Family Cruise

My family was blessed enough to be able to go on a cruise together this past February. Harrison’s dad’s church (Savannah Christian) gave this vacation to the family as a gift for Cam and Sarah’s 25th year of serving there. We left from Ft Lauderdale, FL and headed down to Grand Cayman, Roatan Honduras, Cozumel and Princess Cays. We also had a few days at sea. Roatan was my favorite place! It was beautiful and we got to play with dolphins there too!! This has always been something I wanted to do and it was so amazing! Cam and Hailey were not allowed to go on the cruise b/c Hailey was past 20 weeks of pregnancy, so they stayed in Cozumel. When we got off in Cozumel, they came and got us and we spent the day together. We went to some ruins and then the guys went diving while Sarah and Hailey snorkeled. I offered to watch all of our stuff b/c the water was cold and the weather wasn’t too warm that day! We ended up at their hotel and enjoyed our last few hours with them. It was great to see them, but we wished they would have been able to go on the cruise. We ate so much food on the cruise, I was sure that I weighed 10 pounds more when we came off the ship!!! All you can eat, can be a little scary sometimes. We went to shows and watched movies under the stars and read by the pool. It was a great, relaxing time with the Huxford family. I am just sad that it is over and that my tan is already fading!

The New Addition

Harrison and I decided that since he will be graduating in June, that we would begin to start trying to have a baby. This may have had something to do with the many days we were with Karland (our niece) over Christmas. We have been ready to have a family for a while now, but wanted to make sure that Harrison was done with school. We know the timing was never going to be perfect, but it just made sense to wait (to us...not our parents - j/k). Harrison and I kept having conversations about how it could take a while and we need to not get our hopes up each month. I just didn't want to be disappointed every month. We knew that whenever the timing was right, we would get pregnant. Well, come to find out...it didn't take long at all. We got pregnant the first month that we were trying! I think we are still in shock. It's hard to believe that there is a baby growing in me. We can't wait to see this beautiful creation that God has blessed us with. I am only 5 weeks, so I haven't seen the doctor yet. In three more weeks, we will go and hear the heartbeat.

Father, thank you for blessing us with this child. We pray that you keep the baby healthy and growing properly. We also pray for me to make it through this pregnancy with little sickness. We pray that we can raise this child in You, the way our parents did with us! We love you! AMEN

Christmas in Georgia

Harrison I got to go home for Christmas this year, which is a huge treat! We love being with family and can’t imagine being away from them at Christmas time. We left for a 16 day trip, where we were never staying more than 3 days in one place! So, it wasn’t really relaxing, but it was a lot of fun. We started out in Covington with my family, but made a very short trip to Savannah to see Harrison’s parents. The boys went shooting, while the girls went shopping and the next thing we knew it was time to go back to Covington. On Christmas day we traveled to Virginia (a Raynor tradition) to be with my mom’s family. Luckily we got to see snow, which was fun. The guys even made huge snowmen! We went shopping and bowling while we were there and then we said “goodbye.” Next, we went to a lake house. This was so that we could have some time as a family – without all of the distractions of hometown life. We really enjoyed this time together, spoiling Karland, playing games, watching movies and building a gingerbread house. We made it home in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve and then Harrison and I flew to St. Louis. This was the last stop before home. We spent some time with the Jobe’s and checked out Harvester Christian Church. We had a lot of fun, but again the visit was very short (oh yeah…and it was freezing there!). Christmas was great, but it took us quite a few weeks to recover from the trip. Here are some pictures!

