More catching up-Beach Trip

Here's the recap from our beach trip in May with a lot of Hedgspeth's. We headed back to North Topsail Island (NC) for another week of perfect weather, good food, and laziness. What else could you ask for in a week at the beach? Its so great to have this time together in the same house for a full week. I love that we're not just grabbing dinner; we're together all day, all week. The big treat for the week was having Katy and Brian join us from Connecticut. We haven't spent much time together in the last few years, so I was quite thankful for time with my cousin. And I'm pretty sure that all the children are obsessed with Brian after all the sandcastle building, wave surfing, game playing, fishing, etc.

Let's giggle about how posed I look in that group shot....an effort to avoid a smooshed arm gone wrong.
And I like how much brother Ben looks like a robot in that one.


Sadie LOVED the beach. Here's some evidence...

Pigtails!!
Can't wait until next year!

And six weeks later...

Worst blogger EVER. I've given you zero material for quite some time. Sorry. Life got in the way and the one time I tried Blogger was down all night. Regardless, here is the follow up to the rest of our Kentucky trip...

Downtown Louisville has really changed since we lived there 5 years ago. There is a lot more activity, especially since the new Yum Center opened. Stephen and I stayed at 21C again, and it was great. We LOVED our dinner at Proof. The menu was totally intimidating, but once we decided to just trust the chef and our hipster waiter, we were good to go. Let's just say I ate fiddlehead ferns for the first time. This hotel and restaurant are interesting. There is definitely a strong sense of luxury, but everything somehow manages to stay low key. The staff is very friendly and attentive. I'm happy when someone greets me with a personal, handwritten note and some chocolate...

Here's our room- refreshingly modern.
And now a tour of downtown in pictures...



KY friends, do these two pictures scream field trip?

I'll be back soon with Sadie's 18 month photoshoot and some things that are making me really happy...Oh, miscellaneous sidenote. Please go to Proof for dinner, but also consider it for breakfast. Their oatmeal is amazing.

To Kentucky and back

The first week of April is always a big week for our little family because it is our anniversary and my birthday (clearly the most important day of the year). This year was even a little more special because it was our 5th anni and my 30th. We headed to Kentucky to celebrate with family and let Sadie spend some time with Gram and Pops while Stephen and I ate some good food, made no plans, slept in, and lived like a couple of adults.

We had a great week, and then this past weekend had to turn around and fly back to Kentucky because my sweet Nana Irene passed away on Friday. She was such a lovely lady, and her passing on was bittersweet. She'd struggled with Alzheimer's for nearly 18 years, so we'd really lost her years ago. The great news is that we have so many fond memories of her hospitality, love for others, generosity, love of the outdoors and golf, and more. Some of you probably saw this photo on facebook through the rest of my family, but I thought I'd post it here.

Back to the first trip, Sadie fell in love with wearing this baseball hat.

She also fell even more in love with Gram and Pops...
And with riding the big wheel with her hat and the princess bike helmet (her own idea, we're not that nervous).
Mom and Dad's cherry blossom tree was in bloom, which always signifies that its birthday time!
Please look at this picture below...does anything seem funny to you?
Wrong dog.

Going to post more from this trip later, but have to run. Happy Tuesday!

Catching Up

Since we went to Montana, we've been busy peeps...lots of work, two trips, and everyday. Here's the catch up...

We took a last minute trip to Louisville for fun and for Sadie to meet a couple of very important people for the first time.

Sadie and PawPaw RG (my mom's dad):

She LOVED him and instantly reached out for him- so sweet. We are so thankful that he and Yvonne drove up from Dawson Springs to spend time with us. It was also great to meet Yvonne (my grandpa's new wife) for the first time. We're looking forward to lots more time with them at Christmas.

Then we went to see Nana Irene. This is special because Sadie is partially named for my grandmother (whose real first name is Katherine, Sadie's middle name). For those of you who knew Nana, this picture may make you a little sad, but I thought it was really important to share. Nana was a vibrant, active, sporty, sophisticated, artistic lady. Really a lady through and through. Nearly twenty years of Alzheimer's have stolen the spring from her step and the spirit from her eyes. She doesn't know who we are or why it was important that she meet Sadie, which is honestly heartbreaking. However, I am so glad that Sadie was able to meet her.
And again, for those of you who knew her, my first reaction at this visit was that I have never in my life seen her in a t-shirt with words on it :)

We also spent time with some younger folk- aka super fun cousins (well nephews and a niece)

Labor Day was beautiful in Louisville- the weather was perfect, so we spent lots of time in my parent's backyard, one of my favorite places.

A quick Sadie update- she will be 11 months old next week (unbelievable). She has grown so much lately. She's a little over 19 lbs. and is a smidge over 28" tall. She has some adorable chubby thighs. And has started wearing some super cute hot pink sneakers...
She's sweet, cuddly, funny, and pulling up on everything. Also, don't you think her hair looks like my brother's?

Okay. His looks better and is a little more tame.

This past weekend, I got to take a much needed, child-free trip to meet up with some of my college girlfriends in the mountains of North Georgia. It was SO MUCH FUN seeing everyone and getting to spend real time together. I am so grateful for each of them, and the weekend left me feeling replenished. There is nothing like laughing with your girlfriends.
We were in a super small town, so we just hung out at the cabin, ate tons of dessert, walked, and visited.
It was really great. The drive home was not my favorite, but I did get to see the Smokies being quite smoky in all the steamy rain.
Can't wait to do both of these trips again!

