Two days in a row!!!

This past weekend - Andy finished his observation of the Family Court Judge here in Lexington. He really enjoyed the time he spent with this Judge, and learned a ton. I even went and sat in on an adoption so that I could see what he was talking about. It was pretty neat. Andy mainly saw divorces and custody battles. Let's just say he has an even stronger will now to never tick me off! ;) Anyway - to celebrate, or just fill up his now free time, we went to the beach at Lake Murray by our house two days in a row. It was pretty windy - but Andy and Stella still enjoyed playing in the water - a ton! I was more comfortable being the designated picture taker from the sand. Much warmer. I couldn't believe how long Stella wanted to stay out in the water. I made Andy bring her in when she started shivering. Otherwise she would have stayed out there all day. Andy was letting her "ride" the waves, and she giggled and giggled. I am glad she loves the water so much! I LOVED the beach as a young girl - and could stay out in the water all day long. I still could if I had plenty of time to get used to it. I can't just jump in anymore - but once I'm in, I don't like to get out.














Stella crawled over to make friends with a couple of kids that were playing nearby. Turns out they are in our stake. Both of the kids were trying hard to win Stella's attention. She was loving it, but also feeling a little confined when the girl kept putting her hands on Stella. She handles crazy kids pretty well though. She is gonna be a tough cookie.

Mother's Day...

So I know Mother's day has come and gone - but I wanted to at least post a picture of my sweet little Stella and I. She is currently getting 4 teeth in on the top. Two have poked through (the two on her right) and the other two are right there trying their hardest to show through out of her gums. Poor little thing is not a happy camper, but we are doing our best to help her stay comfortable. Anyway - her we are on My first official Mother's Day!


Happy (late) Mother's Day to all mothers who read this - but especially to our Mothers - whom we love very, very much. Muah - you are the best!

This last weekend, we went camping about 3 hours away at a place called Jocassee lake. It was beautiful. That is one thing about South Carolina...you never run out of beautiful places to visit. Andy has been wanting to camp for a long time now. Once I had Stella - I made a no camping rule until she was sleeping through the night. Well...now that that is finally the likely thing - we can go camping. Andy did a wonderful job of cooking, and taking care of Stella and I out in the woods. Stella really enjoyed "eating" the little pebbles that were all over the place. I had to watch her like a hawk. I couldn't really put her down, because crawling on the gravel was scraping her knees, and so my arms were tired by the end of the whole thing. We had a good time though - and next time will stay longer than just a night since it is such a ways a way.








You may notice that in many of the pictures Stella is staring off into the distance. There were two dogs at the site next to ours - and Stella is obsessed. She obviously takes after her Dad, and LOVES dogs. She is going to probably be the kind that begs for a puppy every Christmas. Everytime we got close to the dogs - her entire body would tense up and she would hold her breath and her mouth would drop wide open. She had such a good time being outside so much. So much fun in fact, that her already intense dis-like of sleep became even more apparent. She crawled around our tent for two hours while we were trying desperately to get her to bed. We did everything to try to help her see that it was time to drift off into dreamland including faking asleep ourselves. None of this worked and she wanted nothing to do with sleep when she was enjoying herself so much. At one point she was so sleepy, she was crawling around the tent with her head dragging on the floor because she had no strength left to hold it up. Shortly after this happened, we pulled her close to us, and Andy started rubbing her back, while I was rubbing her cheek and ear. This often calms her down. And sure enough, it worked this time...and she fell asleep sitting up, so we had to gently move her down to where she would be comfortable.




Andy had the chance to do a little fishing while we were there. We also went swimming in the lake. It was soooo cold - so I only got in to my waist - but Andy was flippin around all over. Stella would lift her legs all the way up as we lowered her down, because she did not want to get wet - but after a while she was addicted to the water - and kept crawling towards it.




























The lake was only recently dammed, and underneath there is an old church and cemetery where a lot of people scuba dive. Andy and I want to dive here before we leave for sure. We have never dove in a lake - because it seems kind of boring, especially after cancun, but it would be cool to go into an underground church! A little weird to see graves under water - but probably more cool than freaky.

Freedom!

Andy is oficially done with his first year of Law School! Woo hoo... so today we celebrated. We went to Harbison State Park. It is 20 minutes from our house, and it was beautiful. We will be exploring more there this summer I'm sure. Stella loved it, of course! We are proud of you Andy - and glad you get to enjoy a little freedom!

She graduated!

Well, last week Stella and I flew out to Utah to celebrate with my sis Michelle as she Graduated from BYU. WOO HOO. More posting to be done tomorrow - but here are a couple of pics...

Sorry, can't post all about it - but Andy is saying...come to bed right now! He has his last final of his first year of Law School tomorrow - so, I guess I better go. Goodnight!




P.S. Sorry some if not all of my pictures look a little odd...I have been experimenting with photoshop the past two weeks. Maybe one day I will get it right - but until then, you get to look at some pretty funny retouching! :)