Turning 28

I celebrated my birthday by traveling to Jacksonville to spend it with family.  My mom threw me a baby shower on the following day so it worked out well to come down for all the celebrations.  It was a pretty low-key birthday.  I had sweet friends and family call and sing "happy birthday" in their best voices.  I think my favorite (although they were all very special) was my 4-year old niece Charlotte sing to me.  It was absolutely precious! :)

My mom made one of my favorite meals for me and I had a delicious chocolate chip cookie cake for dessert.  It was so good!  Not only were my parents there, but also my grandparents and my cousin Jane (who I hadn't seen in almost 2 years).  When I was growing up, Jane was probably the closest thing that I had to a sister since I only had brothers.  It was a real treat to have her fly down from Washington, DC to see me for the celebrations!  We finished off the night with watching the movie Brave.  Great day!

Yes, I'm officially at the age now where you don't get the actual amount of candles for each year of life on your birthday cake.

The Adventures of RYM

I don't know if you've been able to keep up with our crazy traveling schedule, but here's how it went:

5/27-6/10: Gallivant Through Florida

6/10-6/15: Key West Anniversary Trip

6/17-6/22: General Assembly (Louisville, KY)

6/25-6/29: Middle School Camp

6/29-7/1: Jeffrey's Wedding (Melbourne, FL)

7/2-7/6: High School Camp

I was on all of the trips above except for the Middle School Camp.  I had one week to stay in Savannah while Curtis kept traveling.

So, Curtis spent his fifth and sixth week away from Savannah to take some of our students to RYM.  RYM is a summer camp in Panama City Beach, Florida.  I was able to join him as a chaperone for the high school week.

The white sand & clear waters of Panama City Beach!

Since I wasn't there for the middle school week, I will just post some of the pictures that Curtis took:

Belly Flops

Some of our students before a seminar began.

Alex (left) came as a chaperone to help.

The whole middle school gang

 In between these weeks, Curtis and I traveled to Melbourne for one of his good friends' weddings (see post here).  The next week, we traveled back to the same camp with the high school students.  Here's a few of the highlights:

Here I am with the girls laying out!

Curtis & I got to spend a little bit of time together

Here's all the boys and Curtis before the worship began

The girls, David (another chaperone) and Kenyell, a new friend

On our free night, we spent hours looking for a place to eat.  We settled on this Mexican restaurant.  Someone from our group said that it was my birthday so they gave me a sombrero to wear.  Haha! 

On Independence Day, we spent some time on the beach to see all the fireworks.  Some of the boys decided to start burying each other.  I thought this picture had a pretty cool effect as Hal threw sand in the air.

Another sand burial

 

Each group takes turns serving the other groups during meal time.  Our youth group served all the other groups by cleaning up after one of the dinners.  Look at how many people were in the cafeteria!

I think the students had a great time.  I enjoyed getting to know the girls better.  

Curtis and I were thrilled when this week was over because we were finally done traveling.  We were so happy that we didn't have to live out of a suitcase any longer!

Curtis Turns 28

On April 18, Curtis turned 28.  We didn't really get an opportunity to celebrate on his birthday, but I think that's just a part of growing up.  So, we waited until Friday and went to Longhorn for dinner and a movie.  Here we are at the restaurant with Curtis sporting one of his new shirts (from one of his favorite shows - Arrested Development) that I got him.  Usually I give him dress shirts to wear at church, but I decided that he needed more T-shirts that he could wear casually.  I also got him an Seinfeld T-shirt (pictured later in this post) and an Office T-shirt.

Earlier in the day, I made a cake for him.  He said he wanted a chocolate ganache cake.  When I pulled out the KitchenAid mixer to get started, Lion-O climbed into the cabinet!  I guess he wanted to help.

And here it is:

It was really, really good!  The ganache icing really made it rich.

On Saturday, my parents came up to visit.  They were glad to get away for a little bit and celebrate Curtis' birthday also.

Here we see that Curtis is now sporting another one of his shirts that I got him for his birthday (another favorite show - Seinfeld).  This one has a special meaning since we actually went to The Original Soup Man restaurant in New York City last year for our anniversary.

