June/July Update

hello? is anyone there? i can't hear you.

so that's probably what you might be thinking if you've gone to my blog in hopes of a new post lately. where has time gone? i was so late in posting about our amazing hawaii trip that i just felt like i couldn't ever catch up. so that's what this is... look at the pics and guess the story behind it! ;)

we had a fun visit from loni... it was SO good to see her again, and it really sucked when she went home, b/c i was so used to seeing her the past month. :( but we had a lot of fun when we hung out, and she got to see the crazies (kids) and so that was cool!

 a couple of fun date nites... nate and i went to the lady A concert at oak mountain... it was super fun and an amazing concert! had a gret time!

 my cousins and their babies from out of state came to visit, and we were able to get all 7 of nana's great grands together for the first time ever! ages from about 20 months to 6 years. and only one sweet girl in the group. it's a wild bunch but we love them! so thankful for our amazing nana!!

 summer fun!! hanging out with cousins in the sprinkler, pool, and water slides kept us busy this summer!!

 my poor bubba got a really bad black eye... he was riding his bike at bisty's and crashed into her tahoe, which resulted in his eye meeting the handlebars :/

 we loved watching the olympics this summer... the boys were pretending to be swimmers here! :)

 boys will be boys... and my boys sure LOVE a sword...

 cool treats helped us survive the supa hot days of summer!

so yeah... stay tuned for the next catch up post... i promise it won't take 2 months!!! :)

8 years...

on july 17, nate and i celebrated our 8th anniversary. seriously... has it been that long? my how the time flies... it is so crazy looking back over the past 8 years. we've had so many ups, but of course some downs too. laughter and tears, happiness, fears... lots of firsts... first apartment rent due! first christmas. first time on vacation just the 2 of us. buying our first house. having our first (and second!) baby! first time to church as a family... the list goes on. we've learned a lot... oh how we have grown in so many ways. no matter how many times someone tells you something, or how much good (or bad) advice you get, you just have to figure life out by yourself sometimes. 

i'm so thankful that nate and i built our marriage on a godly foundation so many years ago. b/c when the storms came, we knew what to do, and who to turn to. and yes, the storms came. the small summer rain showers... the thunder and lightening storms. the torrential downpours. and even the hurricane in may of 2011. but i'm so so so thankful that god was always with us. he never left us. even though at times we def left him, we didn't put him first, we didn't seek him... he was always there. 
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god has blessed us beyond measure. he has brought us farther than we ever thought possible. he put people in our path to help us when we needed it. godly counselors and advisors when we didn't know what to do and where to go. family that was and still is so faithful to pray for us. church friends and family that dropped what they were doing at times, to come help us. 

it is nothing short of a miracle that nate and i have been married 8 years. the 7th year was hard. really hard. harder than i ever thought possible. but by the grace and mercy of god, we made it through. we refocused on him, and each other, and slowly started to recover. the healing process is hard. and it hurts. oh it hurts. but just like most things, it might get worse before it gets better. i'm here to tell you.. it can and WILL get better. hang in there. and have faith that god can do great and mighty things in your life and marriage. we are living proof that what satan meant for evil, the lord meant for good!

we've learned that LOVE NEVER FAILS.

happy 8 years babe... i'm not nieve enough to think we'll never have any problems, or that life will always be rosey. but i have faith that together, with god in the center, we can overcome anything!! i know we will have many, many more amazing years together!!!! i love you more than words can say! i appreciate how bold you are in your faith. your love for god and your passion to lead worship makes me so proud.. your ability to overcome strongholds is inspiring. your strength is amazing. i know that god gave me you for the ups and downs. <3>

hawaii day 8-9... the last days!

Saturday, May 26 and Sunday, May 27

nate wasn't feeling well saturday... he actually had a cold the whole time we were in hawaii. anyways, loni and jake were going to a bday party at the beach... so guess who went with them?! me :) nate stayed home to rest, while i soaked up some sun at lytgate beach. we had it literally all to ourselves! it was awesome!! after the party, i think we just went home and chilled? maybe we went to another beach, i honestly can't remember. guess that's the problem with waiting 2 months to blog about your trip. but that's beside the point! ;)

saturday nite we went to a place called sushi bushido to eat. we met our friends there. i was the only one at the table to get silverware. know why? bc i was the only one to order something OTHER than sushi! :D we ate upstairs in the loft area, and there was a band playing down below. it was a great little place, i loved the atmosphere. and we had some icecream ball things for dessert.. they were kinda good!