Snowy California

That's right...I said "snowy." Most people think of Southern California as a place where it's always sunny and 70 degrees. Well, usually it is, but there are also mountains in California that are really close to LA. So, 2 hours from our home in Pasadena, there are places that actually get snow. The whole Huxford family decided to have a California Thanksgiving this year. We were so excited for them to get here!! We love family and enjoy every minute we get to spend with them. Our apartment is very tiny, so instead of cramming in there or staying in different places in Pasadena, Sarah suggested that we go to Big Bear, CA (this is the mountain that I mentioned earlier that is 2 hours away). Everyone got here and we spent a few days in Pasadena so they could see where we live, work, go to school, etc. Then we headed to Big Bear. When we left on Wednesday it was high 60s or low 70s in Pasadena. I was sweating like crazy while we were packing up the car. Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) was still pretty warm (I was starting to wish I had brought some short-sleeve shirts), but it started cooling down that night. Friday, the girls decided to go shop a little in their cute downtown area. At this point the wind was really picking up and we were ready to get home to a warm fire. Saturday morning we woke up to SNOW!!!! We had gotten about 6 inches overnight!! It was so pretty, but I had not prepared for snow at all. It was the furthest thing from my mind when I left 70 degree weather on Wednesday. I didn't have good snow shoes or warm enough clothes. Luckily, most of the time we just stayed in the warm house (or in the hot tub). Patrick and Lindsey also joined us for Thanksgiving lunch. I am grateful they made the drive to spend time with us that day.

We split holidays between our families, so we were spending Thanksgiving with the Huxford's and Christmas with the Raynor's this year. Because of this arrangement, the Huxford's usually do Christmas at Thanksgiving (when we don't see each other at Christmas). So, we woke up Friday morning to stockings and gifts. We had such a great time with Cam, Sarah, Cam, Hailey and Garrett!!! We hated to see everyone go back home, but we made some great memories. Here are some pictures of our time in Big Bear.

San Diego

So, back to our adventures in California. Harrison and I went with Patrick and Lindsey to San Diego on Labor Day weekend (I know...that was a long time ago). Of course, we chose it because it was a long weekend, but what we didn't know is that our office would close down on Friday too!!!! It was a great surprise. This happened to be the same time that the wildfires were running rampant in the mountains near our city. It was so smoky outside, but to make matters worse, it was extremely hot and we have no central air conditioning. So, our house smelled like smoke because we use a window unit to cool down our apartment. Even the office smelled like smoke...there was no escaping it. So, they decided to shut down the seminary on Friday. Harrison and I headed down that morning and stopped in La Jolla. This is a place right by San Diego and it is really beautiful. We saw tons of Sea Lions there and took tons of pictures. They are so fun to watch. A lot of people were in the water, but they had to be careful not to get too close to the Sea Lions. After spending some time there, we went in to Old town San Diego. This place is quite interesting. It is really set up like an old western town. They have tons of Mexican food there and Harrison could not pass up the opportunity to eat (they had home-made flour tortillas)! We went to Griffith Park and then headed to a sports bar to watch UGA play. Then we made a stop at Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island. It was BEAUTIFUL there. I loved it!! It was an amazing, old hotel and gorgeous beaches. We went to their ice cream shop, which was connected to the hotel. It was kind of like a Cold Stone, where they mix lots of goodness into your ice cream. Harrison and I decided to splurge and got a huge helping of white chocolate ice cream with brownies and strawberries. We were sure that we would not be able to eat it all when we saw how big it was. BUT, after our first bite...we were hooked!!!! It was the most amazing ice cream we have ever eaten!! We keep trying to recreate it, but can't find a place with white chocolate ice cream. Oh well! It is a good memory. Sunday, we decided to visit a church called "The Rock Church." We enjoyed that as well. Before we went home, we decided to visit Hotel Del (as the locals call it) one more time. Surprisingly, we didn't get anymore ice cream (I think we were kinda scared they would notice us from the day before - our ice cream was THAT big). We went out to the beach and enjoyed some time on the rocks. We ended our trip back at Old Town, eating Mexican (Harrison can't get enough). Then we made our way back to smoky Pasadena (I tried to take pictures of the fires, but nothing turned out well). San Diego is a really awesome place and we hope to visit again before we move.