Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Monday, April 29, 2013

Paige and Addy's Mermaid birthday party


On Saturday we celebrated Paige's 3rd birthday with friends and family. Paige had been very excited for the party and had been talking about it for weeks.

Addy also turned three this month and Andrea worked with Addy's mom Heather to put together a party for them both at Heather's pool. Andrea worked hard to make the party happen and it was a lot of planning and effort to make it all come together.

While Grandma and Grandpa took Paige and Connor to Connor's soccer game, Andrea and I went over and put all the decorations up. We got some pictures of everything before the guests arrived.






Once the kids got back from soccer, we went over and took some pictures with our family.



We put both cakes on the table and snapped a few pictures of both the birthday girls. Addy wasn't in the mood for pics, but we ended up with a couple cute pictures anyways.





Then, it was time to swim! At one o'clock, all the guests started arriving and the kids got in the pool. Our kids ended up swimming for almost 5 hours!






I snapped some pictures of everyone sitting out by the pool and Amanda Lane took my camera and snapped a quick pic of me too!


Connor really enjoyed swimming with his buddies. He has been doing a fantastic job swimming lately and played well with everyone and was very independent.


After swimming for a bit, it was time to do the cake. We knew that at the end of the day, the thing Paige would probably enjoy the most would be the cake, candles, and singing of "Happy Birthday". The look on her face made it all worth it.







The cake was yummy! Paige's was tie-dyed on the inside and Addy's was chocolate on top and strawberry on the bottom. Both were delicious.



A big thanks to Andrea and Heather for putting together a great party!


The party was definitely a big success. Weather was beautiful and sunny, the kids had fun and the adults were able to chill out by the pool. Compared to our pool parties, it was relatively incident free too. Brantley's little brother Roman had to be rescued once by his mother. She moved him over to the spa area, thinking it'd be safer, but he ended up slipping in to the deeper part of the spa and Andrea happened to be the only person to notice. Although she was screaming for someone to grab him, nobody reacted and Andrea ended up jumping in to the spa in her dress to save him. Thankfully our house was only down the street and she walked home and changed.

The kids were exhausted after the party and so were we. Paige got a bunch of gifts, but we're saving them until the actual day of Paige's birthday (Tuesday) to give them to her. She was so tired after the party she probably wouldn't have appreciated the gifts and it'll make the actual day of her birthday a bit more special.

So hard to believe our little baby girl is already three! We love you Paige Olivia!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Andrea's birthday lunch with friends at the Serenata Beach Club


Andrea's friends in the neighborhood all went out with her today to the Serenata Beach Club to celebrate her birthday and socialize. The weather was a little rainy at times, but they were still able to eat outside, enjoy the beach view, and chat together.

 Lots of great friends to celebrate with Andrea!

Grandma Alice's birthday at the Alligator Park


Grandma's birthday was today and we wanted to do something extra special for her this year since she's been so great with the kids and helped me pull off Andrea's surprise birthday weekend last weekend. I asked her what she wanted to do and she really wanted to do the zipline course at the Alligator farm in St. Augustine, so that's what we did today!

Grandpa Rick and Grandma went on the course through the park and I went with the kids in the park and watched them while they had their obstacle course adventure. Andrea had a birthday lunch with some of her girlfriends, so unfortunately she wasn't able to come with us.

The kids were good for me today while I took them around the park. They loved the kid zone and I took some funny pictures of Connor doing the monkey bars with the panorama feature on my phone. Kind of made a silly picture of a bunch of Connor's all stuck together.


I took a video of Connor doing the monkeybars too. You can hear a lady in the background raving about his monkey skills.




Grandma and Grandpa really seemed to enjoy the course. They were able to go at their own pace and there were obstacles as well as ziplines. I think there were 9 ziplines total and at least 40-50 platforms throughout the park.









 


After the park, we went to Barbara Jean's and gobbled up some meatloaf and fed the fish. The weather was a little cool today and rainy, but thankfully the only time we got rained on was when we were in the car. Worked out great!

Happy birthday Grandma! Love you!

Andrea's birthday



Andrea's birthday was on a Friday this week and we squeezed in as much fun as we could for a weekday birthday. For lunch, Grandpa Rick and Grandma Alice took us out to lunch at the Sawgrass Country club. It was beautiful out and we had a great view of the golf course while we ate lunch.


Once I was done with work, we took the kids out to Barbara Jean's for dinner.



The kids were very excited to celebrate Mommy's big day!


When we got home, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Mommy and we ate a little cake!




We love Andrea more than ever and we hope that she enjoyed her special day. Love you Mommy!

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Surprise birthday getaway with Andrea


This weekend I surprised Andrea with a getaway to Fernandina Beach. I'd planned it all out a couple weeks ago and worked with Grandma Alice to get it all set up. During lunch on Friday I told Andrea the news and was happy that she was completely surprised. I was worried she'd suspect something, but I managed to keep it secret.

I'd done my research around the Fernandina Beach area, but once we discussed it with our friends in the neighborhood we realized I'd overlooked a couple really nice resorts that were a bit more to the south which hadn't come up when I did my Googling. On Friday night, when we arrived at the hotel I picked, we realized it was not very nice and we were able to get out of our reservation. We drove down the road and checked in very late at the Ritz Carlton instead. We were very happy that there were able to accommodate us on short notice.

The Ritz was amazing. Top notch facility, excellent service, classy all the way around. Saturday morning we walked on the beach, lounged at the pool and ate a lunch at their beachfront restaurant. There were lots of other things to do there and we didn't get to see it all but were very impressed with what we did see.





We would have been happy to stay another night at the Ritz, but BB&T had all their people in town for some conference and unfortunately they were booked up for Saturday night. We decided to try the Omni Plantation instead which was just down the road. It also was highly recommended by our friends. They'd just spent millions renovating the property and it was gorgeous. The decor was more what Andrea would pick out and the area was beautiful, but the service couldn't quite compare with the Ritz.

I took a panorama from our room's balcony.

Andrea took a panorama while we were sitting out by the pool.

For dinner, we went to Barbara Jeans to enjoy some sweet tea, pumpkin bread, meatloaf and coleslaw. We loved the fancy resorts, but appreciate some home cooking too!

Andrea had a blast and we think it worked out perfectly being able to see both resorts. We definitely plan to go back to the Ritz in the future.

Big thanks to Grandma Alice and Grandpa Rick for helping me pull this off. I'm glad I was able to surprise my favorite wife and make her birthday special this year. She is my special lady and she deserves it!

I love you Andrea, you're my best friend and the love of my life! Happy Birthday!