Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Glamping!

For Spring Break 2016 we went to Loretta Lynn's Ranch!  It's about an hour away from our house in between Jackson and Nashville on I-40.

The week before we left we started to worry that Rusty's very VERY old little truck might not be able to pull our camper, so we upgraded his truck to a new-to-him Ford F150.  It's his dream truck, and he is sooooo happy to have it!




The story of our camper is an interesting one... in Lorelai's words "My daddy traded my bike pump for our camper."  In her friend's words "What a deal!"

Rusty traded his air compressor for his friend's old camper... I wish I had a before picture because it's truly amazing the transformation this camper has made.  Our door decal reads "Wherever we are together, that is HOME."


Here is the inside of the camper.  Rusty just built the box on the bottom right to hold our bucket toilet, and I haven't had a chance to paint it purplish-blue yet... that is coming.  This is a king size bed, but we put a queen size Aero bed on top of it.  We also brought our down comforters... no reason to sacrifice comfort in the wilderness!


This is the back side of our camper!  You can see the air conditioning unit up top (we use space heaters in the cold), and our table with the little wind-chime-chandelier above.  The back full bed and a few twinkle lights make for a cozy little home!

The table lays down to make another full size bed, and the bench pulls out as well for a twin bed... but with our little tri-pod family that isn't necessary.



We toured Loretta's plantation home and her museum!



I made this little throw pillow with iron-on paper!


Loretta Lynn's Ranch has a cute little dam, we attended their annual Spring Fling and Easter Egg Hunt!


The ranch is in a tiny little town, basically all wrapped up into one.


And here we are posing for a final family shot on the way out!  It was a great little adventure, and we're getting better and better at glamping all the time!  I'm trying to talk Rusty into a road trip and camping trip at Fort Wilderness in Disney, how fun would that be?!


Friday, February 19, 2016

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Lorelai's Cocoa and Cookies

On Christmas Eve we turned Lorelai's Lemonade stand into Lorelai's Cocoa and Cookies. It was unseasonably warm, and a great day to be outside!  Lorelai sold out of her hot chocolate within an hour!  


Christmas has come and gone!

We're anxiously awaiting 2016!  It's going to be a great year, and the possibilities are so exciting!  We have some momentous events planned and a lot of the same old same old too! 

Christmas was great!  It stormed here the night before, and the first 10 minutes the power was  out so the only video we have of the initial run for the tree is an audio one!  The spirit of Christmas was alive and well in our home and gratitude poured out especially from CC and Seuseu who both received new beds!  



Monday, November 09, 2015

The Best BACK TUCK Ever





Lorelai landed her back tuck for the first time ever, and it was such a great moment!  I LOVE her gym, such a great environment where they truly cheer each other on!

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Sunday, July 05, 2015

Quote of the Day

"It might surprise you to discover that the word frugal originates from the Latin word frui, which means 'to enjoy, profit by, delight in.'  It's the same root from which we draw words like fruit, fructose, and fruition.  Living simply is sweet for your soul." - Cherie Lowe

Saturday, July 04, 2015

10 YEARS!

This blog started with our engangement and has remained a sporadic constant for ten whole years!  

Rusty, Lorelai, and I went to Negril, Jamaica for 7 nights to celebrate the momentous event.  10 years felt like the biggest accomplishment in the world to us, in a time where many of our friends have divorced, where we've navigated growing up and starting careers, one of those careers in law enforcement where the divorce rate is close to 90%.  Over the course of 10 years we've brought a beautiful little girl into the world and in the span of that time she's blossomed from a prayer in our hearts to a tall tumbling brown eyed beauty.  We bought our first home, and some new cars and some beaters too.  Throughout the past decade we've fallen and stumbled more than we like to admit and we've learned to trust God and rely on Him.  We've learned the power of prayer and the importance of circling the wagons and battening down the hatches around our family.  We were just kids when we stood at the altar, really. We wanted to celebrate the blessings of the past 10 years and the accomplishment of how far we've come so we packed our bags and headed to Jamaica!  

We've been to Jamaica before for our honeymoon, our first anniversary, on our "Caribbean of Divorce" cruise, and also on a cruise the month before I found out I was pregnant with Lorelai!  It holds a special place in our hearts but Lorelai had never been and so we decided to go to Negril, a part of the island we've never traveled to and we spent 7 nights in a bungalow on famous 7 mile beach at The Treehouse Resort!  It was FABULOUS! CHEERS!!!!!!!!!! I'm SOOOOOOOOOO excited to see where the next decade takes us!

Anniversary dinner!

Family photo.  The family that wears matching swimsuits together, stays together!

Cliff jumping at Rick's Cafe (one of the top 10 bars in the Caribbean)!  Lorelai took this picture... I'm so glad we took the plunge (getting married and jumping like maniacs)!

We went paddle boarding!  It was harder than it looks... I was actually good at it, Rusty spent more time in the water than on the board though... watching us fall in was Lorelai's favorite part!

Our baby LOVES dolphins and orcas!  Watching her light up is the best!

Rusty swam out to the reef and brought a starfish back for Lorelai!  We decided to let it go after watching its tentacles for a bit and marveling at God's creation!

Horse riding on the beach, this was an absolute surprise and treat!  








Monday, March 16, 2015

Weekend in Paris

Tennessee has a town on the Kentucky Lake and Tennessee River called Paris!  They have an Eiffel Tower too!  We went for a little Spring Break getaway!  We stayed at the state park inn, brought CC along for the trip, ate outside, and fished!  









Tuesday, March 03, 2015

Look at those buttons!

Nothing better than Lorelai's fan club!  They travel for 24 plus hours in snow and ice, for a two minute and thirty second performance. Because that's what family does!! They show up, they cheer louder than anyone else, they wear buttons with your face on them, and then they hashtag funny commentary after the fact!  #family #teamlorelai #je


Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Tunica Weekend

Derek and Angie flew in from Ohio to watch Lorelai compete this weekend in Tunica at the Athletic Championship Gold Event (a two day competition)!  It was her last competition of the season, and the first one that her Meme and Grandpa have been able to make it to also!  The visit was a surprise to my mom, and Derek took her to the Merle Haggard concert in Tunica on Saturday night!  Before they went we all went to dinner at The Hollywood Cafe, the song "Walking in Memphis" references the restaurant, and it was delish!  It was a GREAT weekend!