I AM NOT DEAD!

I know many of you think I am dead. Had it not been for my facebook updates you'd really be worried. Just to confirm......I am alive!

We always get extremely busy at this time of year. We are overloaded with plans for summer and thoughts of swimming pools, hiking, camping and now BEACHES!! It's no different this year, except that we live in a vacation hot spot and are witnessing all kinds of tourists on vacations that we so desperately are grasping at taking ourselves. Our weekends are filled with last minute school projects and honestly everything takes us about twice the amount of time to complete just because we are in the "lazy days of summer" mode. I am one of those crazy moms who loves her kids being at home. I look forward to school breaks and days off with as much anticipation as I look forward to Christmas.

This is also the time of year when all the sports seem to overlap. Right now the only one not participating in some form of activity is Kayela. That leaves Emma in soccer, Kaidon in tennis, Mihya in guitar, Graysie and Mikael on swim team, little time for mommy to breath, and the gas budget going up immensely! I love that they have their "thing" and I get to slow down and watch them excel. It helps me point out their uniqueness and focus on them individually, so I can't complain. Plus, they sleep really good which is always a bonus.

In the past couple of weeks we've had out of town guests (again!). Amanda, Graysie's birth mom, and her husband and kids came to visit for a week. We went to the strawberry festival, made strawberry jam, made more bows for our girls, dropped the ball on our blog, shopped, walked the Ravenel bridge and pretty much just hung out and visited. I will only speak for myself when saying that I stayed up way too late most nights and got up early so I was wiped out by the end of their visit. I hated that they had to go and the week seemed to go by too fast, always does when we have guests.

Kaidon has gotten spoiled by our new neighbors. He has adopted them as his second home and family. He loves their son, Ryan, and would be perfectly content to stay with them for eternity if we'd let him. He has been boating with them several times and comes home with some great stories. Actually, one day we were all in a depression because Kaidon was on their boat watching the blue angels! We were not! We thought about grounding him just because we were mad, but then we realized that would not help our pleas for him to spend time with us. Glad he has made friends, even more glad that they are great people!

Yesterday we all went boating with some friends. We had such a blast. Ironically, we drove to the boat ramp where we piled our giant family into the boat with coolers, towels, and anything else we'd need to survive the day and then proceeded to boat right past the front of our house. We don't have a dock so it's the only way to do it, but it just seemed a little strange when technically we should be able to be picked up at our front door. Maybe our neighbors across the street will let us hitch a ride from a friend every once in awhile at their boat dock? Wonder what it would take to work out that deal? I'll look into it and get back with all of you on that one. We had a blast on the tube and boat and to prove I am going to have another birthday and am not getting any younger, I am very sore. Josh however is not because he wouldn't dare be out of control on a tube.

Next up for us? My parents are coming to stay the week next Tuesday. It just happens to be my birthday (even at age 30-something my parents can't miss my birthday). It will be my dads first time to see the house and our surroundings. I'm thrilled to be "tour guide Ambyr" for the week again. The kids will still be in school so we will have plenty of time to do adult-exploring-touristy stuff before they come home and take all the attention away from me...Oh...I mean...get to spend time with their grandparents.

I'm planning to get the heck outta dodge in August. I've heard it's close to the temperature in hell here at that time so I am not wanting to subject myself to that one. I'll be spending as much of the month in Colorado as we can before school and sports start back up. I'm hoping to see everyone and taxi the kids all over town to get in as much friend time as possible. I say that now, but I'm not sure how long I'll survive without Josh so I'm leaving it an open-ended trip. It's one of the few benefits of taking the 27 hour drive across country with 6 kids.....we have the freedom to come and go as we please, no deadlines or flights to catch.

Slacker

OK, so I know I have been a total slacker when it comes to my blog. I really have had some good intentions too BUT every time I've sat down to blog I get all caught up in some one else's blog and then don't have time for my own! Now, I am finally going to dive in to my life.

