Beach Trip!

David shot a wedding down at the beach a couple months ago, so we made it a little mini vacation and had a great time.  Now everyone knows I'm a river rat to the core.  The beach really doesn't do it for me.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy going for a couple days, but that's about all I can take.  Sand on my skin makes me want to have a seizure.  Yuck...if you reference my previous post, you will see I would rather be covered in river mud...much cleaner.  :)  Anyways, it was nice to get away for a few days and the wedding was absolutely fabulous.















This was known as the slowest meal I have ever eaten.  David was done well before me and kept asking me if I was almost done.  "You've been eating for 2 hours!"  Excuse me for living...takes awhile to get all that good food eaten!  Great beach trip and awesome food, so no complaints from this lady!

Good Clean River Fun

A vivid memory I have at the river as a child, was constant mud fights with my cousins.  I don't know what possessed us to get that nasty mud and throw it all over each other, but hours of mud fights ensued and it was a blast.  I'm seeing a trend start with my nieces and nephews.  Maybe more the nephews, but the girls are not innocent in this either.  Poor Gina had to put these boys in her car after an afternoon of swimming...don't worry, it will all wash off.

That's what I call a direct hit....


Who needs a fancy spa mud bath..


Swamp thing...




Steven joined us later that day and caught a big one....

Steven's 15th Birthday!!

I can't believe I just typed that....Steven is 15.  It seems like yesterday that he was just born.  I guess I am getting old...who would have thought it.  One random fact I remember about the day he was born was that after getting to visit him in the hospital, my buddy Richard Lloyd taught me how to drive a stick shift.  His poor truck will never be the same after that day!  I know that is an odd memory to associate with Steven's birthday, but I can always remember how many years I've known how to drive a stick shift. 

Obviously I had a little A.D.D. moment there, I'll try not to digress again.  So this year, I wanted to get something for Steven that he would remember.  Steven seems to have his Aunt Anna's love for the river, so I thought a perfect gift for him would be this....


So here was the plan....I had my mom bring him out to the river and when they got there, I was fishing on my neighbor Bobby's dock.  I had the boat on the dock with the sign facing the water.  So when Steven walked up, the sign was facing the water, away from him.  I told him that the fish were biting over here so he could join me and fish on Bobby's dock for awhile.  So, he's standing pretty close to the boat and fishing, obviously oblivious to the boat.  So he throws a couple times and glances over at the boat and see's the sign...



I think he was processing the sign....


He asked me then if we got to "use" the boat that day for his birthday....I told him no, it was his permanently...I think he was happy.





Needless to say, we tore up the river that day.  I told David if we never get in the boat again, we got our money's worth that day. 








Happy Birthday to my first nephew.  I am so proud of Steven for the wonderful young man he is becoming.  Now don't forget to visit your favorite aunt in the nursing home.

Oh so behind.....

For whatever reason, I have fallen into a blog slump.  As one of my dedicated readers reminded me, its been since May 23rd that I posted anything.  :)  As you can imagine, we have had a great deal going on...I'll try to catch us up as much as possible without totally overwhelming anyone aka-make them quit reading my super long post.  Here are a few of the events we can squeeze together...

I bought David VIP tickets to the Dave Barnes concert in Nashville for Valentine's Day this year.  We took off for an overnight trip up there and had a blast.  Dave Barnes is a great musician and is also pretty dang hilarious as well.  When we had our photo taken with him, David told him that he didn't want a "normal" shot because we have too many photos of us all standing there smiling at the camera.  This is the result of said comment...


We also got to hear Andrew Ripp that night who has quickly become one of my favorites to play on the ole' Ipod..

I'm a total goober because I can't remember the name of this famous sign shop in Nashville, but we went there...David looked at signs and I played with the cat.




The next event was a fishing trip with me and Stevo...which after this trip I was prompted to buy his birthday present which will be explained below....We paddled up and down and up and down the river setting and checking these lines.  Had a great day, but it was super exhausting for an old lady.  :)





And the famous question...."How many Linley's does it take to get a fish off the hook?"




All in all a great day!

We then went to the Brian Reagan show in Huntsville with Cheryl and Brandon and some new friends we met that night.  The Davis' were so gracious to host us for dinner that evening before the show and we had a great time!


Steven had his football jamboree which was a lot of fun as well!  We are looking forward to another great football season with him! 


That's all I have time for at the moment...we will pick up with Steven's 15th birthday present! 

BOW Weekend

Yes I know I'm so far behind its not even funny, but in March I had another BOW weekend. For those of you late in the game, BOW is Becoming an Outdoors Woman, also known as my two favorite weekends of the year. Its down in Columbiana and is so much fun I could do a whole blog devoted to nothing but that!! Anywho, this time, I took most of my classes involving some kind of shooting. My all time favorite class was the Shotgun II class which was phenomenal! We got to shoot skeet which was super fun! Here are some shots from that class! Seriously, SO MUCH FUN! Its awesome watching those things shoot out in the air and then blowing them to bits!! My next class was a new class that they offered this year. Its called Cowboy Action Shooting. I was really excited about taking it. They teach you how to shoot like the old cowboys did and then you have an obstacle course of sorts where you are timed shooting different guns. By far, the coolest thing I've done. I actually won the competition and got to take home a medal! (David made fun of me when I wore it in, but I think he was just jealous...)

Need to Breathe Concert

Back in February, we made a trip up to Nashville to see Need to Breathe. Now, before the show, David and I probably had 2 of their songs on our Ipods, and liked them, but were not super fans by any stretch. We just love any opportunity for traveling/concerts, etc., so we decided to go. The ride up there was pretty rough. I am not one to get car sick, but it was so windy that the car was blowing all over the road. I thought I might loose my lunch a few times... After the ol' stomach settled, we had dinner at the Spaghetti Factory which was delicious! Then we headed off to the concert. To say the show was phenomenal would be an under statement. We also were introduced to Ben Rector that night, who opened up for them and he was beyond fabulous as well. Rarely have I ever been to a concert where I just loved the opening act...I'm normally counting the number of songs they play so we can get on to the main show. If you haven't heard of Ben Rector, I highly recommend going to Itunes and taking a listen! Thanks again Mark and Mandy for inviting us on such a fun trip!! :)

Superfriends Dinners, Showers, Etc...

I couldn't really think of a cute title for this post, so its basically what it is...some random events that happened that are in need of documentation...Ginger, Lindsey and I have been trying for months to find a time we could all meet for dinner in Cullman. With the two of them in Birmingham and myself in Decatur, the big city of Cullman seemed to be a great place. We finally hit up the Alsteak which of course is delicious! It was a fantastic evening of lots of laughter and good conversation! I'm so glad that they two of them live close! If only we could get the other gals to migrate this way, our circle would be complete. Next would be one of Lindsey's Birmingham showers that Vick and I went down for. It was really nice....so nice, that it needed a special gift. You see, sometimes, you need to just do something to liven up a stiff shower. Since the lovely ladies (and I do mean that with all sincerity) of Vestavia/Hoover were throwing this shower, David decided that a special gift was needed. One that he picked out himself at Walgreens and then personalized. Lindsey got some beautiful things that day, but none as pretty as this.... Yes my friends, that is right, a garden gnome. I meant for Lindsey to open this up and us get a laugh out of it. However, when I arrived at the shower, the lovely hostesses whisked my gift away and opened it. I noticed that it didn't make it out to the table for awhile...then made an appearance, and was once again removed. It didn't really fit in, but we sure got a laugh out of it....