Need a Lift?

A few weeks ago we, again, drove down to Lake Eufala in southeast Alabama to stay at Brad and Lindsey's lake house. The house was owned by Brad's father before his death. We have had a few opportunities to stay with them this summer and do not pass up the opportunity, if at all possible. We had no idea, on the 3 hour drive to Eufala, that this weekend would be so memorable.

We arrived late Friday night and spent a few hours catching up with our hosts. We then hit the bed in anticipation of a busy day of water skiing, knee boarding, wake boarding, and riding around on Saturday. Saturday morning was beautiful and after waking up and putting the boat in the water, we were off.

Cayce, our resident athlete, hops up on her skis on the first attempt and even has been making great progress on slalom skiing.

After a few attempts by me to ski, we decided to head in for lunch and recharge. After lunch and a short nap by Preston, we were back on the water. Lindsey decided to go first and was tearing it up on one ski. Then she switched to the knee board and attempted a few unsuccessful 360s. She started to get tired and I decided I was going to give it a try. I got in the water and was ready to go, but when Brad tried to crank the boat, it was dead. We were adrift. After many attempts we were trying to put our heads together about what to do and trying to stay away from the rocks on the shore. We eventually drifted into a small cove and called the sea tow boat.

One small problem entered our minds as we sat and waited on our rescuer. Dark clouds were moving toward us...fast. I checked the radar on my phone and realized that we were sitting in the path of a pretty fierce looking storm. So, being the P90Xer that I am, I jumped out of the boat with the ski rope and swam toward a dock, pulling the boat as I went. When I reached the dock, I was able to jump up on it and pull the boat the rest of the way over and get it tied down. Amazingly, on the dock, we found a battery charger. Brad hooked it up to the boat, but after letting it charge, the boat didn't turn over. At this same time, the sky opened up. It started raining so hard. The lake house that owned the dock we were on was vacant, at the time, and Cayce, Lindsey and Preston were able to wait on the screened in porch.

As they were dry and warm, the sea tow pulled up and hooked up to Brad's boat. They towed us back to the boat ramp. It continued to pour down on us the whole time and Brad and I had a good laugh. We caught a ride back to the lake house and picked up the truck and trailer. After retrieving Cayce, Lindsey and Preston from the camp we returned to the boat and were able to get it on the trailer.

We were so thankful that we were not out in the middle of the lake when we went adrift. It would have been a whole different experience with an infant who probably would have been crying. We are also so thankful that no one was at the vacant lake house because I don't know how someone would have reacted, given the events that were going on.


On Sunday, everything was back to normal. Before we left the lake the sun came out and we were able to dry out the boat. As always, when we spend time with Brad and Lindsey we come away with a story to tell.

My friend, Mary

In late July, my friend from Austin came for a visit. Mary and I became friends at church in Austin, and we have kept in touch over the past year. I took Friday off from work. We spent the day eating sushi, watching a movie, and eating dinner on the back porch. On Saturday, we went to the local farmers market, Pepper Place, then went for pedicures. Jason cooked us a fantastic dinner that night. We had seared Ahi Tuna, grilled asparagus, and spaghetti squash. We played a game of Trivial Pursuit, and Mary kicked our butts in a game that lasted about 30 minutes. On Sunday, Mary's grandparents met her in Birmingham to pick her up on the way to the beach. Thank you, Mary, for a fun girls weekend!

On another weekend this summer, we took a trip to Hot-lanta with Brad, Lindsey, Matthew and Brittney. On Saturday we went to a Braves game where we saw Chipper and the boys take on Johan Santana and the NY Mets.



After tailgating for a couple of hours, we headed into the game. It was an awesome afternoon. The weather was perfect and so was the company.

Lindsey was on the JumboTron, Matthew and Brad threw the speedball faster than me and Brad and I were finally beaten at Ladderball.

On Sunday, we ate at a famous burger joint in Atlanta called the Vortex. They were featured on Man vs. Food and Cayce is the one who wanted to go. Matthew was the most adventurous of anyone by ordering the Elvis burger. It was a 1/2lb burger with peanut butter, fried bananas and bacon.

On Monday, Cayce and I took the day off from work and joined Matthew and Brittney at a Six Flags water park. There we some great rides and the weather was, again, perfect.

Ihfe Invasion

Karl, Kaley, Gabe and Hallie Ihfe came for a visit the week after July 4th. We met them in Austin and we became great friends. Karl and I spend several hours a week encouraging and challenging each other over the phone.

As always, we had a great time with them. Karl and Kaley are the type of people who you can spend 4 hours together and it feels like 4 minutes. When living in Austin, Cayce and I would regularly end our visits with the Ihfes at midnight or later. It was much more of the same during the visit here.

Cayce and I were amazed at how old Gabe and Hallie are getting. Gabe has started school this fall and Hallie is a very precocious 3 year old. During the trip we were audience to Halie's unique personality and showmanship. At dinner one night, Hallie did her best impression of a waitress by standing at the head of our table and taking all of our orders. Gabe has grown into quite a young man. He is smart, a strong swimmer and is very talented video game player.

During the weekend, we spent some time at the pool, ate pizza at the famous Davenport's Pizza in Mountain Brook, took walks, Karl and I ran, skipped rocks in the river, took a roller coaster ride in the rain, and laughed a lot.

It was such a treat to share our home with the Ihfe's. They are such a sweet family. We miss them tremendously and look forward to seeing them again soon.

Celebrating July 4th at the beach!

Well, it's been too long since we've posted, but we wanted to share our summer with you. Back in July, we were asked to go to the beach with Brad, Lindsey, and Preston. Brad and Lindsey go with some of their friends each year, and this year they asked if we wanted to come along. It was a gorgeous weekend. Jason had never been to the Gulf. I think he was pleasantly impressed. The water was beautiful, the sand was beautiful, the sun was pretty but hot, and the experience was a blast.

We arrived in Gulf Shores/Orange Beach on July 3rd and made it out to the beach for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We found some shade underneath a pier, and Preston was pumped! As we looked around, we realized we might be the only ones who didn't come prepared for our July 4th day in the sun. So, Jason and I left for Walmart. We picked up a pop up tent and headed back out to the beach.

It was EXTREMELY hot on July 4th. Preston had enough of the heat and feel asleep in this chair under our tent for about 3 hours in the afternoon. We took turns watching over him. Jason and Brad setup Ladderball and played for hours with other beachgoers. Lindsey and I caught up, read, and enjoyed being together.

Later that night, we watched the fireworks from our condo balcony. We also got our own private concert with an up and coming artist, Brad Garth Brooks.

Thanks so much, Brad and Lindsey! We loved the trip!