Daddy's 42nd Birthday

We celebrated Daddy's 42nd birthday last Saturday (August 20th)!  The festivities started with our custom of waking up the birthday person by singing "Happy Birthday" as we enter their room.  Daddy was fast asleep so Judah got to work waking him up:

 After the song was finished, we left and Daddy reappeared on the steps a few minutes later, bright and perky!

 :)

Seth had tied some ribbon to our steps that Daddy had to break to come downstairs:

The string was conquered with little problem!!

We then sat down at the breakfast table.  Daddy entered the kitchen and said "Looks yummy" and then disappeared.  When he came back and actually sat down at the table he looked at what he was going to eat.  

"Farmers Crepes?  You guys made me Farmers Crepes?"

We all smiled and told him that they were actually frozen from when we made some for Hannah's birthday. :)  Daddy loves farmers crepes and he had originally asked for them on his birthday, but he knows how difficult they are to make, so he suggested something else.  He was very surprised to find them on the table for his birthday breakfast!

And, yes, they were good!

Just a random picture of Judah before we ate breakfast. :)

Daddy had a present on his plate, so he opened it as we ate!

The "present" ended up being something else for his birthday breakfast:  Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts! :)

The Pop-tarts were amazing, if you're wondering. ;)

We also had pear-raspberry sauce and hash-browns for breakfast!

All in all, the breakfast was absolutely delicious!

After breakfast, Daddy and Caleb went off to work and the rest of us did something (I don't remember what now! :).

That night, Daddy and Caleb returned and we had his "official" family birthday party.

Daddy's present stood in the living room waiting to be opened after dinner! :)

We had grape juice mixed with seltzer for our drink.

(We had picked concord grapes, pears, figs, and apples at a lady's house on Monday.  We made grape jam and juice with the grapes! :)

For dinner we had chicken 'n wine sauce (minus the wine), rice, green beans, and buttermilk rolls!

After dinner, Daddy opened his big present which contained many smaller presents.

Reading his cards...

Daddy got some of his favorite chips from Trader Joes...he (and most of us) loves these! :)

And you can never go wrong with chocolate, so he got some of that, too. :)

 Judah decided to go upside down as we watched Daddy open his presents!

Clif Bars from Trader Joes...

 

He also received some yummy mini peanut butter cups from T.J.'s.  I don't like peanut butter but I tried one and it was really good! :)

 

Daddy's most treasured birthday present was probably the 8 lb. weights.  He has wanted them for a few months and now he has them!  He uses them when he cellercises

Now all his presents were opened (he also received some books early a few weeks ago), so we went and sang "Happy Birthday".

We meant to get Daddy's icing to be green but the pudding in the icing made it more of an electric yellow/green.  Interesting, right?! :)

I guess we were a little too loud! :-/  :)

(Thanks to Mama for these photos!)

Blowing out all three candles!

 

Daddy's ice cream cake consisted of a layer of Oreo Blast ice cream, then chocolate chips drizzled with Magic Shell.  The next layer was some home made chocolate cake with Cool Whip icing on top. :)

So that was Daddy's 42nd birthday!   We love you SO much Daddy!  Thanks for all you are...

Love,

Kimber and your family

P.S. - Please pray for Hurricane Irene to not hit the OBX.  We're supposed to go on vacation this coming Saturday!  Please pray hard!!!

Father Daughter Retreat 2011- At Callaway Gardens - Part 2!

Lets see.....where was I? "We DID get there...We SAW the sign...And got lost...all coming up on my next post about......"  The Father Daughter Retreat!!! Of course! How could I forget! :D  Well starting off I'm going to show you the picture that I got when I missed the "Welcome to Georgia" sign-

This picture has not been edited at all...no cropping, nothing.  All Glory to Christ Jesus!! :)

 I think that is a pretty good picture since the truck was moving!  And I'm so glad that the Lord timed it just right for me to get the 2 boats in line and almost perfectly in the center (not to mention pretty well focused!)!!

ON THE ROAD!

Well, I won't show the "dead end" sign again, but I will continue with the story! ;) We got closer and closer to the destination point and I was trying not to get overly excited and so tried to distract myself by taking pictures! Whether it worked or not I'm not really sure but we eventually saw the Callaway Gardens sign and I put the camera away to peer anxiously ahead! 8-)  

LOST-

We drove one way for awhile and then didn't see anything about Callaway Gardens and so we went another way until we saw a large Callaway Gardens entrance sign.  We drove in and followed the signs that said "Guest Check-In".  Daddy was thinking all the while...This isn't right! While I just told him to keep following them! :) We ended up at The Lodge and Spa (Part of Callaway)...but we were trying to get to Mountain Creek Inn at Callaway!  So daddy went in and asked directions and they told him to go 1 mile or so back on the road that we were first on until we came to another entrance.

  

The Lodge and Spa entrance!

After we found the correct entrance we checked in, got our books that we would use for the retreat....

 

..and went to our room! 

A lady offered to take a picture of daddy and I in front of this real-looking poster board! Also, this picture was taken inside the area where you check in! :)

We were lodging up on top of a hill a nice walk away from the conference center.  We got 1st level (thankfully not ground for some reasons that I will explain later)!

Pictures at the correct entrance :) -

Like I said- I didn't edit any of these so I'm sorry if they are not top notch! :)

GO DADDY!! :D

A handsome picture of a handsome father! :)

~Always leaving things in a good spirit!

A fish pond beside the conference building

Of course I took a picture of a moss covered stone! :P (details, details! :)

When I took the above photo, I had just finished taking a picture of the whole pond when I noticed the "frog" on a rock.  

So I said, (knowing beforehand that it was a stone) "Daddy look! A frog!" to which he replied, "Lexi, it's a STONE. :)"...I laughingly responded with, "I knew that! :)" and truthfully I did! :)

Our "Apartment"

 

A view off of the first level where our room was.

Our room - #450!

Stairway up to (our ;) apartment building.

 Daddy unpacking!

OUR ROOM!! (veerrrrryyy comfortable beds by the way :)

While we were going from truck to room and back again we met a father and daughter - Named Hannah and Stephen Yerger.  Mr. Yerger was talking to daddy about bed-bugs..ugghh!  He said that when one of those little pests gets on your belongings and is taken home it costs 15K to get them out of your house!  Thank Jesus we didn't bring any home! :) The Yergers ended up being only a few rooms down from us, so I saw them (or one of them) every day! After we packed everything into our room, daddy and I decided to go sight seeing. :) They had beautiful grounds and I kept on saying "Oh, It's soo pretty" and "Beautiful!"...plus many more exclamations of delight! :D  I have decided to share some of the awe-striking scenery with you! ~Oh and be prepared I'll be saying beautiful a bunch (I'll try to limit it though- just for you. :) ~

A Beautiful Sunlit Dogwood Blossom

 Azaleas!! Oh my goodness! The light was so perfect and daddy made sure I took sun-lit photos!

 Beautiful

 Stunning azalea buds

 The red!  So dazzling!

 The pure and spotless white of these sunlit blossoms was unbeatable! 

 

A Daffodil

A purple Rhododendron 'Koromo Shikibu' 

 Red-bud florets!

 This area looked rather deserted and it was like no-one came there any more.  It was a quaint little place though with a lake on one side and a little man-made pond thing on the other (as shown above).

 Daddy took this picture of this towering pine!  At the base it was enveloped in a magnolia tree/bush thing.

 Tulips!  They were every where as were many, many other types of flowers!

 Close-up on a tulip stigma!

A red tulip

 

Delicate flower blossoms gazing down upon the turf below

Now entering Mr. Cason's Vegetable Garden!

The entrance to the gardens!

Photo Credit- Scott Wassenberg :)

 I absolutely ADORE this picture!!  It is SO STUNNING!!

 Another hanging flower

This was at Mr. Cason's Vegetable Garden..I took pictures of the gardens just for mom! :D

God has such amazing displays of His majesty!  He uses His creation to prove His beautiful love towards man-kind!

 I would run all over with the camera and request daddy to "Stand here!" or "Could you stand there!?" Thanks for being my model dad! :)

 Besides being my model, daddy, as a landscaper, would find the best looking flowers for me to capture!

 Tulips, tulips, everywhere!

 Isn't it breathtaking how delicately layered each-and-every petal of caellias are!?

 

All of the most dazzling blossoms were under the shade of this bush, so I couldn't get the sun's natural light to enhance my picture! :( Still beautiful none-the-less! :)

 The "Snow-ball" tree was so unique! :D

 A eye-catching blossom growing on a stately bush at Callaway Gardens!

Such a pretty little overhang!

 I hope y'all are not tired of all these pictures of flowers! :)

These tulips were very awe-striking in full sun!  They were extremely vibrant to look at!

 I LOVE the colors in this picture- So very beautiful!

(: Cute...little...flower :)


That's it for now! I wouldn't want to over-kill on the flower pictures all at once, now would I?! ;)

Coming up next...more sight seeing...the Cason memorial church...games on the lawn...and maybe, just maybe, a little more! :D

Have a wonderful week!

His Princess,
Alexis ♥