the cuz weekend {6.6-6.9.13}

In the midst of all the graduation festivites, Brock came to stay with us for a few days that weekend. I don't think I've ever laughed that hard or that much as I did that weekend. You get him & Clark together and they just bounce off one another, keeping me rolling on the floor. Literally. I fell out of the gaming chair they picked up at some random yard sale one Saturday afternoon up in Fuquay. We're not even sure Clark gave the money to the actual yard sale people or not. Those are the kind of adventures our family has, the kind of things that make us as close as we are. And I wouldn't trade it for the world.

So yeah, graduation weekend was pretty dang awesome, and it wasn't even MY graduation. I managed to take a few pictures inbetween laughter-crying of this two best buds in action.

The most awesome ginger in the world.

We shoot squirrels in our spare time. Don't judge us.

There was TONS of Xbox. 

And even more Dr. Pepper to fuel their Call of Duty playing.

Chillin' after capturing baby bunnies.

Good grief, I love family weekends.

weekend with the cousins {6.02.13}

Only Instagram photos from this weekend because dude. I have so much fun with these crazy kids I FORGET TO TAKE PICTURES. A quick trip to Gran Jan's for a little night visit (and phone stealing on the boys part), soccer games the next morning (which meant butt sweat and working on our pre-summer tan), and tons of Mellow Mushroom pizza for lunch (which we ate outside because it was glorious weather).

 Best buds. I love them both so much.

Perfect post game food.

Dang, I love it my family weekends.

scenes from the weekend

We lived it up this weekend. In between working 12 hours over two days, setting up for Regeneration Friday night and the actual event Saturday, and having Brock spend the night after the concert then us spending the night at HIS house after a Superbowl party on Sunday, we were beat. It was the good kind of exhaustion though. I came home and took a nap before work. Not ashamed. I wouldn't trade this weekend for anything. It was full of worship, laughter, and a much needed break from school.

Full posts will be up soon, so here's a few real, fancy camera shots (I know...a non-Instagram post!) of the fun this weekend to tide you over.

I got to borrow a external flash and was just a wee bit excited.

Imma thinking I need one of these.

I love having photographer friends...we had SO many people from LBC and outside the church taking pictures!

Plenty of Xbox was played over the course of the weekend.

I love these boys so much. They are two of the five people in the world
that can make me laugh so hard I snort and start crying.

We made it to FV (despite missing our exit) in time to walk through
 the house being built right next to the cousins.

We also throw rocks into the windows just cause we can.

Garrison did a GREAT job!

Picking the winning score at the end of the quarter is harder than it looks.

IT'S FOOTBALLL TIMEEE.

While the power shortage was being fixed, we watched YouTube videos. Go figure.

How was your weekend, readers? Did you stay up late, get up early, and eat wayyy too much good party food while watching the Superbowl like I did? I sure hope so because dude. It's so much fun.

NYE 2012

Maybe I've mentioned this on the blog before and maybe I haven't (I'm thinking the latter), but for 4 years now we've had a huge birthday bash for Quinn/family reunion for Dad's side of family/NYE PARTAY. And guys, it is SO MUCH FUN. We have made so many great family memories and last year we introduced the NYE challenge. More about that later though. Something happened before the Challenge that must be noted.

The big huge amazing awesome totally cool thing that happened this year was Quinn turned ten, and was allowed to get her ears pierced...and I turned the fun age of 17 six months before and finally convinced my parents to let me get my second holes! We were both so excited, lemme tell ya. We got up super early on NYE to make it to Fuquay so us girls (all dressed in purple because if we wanted to go with Quinn, we had to wear purple) could all go. It was totally worth the 6AM wake up call...I'm ready for my third holes.

Last picture before her earrings!

One ear down, one to go!

All done!

And then it was my turn and honestly, the lady marking where to put earring was more painful than the thing they use to shoot the earring in.

Typical SA face. I was just so excited. 

Cousin love! 

Back to the house for the BYE Challenge. Basically, we all forget we're family and trash talk and whoop some behinds in some crazy challenges and the most awesome of them all: the scavenger hunt through FV. This year we had a books of the Bible challenge, foosball tournament, an insanely long Wheel of Fortune game on the Wii, pretzel stack and Catch Phrase since it was too dark for the scavenger hunt (SUPER SAD FACE). That was only a third of them, but those were the only ones I took pictures of since I was the most intense competitor ever. Sike. I just enjoyed being in the audience and losing at everything I played.

Gran Jan gave my team their only win...yeah Gran Jan!

Things got stressful & intense at the end.