can't believe sunday was the last day of our trip!!! :(( so super sad. but we decided to make the most of it! we went to one last beach that we hadn't been to before, called mahalapu, or hideaways beach. can i just tell you, these north shore beaches are no joke. we had to hike down the steepest hill (mountain!) to get to the beach. seriously, it was crazy. but wow. we got there and it was again, perfect!! jon had taken his guitar, so he and nate played around some. i have to say that was def a first... a guitar on the beach. but it was fun!! jake went snorkeling a little, but i wanted to get some last minute hawaiin sun!! and i acheived my goal! i'm pretty sure when we left the beach that day, i was almost as tan as loni, and she's pretty dang tan :) we had to make the drive back home, and on the way we stopped at a cool souvenier shopped called hilo hatties. if you ever go to hawaii, check it out. they have great things at pretty affordable places! 

we had to rush home and pack pack pack!!! seriously, our room was a WRECK! how bout this... on the way to hawaii, nate and i shared a checked suitcase that weighed in right at exactly 50.0 pounds. that's AMAZING if you know us. we both like clothes, a lot! ;) so yeah... we had to borrow an old suitcase of loni's bc we had sooo much more stuff on the way home! and low and behold, it was a miracle that we could get it all in those 2 suitcases and our carryons! we had some flight drama, and had to fly delta from hawaii to la, b/c our other flight got cancelled. it was a blessing in disguise, b/c delta let us check TWO huge bags that were 50.0 pounds each (i'm telling you, we cut it so close!) for FREE!! :)) anyways. back to packing. after we got the car loaded, we went for one last dinner. i figured if i had a full belly, hopefully i could manage to sleep on the flight! we ate at an italian place and man, it was yummmy! i think it was called kp pasta or something? 

we made it to the airport, and on the plane. i took some meds to help me relax and sleep. i had heard the flight was horrible. but on the way there, time managed to pass by quick enough. and on the way back, i was actually able to sleep! we left hawaii at 8 pm sunday their time, which is 1 am monday our time. i got confused at all the time changes after that... but we arrived in LA at like 6 am. then we flew to denver, i think? and finally got home to birmingham at 2 pm!!! we had the sweetest welcoming crew meet us there, with posters and flowers, and fevers. :/ both kids were sick, but man we were glad to see them!!

all in all, amazing, incredible, beautiful, awesome trip... we went thinking it's a once in a lifetime trip, but we came home saying... we WILL be back!

hope you've enjoyed my ramblings... i'm sure noone really has read my novel of our hawaii travels, but that's ok.. i'm mainly doing this so i can look back and remember all the details!

ALOHA!!!!!

hawaii day 7

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friday, may 25, 2012

friday morning we headed out to the south shore again. we went to a super secluded beach called... wait for it... hideaways. imagine that! yep, another long hike down a small trail, and a beautiful beach appeared before us!! seriously we had it all to ourselves!! it was a gorgeous day. well i haven't really mentioned that, but all week the weather was PERFECT! in the low 80's, with little to no humidity! it was cloudy a few times, but we'd set out to our beach for the day, and by time we got there blue skies and sunshine. lots and lots of sunshine!! :D nate and i went walking on this beach and climbed up some huge rocks.. it was so peaceful to just look around at god's amazing creation. so relaxing to just soak in the beauty of it all! 

we then ate lunch at a cool little place with another amazing view. i think i got a burger to eat, and nate had fish tacos. and for dessert... HULA PIE! and ohmygoodnessgracious it was amazing! really it was just a HUGE slice of vanilla icecream with whip cream and chocolate syrup over it, but man it was good!! 

after lunch we went to a cool beach called glass beach. it was crazy... the beach wasn't really made of shells, but pieces of glass that had washed up. apparently after the pieces of beer bottles and such has swirled around in the sand and been pushed in and out from the tide, they were no longer sharp. it was crazy.. really pretty!! also we found the shadow tree.. we didn't really go late enough, so it was hard to make the cool shadows like we wanted to, but i think you get the idea in the few pics we did get!

loni and jake went somewhere with some friends that nite, so nate and i were on our own! we ate at brickoven pizza, delish of course! then we went into hanapepe for an artwalk. it was a small little town with stores all up and down the strip.. anything from books to paintings, jewelry and food... i'd maybe compare it to a homestead hollow or trussville dog dayz type deal. we bought a few more souveniers here. we also went on this crazy shake super scary *for me, b/c i'm scared of heights!!* swinging bridge! it's a historical marker.. and i can say i made it to the other side and back, and survived. didn't love it, was quite nervous... but i made it! :D after that we went for icecream... then met back up with loni and jake. and we ended the nite by catching up on watching the bachelorette. in hawaii... how cool is that?!?! :)) 