I also got to spend some time with my mom...

...and my dad!  Curtis was preaching that Sunday and it was the first time that my parents were able to hear him.  He also was leading a Sunday School class so they got to see him teach, too!

After church, we went out to eat to celebrate Curtis' birthday with the family.  It was yummy!  My parents also bought Curtis some casual T-shirts.  Not only did he get the "More Cowbell" (from the SNL skit with Will Ferrell) pictured below, but he also got a Big Bang Theory shirt.  I think Curtis would say that had a great birthday!

A Celebration-Filled Weekend

We went to Jacksonville last Friday to celebrate lots of things - see a Broadway show (as we had originally planned for our 3 year anniversary), witness the wedding ceremony of a special friend, and celebrate my Grandmother's 80th birthday. 

Since we didn't get the opportunity to see Wicked in New York City (because we lost the lottery 3 times), Curtis and I had planned to do this when it came to Jacksonville.  The show was amazing - full of fun surprises and very entertaining!  I definitely recommend you seeing this show, if you haven't already!

We also got to celebrate our friend, Natalie Haynes, get married to Damon Webster.  The ceremony was beautiful and it was wonderful to see lots of old friends from Pinewood and RUF!

Lastly, we got to sing "Happy Birthday" to my Grandmother on her 80th birthday.  She had a yummy cake!  Most of her family was able to come other than one of her sons that called during our celebration since he couldn't make it.

Side note: During this trip, I had a chance to talk to several people who read my blog.  Thanks for your sweet comments!  Please feel free to reply to my blog posts, if you would like.  I love to get feedback!

Birthday Celebration with Friends

 So, the fun just kept on going right through the weekend.  We had 11 of my closest friends celebrate with me at Jalapeno's!  In the above picture, I'm wearing a lot of my birthday gifts - red shirt (Megan, Curtis' sister), cardigan (Curtis), bracelets (Megan), earrings, not really shown (parents), and shoes, not shown (Curtis).

 Here I am with Jen. :)

 Here's Curtis with Chris (Jen's husband).

 And here is the entire group! Miguel, Laura, Sarah, Curtis, Chris, Allen, Heather, Becca, Jen, Me, Amy, Jim.

 Miguel & Laura

 Amy & Jim

 Sarah acting like she has James with her. (We missed you James!)

 Allen & Heather

 Chris & Jen

 Becca with her "date" :)

 and us!  While we were there - all of the sudden the music changed and the waitresses came out with this HUGE pink sombrero for my birthday and a shot of tequila:

 It really caught me off guard!

 After I learned the appropriate way to take a tequila shot, I attempted!  But apparently, I still didn't take it the right way because I only took a sip of the shot, LOL.  It was too much for me!

We headed back to our house to play games and eat cake after dinner.  My sweet friend, Laura, baked me a chocolate chip cookie cake.  It was delicious!  I had a great birthday and I felt very loved by family and friends.

Margaret's Bday & the Tybee Island Lighthouse

I turned 27 on November 30.  Even though it was my birthday, the day was beginning as any typical Wednesday morning - I woke up early and headed off to my bible study in BSF (Bible Study Fellowship).  When I came home, my parents surprised me and came up to Savannah for the day!  Curtis was in on it and he really had me oblivious to his plans for me.  Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of our visit, but it was a lot of fun.

The next day, my birthday celebration continued as Curtis took me to see the Tybee Island Lighthouse.

 The view was amazing...

 Me!

 Curtis!

 Both of us!

 The weather was perfect!

 Here's the birthday girl again!

 I thought this was a cool picture - while we were at the top of the lighthouse, we took this picture of the shadow of the lighthouse on the parking lot.

 If we were doing a Christmas card this year, this one probably would have made it.

 Here's our shadows. :)

While we had our fun, Lion-O stayed home and slept under the Christmas tree.

Curtis also took me out that night to Outback Steakhouse and to see a movie (Breaking Dawn Part 1).  The greatest part about this day was that we didn't have to pay for anything!  We had gift cards for the lighthouse, restaurant and movie!  It's my type of birthday date - free! :)