Happy Birthday Dad!

It sure was great to be able to get together with some old friends and family a couple of weekends ago. This was the first time in five years we have been together and I must say it felt good! Although Laurie and Jason were not in attendance I was glad that Annalie was able to spend some quality time with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. I rarely myself get to sit down and have a meaningful conversation with someone but I got in several on this trip. One thing I really appreciated was to see many of my nieces and nephews that I have't seen for some time. I think it's safe to say that everyone that came genuinely had a great time! There were a lot of cameras flashing over the weekend and for good reason! Even little Luke was enjoying himself along with mom and dad. The relatively warm water and sandy beach was certainly a bonus. And let's not forget the crawdads too! What a wonderful place to have a party. My only hope is that we can do again sometime!

Azalea Festival Street Fair....and a second chance!

A couple of weeks ago I ventured down to Brookings with Annalie and Jason to take in the annual Azalea Festival. Laurie was working that day so I was single parenting as best I could. After the parade I decided to walk down the street to the street fair (against my better judgement) and roam around for awhile. Annalie of course was not interested in what people were selling. What interested her was a couple of carnival type attractions. I let her purchase a couple of tickets but it was so crowded and the lines were a bit long that I was forced to have to hang on to Jason the whole time. I'm sure he had no idea why he wasn't allowed to participate. Afterward I was sad and felt guilty for even taking him there in the first place. The next morning I told Laurie what happened and she suggested we all drive back down while it was still early. When we arrived the crowds of the previous day were all gone and the carnival rides weren't even up and running quite yet. We opted to peruse the rows of booths while we waited. This time we were first in line to take in these attractions so there was no waiting which Jason doesn't do very well anyway! The kind man doing the horse rides refused to take our $5.00 when we told him about Jason. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves but I will say that I was thankful to get another chance to let everyone enjoy themselves! This is my favorite picture. Remember to double click on it for a better look! The guy running this slide allowed me to climb up to the top so that I could assist Jason and get him heading back down in the right direction where Laurie was waiting to receive him. This worked flawlessly!