hawaii day 6

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thursday, may 24, 2012

so nate and i had been wanting to go into town one morning and eat breakfast somewhere yummy! so we did just that! you can see where we (he) got freshed brewed coffee, and my delish breakfast of french toast, bacon, and eggs! you know they say everything is more expensive in hawaii? it's true. our total bill that morning was like $35!! crazy... but good food. you only live once, huh? :)

we also went shopping in town... there was a super cool store that sold only homemade soaps and candles! they made them all right there. we bought lots of good smelling souveniers there! :)

we headed to the south shore after that. we went to shipwrecks beach... it's a popular beach to see the surfers do their thing! we went to eat at a local shopping center.. nate and loni both had some famous "puka dog" which is a hot dog cooked in the bun.. like the bun wraps around it and the filling goes inside. the only thing is it's a huge brat, not a hot dog. so i went next door and had an oreo milkshake for lunch... yummmmy! :)) again... you only live once! ha. 

that nite we met jake at smith's family luau. it was a place sorta like the botanical gardens, and we rode an open bus type deal and got to tour the place. there were huge beautiful peacocks strutting around everywhere! when they yelped, it sount like a cat meowing! also, there were roosters roaming free too! then we saw the guys taking the pig out of the ground! i forget what it's called, but it was a neat ceremony! we feasted on lots of good food (if you haven't noticed by now... we ate ALL THE TIME in hawaii... which is why i'm now trying to lose 5 pounds.. anyways!) after dinner, we watched a hula show. it was really cool to hear the story being told and see the hula dancers... guys and girls, boy could they shake it! :D we had a great time and i'm really glad we got to experience a for real hawaiian luau. it's nothing like i imagined it to be for sure! another end to another fun day!! 

hawaii day 5

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wednesday, may 23.

we went to the north shore this day. we went to queens bath... a super cool place to visit! we had to hike down the side of a jungle to get there, but stopped along the way to get our pic made by a waterfall! that was pretty cool! when we got to the bottom, it was like huge black craters everywhere. ok, so historically, i'm sure my facts aren't right. so that's what they looked like to me. maybe big lava rocks? you can see what i'm talking about in the pics! ;) anyways... it was beautiful. apparently it's usually calm and the water is up high enough that you can swim in parts of the little inlets. but the water was wayyy low, so no swimming for us. :/ but we did have a great time just seeing everything and being silly... imagine that! :)) then we went to hanalei for lunch... you know, like in the song from puff the magic dragon! we went to a lil mexican joint that was fun, of course it had a beautiful view! after lunch, we were going to try and rent some stand up paddleboards. what we didn't realize is that the waters were rough and the winds were really high. so noone was renting boards. kinda a bummer, but we went shopping, and i think we went to another beach? i know it was over a month ago, so my memory is failing me. :/ i can't seem to add more space for my pics, which is the main reason i haven't finished blogging about my trip. but whatev.. slideshow is better than nothing i guess! we had a great time at queens bath. i think we went back to the house and jon cooked us a yummy dinner that night... 

hawaii day 4

tuesday, may 22.... i'm having some difficulty loading pics to blogger... some nonsense about running out of storage space and having to purchase more. i'm trying to get around that... so here's a little slideshow of day 4. not how i prefer to do things... but it works for now.

tuesday morning nate and i did some exploring on our own! we drove up to the waimea canyon, which is like hawaii's version of the grand canyon. it was a little windy road that took us strait up into the mountains... the journey is always just as cool as the destination in hawaii!! when we got to the lookout points, it was amazing! beyond words! loni and i had flown over the canyon during our air tour, so it was just that much cooler to actually stand there beside it! i guess if we had gotten adventurous enough, we could have hiked it. but yeah, i was content to stop and stare!! :)
after we finished our sightseeing tour at the different stopping points, we drove into poipu and ate at bubba's burgers... yum!! burger and french fries... exactly what this southern girl needed!! :) then we went over to poipu beach again for the afternoon. beautiful view, like before! and oh my word at the chickens that are just everywhere! i was listening to chicken fried, by zac brown, andc the next thing i know, a chicken struts right past me on the beach, where i'm laying out! ha.
we went back to loni's and got ready to go eat. we had reservations for a super nice place called the beach house for dinner. the view was incredible, right in front of the ocean. and it made a perfect backdrop for sunset! the food was DELISH... of course, i went for comfort food (i don't like seafood, or most other crazy    foods so i ordered safe...) and had the grilled pork chop, mashed potatoes, and the best mac n cheese ever!! our waiter was hilarious, and he thought my accent was hilarious too! he asked if we were from texas! :-) nope. alabama! that's alaaabammmaaa... ;)
hope the pics show up in the order i wanted them to. if not, oops! enjoy them anyways!

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