July 4 Celebrations

Carrie and Ryan came to Collegedale for July 4!
After the boys played some tennis while Carrie and I talked, we headed down to town to watch a few fireworks on the grassy hill across from the Little Debbie store.

Carrie got some really good pictures of the fireworks and lights as you saw on her blog!

Friday morning we got out boating early enough to catch some great water back on Wolfteever!

Carrie enjoying snapping away

Ryan H boards while Ryan K watches - this picture is a little reminiscent of one MJ took when Ryan and I started dating 2 years ago!

Our wonderful boat driver - somehow I missed a good picture of Mary Jane!

Ryan's first time wakeboarding in 2 summers due to his knee surgery

First time boating together as marrieds!

At noon we headed for the Alabama lakehouse to spend some time with the Knights

Ryan's second birthday celebration...

... complete with trick candles!
This dessert was made out of ice cream sandwiches, whipped topping and layers of M&Ms
Mmm mmmm good!

Ryan enjoys floating

Decorations on the dock

Stanley trying to keep his wearing of Robin's glasses a secret

Pawpaw watching the annual July 4 flotilla of decorated boats that snakes around the lake

The Oldyweds

And the Newlyweds

Playing a new game very similar to Hand and Foot in which Pawpaw tried to strangle me because I kept taking away his moves ;-)

Preparing the fireworks show

Ryan and Robin create a strategy

The spiders love it when we leave the walkway lights on

One of our blasts

On Sunday, July 6, we drove up to Calhoun for Kelli Leeper and Danny Lamberton's wedding. It was so beautiful and special - just like all of the other weddings we've been to this summer.

Watching their parent's light the family candles


One of the most unique parts of the wedding - the groom's cake
Can you read the license plate?

The happy couple drove away in a bright blue corvette!

Happy 25th Birthday to Ryan!

On July 1st, Ryan's 25th birthday, we had a pizza party for Ryan's birthday.

Our guests were: Chris Scales, Jonathan Carlson and his cousin Scott, Kari Shultz, Hollie, John Nafie and Tom Brundage (I'm probably murdering his last name).

OUR home at last!

And what a house it was!

Honeymoon Day 9: Homecoming and Presents

The paparazzi greeted us at the baggage claim - and then took us out to eat Mexican.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

Back at the Ford house, Ryan found brain warp but was too tired to finish playing it. Mom, Dad, & I sorted out wedding stuff while he snoozed.

In the evening, we gathered for Chinese at the Knights.

Then it was time to open presents!

Some of the audience! Stephanie and Tanya arrived on their day off from camp.

We got so many nice things!

Mom laughs at our antics

Stephanie gave this to us during her toast at the wedding!

One of our favorite presents - a VW bug frame that says "Just Married"

Honeymoon Day 8: Kennedy Space Center

Ready for an IMAX about the space station.

After seeing that show and then seeing the shuttle/capsules for launches, you can understand why astronauts feel like its so spacious!

The building where the shuttle is prepared for launch. Each stripe on the flag is 8 feet across.

This machine carries the shuttle down the tracks to the launch pad at 1 mph taking almost all night! It can get the shuttle within 1 inch of its intended resting place.

The shuttle is taken up those tracks to the launch site. The white towers on either side hold helium and nitrogen? I think? to fuel the rocket boosters. The taller water tower has water in it which is used to deaden the sound of launch.

Me with a massive rocket used in the early days to blast people into space

The shuttle looks big until you see how little the space is for the people! To the right of this, there was a ride that was supposed to feel very similar to a shuttle launch. It was pretty neat!

Ryan was getting pretty hungry...

This is the size of the capsule that held the astronauts for the Apollo missions.

Can you believe they were this confined for so long?

Again, we got to the car just in time! We saw this water spout across the waterway.

Papaw & Gramma took us out to a wonderful Italian meal and then dropped us off at the Holiday Inn next to the airport.

Our last king sized luxury

Honeymoon Day 7: Lazy day at the beach

I was thankful we didn't have anything specific planned this day because I started feeling pretty sick and worn out. I got a terrible sore throat and was getting hot and cold and achy all over. So I took several naps while Ryan watched some sports. Ryan and I also watched Amistad and The Terminal as well as a Red Sox game that went into 13 innings (shown below)! By the evening I was feeling well enough to go out on the beach and go play some putt putt - we tied!