Camping and a Sturgeon

Friday night Matt and I decided to take the kids "camping". We put the tent up on the point at Nana and PawPaw's house and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows with Nana, PawPaw Bill, and Ms. Bobby.

Believe it or not, it was very relaxing.. Before we got around to the roasting, Matt took Sammie and Mason down to the pier to do a little fishing. Usually Sammie will just cast her Hannah Montana pole and reel it back in. Never really expecting to catch anything. Apparently, Matt baited it this time and got lucky. Mason came running back up to the house saying, "I gotta get the net, Daddy's got a huge fish"...we all know that means 'grab your camera and run', so I did. I got halfway to him before I saw panic/excitement/anxiety all over his face. He looked up and me and said "hurry up and get your down here with your camera, it's a sturgeon!" Needless to say, I picked up the pace. :) This is what Sammie caught...

I love his face in that picture!

It's a creepy looking fish!

Matt was so excited because he had never seen one of these before and our 4 year old had just caught it!

Sammie was terrified of it. It was jumping, flopping, and wiggling too much for her liking. This was when Matt was trying to convince her that she REALLY DID want her picture taken with it. She was dead set that she REALLY DIDN'T. :)

As Matt put it, not only does Sammie not realize how rare of a fish she caught, but she doesn't realize that she just caught a 7lbs 2oz, 36 1/4" fish!

After a little research, we found out that the Georgia DNR (Department of Natural Resources) has been restocking these fish. Apparently, this was the first one of its kind to be caught and reported in our area! Woohoo!

LeAnn Womack, Reba, and George Strait

My husband and I had the best worst date night ever Friday night! :)

It all started on Thursday evening when I first tried to buy tickets for the concert. I had two different people that I was talking to. I didn't call one person back because I was waiting on the other. The one I was waiting on told me at 6:45 that she would call me back at 8:30 when she got home to the tickets. Well, at 9, I still hadn't heard from her so I called her....she hung up on me! Ugh! By then, it was too late to call the other person back.

Friday morning I found some great seats online, but wanted to wait and talk to Matt before I bought them. So, when he called, I told him about them and he said "make it happen", so I did...LeAnn, Reba, and George... here we come! :)

I left work early, ran by the house and grabbed Matt some clothes, ran by the day care and got the kiddos and headed to Childersburg. My in-laws was gracious enough to watch our babies while we went. (I'm so thankful for them!) Matt and I had planned to go dove hunting on Saturday afternoon so we needed some extra shotgun shells (which I see now was a blessing).

We left around 4:30 so that we had time to run by Academy. We hit Inverness at rush hour and traffic was ridiculous! While we were sitting in traffic about a mile from the Summit, my car starts flashing "Engine Hot, A/C Off".."WHAT?!" By the time I got that out, the car starts beeping at me like crazy and it's flashing "Engine overheating stop engine now" ..again, "WHAT?!" So, I cut off a few people (you see, I was in the middle lane) to get over. I pulled in a road by the Marriot hotel and stopped. This is the newest car I have ever owned and it's the first one to EVER do this! I was so heartbroken. We were sooo close! Matt looked under the hood and messed with a few things and when I looked up, he was gone. He had left me sitting on the side of the road by myself. Thankfully, he had walked over to the hotel and gotten a bucket of water. Poured it where it was supposed to go and we let it sit for a few minutes. Needless to say, we didn't turn the A/C back on.

By the time we got back on 280, traffic had thinned out and we were on our way! It was 6 by then and the show started at 7. Had we not left early and stopped by Academy, we would have never made it! We made it all the way downtown and in to the concert traffic before it started giving us problems again. I got parked as quick as I could and didn't care how much I had to pay for it (luckily I pulled into an $8 lot!!).

We made our 1/2 mile trek into the arena and laughed the whole way in. This was just our luck! ha. Once we got inside and found our seats, they were awesome! We were only about 10 rows from the stage! (the pictures don't do it justice..my camera just stinks!)

Then the drama ensued again...the guy and girl next to Matt got into a screaming match with the group of people behind us. After that was solved, two people were escorted from front row and started throwing punches. Ugh, can't people just get along! :)

All in all, we had a great time and it was a trip I'm sure we'll never forget!

LeAnn Womack

Reba put on an awesome show!!

Melissa Peterman (from Reba and CMT's The Singing Bee) showed up..she was hilarious!

and now.. The King of Country Music.. George Strait!

Look at those wranglers!

*See, I told you my camera stinks..my phone took better pictures than this..I just couldn't get them to transfer!*

Watermelon

My kids love watermelon. Clearly..

By the way mom, these are those shorts I sent that were "Mahlon's" :)

"I don't need no stinkin' spoon, I'm a boy"

Sammie started with a white t-shirt on..thankfully her daddy saved it :)

He was saying "Mmmm"

I'm not sure if Sammie's spoon ever touched the watermelon...