We had Jordan and Megan visit for a week. I had a lot of fun, and not really sure what the week would bring before it all started I must admit (for me personally) it turned out to be amazing! Although Josh worked most days Jordan, Megan and I did a lot of exploring. I finally got to check out Boone Hall and it was really fascinating actually. If you're planning on having a little visit out to the "Hunt's new reality" anytime soon, which I am encouraging y'all (I'm embracing the accent, just announced it a few weeks ago to the kids) to do, be ready to go see Boone Hall. It cracks me up a little bit because in all the fliers and brochures they describe Boone Halls claim to fames as the place North and South was filmed, the notebook and........Wheel of Fortune! hahaha! Megan and I had a good laugh over that one. Anyway, we not only saw Boone Hall but drove endlessly exploring, found some great places to eat, walked King street, visited the Old Market, took the trolley by the battery, saw the beautiful houses on Broad street, and had some lazy time at the beach. It was a great visit.

I had to add this picture of this guy. One afternoon while driving down the road, we came upon this guy who was (before we creeped him out by snapping photos) headed down the middle of the highway! Emma announced "That had to be a dare!", I rolled my window down, Jordan hung his camera out and we got this perfect shot of this hot rod adorned with ski goggles and all! It so reminded me of the scene in Dumb and Dumber when they are headed to Vail, Co on a scooter!

Now, I'm single momming it this week. Thursday Josh left for Denver and stayed until early Sunday morning. While there he did get to see this guy:

Yes, I am jealous but thank goodness for Ichat because we all got to see and talk to the little man and he got to see us too. He wasn't quite sure how he could all of a sudden interact with the T.V. but he stayed engaged the whole time we chatted. Josh took him for another haircut and out to eat. He gave him a sucker and some ice cream. Josh told me he felt like a grandparent who gets to have all the fun, sugar them up and hand them back off. I guess we are trying to make the best out of the worst case scenario of adoption!

After leaving Denver Josh headed to Austin for business until Thursday. He tries to spend time with Gary and Angela (Josh's good friend from way back when) each time he goes and again although I am jealous I'm glad he got this time. I am hoping he invited them out to spend some time with us. Our families are both big and fun and love each other so I know it would be nothing but non-stop chaotic laughs! A bonus this trip was that Josh's other good friend, Joel, from long ago was there visiting Gary and Angela so he spent time with him too. Did I mention how I am jealous?

Well, next big adventure? Graysie's birth mom and her family are coming for a visit on Saturday! We can't wait. I'm sure we are going to have a great visit and do lots of exploring. They are joining us on Sunday for Josh's birthday and the Boone Hall Strawberry festival! A couple summers ago Amanda and I bought all the girls matching strawberry outfits. She bought Sophie's in a 2t even though she was an infant and guess what? Just so happens that Sophie can now wear it and the Strawberry festival is happening. It's like we planned it.....except we didn't so it's even better!

That's all the new news from this blog slacker!

Foto Fridays

So, I've been doing my blog for quite some time now. Often, I get people emailing, facebooking, or posting here on my blog about wanting to see more pictures. I ran across a blog the other day that gave me the brilliant idea to do a post full of pictures one day a week. I am taking up this practice starting today! Every week I am going to do "foto Fridays" where I will be posting my favorite pictures I've taken during the week. It's going to be fun to share pieces of our new surroundings with all of you. I hope you enjoy this new addition to our blog.

Sweetgrass basket stands line hwy 17 here in South Carolina. My mom and I stopped and talked to two of the basket makers on Thursday. Wow, what an amazing craft that has been passed down through many generations.

My mom with her sweetgrass basket.

This is one of the nicer stands I am in front of. Many of them are just a few boards nailed together with tarps for shade and shelter. One lady told us they are going to widen the hwy. and this would give them no place to sell. The lively hoods of many will be destroyed if they do not come up with a plan. These little stands are as close as 5-10 ft away from each other all the way down a good stretch of hwy.

Although I don't quilt, my mom does and insisted we explore some local quilt shops. Luckily for me, this was the only one!