preschool

it's so hard to believe that today was hudson's very first day of preschool.  we've been talking and talking with him about this day in preparation and it finally happened.  he was SO excited to go to "RiverberTree", as it calls it (our church is actually "RiverTree", isn't that hilarious!?!?).  Here are a couple shots of our not-so-little boy's official first day of school.  

   

He did AMAZING and loved every minute of it!!  I think it really helps that it is at our church because he was familiar with the environment and went right in feeling confident and comfortable.  His teachers are so very nice and they said that he was wonderful and seemed to really enjoy himself.   When we picked him up, he gave us a play-by-play of all the fun things they did and he even named a couple "friends" he had made in his class.  we can already tell he's going to grow and learn so much!

Okay, we've always heard that it's really hard to leave your child in the "hands" of someone else (especially like this for the very first day of school), and that is VERY true, but I must say that when we saw this beautiful prayer come home in his backpack, oh my, it made all the world of a difference!  This is a prayer that the his teachers wrote in the newsletter that was sent home: 

"Dear Lord, We dedicate this room to you.  May You bless the children, families, and teachers and all who enter.  May your love, mercy, faithfulness and joy anoint this place and fill our hearts.  We bring these children to You, watch over them and protect them and may they grow in knowing You as their personal Lord and Savior.  Thank you for each and every child and their family and may this be a year of increase knowledge, growth and faith.  Amen"

Wow!  That puts into into perspective, doesn't it?!?  Now, we did good all day and there were no tears shed on hudson or on our part, but that about put us over the edge!  This will certainly be a great year for hudson and we can't wait to share more with about how he's learning and growing!

myrtle beach vacation

Getting away from everyday life is wonderful, isn’t it?!?  Don't get us wrong, everyday life is good and all, but man, a break from the norm is sure nice!  We just returned home from a wonderful, relaxing vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  We stayed in the quiet, family-friendly area of Surfside Beach.  This was the first real trip to the beach with the boys and they did AMAZING!!!  The road trips went very smoothly (we drove through the night, and yes, they slept!), the ocean was absolutely breathtaking, as usual, and we couldn’t have asked for more beautiful weather! 

Our daily routine consisted of getting the beach early each morning until noon, then we’d head back to the condo for lunch and then off the pools for the afternoon.  Naptime gave us a chance to regroup and clean up and then, after naptime we’d get ready for the evening. 

   

Each night, we did something fun and different.  We explored downtown shops and entertainment, went out to dinner, went to the pier at sunset, and more, but the boys most favorite thing was to go to Family Kingdom.  This was a fun, little family amusement park by the beach.  Hudson had an absolute ball!  He’s never really been on amusement park rides before so we weren’t sure if he’d be a big fan or not, but he was such a little boy and LOVED it!  He rode all the rides all by himself, even a roller coaster, and had a BLAST!  It was so cool to see him smiling and laughing on the rides.  Can’t wait till he’s old enough to go on the big ones so we can go on them with him, too. 

Now, lets talk about the beach!  Oh my goodness gracious, we can’t even begin to tell you how much fun we had at the beach!  It’s so hard to put it into words, but hopefully you can get a sense of the boys’ genuine excitement and happiness in the photographs that were taken there.  They absolutely lit up with joy every time we’d hang out there.  The salt water and sand didn’t phase them a bit, they were all about the ocean!  We’re thinking a summer beach vacation will need to be planned from now on…it was just too much fun!!! 

     

Hudson was our tan little beach bum, never getting a hint of sunburn, not even once.  He even went boogie-boarding and wave jumping.  He had no fear whatsoever!  He also enjoyed exploring the water (quickly discovering it was salty!), experimenting with the sand, and searching for seashells.

Greyson loved to play in the sand and run around in the shallow water.  It was hilarious to see him in the water, he would play a game as if the water was chasing him – each time a wave would come, he run and try to get away from it.  The waves would retract and out he’d go and then back again.  The waves would go back and forth and so would he! 

    

Since Mimi and Papa Snavely were with us, we even got a date night where we had a nice dinner and walked in a really cool area called Broadway at the Beach.  It was so nice to get a little break and just be together.  Those times are few and far between and so very much appreciated, not to mention, the boys absolutely loved having Mimi and Papa there.  Grandma and Grandpa Smith happened to be down in Myrtle for a couple days overlapping our trip so we also enjoyed having some beach time with them too as did the boys.  They loved it…it was just like being at home! 

So, after taking way too many over 1,030 pictures, go figure, we’ve tried to narrow it down (which is hard to do because we love them all!) into a slideshow.  We ended up choosing a total of 173 photos, so  CLICK HERE to take a look at the rest of our vacation pictures!