Does anyone know where June went?!? If your family is anything like mine, it flew by! While I'm sitting in the sunrise enjoying my bowl of freshly cooked deer sausage, biscuits, and gravy, I'll see if I can remember a recap...

Zachary finished work on the 17th, and isn"t due back until August 13! Having him home has been incredible, you have no idea how much laundry and deep cleaning I have tackled since having an extra set of hands around here. My mother-in-law came down for a short visit from the 16th-19th, time with her is always special. If any of you know her, you know her energy, and it's wonderful having that energy around, especially now with a baby. She helps out so much with Zaylen!! The amount of naps I took during those few days is insane. I was able to catch up on sleep, get some good cleaning done, and pack for the beach...and I did all of that alone! I usually do the chores and things with Zaylen wrapped to me so when I get to do something without an extra 15 pounds on me it feels like I'm a new person! It was very nice having her and we are looking forward to her coming back down in August with Zaks brother and nephew. After Joyce left we had one day to finish packing for a two week beach trip, talk about exhausting! Nobody warned me about the overwhelming amount of stuff you have to pack for a baby. We literally brought the entire house...and there's not an ounce of exaggeration in that. We had so much that we had to buy an over-the-car luggage carrier. Needless to say...by that Friday night I was a zombie; a worn out, tired, delusional, exhausted zombie. Oh wait, thats every day now...I forgot I'm a mom.

Saturday morning (the 21st) we packed up last minute stuff and headed off to the beautiful Carolina coast. Can I take a minute just to say how blessed we are to live in such an amazing state?! Sure, gas tax and teacher pay could be better, but we are so very fortunate to live in a free country and a state that stands out from the rest. I know I'm biased towards North Carolina, but I've been to about 6 other states...and let me tell you, Carolina beats them all. Anyways, we left a little earlier because I was expecting to stop several times with Zaylen. Would you believe we stopped once in 5.5 hours?? That baby slept and slept some more. Talk about some proud parents. We went to the Outer Banks for week one of the trip. We had beautiful weather the entire time, and had such a great time!! Zaylen really enjoyed the beach, he didn't take to the water, but he loved the wind hitting his face and the sounds of the ocean. I couldn't have asked for a better first experience for him! We had a nice relaxing time and I know the rest of the family had the same. For week two we headed down the coast to Atlantic Beach. We had to take two ferries to get there, and according to Zak that will be the last time we take a ferry for a long time. What was supposed to be a four hour trip turned into an almost eleven hour trip. Yes, eleven hours. Ferry number one was an awesome ride; it was short, easy, not choppy, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Ferry number two was a different story. We got to the dock in time for the 1 o'clock boat, but found out that the car in front of us was the last one on...so we had to wait two hours for the next one. We were kind of happy about that because it gave us time to go eat and hang out for a bit. Well the 3 o'clock ferry had some mechanical issues so we didn't leave till 4. Once again, not a big issue, we weren't in a hurry. About an hour into the ride, Zak is in the drivers seat reading his book, Zay and I are in the passengers seat napping, and at least 20 gallons of salt water decided to join us. We had the windows down to get some air and enjoy the outdoors and thought we would be protected by the huge wall we were hiding behind if any choppy waves sprang up. We were sadly mistaken. Luckily none of the electronics got any water on them, but the car was filled with water!! The floorboard still had water in it after 3 days. Talk about a mess. We wiped everything up as best we could and didn't think anything of it. Well when we tried to get off the ferry after 3 hours of being wet in the middle of the sound we kept stalling out. We were seriously both losing it at this point. After talking to Zaks dad, letting the car dry out for a bit, and then driving 35 mph for a while, the car finally got us to our destination. Needless to say, our nerves were shot, we were exhausted and ready for some sleep. 

We stayed in Atlantic Beach for two days and then decided to come home. My great-grandpa, Papa Hassie passed away on June 30. He was a handsome man who had all the love in the world to give!! Once we got home we were in Eden for a few days attending his funeral and being with family members. Papa Hassie had the sweetest services and seeing the amount of people that week really let us know the impact he had on so many peoples lives. He was the definition of a God fearing man, if every man strived to be like Papa the world would be such a beautiful loving place. 

This past week has been quite an adventure and just added on to the craziness of the past month. As you can imagine, we had our fair share of bills to catch up on, plants needed taken care of, our house was begging for a good cleaning, and life just hit us again. We celebrated the fourth with a downtown festival and grilling/fireworks at my moms house. Would you believe it if I told you Zaylen slept through all the fireworks, and then woke up as soon as I laid him in his car seat to go home?? That child certainly has a mind of his own. The Sunday after the fourth we went to Black Mountain to see some family members and hang out for the day. It was so nice getting to see uncles/aunts, and cousins that we haven't seen in a while. It was everyones first time meeting Zaylen, and even the first for some meeting Zak. Family sure is a wonderful blessing and we are so grateful to have the tight loving family that we do. Our garden has been producing more than we can consume (which is a nice thing, but zucchini bread gets a little tiring after the third or fourth loaf). At the end of the week, our friend Donny from college came down for a weekend visit. We grilled out at Victor and Annies house Friday night and we all hung out off and on the next two days. It was really nice having Donny down, he and Zak haven't seen each other in over a year, and this was his first time meeting Zaylen. It's sad how you don't see your friends as much when adult life hits you, but at the same time it's a wonderful thing to see friends pick up right where they left off. Oh and one last thing...one of my dearest friends, Anna, had her precious baby boy Friday!! Weston is such a perfect baby! Anna is a beautiful mother and I am very thankful I get the opportunity to watch her journey in motherhood. It feels like yesterday I was only a child myself, and now my friends and I are all getting married and starting our own families, wow time sure does fly by.

Well that's a little summary of our June and part of July. I'll try to write back next week. I hope you all have had an exciting summer so far and I look forward to hearing from you!





  Zaylen and Grandma reading