What a whirlwind November has been! It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is in two days. We are so excited to celebrate with family later this week.
Last week we went on a two night, three day trip with some dear friends. We haven’t been on a friend trip like this in many, many years….and it was so fun.
The Duttons found a cabin that could not have been more perfect for all of our families. There was a huge room with 12 bunkbeds in it and cubbies for each kids’ coats and shoes. There were games in the room, too. My kids LOVED being with their friends like this and having a big sleep over.
All of the kids were so sweet and seemed to play so well together. The big ones looked after the little ones and loved every minute of it.
The mountains and trees were gorgeous.
Such precious kiddos. They all make me smile for different reasons. Rosser is such a cute red headed little boy and works hard to keep up with the older kids; he adores his mom. Blair is a sweet little red head with a small, sweet voice and is an amazing little gymnist. Brooke is an angelic baby of the family with a spunky personality…I loved watching her in action! Aubrey is older sister to Blair and Rosser and Mallory and is a sweet girl! She and Mallory look so much alike and neither are read heads like their brother and sister. I feel like I am holding Aubrey as a baby when I am holding Mallory. Mallory is a fun little darling baby girl that everyone wanted to hold. Kayla is a quiet, kind little girl that I like to talk to one on one. She probably doesn’t quite know what to think of me sometimes. I love her petite little self. Then, there is Ella. I love Ella. She is the middle girl in her family. I have always felt like we had a special bond. Not sure she feels the same way, but I love Ella and make sure I speak to her when she is around. Don’t wanna overlook the middle children. heehee. And Jack, funny, funny Jack. He is a hoot to talk to…always thinking and always creating something. He truly cracks me up. Lucas is the next “baby” in the picture. He keeps up with the older kids amazingly well…but he doesn’t like to make eye contact with me. Not sure what that is about exactly, but I’m trusting he will warm up to me one day. And then there is Annie, the oldest kid in this picture. (We are missing Lizzie, technically the oldest one on this trip…a very sweet teenager!) Annie has a great sense of humor and does great impersonations. She is such a good example for all these other kiddos following after her! Love that girl. And last, but not least, is middle child Macy. Again, we have a special bond as the middle of three girls, but I am not sure she knows it. She is seemingly quiet, but Mack tells me she is VERY funny. I love that. And my three are dispersed throughout the picture. I am so glad that they have such great friends to grow up with around here! We are blessed.
And then there are the parents of all of those kids. Next to us is Nellie and Jeremy. Precious couple! Nellie is also the middle of three girls, so we laugh about similarities of our childhood with an older sister and a younger sister. Jeremy is one laid-back dude. Then, there’s Marc and Stephanie Dutton. We go back almost fifteen years! They have been in Sunday School with us for that whole time, and we even lived in the same apartment complex when we were all newlyweds. They are our class administrators and keep us organized! We don’t know what we would do without the Duttons. A steady, faithful couple. I laugh at Marc as he takes care of all three of his daughters….lots of pink and purple in his life! Then, there’s Mark and Deidre Anderson. They keep us laughing. When we first met them we had no idea how funny they would be! Dry sense of humor…I can text her some of the crazy thoughts I have and know there is no judgement. (I hear she does an impersonation of Josh, though we never did get to see it…I guess Annie comes by it naturally.) And Mark is super funny and always has an interesting story to tell.
We love each and every one of them dearly. They add so much to our lives, and I am so thankful that God allowed our paths to cross!
Here’s the group picture at Dolly Wood. We had so much fun at “the happiest place on earth”….oh, wait….that’s Disney….but this is our little corner of happiness anyway.
And this was what our trip home looked like:
They were pooped!
And now, switching gears completely….we went shooting today!
I thoroughly enjoyed it! I can now load the gun and shoot it fairly well. I wasn’t always on the red dot, but I did hit the target!
Mack even got to shoot his bb gun at this range.
So, all in all, we have had quite the redneck Thanksgiving break…and we haven’t even gotten to Augusta yet. 🙂
Looking forward to time with family!
