Quiggly at Christmas!

Today we did some visiting with Dan's Aunt Lee and Uncle Ronald. We look forward to seeing family, but a certain little someone (and us too actually!) look forward to seeing Quiggly the Camel as well! Aunt Lee & Uncle Ronald's neighbors have a few exotic animals on their property. It's pretty cool to pet a camel and this year a zebra as well!

 The animals enjoyed seeing us and we enjoyed seeing them. Stryker has been talking about Quiggly since we left! Perhaps Quiggly and the Zebra will be around next year!

After heading back to the house, we took a walk down Uncle Ronald's dock to look at the water. It was super low tide so it was mainly pluff mud, but Stryker didn't mind. He thought overlooking the water was great!

We can't wait to head out to the Island again next year to see our family and (animal) friends!

Grant/Gehlken Family Christmas Traditions

For the last three years, The Grant family & our family have ventured out to see the Christmas lights. The first year it was James Island County Park. Stryker was just over 1 and Kendall was just 11 months old! We enjoyed the lights and a train ride.

Last year, we visited Celebrate the Season at Old Santee Canal State Park.  We rode through the light display, visited Santa and roasted marshmallows. Kendall wasn't enthused with Santa last year so that made for a classic picture :) All in all, it was great fun!

That brings us to this year. Once again, we headed to Celebrate the Season in Moncks Corner. Their light display and Christmas activities have expanded and so has our group! Stryker now 4, Kendall almost 3 and Ethan 10 months. First, we rode through to gander at the lights (poor quality b/c I have YET to figure out my camera!)...

We parked the cars and hopped out to ride a cool tractor up to the Canal State Park museum to find the Big Guy. These two little elves hopped in the sleigh for a photo op first!

We waited patiently and finally got to sit in Santa's lap and tell him what we wanted for Christmas.

Then Kendall jumped  was coerced into having a picture with Stryker & Santa like last year! She was a little apprehensive at first, but flashed me a sweet smile nonetheless!

With those two cutie kiddos smiling away, we stuck Ethan in the pic too.... and he wasn't having it! Classic crying baby picture!

We headed outside to find the marshmallows for roasting and some hot chocolate. Stryker and Kendall did their very best to roast their treats, but the fire wasn't exactly big enough so they basically enjoyed marshmallows on a stick sans the brown :)

After they were done with that, we walked around the little shops, listened to a kid's choir singing carols and looked around the house on site that was decorated. Then we got our picture taken with the Grinch!

Needless to say, the kids weren't excited about sitting near this guy, but it was a great group shot! 

We always have lots of fun with the Grants and Stryker & Kendall just love each other so! We can't wait to continue this tradition with them every year at Christmas!

Our First Family 5K

We got to participate in our very first Family 5K today! Dan & I are both runners and have run many 5Ks, but never together and NEVER with Stryker.

We ran the Reindeer Run in downtown Charleston. We were up very early and headed downtown to East Bay Street & the starting line. It was PACKED! There were lots of runners, costumed runners, dogs and kids. We met up with our friends and got situated. We borrowed a jogging stroller for Stryker and I was quite nervous about running with it. Luckily, Dan was the navigator for the first mile. At mile 2, it was my turn to take the reigns.... Jogging Strollers are NO joke! And not training/running with one (ever!) was not a good idea! I think I may have made it to mile 2.7 and begged Dan to take back over :) He did and boys took off to the finish line.

We had a blast! We hung around afterwards to play on the jump castle and people watch. Soon it was time to head back home. Funny, I figured Dan & I would be more worn out!

I can't wait to do more runs in the future with Dan! And I can't wait to teach Stryker the importance of exercise and one day run with him!

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving 2012 and we have lots to be thankful for! We have each other, our families, a home, jobs, love & most importantly, GOD. We had a low key Thanksgiving this year. We did not travel to Columbia to be with the rest of my family, but instead spent a lovely, quiet holiday with Grandma.

We slept in, had breakfast, sipped coffee and read the 709097987 lbs of sales papers! Early afternoon we headed to Grandma's house to hang out with her and get ready for our Thanksgiving dinner. This handsome boy is too cute in his Thanksgiving attire.

Since it was just the four of us (two of which don't eat very much), Dan decided that we shouldn't waste the money and food in cooking a big meal at home. Instead, he treated us to a very fancy dinner at Grill 225 at the Market Pavilion Hotel downtown. We waited patiently for our dinner reservations and had a very lovely meal. Although it wasn't exactly the usual Thanksgiving dishes, it was good none the less. Sushi on any day is good with me!

Daddy & Stryker waiting on dinner

After our dinner, we decided to go to James Island for the Festival of Lights. We drove around the park and looked at all the beautiful displays. It wasn't that crowded (surprisingly enough) and we were able to get out the car and walk around the shops and through the Enchanted Forest filled with more light displays. We came across Stryker's favorite... A fire truck! He insisted I take a couple pictures.

Although it wasn't a traditional Thanksgiving holiday, it was full of fun, good food, family and most of all LOVE and GRATITUDE. We are very blessed to have each other and a wonderful life! I couldn't be more thankful for my special little man too! And it really warmed my heart to see what he is thankful for this year.

Carolina Football

WOW! Stryker is one lucky guy! He got to attend his very first USC Football game today! Aunt Lorie was able to get tickets for the Furman/USC game. It was also Military Appreciation Day so there were some very special moments as well. 

We headed out early for Columbia after a quick breakfast at Waffle House. We met up with Aunt Lorie, Peyton and Maddison and headed to the stadium and game time! The boys were pretty excited as we walked up to Williams Brice and to find our seats. We were alllll the way up top and they hung in there for the climb. We found our seats just in time to hear 2001 and see Cocky appear and the players run out. Stryker was super excited for Cocky!

 Stryker's First USC Game

My nephew is something else... He's quite the hoot! He spent the first two quarters of the game eating all our snacks! LOL! Near the end of the second quarter, he looks at Lorie and says "Mom, when's the game going to start?" We all busted out laughing at that one. It wasn't exactly a fast moving or exciting game, so his question was very valid! 

 Little Miss stayed snugly warm close to Mommy. She was a trooper for the game and I didn't hear a peep out of her the whole game. I think she was intrigued by her new surroundings.

A panoramic of the game

Daddy & his little Gamecock fan (who wouldn't look at the camera!)

Watching the game

The Honour's

I LOVE Military Appreciation Football Game days. What a very special halftime show the USC Marching Band put on! They also invited the bands from the different branches of military to play as well. It was so touching. They honored injured soldiers, veterans and those active duty members that are currently serving. I surely enjoyed every minute of the entire halftime show and I think the boys did as well! The best part, a fly over to end the show. They REALLY loved that!

We had such a good time and I can't wait to take my little man to Death Valley to see the Tigers play. But in the meantime, our little Gamecock couldn't have been happier that day! Thanks to Aunt Lorie who made it happen!