First Day of School

Ready for her first day of school in 3K

Making a meal for Mommy

Her teacher, Mrs. Wilder

Playing with the doll house

Playing dress-up with a friend

8/13/09: Today we went to Sara Kate's 3K class to meet her teacher & to take her supplies. She loved playing with the doll house & kitchen in the classroom. She is already calling her teacher "her favorite". I think she is going to have fun this year! Her first full day is next Tuesday. We are very excited!

Beach Trip - July 2009

"Arggg!" (In these two pictures she's pretending to be a pirate)

Loving the beach!

Finding beautiful shells

Searching for sea creatures at the island with mommy & daddy

Having fun in the kayak

The fiddler crabs

Riding the waves with daddy

Taking a sunset horseride along the beach

Two of her favorite people

8/4/09: This year we went to Cape San Blas for our annual family beach trip. It was fantastic! Even though the locals said it was their "busy" season, we were often the only ones on the beach. There are no high rises, only homes, in this area that is referred to as part of the "Forgotten Coast". It is very quaint with only 1 grocery store (the Piggly Wiggly) and only local shops and restaurants. Cell phone service was horrible, which was great! We thoroughly enjoyed beach life while on vacation. For dad's birthday we treated him to a horseback ride on the beach with mom. We were very excited when the people leading the ride said that Sara Kate could go too. She rode half the way with Papa and the other half with JuJu. Mom said that Sara Kate got so still and quiet she thought she was going to fall asleep! She is still talking about those horses. I don't think that will be the last ride for her!

Karl and I took Sara Kate kayaking in the state park. We kayaked a few miles over to an island. We found sea urchins, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs & lots of shells. But, my favorite thing we saw were the fiddler crabs. I was a little obsessed with them! When we were paddling we saw these little dots on the shore. As we approached the island they starting moving. We realized the "dots" were thousands of these little crabs. It was quite a sight!

Sara Kate is still a water bug. In years past she was a little timid around the waves in the ocean, but this year she loved riding the waves in her float. We always have a great time with her at the beach & this year was no exception!

More pictures from Chattanooga....

Taking a pic with the trolley's conductor

Ringing the bell

Riding on the trolley at the Chattanooga Choo Choo

Taking her suitcase to our train car/hotel room

Big smiles as we were waiting for our dinner on the train car pizza restaurant

More pictures from Rock City (below)

On the Swinging Bridge (It was really hard to get this picture as I was swinging! =) )

7/17/09: Just a few more photos from Chattanooga. (I finally figured out how to rotate them so that they are right side up when I load them to the blog.)

So excited to spend the night in a train car!

Our train car hotel room

At Rock City

Great views at Rock City!

Jumping off the rock to Daddy at Little River Canyon

7/13/09: This summer has been filled with a lot of fun! Sara Kate & I have spent a lot of time at the pool. She is still quite a little fish! She loves to swim and even jumps off of the diving board. A few weeks ago we went to Little River Canyon. We took a little hike & then took a swim. Sara Kate especially loved jumping off of a rock to Karl. Jack went with us, too, of course. Last weekend we went to Chattanooga & spent the night on a train car at the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Needless to say, the train car hotel room was thrilling for Sara Kate. While at the hotel we also got to go on a trolley ride (Sara Kate got to ring the trolley bell) and eat dinner on a train car. It was a very exciting day for our little train lover!

That weekend we also went to Rock City, took a ride on the Incline Railway, visited the sprinkler fountain downtown, found a great outdoor's store for Karl, and shopped at the most wonderful used bookstore (McKay's). We all had so much fun & plan on going back for another trip to Chattanooga soon. There is so much to do there!

5/27/09: Since my last post, we have celebrated Easter, gone to the beach, and Sara Kate now has a "big girl bed" in her room! Enjoy the pics! (sorry they're out of order!)

Playing dress-up with her friend, Joanna.

Silly girls!

Easter

Hunting eggs with her buddy, Broc.

At the petting zoo with JuJu

Sara Kate's "big girl bed"

So proud!

Reading books with Daddy At the cabinSara Kate LOVES the beach!

Climbing up the inflatable slide...She's a daredevil!

Climbing through the inflatable "obstacle" course

Sara Kate wasn't quite sure how to tackle eating the cotton candy. She decided to begin by burying her face in it.

She soon figured out it was easier to use her fingers.


Seconds later she had polished off everything but the stick holding the cotton candy!

Look at all of those eggs she collected!

Off and running at our Church's Easter Egg Hunt.

These are the eggs we colored at home.

4/5/09: Most of these are pictures from our church's Easter Egg Hunt that we went to yesterday. Watching Sara Kate "hunt" Easter eggs was quite funny. She carefully selected the eggs she wanted to put in her basket. I'm not sure what criteria she had, but she picked each egg with a purpose. Along the way she also decided to pick some dandelions to give me. She definitely has not reached the stage where she is in a race to get as many eggs as possible. Another entertaining event to watch was her eating cotton candy. As you can see from the pictures, she thoroughly enjoyed every bite. Once again, messy hands don't bother her a bit! In fact, the messier, the better!