Brookanie Time!

One thing that immediately attracted me to Adam was his love for family and the importance he places on them. Adam has three cousins, Denise, Renn, and Dede, and they are all very close. Denise has three children, Matthew, Grant, and Brooke. Renn has two children, Marilyn Grace and William. And Dede has two twins Mac and Jack. Every year the Parrish clan gets together at least three times a year- Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a summer family reunion. The family reunion is during the summer and this year, Denise’s daughter Brooke asked me if she could come and spend a weekend with me this summer. Of course, I said yes, and once I got back from Italy I looked at a calendar to try to find a free weekend. Well, our next free weekend is in September and school starts in August so I decided I would just have to take a day off of work to spend time with her. I drove up to Charlotte to pick her up on Monday. Luckily, her Nana (our Aunt Joyce) was watching her and she loaded me down with tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers fresh from her garden. The smaller tomatoes (my family calls them TommyToes) were delicious and I have been eating them like grapes all week.

We stopped for dinner at IHOP on our way home for her to have chocolate chip pancakes for dinner which she really enjoyed. (Side note: when I was driving Brooke back she said that she wished she lived in Columbia. I replied that Charlotte is a great city and she will like it a lot once she gets older. I told her they have a lot of great things to do and some very nice restaurants. She replied with “not as nice as IHOP!”)

The night before she came, I made a vanilla 4 layer cake and iced it with a white butter cream icing. Once we arrived home, we began decorating the cake. I had already mixed the colored icings and put them in the bags. I had picked up a child’s apron that worked perfectly for the occasion as all good cooks are messy….that is what I told her anyways.
We took turns swirting icing into each other's mouths.

Someone was very excited...

The finished masterpiece...

After decorating the cake and of course, eating the icing, she played the Wii with Adam for a while.

The highlight of the evening for her was telling Adam that we were kicking him out of the room to have a girl’s night and that he would have to sleep upstairs. It was a girl’s night and no boys were aloud. We ended the night by reading some stories in bed and staying up past midnight.

The next morning we woke up and got dressed for the busy day. Of course, we fixed our hair into matching pigtails. After breakfast, we drove to Edventure, Columbia’s children museum. I absolutely love this place and have gone way too many times to be 26 years old.

Edventure periodically has special exhibits and the one they had this month was called “Blooming Butterflies.” They erected a 2,500 square foot structure designed for hundreds of butterflies. Brooke loves butterflies and she really enjoyed having them surround her.

She was very determined to catch one...

When you enter the butterfly exhibit they hand you information on the butterflies. We took the time to look up all of the different species so we could name them when we saw them. Of course, I can't remember any of them now.

When you enter Edventure you are immediately in front of Eddie, who is a large three story figure. You are able to crawl through the maze in the back and examine all of his major organs.

Here is Brooke with the heart in the background. Once you enter the heart it makes a beating sound.

Uhh ohh, Rob (Brooke's dad) may want to skip the below picture. She seemed VERY comfortable behind the wheel and even checked her mirrors upon entering. :)

What should Brooke be when she grows up?
A. Grocery Store Clerk

B. Firefighter

C. Construction Worker

D. Farmer

E. Cook

F. Dentist

G. Surgeon

(The game below is like playing life-sized operation. It buzzes when the tongs hit the metal when extracting a body part.)

We then went on a safari in Africa...

She was the lead explorer of course!

Who's ready for some football?

While at Edventure, they have a crafts room that you can go in. Brooke made a telescope and binoculars!

After Edventure we hopped in the car to meet Adam for lunch and then headed over to Two Peas in a Pot. It is an art studio where you pick out some pottery and then using the paints in the studio you are able to create your own designs. It is then glazed and fired and you can pick it up in a week. Brooke painted a piggy bank and I painted a spoon rest. We were having so much fun that we decided we would each paint a trivet as well.

After heading home to pick up all of her belongings and her newly decorated cake, we headed over to Aunt Cyndi’s house as she wanted to be sure to see Brooke while she was in town. We spent time telling her about our adventure and then headed back. Although I was not able to commit to "doing this again next week" per her request, we both had such a wonderful time that we have decided to make it an annual trip. Oh, and she named the trip… Brookanie Time!