The watermelon was their "surprise" for the day and they were so excited when daddy told them to go sit at table outside. Mahlon was skipping and Sammie was jumping up and down singing "watermelon, watermelon, hey".

Cowboys..

I love cowboys. Always have, always will.

I remember when Josh went through his cowboy phase and I've seen pictures of Matt's cowboy phase. I guess every boy goes through it. Some boys, like Jesse, start young and stick with it.

I remember being at my grandparent's house and everyone having to ride Jesse around on their backs like a bull. He would slap his face and throw his hand up while holding on to the collar of your shirt. Good times!

That little boy has turned into this...

It all makes me wonder what Mahlon's going to do...cowboy or no? I think he's getting ready to follow in cousin Jesse's footsteps. I'm just not so sure that I'm getting ready!

no words are needed for this last one..

Family time at the farm..

My aunt, cousins, and mom have made a country girl out of Sammie. She has begged me since we got back to "go to Didder's barn and see the bulls".

While we were at my aunts for Labor Day, we all loaded up in the back of Josh's truck and took a trip up to the barn to watch Jesse (my crazy cousin) ride a bull and to see the animals up close and personal!

The kids looooved it! They had the "fake bulls" on one side of the arena and the kids played on those for a long time.

Once they got Freckles (the big bull) in the chute, we all got to pet him and love on him. Apparently, he's a big baby..

This was my first time getting to watch Jesse ride a bull and I must say that I was a nervous wreck! He's come a long way from riding our backs and slapping his face! :)

My favorite comment of the day came from my big, bad, Marine brother..."I'll get shot at all day long, no problem, but I aint gettin' on no da** bull!" ha!

Labor Day

What a day...

There was a lot of this..

a little bit of this..

Some much needed time of this..

of course, a little bit of this..

and some admiring of this..

along with some fantastic food! Which once again, I was too busy snarfing down to get a picture of!

I love my family so much and I'm so thankful that we all got to be together and have fun!

Silly kids..

My precious husband let me sleep late every morning this past weekend...Thank you!

When I woke up Sunday, I heard little screams and laughter out my bedroom window. After stumbling through the house to the back door, I discovered Sammie, Mahlon, and Savannah in the porch swing while Grammie (my mom) would pull them up really high and let them go. They were having a blast! I wish I had gotten a picture of it. Mom, I know you did! You'll have to email them to me!

Josh and Matt went and got breakfast for everyone and of course, Mahlon ate his jelly biscuit with ketchup...

and Savybaby didn't want you to see her biscuit...

Sammie's was gone before I got a picture. :(

After breakfast, we let the kids go swimming for a little while. Uncle Josh was crazy enough to actually get in the water with them! I put my swimsuit on and just laid around trying to get up the courage to jump in. That courage never came :).

Then it was off to Granny PattPatt's for some wonderful homecooking! We had beef roast, rice, gravy, mac and cheese, green beans, and biscuits. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I was just enoying the day and the company.

College Football!

Woohoo! That time of year is FINALLY back! College Football is the BEST time of year! It's like the seasons know it's time and they start changing!

I must say that all through my life, I've been a bit of a confused fan. Never really knowing who I should be pulling for. I was a Bama fan once in my life (I know, it's hard for some of you to comprehend!), but my brother made it hard to like Alabama football. Still does. HA I was an Auburn fan simply because I liked the way the orange and blue looked together (still do).

When I met my husband, I was in the place where I didn't care, but I liked to watch it. Now, I'm a LSU fan. No, I'm not from Louisiana, but I would love to live there one day. Baton Rouge is absolutely gorgeous!

We are, in fact, in the process of booking our next road trip to Baton Rouge. This will be our fourth trip down for the Tigers Homecoming Game! I'm so excited! I love the atmosphere on game day and homecoming just makes it better because there is so much going on! They have a drum battle, kids are sliding down these huge grass hills on card board boxes, the homecoming parade (where they pull Mike the Tiger through campus), and then you get to walk down the hill to the stadium with the band. I promise to get pictures of all of this when we go!

This past weekend, my brother was in town (remember, he's the Bama fan), so I was a good little sister and attempted to order the Alabama-San Jose St game on PPV for him. Thankfully, Charter knew that it was going to be a blowout and couldn't make it work. Saved me $39.95 :) but for real, Josh, I'm sorry! I tried!

We had the inlaws, my mom, Josh, Josh Sinclair (old high school friend), Brandon, and the kids over for the games. We flipped back and forth between LSU and Auburn. That LSU game had me sick to my stomach at the end. Thanks, Les!

All in all, it was a good night. Everyone's teams won and we look forward to all getting together again soon!

Geaux Tigers!