Air We Breathe

These are all random pictures of us, our friends and family over the last year. I have to include these pictures because the people in them help make the fabric of our lives. They are as important as the air we breathe.

Edisto 2016

Even with all the basketball, road trips and boating this summer we still made sure to make it down to Edisto. Edisto has become our family's summer kickoff party. The kids always have a blast there and the memories they are making will stay with them always. I hope they always do this together even when the rest of us are all long gone.

The Way the Ball Bounces

If we heard one basketball bounce this summer, we heard a million. Big got really started with AAU and had a great season. His confidence definitely grew and so did his body. Weird stuff started happening for him this summer and at this point he wasn't even 13! It was the strangest thing I've ever witnessed and he seemed to grow like one of those dried up sponges does in a cup of water. It felt like it happened over night.

We let him go to Duke basketball camp and he had a blast. The highlight of the week was most definitely when he made the half court shot one day in front of the whole camp and Coach K. He wasn't offered a scholarship but I'm pretty sure after that shot, he's definitely on Duke's short list of 2021 recruits. Thank God we have the shot on video. I'm not sure Daddy and I would have believed it otherwise.

There was a tournament almost every weekend that we traveled to. Daddy and I would take turns so that Lil' wasn't sitting in a gym allllll summer.

The fall brought JV tryouts and we were so proud when Big made it!! Playing JV as an 8th grader... Duke has to want some of this!! 

Yes, Big grew up this summer for sure and as sad it was for Daddy and I, I guess that's the way the ball bounces.

Our Best

This summer brought us the familiar things but also some new experiences that weren't exactly fun. This was the first summer we've ever had dealing with teen-aged problems. As Big is growing, so are his mess-ups. We all learn from them though and that's the most important thing of all. But overall this past summer treated us just as sweetly as it always does.

We spent a lot of our summer on the road or on the boat. The boat seems to bring us all together in the best way. We are all at our best when we are out there.

Beautiful Things

I love to watch Lil' ride a horse. There's something about the little boss in her that enjoys every second that she's getting that big ole' horse to do what she wants him to. She's flying when she's up there and my heart skips a beat every time I see it. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

One Season after Another

Hunting...

I can't really remember if I ever measured the year in seasons like other people do such as summer, fall, winter and spring. Growing up the daughter of an avid hunter, my year was always broken into dove season, duck season, turkey season and heat.

Most of my fondest memories with my Dad were in the swamp or a dove field. Those memories will probably be Big's favorite when he gets older too.

Papa and Big spend a lot of time hunting or looking for things to hunt or looking for places where they can hunt. He's passing his passion down and Big is picking up every drop.

I'm bettin' on Big breaking the year down like I do - one season after another.

"The best thing about hunting and fishing is that you don't have to actually do it to enjoy it. You can go to bed every night thinking how much fun you had twenty years ago, and it all comes back as clear as moonlight."

Robert Ruark, The Old Man and The Boy