The RR Memorial Golf Tournament and Our Beach Vacation

As I say every year: WHAT AN HONOR!! I am so proud of my Daddy and the legacy that he has left, and I am so grateful to everyone in Dothan who puts on and participates in the Ronnie Randall Memorial Golf Tournament! THANK YOU to all of you! It is a wonderful tribute to him and a special way to raise money for various charities. Every year, there is a fabulous turnout! And this year, I especially enjoyed getting to see so many of my childhood and high school friends participating. Thanks, as always, to Annette for letting us stay at your house. We missed seeing you!

Boots, checking out the flowers

Dede and Boots

Oh, how I love little tippy toes!

Alli Lane had a blast with Keith! She especially loved "playing soccer" (kicking the ball) with him!

When we left Dothan after the tournament, we headed down to the beach to stay at Grandmommie's condo. THANK YOU, Grandmommie, for letting us use your place! It is such a special time for our family each year. Brad is able to take vacation days so little, and this is the one time each year he takes off a week at a time.... We look forward to this time with our little family each year. It is especially meaningful to me because I grew up there; those beaches are my home, and I get so homesick for them. It is a blessing to be able to visit each year. As always, it is an emotional time, as well. I miss my Daddy so much, and this was his favorite place, as well. And of course, it still hurts my heart to drive past where our house used to be, before the fire took it 3 years ago this past March. I still thank God that we had left the house and were safe, but it still seems surreal that our house is gone.

We had a wonderful time! We ate at Boondocks, got to visit with some of my Randall/Alabama relatives that we rarely get to see, walked around Seaside, got donuts from Thomas' Donuts, and played hard on the beach!

We had beautiful weather for most of the week, even though thunderstorms were predicted every day. Our first day on the beach, we did get caught in an awful storm, with sand blowing and swirling so hard that we were all sand-burned. Poor Alli Lane is still a bit traumatized from the experience. My little girl who used to love watching storms with me on the porch is now terrified. We are working through it, though ~ keep praying for us! Besides that one little blip, our vacation was fabulous!!

Brad and our girls, Alli Lane and Elizabeth (Boots); my cousin Amanda's husband, Jeremy, and their girls, Malley (Moe) and Mimi.

These next 2 shots are "typical Alli" shots!
Lounging in the "pool" on the beach...

...and dancing at "Groovin' on the Green" on the Carillon Lawn.

Alli Lane and Boots dancing

As our regular blog readers know, I am obsessed with our annual beach pictures. We get the girls up early and trek down to the beach, with them in their white dresses. Each year, we bribe them with Thomas' donuts! :)

Our beautiful, sweet, precious little girls!
So, so happy!!

Daddy and his little girls

Daddy and Boots
I have a similar picture of Brad with Alli at this age; this one will be framed next to it. So sweet!

The girls

Dinner at Bud 'n Alley's in Seaside

Boots stayed busy, as always.

Alli was busy, too, and often wanted to read a book, as her Daddy and I would attempt to do from time to time.

For those of you who always ask if Alli Lane's hair is still curly ~ YES!! And this is what happens in extreme humidty!

We ended the week by driving to St. Simon's for Brad's cousin, Katie's wedding to Jason. We had fun with his family and at the wedding and all of the festivities. Here is our family at the pool.

Thank you, God, for our safe travels and a wonderful, special vacation! We "toured" the southeast ~ got to start our vacation with my family, have time with just our little family, and end our vacation with Brad's family. It was truly a special time.

By the way, keep checking back! We have already been having a very busy summer! Brad and I went to Chicago for a conference, and I have had the girls at the Y several times a week ~ not to mention the library, Vacation Bible School, and summer day camps for Alli at EDS! More posts to come....

Fifth Anniversary

May 22, 2004

I cannot believe five years have gone by!!
HAPPY FIFTH ANNIVERSARY, HONEY!!

We have had an amazing 5 years ~ it is incredible to think of all that we have squeezed into that amount of time, because it has absolutely flown by.

I look at these pictures, or at our wedding video... and then I look around at everything we have become....

We started out as a couple who met on a blind date, thanks to our family and our "arranged marriage," as we like to call it. Our first date was July 1, 2003, and we were engaged just three-and-a-half short months later on October 12, 2003. Seven months later, a couple of weeks after Brad graduated from Medical School at MCG, we were married at First Baptist Church of Decatur, GA. We had a fabulous honeymoon in Kauai, returned to Atlanta to move me to Augusta, and began our lives as husband and wife. Two months later (just a month into Brad's Pediatric residency), while on vacation at the beach, I fell and shattered my wrist, requiring emergency surgery. While in the E.R. waiting to be taken back to the O.R., we found out we were pregnant with Alli Lane.

And thus began our FAMILY.

We have been lucky. We have been extremely blessed.

I think Brad and I both agree that our challenges during our first year of marriage did not center around "living with someone" as so many newly married couples' do. Our challenges were other things: intern year of residency, a very difficult pregnancy requiring hospitalization 6 or 7 times, the death of my precious Meme, buying a new car and a new home, county sewage flooding our new home twice (requiring that we live in a hotel for a month), the birth of a preterm baby, and the list goes on.... But through it all, we clung to each other, and that has been the continued basis for our marital relationship. I will never forget what my mom said on the phone one day, while I was supposed to be on bedrest at the hotel but was instead waiting for people to come work on our damaged new home. While on the phone with her, I answered the other phone, and it was Brad. Mom heard our very brief conversation, and when I got back on the phone with her, she told me that she was amazed ~ even in the midst of all of the crises going on in our lives, she had heard us tell each other we love each other three times in a 2 minute conversation. For those of you who know us, you know that is how we still are. We talk often, about everything, and we tell each other we love each other all the time.

Because we do.

Brad, thank you for the past 5 years. Thank you for the husband and the daddy that you are to our sweet little girls. Thank you for being such a perfect match for me and the perfect compliment to me. Neither of us are perfect, but I continue to know that we are perfect for each other. Thank you for our precious girls, Alli Lane and Boots. Thank you for the promise of spending your life with me.

It all began with a day, but it continues for our lifetimes....

Keith walking me down the aisle

The shoes my Daddy bought me for my Senior Prom are the same that I wore as he walked me down the aisle in spirit.

My Family

Brad's Family

There were two "first dances" that night: Mine and Brad's as husband and wife...

...and Meme's, with my Uncle Wayne. As the daughter and the wife of Baptist ministers, she had never danced before our wedding ~ and she had a blast!

My dance with sweet Papa

The dance floor stayed packed all night!

Brad's KA Friends

A few of my Chi-O Friends

My Vanderbilt Friends

Thank you, God, for all you have given us ~ for all of our blessings, because there are so many!!