A Walk Down Memory Lane

One of the things on my "To Do" list was to go back to Athens for a visit. We went today and I LOVED every minute of it! I absolutely love this town and would love to move back there for a few more years! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

This is where Matt and I first met, almost exactly 8 years ago!! I was working as a leasing agent and Matt was moving in. I will never forget this "redneck" looking country boy came in to get his keys and turn in his move-in packet. Inside that packet was a "Get to know me better" form that Matt had filled out. After the busy day ended, I dug through the stack of packets to find the one that this country boy, Matt Dorminy, had turned in. I was STUNNED to find out that he was a city boy from Dunwoody!! I often referred back to that form to find out what he was interested in, so I could start up a conversation with him when I ran into him. The rest is history!


"The Tree That Owns Itself" This tree is a historical landmark in Athens! It is right in the middle of a street!

Creswell Hall....the first dorm that I lived in when I moved to Athens!

The notorious Arches


I am really glad that they are rebuilding The Georgia Theatre!

Sanford Stadium....it won't be many more Saturdays until this is a lively place again!!!


These are just a few of the many places that we visited! I LOVE ATHENS!

Happy 4th Birthday Karson!

We celebrated Karson's 4th birthday today at Stars and Strikes Bowling Alley in Dacula! Who doesn't love bowling???





If you listen carefully, you will hear mom sing "Happy Birthday Dear Kendall" instead of "Happy Birthdy Dear Karson." Poor lady, she is losing her mind! (Just kidding mom!! LOVE YA!) She was looking right at Kendall while she was singing.



Kamden escaped over to the cosmic side of the bowling alley to have a little quiet time with Ms. Poodle. He is already practicing his dancing for prom!

Camping Trip

Matt and I packed up the camper and the dogs for 2 nights and drove a whole 15 minutes down the road to Sawnee Campground at Lake Lanier. We have driven past this campground a million times and have always said that we would never want to stay there because you can see the campsites from Buford Dam Road. What fun is camping if cars are driving by and looking down on you all day and night?? Our usual campground was booked, so again...never say never! We actually had a great site that was not visible from the road and had an amazing view of the lake! I took tons of pictures as always, but accidentally deleted most of them last night. Here are a few from last night!






Who said bulldogs can't swim?? Granted he is only in 2 feet of water and he has to wear his leash in case he sinks, but he was doing pretty good for a dog with legs as short as his!


Thanks to Governor Purdue and his mandatory teacher furloughs, summer has been extended by 2 days!! I don't have to go back to work until next Wednesday now! I am sure we will go on some other adventures before summer officially ends!

Family Pictures

Yes, we seriously had family portraits taken with our dogs!! Kerri sent me a coupon for a free picture package at The Picture People, so we got the crazy idea to take the dogs! Everyone else has a blog to post pictures of their kids, we post pictures of our pups! Maybe one day the focus of the blog will turn to babies, but for now we are content with focusing on the dogs! We had to take them into The Mall of GA through the service entrance. If you have ever been around our dogs, they are not always the most well behaved, so I was a little nervous about taking them. They actually did great and we had a lot of fun with it! If you would have told me four years ago, that I would be taking dogs into The Mall of GA to have family portraits taken, I would have laughed....guess you never say never!

Everyone had to clean up before we went to get the pictures made. Harley is not normal, he actually likes getting a bath. He will just stand under the faucet and let the water run all over him. Tiger is the exact opposite, he will cower down and try to get under the bed when he hears the bath water running!

Waiting patiently in the car for our appointment time! I love taking pictures of our dogs in the car!

We had to wait for someone to unlock the service entrace door for us.

The "behind the scence" tour of The Mall of GA. Who knew that this even existed??

The dogs first elevator ride! Harley is just a go with the flow kind of dog. Tiger was a little more skeptical about getting into the elevator!

Just playing with the props while waiting on the photographer!

Tuckered out from all the excitement!


The final products!

These are just 2 of the ones that we got. I will add more later!


They actually asked us to sign a model release form so they can put our pictures out on display. Next time you walk past The Picture People at The Mall of GA, take a look to see if Harley and Tiger are on display!

We're heading out camping tomorrow, so (all 2 of you that actully read our blog) check back soon for a new post!

Painting Pottery

Aaron was very sweet and planned a surprise girls evening out for Kerri in celebration of their 4th little one! We went to a paint your own pottery place at Hamilton Mill, then ate some delicious Mexican food (you can NEVER go wrong with Mexican food!) Here are some pictures of our fun afternoon!


SURPRISE!



Kylie worked so hard painting her flying pony! She was so careful painting it!

My Master Piece! I can't wait to go pick it up this weekend after it has been glazed!

We've had a lot going on!

This past week was my last week of summer school! Now it is officially time to be sad about summer coming to an end! Only 2 weeks left until we go back to work! Matt and I have been really busy these past 2 weeks! Here's just a little of what we have been up to!

NO BOAT = NO LAKE PICTURES! In case you haven't noticed, we haven't had any pictures of our exciting adventures on the lake this summer....that's because we don't have our boat to create these exciting adventures with anymore! SAD TIMES!!! We have really missed having the boat and have had to find new ways to entertain ourselves. The past 2 summers, we have practically lived on Lake Lanier! We would go out early in the morning and stay out until after dark!

Oh Lake Lanier, how we miss you! I hope out little "Bay Bay" (the Bayliner) forgives us for getting rid of her! Ever heard the country song "Redneck Yacht Club"? That was our summer anthem the past 2 summers, so that song also makes us really sad when we hear it on the radio now!

Okay, enough being depressed about not having a boat!

Here we are, taking the dogs to watch the water release from Buford Dam. It wasn't really as exciting to watch as I had hoped! You just hear a horn blast really loud, then all the sudden the water starts to rise. I guess I was hoping for a waterfall or for water to start gushing violently out of the dam. Yeah, that doesn't happen!




Check out the Dorminy's family pet! This deer hangs out around Matt's parents house in Dunwoody all the time! She is not afraid of people and will just walk right up while everyone is out in the yard!

Random, I know! I just had to take a picture when I saw this on back of a car the other day! I am not sharing my opinion on homeschooling, I just thought that it was funny!

Matt's sister, Haley, and her boys Owen and Cooper flew in town from Park City, Utah this past week. We haven't seen them since Christmas, so it was so good to see them again! The boys are getting so big!! We also celebrated Cooper's 3rd birthday while they were here!


Little Owen is getting so big!

I love seeing the kids together! They had so much fun having water gun wars!




Cooper enjoying his birthday cupcakes!

"Way to go Cooper!" Look at him jumping off the big rock!

Who ever thought you could have a garden growing in a townhome community? We're giving it a shot this summer. We have tomatoes, parsley, cilantro, bananna peppers, and bell peppers growing now!

Our first hot pepper!


I planted this rose back in May from a clipping someone at work brought me. I had no idea that you could grow roses simply by planting a twig from another rose, but this one has taken off!

Just another shot from our flower garden! I love summer flowers!

What an action shot!

Look at how long Tiger is!

A good old fashioned game of "Tug-of-War." For the record, Tiger was the winner!


Hopefully we will have some more excitement in the next 2 weeks to share before school starts back!