The Wedding Reception

 Nick and Cassie's wedding reception was loads of fun.  They had a wonderful buffet and a DJ.  The night was filled with fun and dancing.  The kids especially took advantage of the dance floor.  The happy couple spent time visiting with all of their family and friends- many of whom had traveled a considerable distance to attend the wedding.  This was the perfect ending to the day.

Nick and Cassie's Wedding

 Nick and Cassie's wedding was such a joyous occasion.  Everything was beautiful.  We are all so happy that these two got hitched.  Here are a few of my favorite pics from the ceremony.

 

 The handsome ring bearer.

 The Buie family

 The Walker family

 The beautiful bride

 Boy cousins... finally.

 Olivia's job was to pass out the programs.

 Owen was ready to do his job.

 Olivia with Pam (who took most of these pictures).

The Rehearsal and Dinner

 My sister Cassie got married this past weekend!  The wedding weekend was packed full of food, fun, family, and most of all celebrating Nick and Cassie.  These two are just perfect for each other, and their wedding weekend could not have gone any better than it did.  It was just beautiful.



Our family started arriving during the week leading up to the wedding, and we got to spend some time with them prior to the wedding festivities.  We even got to celebrate my cousin David's 40th birthday with him.  Most of the out-of-town family members had arrived in time for the rehearsal dinner on Friday night.  This was our time to meet Nick's family.  They were such a nice group of people.

By tradition, the bride does not participate in the rehearsal.  Aunt Libba was the stand-in for both mine and Hannah's weddings, and she brought us good luck, so she was called upon to stand in for Cassie as well.

Owen and Claire were in the wedding, so they had a chance to practice their part.

 Olivia enjoyed watching the rehearsal while catching up with her cousin Rachel.

 Before leaving the church, we had to get a picture of the kids with their Texas cousins.  Such a good looking group of kids.














The rehearsal dinner was held at Mossy Pond Lodge.  This was such a nice place.  The meal was delicious (roast beef and pork loin), and the company was good as well.

The kids table

The bachelors

The sons-in-law

 Nick gave Owen a wallet and five dollars as a gift for being in the wedding.  Owen thinks he is big stuff now that he has a wallet.

Hannah and I with Aunt Connie

The sisters and Bailey

This was such a nice evening, and a great way to kick off the big event.

Blue and Silver 5k

Olivia and I participated in the Blue and Silver 5k in early January.  The proceeds of this race go to help a local family with medical costs.  Olivia did pretty well in her previous 5k, and wanted to try another. This was my first race back after my foot issue, so Liv and I decided to run the race together.  We finished in 47.47.  There were only two girls in Olivia's age group, so she got the second place medal.  She was really proud of this.

First Day Hike at Skidaway

The Georgia State Park System hosted "First Day Hikes" at almost all of its parks this year.  The kids and I decided to start the year off right by hitting the trails at one of these events.  We chose to hike at Skidaway Island State Park because we wanted to try a new place (and because these coastal trails would probably be miserable in the summer).

The kids did great with all of their hikes last year, so we picked the longest trail in the park- the 3 mile Big Ferry Trail.  Olivia and Owen took turns being the "leader".  The leader's job is to make sure that we stay on the correct trail.  

 Our hike took us through coastal forest and marsh lands.  There were a lot of people out hiking, so we never felt alone on the trail.

 Toward the end of the trail we came upon an observation platform out on the marsh.  We absolutely had to check that out.

Before leaving the park we stopped by the Interpretive Center.  There were several live animals (mostly snakes and turtles) inside the center as well as a skeleton of the "Skidaway Sloth" which roamed these parts long ago.  There was also a bird watching room inside the Interpretive Center.  This room had a huge window that you could look out and watch birds come to the feeders that were outside.  The room also came equipped with binoculars, bird ID guides, and loads of stuffed birds-  pretty much everything you needed to identify the birds outside at the feeders.  I about had to physically drag the kids out of the bird room.  They really got into trying to ID those birds at the feeders.

We had a really nice experience with our First Day Hike, and will probably do it again in the future.