A busy Saturday

Making pyramids out of ourselves!

Saturday was a full and fun-filled day! We met my parents, Betsy & the boys and Mary at the Atlanta Civic Center to see the King Tut Exhibit. Kevin & I both have always had a huge interest in Egypt-we really hope to visit someday!! It was a great exhibit, I really liked looking at the jewelry-I don't know how they wore those earrings-they were huge and looked killer to me!! I walked through with Canaan, so mainly he just wanted to know if the statues where a girl or boy and try to find a picture (hieroglyph) of a bird on it! It's pretty fun doing things with a 5 year old, he and I have about the same attention span so that worked out well!

With my Marmee!!
Kevin didn't want to take a picture-so I tried to kiss him!!
Pharaoh Pharaoh!!
Mary was supposed to be doing what the picture behind us was-she wouldn't cooperate!

We all went out to the Varsity for lunch afterward. It was a first time for Canaan and Zion so we had to get pictures to commemorate the event!! It is a classic Atlanta experience, so it was fun to be there with the boys. They were not too impressed with the hats and took them off right away-Zion wouldn't even keep it on for the picture!! I always loved wearing the hat!

Varsity Chili dogs, a slaw dog, fries & onion rings! -classic cause of heartburn and indigestion within moments of eating-but a must when in Atlanta!!
Kev & Betsy
Mr. C & me
Dad & Zi
Mr. C (Hamming it up in his Varsity hat!!)

(Betsy, I only used about half the photos so you could post the others on your blog-or you can post them all-either way!!)

Kevin and I went put-put golfing after lunch (he beat me!) to fill our time until we met with Kevin's mom Barbara, his step dad Larry and his Grandma Micki for an early dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. (Barbara's Birthday celebration-her birthday is actually today!!) Then all of us, except Larry, drove up to Cartersville to watch the Act 1 production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The kids did a great job and the costumes were amazing!!! It was a great day over all and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Sunday I woke up feeling pretty bad (allergies/cold/something has been coming on for days now) so I tried to take it pretty easy and just did some stuff around the house get things together for the Menlow Station Easter Egg Hunt in a couple weeks. I've got a lot to do in the next two weeks to be ready! (Why do I always save everything for the last minute!!!)

Hahira visit and girl's night fun!

Last Friday Dad, Kevin and I left work early to try to beat the worst of the Atlanta traffic down to Hahira to help Betsy move. Andy and Bethany's house sold and so we helped her get everything moved out so they could close on the house. It's around a four hour trip down to her place and after we got there we stayed up for awhile helping her finish up with the packing. All day Saturday we packed up all her furniture and boxes to move to a storage unit while Andy's gone and I cleaned the house. Thank goodness she had some wonderful friends there to help us or we would have been working all weekend! Saturday night we loaded up our truck and Betsy's truck with the stuff she would need while staying at mom and dad's, good thing we had tarps because it rained on us almost the whole way up to Adairsville. When we got in, around midnight or so, mom and Mary (who is home for this week on spring break) helped us unload the truck and we all crashed there for the night. Sunday we slept in and then all visited over a late breakfast. It was nice to have us all at home together. If Andy, Travis and Kelsey had been there, we would have had the whole family there!! (We missed ya!) Sunday night we had our friends Chad & Lisa & little Payton (who is 2 months and loves to smile-so cute!) over to watch a movie and hang out.

This week it was back to work as normal. They did finally get the flooring down at work (we had a flood over the holidays and the have been redoing it since then and it has been such and mess and driving me crazy!) so I am trying to get my office put back together. Tuesday night Mare, Natalie and I had a girls night and got our nails done (It has been forever since I had a mani pedi) and then watched a movie. Wednesday Mary Cowan, Kelli, Mare & I met at Sweet Tomatos in Town Center to eat and visit as well. I love having girl time!! This weekend I have to get the guys out to work on Saturday morning and then we going to see the King Tut exhibit. We are then meeting Kevin's mom Barbara and Micki (Kevin's grandma) at Sweet Tomatos for an early birthday dinner (Barb's birthday is Monday) and then up to Cartersville to see Act 1's production of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Too bad I am so exhusted, who knows when we will catch up on sleep since we have a full weekend!!

Visit with Aunt Beth

(It crashed AGAIN before I finished this post-so I will try again!)

