deal and know when you want to go - grab it! We did not do the All Day Dining. We ate lunch in the middle of the day and the boys bought ice cream. I don't know that we will go back anytime soon since we've "been there, done that" now, but it was a great day spent for Fall Break!

 

Welcome, Fall!

 It's my FAAAAAVORITE time of the year! Hallelujah! Welcome, fall!

Labor Day weekend marks the end of the summer for me. While it will still be HOT here for weeks and weeks, I'm willing it to be cooler.

I've gotten the Halloween decor out of the attic and will spend the next few days putting it out. I have Pumpkin Muffins on my list to bake today (the boys will LOSE THEIR MINDS). I'm watching the cozy/creepy movies and reading the cozy/creepy books! I. cannot. wait!

Sharing my 2024 Fall Bucket List and my 2024 Fall Movie/Book Lists below! Enjoy!

Summer Bucket List Update!

Back again with a post-Labor Day update on our Summer Bucket List. I've made one of these since James was about two years old and while it doesn't dictate our summer quite like it used to, it's still a fun way of measuring all we've done! James' elbow "sprain" put a damper on quite a few things - Drive, Chip, and Putt and FSU Swim. Lake Oconee never happened because of a spring flood that caused a renovation that hasn't quite been finished. We never got to quite a few of the fun things - zip lining, putt putt, the arcade, and bowling. Maybe we'll wrap those up in the fall! I honestly forgot we'd even seen Garfield, but that means we saw THREE movies over the summer which was probably pretty good for us. As kids I feel like we went to the theater WEEKLY! (We've learned that Tuesday is the DAY TO GO!) It was a fun and fast summer! I'm ready for pumpkins and cooler weather! The Halloween decor is going out tomorrow!

 

PYC

 If you tell James he can only do ONE thing all summer, he will choose PYC. Our church has gone to PYC for the past few years (I think James missed going to the first one, but he has been three times and now Will has been once). Camp is held at a church camp about an hour away from our house, but it's out in the middle of the woods and they stay in cabins and basically just unplug for a week of Olympics-themed games, country competition, cafeteria-style food, and worship. They come home dirty, stinky, and exhausted. I don't know how they don't sweat to death since it's outdoors practically the whole week, but somehow they grin and bear it each year and LOVE IT. Our youth director changed churches at the end of this summer so James is already sweating whether we will go back next year, but our church usually goes with about three other churches and if we don't go, we will probably send him with one of them. It's just a FUN week of old-school church camp!

I'm posting some of the pictures that I snatched from our church's Instagram and some that were sent from me. You'll notice a trend with Will - if there's a baby, there he will be! Some of these were blurry online so they're blurry here...Sorry!

(Someone was in hog heaven "going" to the square dance with a pretty senior girl! LOL! Life. Made.)

And that's it! Lots of fun, lots of games, lots of late nights...they come home gross and exhausted and counting the days until next year! It must be a LOT of fun!

Island Mini Trip!

Right before school started, we drove over to the coast to visit our baby cousins and see a movie with them. We wound up spending the night so we were able to eat a few times with them, play, and enjoy visiting. (We did NOT sleep great, though - James was on a leaky air mattress and I just don't sleep great when I'm not home!) Merritt and I held a QUICK Bookworms Book Club meeting (we read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh so we watched a little bit of the movie, painted mice, and played Mouse Trap). One of the highlights was that James wanted to go downtown and shop, but he was the only one. Shepherd asked, "Do you have a wallet? Do you have a phone? Why don't we just drop him off!" We didn't drop him off - we all went shopping for a little while with him. We saw Despicable Me with them before heading home and loved our time together!