Marching Band

This year for marching band Seth switched from trumpet to contra (marching tuba). Here are some pics from practice last night. I'll get better pics later in the season when he's in uniform, but this gives you an idea of the instrument he's playing.

Cross Country

Jenna is running cross country for her middle school, Spring Station Middle School. They had their first meet yesterday and she did great - placing 27th (not sure out of how many) with a time of 14.06 for 1-1/2 miles. This was her first experience ever running an event like this in 90° weather with about 90% humidity at 4:00 in the afternoon. She was the first sixth grader from her school to finish. (Sixth, seventh and eighth grade girls all run at the same time.)

First day of school 2010

Seth's first day of his sophomore year at Independence High School (8-12-10).

Jenna's first day of sxith grade at the brand new Spring Station Middle School. (8-12-10)

Jenna's Bedroom Makeover

For her birthday this year, Jenna wanted to re-do her room. With the help of a friend from church, her room was transformed from a pink little girl room to a sophisticated pre-teen room. Jenna chose a pretty combination of green, blue and chocolate brown. The painting was done last week and we spent this week looking for bedding and accessories. I forgot to take a picture of the wall with the window. Jenna chose plain green curtains for the window.

Jenna's Birthday

Jenna stretched her 11th birthday out into a weekend-long celebration. On Saturday night we went to Otters for dinner followed by dessert at Cold Stone Creamery. On Sunday, Uncle Brad and Aunt Sharon came down and went to church with us and then we went to Olive Garden for lunch. (Aunt Sharon has a birthday one week before Jenna, so Jenna likes to celebrate with her.) After lunch, Sharon and Brad came to our house where we had a chocolate chip cookie/Cool Whip dessert that Jenna requested. I also made cupcakes for our small group that night for Jenna's birthday. Jenna wanted peanutbutter pie for her "actual" birthday. We had that Monday night after she opened her gifts. Tuesday was her actual birthday. I took her out for breakfast to the Donut Palace and she chose meal in foil for her birthday dinner.

Vacation at Hilton Head Island, SC

Here are some random pictures from our vacation last week to Hilton Head, SC. (I have way too many pictures to choose from.) We left TN on Friday, July 9, and spent the night in Macon, GA. On Saturday when we got to the island we met Sallie and Carl who came down from Aiken to spend the weekend with us. After a quick lunch we found the Hilton Head Tennis Resort which is where we stayed for the week. Our condo was much smaller and older than we had expected, but we adapted. We spent the afternoon on the beach with Sallie and Carl then had an opportunity to visit with Seth's 5K teacher from SC who was in Hilton Head for the weekend with her family. She was surprised to see that her former 5K student is now almost 6 feet tall!. We had dinner with Sallie and Carl at The Crazy Crab. We spent all day Sunday on the beach and had dinner with Sallie and Carl before they had to leave to go back to Aiken. :(

On Monday morning we decided to go to the area known as Harbor Town. This is where The Heritage pro golf tournament is played each year and you can see the 18th hole from the top of the lighthouse. We had lunch at the legendary Salty Dog Cafe (and the food lived up to its billing!). Wednesday morning we went on a dolphin cruise. It was fun to see the dolphin so close to the boat and it was a nice morning to be out on Calibogue Sound. We had a week of great beach weather. On Thursday and Friday the waves were incredible - some were 8-10 feet and it was great for riding the waves on our boogie boards. We topped our week off by a delicious seafood dinner at Kingfisher.

We left Hilton Head early Saturday morning and drove one hour to Savannah, GA. Steve and I had been to Savannah before and we figured since we were so close that the kids would enjoy seeing the city. It was hot but we walked around the different squares in Savannah to give the kids a taste of what the city is like. Seth liked reading about the history of Savannah. We walked by Paula Deen's restaurant, The Lady and Sons, but one hour before opening the line was already 3/4 of the way around the block. We drove as far as Marietta, GA and spent the night. We had dinner at the Marietta Diner, a place we found out about a few years ago by watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. We had been there before and it's always good!

Deer Run Day Camp

Jenna had the opportunity to attend Deer Run day camp this week along with five other kids from our church. This was her first year to attend a day camp and she had a blast. While at camp she had Bible study time and singing, crafts, an opportunity to do archery, bb guns, creek walking, hiking, swimming in the lake, zip line over and into the lake and tower climbing.