After getting back from Texas I settled into another busy work week. (And tried to adjust to time with the time change, and flying from different time zones for the past few weeks!) On Tuesday (March 10th) my Aunt Beth was spending the night at my parents on her way home from Florida (she lives in Indy) so I drove up after work and spent the evening with her, Betsy and the boys.
Reading to the boys before bed (The Magic School Bus-I remember loving the cartoon!)
Checking out some of Canaan's pictures on his camera-he is so cute!
Me, Aunt Beth and Betsy (with Zion's arm) -photo taken by Canaan-he is quite the photographer!

Dallas weekend trip

Posing on the gate with Mary!
At the birthday party Saturday night!
Playing by the fountain!
Mary fixed my hair and I had on makeup-it's a miracle!
Getting ready to head to church!
Mary & I

Me and my baby sister Mare-Mare
Lindsey (one of Mary's rommates) me and Mary


Being silly by the fountain-we have WAY TOO MUCH FUN with the camera!
Hanging on for dear life-the gate kept moving and was freaking me out!!
Laughing!
My model pose on the gate
SMILE!

Posing with the balloons!Heading to the pool!Me, Alecia, Grant and Mary
Mary, Me and Collin

That Thursday, March 5th, I flew to Dallas to visit with my baby sister Mary. She is living involved in a Christian Dance program there and loving every minute of it! She had a special presentation that she was doing that Friday night (There were 10 different dances-all nine trainees in the program and had to pick out a song-choreograph a dance to it and then have a sermon to go along with it at the end-then the 6 company members did one song all together.) I was very impressed. God is really working through these girls. I especially loved Marys-and I am not biased at all!! I really do love to see my sisters dance. God has really blessed them with an amazing talent. I can really feel God moving through them as they dance, and I always enjoy their choreography. (I don't know if they realize what an amazing gift it is that God has given them, but it really is awesome to see!) Saturday we got to see my cousin Collin and his wife Alecia and their little baby Grant. I hadn't met him yet and he is a doll!!! Saturday night there was a surprise birthday party for one of the girls so I went along to that and had fun playing Dance Dance Revolutions and Guitar hero-I still am horrible!!! Sunday after church we walked along the nice trails they have at their apartment complex (and took some fun pictures) and laid out at the pool. They have got a REALLY nice set up there. What a great place to live! We were going to go see my other cousin Meredith, but she was feeling sick and her roommate had Strep-I wasn't risking that so told her I loved her over the phone and that I would come by next time I was in Dallas!! After a busy and fun-filled weekend I flew home Sunday evening-Mary lives about 7 minutes from the airport-talk about convenient!!

First weekend home & visit with Todd

(so it crashed AGAIN before I could get my post up so these are going to be SUPER short posts to cover the happenings since the California trip)
That weekend was the snow here in GA, which I already posted about here. At work that week I took a long lunch on Tuesday and drove up to Cartersville to see my unofficially adopted brother Todd. He was here for a quick visit from Korea where he is stationed. I didn't get to see him last time he was home and so jumped at the opportunity so see him, even though it was a long drive for a really short visit. We Binkley girls love our brother Todd!!! Betsy was there with Canaan and Zion-who also love their Uncle Todd-and she posted some pictures from the visit here.

Aghhhhhhhh!

So, I did it again-I was just typing in some finishing details on a blog about what I have been up to since our trip to California (complete with a ton of pictures and everything) and the internet connection cut off and I lost everything!!! I guess I will just put together a few small blogs instead so that I can post them quickly and hopefully not lose it all again!!!

Pictures from the California Trip!

This is a really old mission in San Fran.
Kevin & I at Muir Woods
Kev & I while crossing the Golden Gate Bridge
Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge
At Ghirardelli Square in San Fran
Kevin's Lobster Dinner
Kev, Anna & Tim in China Town in San Fran
Anna & Tim with Alcatrez Island in the background
Pier 39 Sea Lions (there is a baby one!!)
Kev & I at Squaw Valley Village
Anna & I trying to stay dry and warm at Squaw Valley
Anna & Kevin at Squaw Valley
Anna & I at Yosemite!
Kevin in the snow in Yosemite!
The second day we bought covers for our pants and we all stayed dry and warm in the snow!
First day my pants are soaked from the snow!
Kevin and I at Mirror Lake
Kevin at Yosemite (Half-dome peak in the background)
Some beautiful landscape at Yosemite!
Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls!


(These are some of the pictures from camera-I still haven't had a chance to look at the ones from Kevin's camera. Sorry they are in backwards order, oh well! Someday I will learn how to put together a slide show instead of having to post all these pictures individually!)