Spring Break 2012

Ok, so I obviously don't get a spring break anymore. However, Dane, Beth, and Corey all got one the same week. That's pretty awesome considering they all three go to grad school in different states. I was fortunate enough to get off of work for a week, so we headed west to Arkansas. We had a wonderful time with family.

 Julie and Sam came over on Sunday and we did a little reunion planning. Mom and Julie are planning the reunion for both the Webb and the Twilley family reunions this summer.

 Here is Ross hiding under the side table. He sat and played with us most of the time, but he sometimes needed his Ross time.

 I love this picture of the men watching tv. Love them.

 Beth and Ross.

 Dane

 Sunday night my friends Callie and Andrea came over. It was wonderful to see them. I hadn't seen either of them since August. That is too long for friends like these girls.

 Ross loved Andrea.

 Monday night we ate at the Burger Center in Melbourne. My favorite restaurant of all time. Seriously.

 Tuesday we did some shopping with Mom. Mom took off work Tuesday and Thursday to visit with us. It was too much fun. We went to Sonic!! There are no Sonics in NC. At least not anywhere near the Triangle. I had no idea how attached I was to Sonic.

 Tuesday night was Corey's birthday. We ate at El Acapulo in Cave City with both sides of their family. The food was great and it was fun to see everyone at one time. I love spending time with Dane's family.

Reid and George

 With Mert an Vaughn.

 The birthday boy with Aunt Nancy. I love the "Cave City" words on the wall.

 Wednesday we visited with friends in Conway. I ate lunch with my dear friends and mentors Charlotte and Leah. I am so blessed to have both of those women in my life. We also visited with some of former parishioners and caught up with them. Saturday night we had a little Whole Hog BBQ at with our college friends. They don't have BBQ in NC. There is something on the menu that says BBQ, but don't be fooled.

 Very special girls.

I stopped taking pictures on Wednesday. The one major event that I did not have my camera for was my Mamaw's 80th birthday party!! It was at my cousins Deanna and Ryan's house. It was a great night with family.

 Unfortunately my Papaw has been the in hospital/nursing home since January and he went back in the hospital Friday night when we first got home. We were able to visit with him several times and it was good to spend some time with him.

Spring Break 2012 was a blessing. Time with family and friends, much missed Sonic and BBQ, and a road trip with my sweet husband. 

Life.is.good.

Beautiful Saturday in February.

 We have had a great weekend.  Friday night I watched the movie The Vow with some of my girlfriends and we grabbed some yogurt after the movie. Dane visited his friend Zach at the coffee shop where Zach works in Raleigh.

Yesterday we enjoyed a beautiful sunny day with highs in upper 60s. We ate breakfast with some wonderful friends at 10:30 at our favorite Durham restaurant. Foster's Market. The owner, Sara, writes cookbooks. We bought Angie a cookbook for Christmas because we love the food so much and we thought the Womacks would enjoy trying out the recipes.

 One of the great things about Foster's is that they have an entire front yard area with picnic tables and adirondack chairs. The weather was so warm that I took my jacket off.

 More of the front porch area.

Our friends Mike and Vail brought their sweet dog Topper out for the morning. He got lots of attention and even got to mingle with the other dogs. 

After brunch we headed to Target to get the groceries. We made it home around 3 pm and we decided that the weather was so nice that we should head out to the tennis court. I haven't played tennis in a very long time. It was hard to get back into the swing, but it was fun. We discovered that we needed new tennis balls so we ended up buying some last night after dinner. After playing tennis, we took a walk around West campus. There are great old houses that have been restored surrounding west campus. I had never walked the path and it turned out to be very interesting.

For dinner we went to Red Lobster to spend our gift cards that my parents got us for Christmas and my sister got us for our anniversary. Yum. We even had the stuffed mushrooms for appetizers. Nice. ;) After dinner we watched THREE episodes of our favorite show - Friday Night Lights. We are now on the 5th and final season. I am going to be so sad when the show is over. I'm glad that our friends Merritt and Adam got us hooked.

This morning we went to New Creation UMC for church. It really does feel like our new church home now. I am thankful for that. Part of the service is in Spanish so we are learning a little Spanish too. One of the songs that we always sing is really beautiful and it ends with Danos La Paz which means "Grant us Thy peace." We have spent the rest of the day taking a nap, cleaning the bathroom (Dane!), and working on gathering up our tax information while watching the Duke vs. Boston College game.

We are very excited that we are headed home to Arkansas in TWO WEEKS. We are driving from NC and stopping in Nashville to pick up my sister who has Spring Break the same week!! :) We also found out this weekend that Corey is coming home too!!! I cannot wait to spend some much needed time with our family and friends.

Here's to a much needed weekend of fun!

