Pirate Party!

So this birthday was a big one for Andy. So only fitting that I have a HUGE post on this blog for him. Andy turned the big 3-0 this year and if you should know anything about my husband it is that he loves all things pirate. So obviously I would throw him a pirate party at the lake. Here are some of the decorations complete with eye patches and earrings. I thought everyone would love the eye patches. Nope, the earrings were the big hit!

To start this party off people jumped on in the lake. The day started out really hot and it was so nice to be able to float around in the water.

I love this picture of Sydney (love that tongue) and her Aunt Emily. Sydney was a trooper all day. She had no nap, never cried and probably would have stayed in the lake until she pruned. She is quite the little fish.

Then it was time to walk the plank. Here the guys are talking about jumping off the top of the dock.

It is scary up there. I refuse to jump off the top and I guess the guys (Chris, Seth and Andy) thought that some extra support from their friends would make the jump easier, so they held hands.

Here they go!

This picture below not only shows you how high it is, but my favorite part is near the bottom right side. That is little Reece. She wanted to jump off the dock too, only her parents had her jump off the lower one! Here she is after her first jump and heading back the edge of the dock to jump some more. She would have done this all day I think.

Then the guys did a long jump. Here is Andy (the winner as determined by his sweet wife!)

And H2, Jeff. He came a close second...

Then the guys decided to take to the water and go tubing. Here they are getting ready.

We made sure they were covered in sunscreen. (Seth)

Chris and Ben in action, sort of...

There were lots of people there all day. We tried to get everyone but some people were missed, so sorry. Here are a few...

Me and my Mama

Seth, Katie and beautiful baby doll Emery. She even let me hold her later in the day for like 10 whole minutes before she realized that mom and dad were not around. It was awesome!

The Connells: Chris and Julie

The Purnells: Hunter, Emily and Liam

The Clemmons #1: Michael and Emily

The Clemmons # 2: Drew, Allison and super swimmer Sydney

This little one has stolen my heart. She is such a happy baby and lets me hold her until my heart is full. This is little Hadley (Staci and Ben's daughter) and she is too cute for words. Her double dimples melt me.

Jeff and Danielle showed up and gave Andy this awesome shirt. Andy loves all things pirate but he also loves a well known coffee shop called Starbucks. This shirts combines the two. It is a play on the Starbucks logo and it says Arrbucks! Really funny and Andy loved it!

Here is part of the group. Some people (with little ones) had to scoot on out but here is most everyone that was there. Thanks so much to everyone from coming and making Andy's day so fun and wonderful.

A big shout out to Jeff and Emily. Emily didn't make many pictures because she was graciously taking them for me. She is awesome, I know. Thanks you two for helping out so much. I could not have done it without you. Your friendship means the world to Andy and I and I hope you know that. Jeff and Emily are all the way on the far left.

Finally, the reason that we were there. Andy, my pirate, I love you more than you know. I am so lucky to have you in my life. Thanks for being so wonderful and giving us a good reason to get together and hang out at the lake.

So I am totally up for doing this again (if Andy's grandmother will let us)! Who is in??

love always,

Guess who is 30!!!

Andy is!Happy Birthday Babe!

I love you so much and hope that your birthday is wonderful!

For my birthday Andy helped my qualify for the Boston Marathon.

That is just how he is, always giving to other people. He is always willing to help out anyone that needs anything and never asks for anything in return. I am so lucky to have him as my husband. I know I drive him crazy, but I know that he loves me and loves my craziness!

So I ask that you picture me with my best singing voice!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday dear Andy!

Happy birthday to you!

I love you!

love always,

MT

the long road home

Laney and I left HHI yesterday to make the long road home. We left our sweet Andy at the beach to enjoy one more day of fun in the sun. We headed back to our home sweet home in good ole K-town. Laney was, as usual, the perfect princess puppy on the way back. She was calm and slept most of the time. We did, however, get a bit bored... [please ignore the no make-up, stain on shirt and just look at how sweet that puppy is in the background]

Here she thinks that her mom has started to loose her mind.

Yep gone. But you have to love that sunlight.

She does not know what to do with me so she just stares at me.

The beautiful sunset. Almost home!!!!

love always,

SUN DOWN!

So Jeffy emailed some friends last week to see if anyone was interested in heading down to Sun Down in the City. The only brave soles that went were Jeff, Em, Chris and myself. We did meet our dear friends Seth, Kate, and sweet, sweet Emery for dinner before we headed downtown. Dinner was great and as it turns out Seth, Kate and Emery were really glad that they did not go with us. It was crazy and there were tons and tons of people. It would have been tough with a babe. Here is the crew just after we got out of the car. Notice that everyone is *ahem* not sweaty!
This was the mood of the night. So excited to be going to Sun Down!!! Knoxville better watch out!

Me and my bestie!

Now Jeff specifically told us to use the restroom before we left the restaurant because we did not want to have to use the bathrooms downtown. This was minutes after we parked the car and Jeff and Chris are running to use the bathroom at the hotel.

This was when the crowd was not so crowed. It got a lot worse. Emily and I had lost Jeff and Chris at this point.

You can see the stage to the left. I made the executive decision to walk as close to the stage as we could get because I wanted to see the band. Looking back, not the best decision I have ever made. The crowd got so bad that there were times that all you were breathing in was hot air and bad body odor. It was hot, smelly and sweaty. Sound like fun yet???

Jeff was our photo creeper of the night! You can see half of Chris' face too! Haha

Creeping again.

This is my favorite picture of the night. I just think that it is soo funny. I need to get better at taking the self photos. To be honest (I know that she will not think so) I think this is a great picture of Emily. She looks so relaxed and pretty. Love you Em!

Here is one of 2 pictures I got of the stage. We made it halfway to the stage and decided to turn back. It got to crowded (read that as: you have never been closer to strangers in your life) and hot and apparently there was no exit on the other side. I think that Sun Down needs to rethink their layout.

Finally some group pictures! Chris was excited to be my date for the night, can't you tell!

Not sure what the guys were doing in this picture. Apparently Em and I did not get the sunglasses memo! PS doesn't Emily look so short. I laughed so hard at that.

Finally it was time to leave. We loaded the car and headed home.

A few notes on the night.

1. I will only go back to Sun Down while school is still in session. Way too many high school kids.
2. Only going to go back when Andy is with me, some guy tried to push his way through and I had to defend myself.

3. Probably a better idea to go when it is a less known band, Blues Traveler was a hot ticket apparently.

4. Bring more people and come early. This is something to be enjoyed by a large group in an area that you have roped off with chairs!

I did have a blast with Jeff, Em and Chris. I was a fun impromptu evening with lots of memories!

love always,