September 2020
2020,  Brayden,  Charlotte,  Family,  Football,  Hanleigh,  September,  Vacation

Savoring, Swimming, Spas, Sea, & Sports

During September, we ramped up the amount of time we’ve spent gathering quotes to remodel our kitchen and paint the exterior. Still undecided as to which project we will go with or who we will use. This process takes a lot of time! We are both anxious to get started on a project, though. We’ll keep you posted as things progress. The girls continued to take gymnastics and their gym was relocated to another much more spacious place with four floors for cheer, tumbling, and gymnastics. Trent had a Y Guides Dad’s meeting and we spent one Friday evening at our neighbor’s (Sonia and Aaron) house for dinner. It’s always awesome hanging out with our neighborhood crew. We are so lucky to be so close to all of them.

Trent and I had a date night at Bardo, a restaurant we have been anxious to try. They specialize in small plates and we had great seats at the bar (tucked away in the corner) where we could watch all the action taking place in the restaurant. The food was beyond incredible and we had a fabulous time! Later that weekend, a bunch of us from the neighborhood went to Carrigan Farms, which is an awesome rock quarry in which you can go swimming. There were various heights on which you could jump off of: anything from a 5-ft to a 20-ft jump. Both of our girls were very brave and jumped off of the tallest platform. There was even a swing that you could ride into the water; however, you had to do an overhand pull up in order to even be allowed to participate. Needless to say, I could not do it. I consider myself a pretty strong person, but an overhand pull up, no bueno.

I enjoyed spending Labor Day at the Ballantyne spa for a massage and facial, followed by a couple hours at the pool drinking cocktails and eating lunch. Usually once a year, Trent gets me a gift card there for either my birthday or Mother’s Day and I redeem it at some point during the summer when it is warm and I can enjoy relaxing by the pool. Thank you so much, Trent! This fills my bucket. One evening, Trent had some of his F3 friends over to the house for a social get together. Meanwhile, at the same time, one of Brayden’s best friends, Cora, spent the night with us. I love that the two of them can reconnect automatically, even in the middle of a pandemic when they haven’t seen each other very often. The two of them have a very beautiful friendship.

We are very excited to see the Panthers and NFL season start back with some sense of normalcy, even though there are no crowds in the stands at this point. It was great to get back into our fall routine of curling up and snuggling on the couch and watching the games. In addition, Brayden’s field hockey season started up, which we are all very thankful for. She has games on Monday and practices on Tuesday and Thursday. A lot of her really good friends are on the team again and she absolutely loves it. She is playing better than ever and so are the rest of her teammates. I think they are undefeated at this point. Of course, the pandemic brings certain rules for spectators. Only one parent is allowed to watch the games on the sideline while wearing a mask the entire time and staying six feet away from the next spectator. One thing that the school system has offered up this fall is a weekly meal delivery program that provides students with five breakfasts and five lunches—free of charge. Originally, they were going to charge $15 to those who did not qualify for free or reduced lunch, but they ended up making it free for everyone. This is very nice, but we were happy to pay for the meals. It helps employ bus drivers as well, which is awesome! We have signed up for it bi-weekly and they do a great job of providing well-balanced meals. Hanleigh eats most of the food and it has encouraged her to try a few new things. It is a very considerate and kind thing for the school system to offer up this kind of benefit, especially to those families that may not have easy access to meals and/or where the parents are not home or don’t have time to prepare meals for their kids.

The third weekend of the month, eight of us ladies went to Ocean Isle for a long, much needed vacation. We stayed at Kendall’s beach house and had the best time ever. While the weather wasn’t the greatest, we made the most of it. We actually did luck out and get about six hours of beach time on Friday while we were there. That weekend consisted of laughing, dancing, eating delicious food, drinking delicious beverages, taking long walks on the beach, exercising, and really getting to know each other even better. We’ve already booked our date for doing it again next year!

We have enjoyed getting more use out of our fabulous back porch by having cookouts (now that we finally have a grill again!) with family. Sitting out there, enjoying the fresh air, and just chilling out is really priceless. Hanleigh had her parent-teacher conference which went really well. One of her teachers said that she wished she had an entire classroom full of Hanleigh’s! They love her attitude and how engaged she is even though this semester has been virtual so far. Brayden is continually to do amazing in school as well and maintaining awesome grades. I’m so proud of both of our girls for really being resilient and very patient during this unprecedented time. They are both excelling very well and handling it with grace.

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