The Montana Memoirs, The Third (and final) Chapter

Stephen and I woke up at the crack of dawn on the Thursday of our trip and drove (sans Sadie-thank you sweet family) to East Glacier. I've decided to include a few "educational" tidbits in this post in case any of you want to plan a trip. Glacier National is a huge park that stretches into Canada, where it becomes Waterton National Park. There are two main entrances into the American portion of the park, East and West. The Road to the Sun that I showed you in the last post is the road you take when you use the West entrance. The East side of the Park has more entrances/towns, including East Glacier (actual town, see more info below) and Many Glacier being two of them. Our pediatrician actually recommended that Stephen and I go to Many Glacier (I think pronounced Man-ny) and hike the Grinnell Glacier Trail. He said it was the most beautiful hike he's ever been on, and now that we've done it (nearly all 13 miles of it), we couldn't agree more. Here's the entrance to the Park (charming) and the trail map for those of you who are into maps.

You can start the hike from the Many Glacier hotel, but we drove up to the Grinnell Glacier trailhead (approximately half way up Swiftcurrent Lake). You can also take guided boats all the way across Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine, but we huffed it.

We started our hike by passing this sign:
Yikes. I was pretty paranoid. I sang LOTS of stupid camp songs loudly while proudly jingling my bear bell from my Camelback. We did carry bear spray, and it did make me feel a little better. Pressing on, I had to leave the camera out the entire hike. It really was incredible. Within the first fifteen minutes, we were here, at Lake Josephine:
If I were a bear, I'd live here. Oh, and within the first five minutes of hiking, we saw a moose + baby swimming across Swiftcurrent. The picture didn't turn out great because they were far away. The trail was really well maintained and super green. Here's Stephen making his way...
The trail gains around 1600 feet (from what I can tell from the hiking sites), but most of it was a pretty gentle, steady climb. The last .4 (to the summit/glacier) is kind of killer. Here is the view from about 2/3 the way up. It's looking back at Swiftcurrent, Josephine, and the incredibly turquoise lake in the front is Grinnell. These pictures really aren't doing this justice. And we saw so many gorgeous valley views even getting to this point. I had a hard time editing pictures for this post.
It took us about 3 hours to reach the Glacier, and here we are.
We kept marveling at the scale of Glacier National. I mean its really huge. For example, that waterfall behind us in the picture above is over 400 feet tall and half a mile away. Grinnell Glacier is about 1.5 miles wide.

Here's Stephen standing on the actual glacier (I was too chicken to fjord that waterfall of icy water in the foreground). See him? He's a little black dot in the middle.
We spent about an hour at the top, eating our picnic lunch (at a glacier, so surreal). Then headed back down.

No joke and no photo editing, Grinnell Lake is this bright turquoise. I couldn't get over it. Still can't.
Remember that sign we saw at the beginning of the hike? About the Grizzly bears? Ta-da!
We were about 50 feet from this mama and her two babes. Sorry the picture is blurry. I wasn't about to stop and stand there to get a clear shot. We made it back to the trailhead with no further Grizzly encounters- thank God.

Needless to say, we were exhausted after such a long hike and all the mountain sunshine. We decided to head back to the town of East Glacier to check out the lodge (the signature lodge for the whole Park) and grab some lunch. East Glacier is really cute. We would definitely stay there sometime. Here are few pictures of the Lodge. I think there is a hotel in Disney modeled after it...

You can also tour around the Park in one of these (note that the top rolls open). Very classic.
If you didn't want to stay at the Lodge, you could rent one of these little darlings (For the record, I haven't seen the inside, but they are super cute from the outside).
There were a couple of good local restaurants to choose from, and we had burgers at Luna's. It was good. We could sit outside and watch people go by, which is always a bonus.

Well, to tie all this up, we LOVED our time in Montana. It was great to spend time with family and so good for Stephen and I to have this fun day to ourselves. Sorry Sadie, but you can do Grinnell Glacier when you're old enough to carry yourself on your own two legs :) We promise to take you. I also want to say thanks again to our gracious hosts, the House's, and to Stephen's parents for making this all happen. And a special thanks to Stephen. I am so thankful that you love getting outside and making things like this hike happen (even when they do start before the sun rises and there wasn't even Chik-Fil-A biscuits to tide us over). I am one lucky lady. And to the rest of you, GO TO GLACIER. All I can say is BREATHTAKING. I sang "Proud to be an American" at least 3 times while there.

Oh, and I can't believe I'm mentioning this like it is some small thing of note, but thank You, God, for making such an unbelievable demonstration of your creativity, power, and love for us. We felt blessed beyond measure to see this work of your Hands. The fact that these mountains, in all their hugeness and majesty, know You are God and will one day cry out gives me chills and a serious lump in my throat. Seriously. That's the bigger picture.

The Montana Memoirs, Chapter Two

While we were in Montana, we got to spend two different days in Glacier National Park. It is really incredible. The first day was spent with the whole family. We drove the Road to the Sun and hiked the Hidden Lake trail at Logan's Pass. If you look at the picture below, the Road to the Sun is the horizontal line in the backdrop. The views are incredible. This little deck is where is stopped to eat our lunch.

While hiking, we came across two goats- the symbol of the park. They were clearly happy to be around people.
Here's the hidden lake- beautiful glacier blue

We'd never used a baby carrier like this one before, and Sadie LOVED it. She was all smiles.

Except when I tried to have a mini-photo shoot with her in a small meadow. Oh, well. This one is still cute.
One more for good measure....
We took about one million pictures of the scenery in West Glacier, but I'm sparing you some of those because my next post (about day two in Glacier) is going to be mostly scenery. Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend!