Veterans Day

Bath Abbey - Bath, England

Beautiful Bath

We recently returned from our first European Vacation! Our trip began in Rome, Italy (more pictures to come) and ended with dear friends in Bath, England. You may recognize Ros and Stuart from our wedding. They are great friends of the Lang family and traveled many miles to celebrate our special day. It was great to be able to drop in with them.

The abbey in the center of town hosts tower tours each hour that allow you to climb the very narrow and winding steps all the way to the top of the church. There are some really great views from the top.

Georgian architecture is seen throughout the city's numerous crescents. The most famous, Landsdown Crescent, is seen above.

That's a lot of padding!

Pub Run

We participated in the 4th Annual Spring Sting Pub Run a couple of weeks ago. Yes, you are reading that correctly, we ran from bar to bar. The pub run was started to celebrate a friend of ours who was stung by a sting ray and fully recovered. Once she was able to move around again, they decided what better way to celebrate than to drink and run, just because we can.

Each leg of the run is about a mile with a one leg where you just have to hop across the square, as seen above.

Spring Has Sprung

Even Atlanta

Even Atlanta gets a little snow!

However, the city just about shuts down and all the bread and milk immediately leave the shelves.

A Little Downhill

During our time in New York, we traveled to Watertown for a little downhill skiing. The resort was small and the slops limited, but it worked well for us considering I had not skied in almost 10 years and Steven was a first timer. To my surprise, it came back to me almost immediately. I was still wedging my skies at the end of the day, but I contribute that more to fear of injuring myself than ability. Not sure what happened, but I definitely had less fear back in the days.

Steven took a two hour lesson and can be seen above with his instructor. He ended up working much harder than me or Amie as he had to side step up the mountain only to ski back down for about eight seconds. He did take one trip down the big slope at the end of his lesson with the instructor. As he would attest, those instructors are great skiers and it is amazing how they keep up with you and ski backwards with you when necessary.

Now I just have to talk him into skiing with me again!

Winter Adventures

We thought (well maybe a little more me than Steven) that it would be fun to travel to upstate New York for some winter fun after the Christmas holidays. It was quite cold and way more snow than either of us had seen in a while. We ventured to Lake Placid, got in a little skiing, and rang in the New Year at the Hoot Owl in Canton (more pictures to come later).

Steven can be seen above modeling Amie's fabulous ear muffs.

Our first experience venturing out onto a frozen lake (Mirror Lake in Lake Placid).

It was a wonderful trip, although Steven has vowed not to need another snow and cold experience like that again for about 10 years, while I could do it again tomorrow.

We are now home and after a slight snow dusting of the city, it has almost come to a halt. Lots of ice on the roads and very little milk and bread. A very different scenario in comparison to the northern states.

Lots of Golf

Being that I am so far behind, I am going to start with Thanksgiving and go through the New Year. We have had some great times with family and friends over the past month and I hope to share it all.

We were able to get a lot of golf in over the Thanksgiving holiday. There is an inexpensive Par 3 course not far from the folks. This was my first attempt at a full course and I really enjoyed playing.

My first par hole!

Playing Dress Up

I would probably say that dressing up for Halloween or any other kind of themed party is one of my least favorite things. It may steam from my fear of acting and the idea that you take on the persona of someone else. Steven absolutely loves it. Funny how we are so different.

We attended a party on Halloween eve and pulled our costumes right out of the closet. As several people said, we were not really out of our element considering that they fit our personalities and past activities. At least we dressed up and to my happiness did not spend money on unnecessary costumes. Yes, except for the glasses and the mullet, Steven actually wears that gear out into the woods!

We visited the nieces on Halloween and helped to pass out candy!

Pumpkin Carving

This was our second year spending an evening prior to Halloween carving pumpkins. The patterns require a lot of attention and effort and so we chose to share one pumpkin this year. Last year we were a little sick of carving by the time we finished.

It is pretty amazing what you can do with a pattern. I remember seeing these kind of pumpkins when I was a kid. I was always so impressed by the designs and figured that some really talented artists must have contributed. Then you grow up and find out how easy it is. Our pumpkin is on the last row, second from the left.

Rehearsal Dinner Movie

Steven and I put together a little video for the rehearsal dinner and here it is in case you did not get enough the first time around.

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GEL-oh, thank you for the posting suggestion!

Addison Kathleen

I became an aunt again on Monday, May 18th. Addison Kathleen was born Monday morning at 11:12 AM. She weighed in at 6 pounds 14.8 ounces and measured 20 inches long. She is absolutely precious and will be called Addie for short.

Her sister, Hannah Marie, is now a year and seven months and is developing quite a personality. Everyone is thinking that Leigh Leigh will be much easier than Leigh Anna and keep trying to plant that seed with her. I must say that it makes me smile every time I hear it and would love to have another family use the nickname.

Riding the Ducks

The entire time that I was in Philadelphia I wanted to ride the Ducks. I finally got the chance when I was visiting Kathleen in transit to a conference that I was attending outside of D.C. We went to Baltimore for the day and decided to ride the Ducks. It was a fun journey that gave you a taste of the city's history on land and of course by boat. It was a good time, but I am not sure that I would do it again. I think part of the excitement was lost because we only had about 7 people on our tour.

Dogwood Festival

The Dogwood Festival takes place each year in Atlanta in Piedmont Park, which is right in the heart of the city. Steven and I spent a beautiful Saturday afternoon looking through the hundreds of vendor tents and eating some good ole food includling a funnel cake.

The open space in this picture is called the oval. It has several soccer and baseball fields that can be rented and used for league play. Our kickball team spent the first part of the season playing here. You have great views of the city skyline while you are playing.

Happy Birthday Steven!!

Ok, so I am just a little behind in posting what has been happening. Steven celebrated his 31st birthday at the end of April. We went out to dinner with a group of friends and then went bowling afterwards. Steven showed us all up with his skills. He was in a league a while back and looks like quite a pro when he steps up to the lane.

Engagement Photos on Tybee Island II

LA Goes To LA

Visiting Venice Beach with Amie

This was a store front on the way home from the beach. How cool!

Engagement Photos on Tybee Island

Here are just a few pictures from our photo shoot with the wedding photographer. There are so many to choose from. I will have to put some more up in another post.

Wedding Shower

We had our first wedding shower at the end of February. Two of Steven's fraternity brothers and their wives hosted the shower. It was a couples shower and so Steven was able to attend this one with me. We had a bunch of little kids at the shower since a number of his brothers have just had children. Steven's niece, Hannah, is getting so big!

Dusty and Jennifer traveled in from Augusta to hang out with us and attend the shower.

We got a lot of wonderful gifts and had a great time hanging out with everyone. You can see us above with a set of our everyday dishes.

What is happening in this picture?