Goodbye, Kerr Lakehouse

My dad's parents (Nonnie and Poppa) bought a lakehouse on Lake Murray back in the 70s. They live in Spartanburg and decided that it was time to sell it since they are getting older and it gets harder to keep it up. Poppa turned 80 this year and Nonnie turned 75 that day. I have not been to the lakehouse in many years but I told Nonnie that I wanted to make sure to go by at least one more time before it sold. Unfortunately, that time came quicker than expected and we had to leave the beach early to drive straight to the lakehouse as the keys are being handed over this week. It was a busy weekend but I am so glad that were were able to go and take a lot of pictures.

It was great that we got to see Nonnie on her birthday to celebrate. My mom made her favorite coconut cake upon her request. Take note of my mom's newly developed cake decorating skills.

Happy 75th Birthday, Nonnie!

Adam and Poppa (the apprentice and the gardening mentor)!

Below is my mom sitting on the bedspread that she used her freshman year of college. Apparently, she thought it was a pretty big deal back then.

Nonnie loves birdhouses. She has so many of them at her house and everytime I see them I think of her.

The lakehouse has two docks (one for fishing and one for boating).

Below is the lock for the outhouse before they added the bathroom inside! (I love the way that old peeling paint looks)

Below is Nonnie and Poppa for their last picture on the porch. You can see the gourds hanging in the background that Poppa made himself!

We were all a bit sad that the lakehouse was being sold but smiled at the thought of all of the happy memories that had been made.

Annual Carolina Beach Trip

Adam and some of his friends from Raleigh have gotten together every year since their freshman year of college on a certain weekend to celebrate their birthday. Adam, Largen, and Bever's birthdays are all in July within 3 days of each other. Largen's parents own a beachhouse that they live in during the summer and graciously let all of us stay there last year. Somehow, by the grace of God, they let us come back again this year. It is so generous because they actually leave to go back to Charlotte so that we can have the house all to ourselves (which is gorgeous by the way). The house sleeps 14 in beds so we were all quite comfortable. We all arrived on Friday night and ate Beaufort stew for dinner. We followed dinner up with a game of Catch Phrase.

Above is the view from the front yard (since the front faces the ocean) and below is Kimmel and Lauren.

Below is Stansel and Miranda.

Below is the cutest of the weekend hosts, Tonya (sorry Largen:)

Above is Dowell and Lena and below is Bever and Kate.

Below is the guys getting roudy after the game of catch phrase...the girls headed to bed soon after this began.

The next day, we all headed to the beach. It was a bit overcast in the morning but gradually the sun revealed a beautiful day. If you know me at all, you know that my pasty white complexion does not see much of the golden rays. Last year, they had a small umbrella that I would sit under but had to continually move my beach chair as the sun moved my wonderful shade. This year, Tonya and Jimmy brought a 10ft x 10ft tent so I could plop down in one spot and enjoy the beach. It was wonderful. One thing that is different about Carolina Beach is that you can drive your car on the beach and park it on the sand. It is not exactly esthetically pleasing but it is very convenient.

Adam and I enjoying our second evening at the beach.

We all sat on the porch to relax. That night Largen grilled steaks and ribs. We also enjoyed a buffet of wings, mashed potatos, broccoli, and a chocolate pie.

It looks like someone had an accident...

So on our way home from Carolina Beach last year, Adam and I stopped at this fantastic hole-in-the-wall dive called Andy's. It is so cute and the waitresses dress up in poodle skirts. Adam was very excited to stop there again this year on our way home. We pulled in and noticed a sign on the door that said closed. We sat in the car for a minute while Adam starred in disbelief. The owner came out and told Adam that they were closed as they were having plumbing issues and did not have any running water (which means they can not wash their hands!). In response, Adam leans out the window and asked him if that issue effected him not getting to eat a cheesesteak (of course, the guy said yes, and looked at him as if he was crazy). Gross.

We are already looking forward to next year's trip.