2012 Updates

I'm getting behind on updating this blog. January's weather was very mild here in NC. We had several days in the 60s. It has recently turned cold, but no snow yet.

Beth came to visit us the last weekend in January. Unfortunately I did not get any good pictures. We did get some good food and we were able to spend some time together. I love time with my dear sister.

Dane and I watched the Super Bowl at Zac and Karen's house with some of our other friends from Div School. 

Dan, Raygan, Allan, Christina, and Tim

Jason and Jenny (sitting on the floor) and Zac and Karen

I think that the biggest thing that has happened in the last month is that Dane and I started going to the gym after work every day. Tomorrow it will be 5 weeks. Dane read somewhere that if you can do something for 5 weeks it becomes a life change. I think that means we made it! We talked about making this important life change when we were in the Outer Banks. I am so glad we stuck with it!

We think we have finally found a church home while we are here in Durham -New Creation UMC. The church is a racially and culturally inclusive faith community and is located in the heart of Durham.

I asked Dane if there was anything that he wanted to remember from the last month. He said that we need a picture of the Duke win against UNC. Austin Rivers made a 3 at the buzzer and Duke won at UNC.

Here it is, the game winning shot. :)

 

Dane picked these before a freeze a couple of nights ago. I think they look beautiful in our kitchen next to my favorite picture of my Gran. I keep the picture of her sitting next to my grandfather and aunt in her kitchen above my kitchen sink. I treasure the days I spent in her home and in her kitchen. I also have the apron she is wearing in this picture hanging in my kitchen.

Outer Banks Fourth Anniversary Trip

For our fourth anniversary Dane and I went to Nag's Head in the Outer Banks for the weekend. I worked Friday night, we stayed up late Friday night watching the Razorbacks win the Cotton Bowl (WPS!!), and then we woke up at 8 am Saturday and headed to Nag's Head. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive from our house.

The weather was perfect on Saturday. Low 60s, warm, comfortable. We were blessed with a great day to walk on the beach.

 ...but it wasn't quite warm enough for me to go barefoot. ;)

 We went to this great Pier. Jennette's Pier was rebuilt in 2011. It is a beautiful pier that you can pay to fish off of as well as rent for parties, weddings, etc.

Jennette's Pier

Dane picked our Bed and Breakfast and it was an excellent choice. The First Colony Inn was first built in 1932. It has the traditional OBX wood siding as well as a private walkway to the beach. In the summer they have beach chairs available. Breakfast includes eggs, bacon, biscuits, yogurt, croissants, bagels, cereal...

  

I loved the old tiny pieces of tile in the bathroom.

We loved the beautiful cabinet for storage and the TV.

We visited the Bodie Island lighthouse on Saturday. The lighthouse is beautiful, but it is currently waiting for funding for repairs after Hurricane Irene.

This was over by a pond with all kinds of wildlife and photographers taking pictures of the wildlife. I wish I would have taken a picture of the photographers, but we felt like we had to be super quiet..

Dane found a great restaurant - Tortuga's Lie for dinner Saturday night. We sat next to a guy who lived on the island his entire life, in fact his parents and grandparents lived there as well. We had an appetizer that was pieces of fish fried in a delicious sauce. It was definitely the best food we had.

Sunday we drove down the coast to Cape Hatteras. I remember my mom and Gran telling me stories about Cape Hatteras from when my mom was a little girl. It was amazing to be there.

Coast Guard! - Kevin Costner (The Guardian) anyone?!

Beaches at Hatteras were gorgeous as well.

They were the opposite of manicured as it is a National Seashore.

This is the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. The stripes are diagonal (Bodie's are horizontal) and the light circles every 7.5 seconds. It is in use today even with today's GPS systems, and is visible up to 20 miles. There were two National Park Volunteers that taught us this information ;). 

We did not get to climb the lighthouse as it was closed for the season, but we went into the base .

Houses that the lightkeeper (on the right) and assistants (left) lived in. 

Wildlife. I kept my distance. I have had bad experiences with giant ocean birds.

 

We had lunch at Breakwater restaurant. I had a crab cake sandwich. Yes, I know that crabs come from Maryland and Alaska. Dane had a shrimp sandwich.

Kiteboarding is extremely popular in the area. There is a local company Kitty Hawk Kite Company that supplies the kites. The water is absolutely freezing and the kiteboarders wear wet suits.

We had dinner Sunday night at Kelly's Restaurant in Nag's Head.

First Colony Inn at Night.

One fun thing in OBX is that you can drive on the beach. Who knew?! 

Thanks to my awesome amazing husband for planning such a fun weekend. I had a wonderful time, even better than I imagined. Thank you for all of the meals you have cooked, laundry and cleaning you have done, and overall love and support you have given me while you were on Christmas break. Thanks for taking me to places that I've always wanted to visit. Next on the list: Beaufort, NC.