In the end, Aunt Ann Marie, Clark, and Uncle Terry won with GTM (Garrison, Uncle Tyler, and Mom) and Locked 'n' Loaded (Brock, Aunt Michelle, and Dad) tying for second. Girl Power, which was Quinn, Gran Jan, and I came in last but we probably had the most fun just playing.

Such a beautiful board.

After the victors celebrated with awesome fleece blankets, we remembered we were family and decided to love on the birthday girl. See?

Two of my favorite ladies ever.

COOKIE CAKE TIME!

We killed time until midnight by playing Telestrations and the annual game of Bunco. Basically, we tried not to fall asleep so we were really loud and made up silly drawings like a crack pipe and yelled FUNCO! all.the.time to confuse people. I love my family. 

By the time we finished all the games, it was almost midnight so we turned the TV on to watch the ball drop. We (barely) made it, but we survived to give NYE kisses (OK, just the parents) and then went our separate ways to sleep until 10AM, in my case. We left not much after I woke up with faces that hurt from laughing so hard and a heart full of great memories that'll have to compete with next years memories we're already looking forward to.

How was your NYE, readers?

thanksgiving '12

Thanksgiving this year was so laid back & full of tradition. We headed up to the Waters & settled in for a flippin' good time on Thanksgiving weekend. These photos were taken when I remembered my camera, when I felt like taking pictures instead of the pressure to document every.single.moment. It was glorious to just enjoy my family and make so many memories.

I woke up early on Thursday (gasp!) and we hit the road not long after. Andrew Garfield kept me company (aka I watched the Amazing Spiderman on the way up).

On the ride up. The leaves were gone early this year thanks to Sandy's winds so no beautiful foliage pictures :(

We arrived around 11 to Quinn & Garrison raking leaves. Hugs all around, and Zeke wasn't left out either...

Sweet puppy.

My family is awesome guys. We always try new recipes when we get together, and Aunt Ann Marie made a amazing Turkey cheeseball she got of Pinterest. No one knew what the red bell pepper was called so we googled it. That's just the way we are. We killed that thing way before the actual turkey was even ready.

A semi-weird tradition in our family is to walk through houses under construction. It's so calming to me, to walk through a brand-new house that hasn't been lived in, awaiting a family to make it a true home. The neighborhood they live in has huge houses, and we took a break from eating the turkey cheeseball to walk through the latest site.

where's waldo Brock?

Crazy kid got up in the rafters.

Family time while waiting for the food to finish cooking & watching football (it was ALWAYS one in the background. no lie).

Precious <3

Brock isn't as clueless as he looks.

Watching fail videos I think. There was plenty of laughing over stupid Youtube videos that weekend.

Pretty sure he's looking at the sports section, FYI.

TURKEY YOU WERE YUMMY.

Readers, my mom is beautiful.

Finishing touches on the dinner.

Finally sitting down to eat...the boys were done in no time flat. Shocker.

HOLY PLATE OF GOODNESS. Note the perfect drink with this is Dr. Pepper. AMEN.

After the meal was consumed and we were significantly sleepier than when we started, we all sat down to watch more football. In case you couldn't tell, we flippin' love football in our family. Our Skins were playing and we all settled in upstairs after a post-meal walk with Zeke & the cartwheel queen Quinn. She did 300 cartwheels. Forget Shawn Johnson; Quinn's my gymnastic hero! And don't worry, we gained all those calories we burned on our walks by having chocolate pecan pie, cheesecake, and crockpot candy watching the game on big screen.


Making fun of the lady on TV. Goobers.

Five million rounds of Catch Phrase later (OK, only five), we fell into bed in a turkey induced coma and didn't wake up for a long time. Well, I didn't at least...I got the award for last one up that morning. For two solid hours we sat around the kitchen table with our morning beverages of choice and just talked. It was so great.

Keurig iced tea = a new love.

Another walk, this time through the woods to see what the boys had been doing since they got up Friday morning. They cleared a path to the deer stand that no one would dare go up.

Crazy-looking catapillar.

A trench they built, expecting an attack from only one side.

Clark made it not even half way up. Fear of heights runs in the family.

And now I leave you with the Christmas card pictures of both our families...Waters first.

These kids are Clark and mine's best friends. I just like it's so cool that we have such a good time with our cousins. Love fest about my family: over.

We took a little bit longer to get ready (Clark and his hair are a beast), but we finally got ready.

Nobody seemed to think I needed to be told that my hair was crazy so I just stood there. 

See what I mean about the hair? Oh well. 

::sobs because my family is so beautiful::

Holiday weekends are the best, agreed? I hope your Thanksgiving was as flippin' awesome and full of good times as mine.