the little mermaid {3.21. & 3.22.13}

After Conner's birthday dinner, we all trekked over to the next town over to see Rachel's dress rehersal of the Little Mermaid. OHMYWORD READERS I'M GONNA BE AN ACTRESS NOW. The only thing stopping me? My huge fear of people looking at me. Yeah, might wanna work on that one. For now I'll leave the acting to my insanely talented soulmate. I felt so honored to take pictures of her doing her thing cause she's such a star. I didn't take many though, cause I was so starstruck, but I did get a few, both for IG and with my DSLR.

Dedication to Rachel means considering going to ALL THE SHOWINGS.
Which I did consider, but didn't follow though.

Almost showtime!

Sound booth guys are my heros.

The dress rehersal was the only time attendees were allowed to take photos, so
everyone used whatever camera they had on them.

Good grief this girl <3 Such an amazing actress/singer.

See what I mean? Her expressions were spot on.

Clem-Clam comforting like only Clem-Clam could.

 

 

Everything worked out in the end...TRUE LOVE PREVAILS!

"I don't wanna, I'm not gonna, you can't make me maaarryyy youuu!" Basically my response to anything I haven't wanted to do this past week. Pretty sure it's going to be a while before the gang & I get these showtunes outta our heads.

Happy Friday, readers.

conner's birthday {3.21.13}

Stolen from the (friends) Valentine's date...probably my favorite picture of this redhead to date.

 It was this dude's birthday Thursday, and since he's awesome and stuff he gets a birthday post on SSA. He and Tanner are our only friends who lives in our town (country living probs), and our town is just that much cooler cause we live there. He is so musically gifted and always uses it for God's glory. He's such a leader both at WOL and just when we're hanging around, and the guy is probably the most goofy and loud guy you'll ever be around, but that's what makes him so fun to get together with. He knows how to have a serious God conversation and is so spiritually mature. His joy is contagious and he's always excited to see his friends and gives you a great big hug when you leave. He's just awesome to be around and I'm so glad to be part of his little gang.

Happy birthday, bro...love ya!

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Speaking of our gang, we all went to the Mellow Mushroom cause that's how we celebrate...with good food & great friends.


This kid <3 He's the best brother I could ever have.

PIZZZAAA.

Kaley brought Conner a cupcake and I'm pretty sure we all did a jealous drool kind of thing.

YUM.

Pretty sure we sang happy birthday so loud that our waiter heard and brought Conner free bday ice cream.

How our gang entertained ourselves.

 

An IG capture of the best friends. Photo cred to our awesome waiter.

 The second half of Conner's birthday night consisted of walking around the mall to kill time until we went to Rachel's dress rehersal, which gets it's own post cause guys. I have one talented soulmate.

 

Happy Thursday, readers...I hope you've got a group of friends as awesome as mine.

palm sunday parade {3.21.13}

For a few years now, we've had a parade at CBS in celebration of Jesus riding into Jerusalem. Normally we time it for the week of Palm Sunday and this year we pulled it off despite plenty of sickness going around the children's ministry. The kiddos look foward to singing Ho-Ho-Hosanna and waving palm branches and waving at their moms. And let's be honest, so do I. It is one of the sweetest sounds to hear those little kids singing praises.

Happy Thursday, readers, and here's to Jesus' triumphal entry.

almost wordless wednesday {spring is here!}

Just like typical ENC weather, it's been chilly all week, and the first day of Spring was closer to feeling like winter. At least the pear trees got the memo that the calendar said it was officially springtime.

Happy Wednesday, readers!

great wolf lodge {IG edition}

going clockwise...

{1} Kaley was just as excited as I was to be there. So we took tons of pictures, naturally.

{2} There's that hall again. Walking this thing...phew.

{3} Ready to swim in March!

{4} Besties hangin' by the bathroom cause that's were all the plugs were.

{5} Kaley got in on the hacking action.

{6} My roomies! <3

{7} Story time at the GWL isn't just for little kids. Also...THAT CHANDELIER.

{8} Chattin' with Erika & Kaley, sippin' on Starbucks. Sugar rush anyone.

{9} We took a picture cause we wanted to act like dumb tourists.

{10} backseat buddy for both car rides. love my Erika Brooke <3

Like I mentioned numerous times, my roomies & I were probably on IG more often than we weren't. We hacked each others accounts (does it count as hacking if the person is right beside ya laughing?), showed each other all our favorite people to follow, and said "Oh this is going on Instagram!" numerous times. I love my IG addicted friends. The trip wouldn't have been the same without this app.

great wolf lodge {yearbook staff trip 3.7 - 3.8}

A little known fact on the ol' blog: I'm on the yearbook staff. Yep, SA is a graphic design pro. SARCASM. I am anything but...however, yearbook isn't picky and Clark & I are now proud editors of the SWORD yearbook.

Besides the little Publisher nuggets of wisdom, a highlight of being on yearbook is the staff trip. Basically, we sell ads and use the money to cover the expenses running the yearbook entails. This year, we found a great homeschooling deal at the Great Wolf Lodge so we had enough income to have an all expenses paid trip over Spring Break! Aw yeah.

I didn't take many pictures cause let's be real: I was having too much fun. BUT. I did manage to capture some shots that sum up the overnight trip pretty well. So, enjoy the GWL SWORD Staff trip of 2013 as seen through my lens.

On the road by 8:30. Needless to say, we slept until we made it to VA.

Rest stop about halfway there. Much needed.

We held our breath over this bridge cause we're awesome like that.

I wasn't the only photographer on the trip.

I couldn't escape CFA even on a trip. No worries, I loved it.

We're here!

It's so log cabin-y and awesome and can my future house look like this please?!

The lobby was massive and I probably would've gotten lost if I had been on my own.

I was in log cabin heaven, ya'll.

We were four units away from the end of the lodge.
I don't think I've walked this much on a vacay in my life.
Holy hall inception though, right?!

3009, you were worth the walk.

Admiring the view while waiting to check in.



Erika Brooke & I <3 Waiting in the halls for staff pictures.
Even though I had my camera with my the whole time during staff pictures, this is the only picture I have.



I stood under this approximately once. Too hardcore for me.



Our favorite ride by far was the Howlin' Tornado.

Where you emerge with your hair plastered to your face and throat hoarse from screaming.
TOTALLY WORTH IT.

The park at night was pretty magical. I kinda regret not going back after dinner to have a little night swim.







After eating dinner in the bathroom hangout, some of us ventured out and played MagiQuest.
Erika & I just listened to music and surfed Instagram.

An ice cream break was neccessary. And no, I don't know those people.
I just snapped a picture of their ice cream. Photographer problems.

We basically bonded over the fact that we were on Instagram the whole time
and spoke only when we found an awesome picture.
Loved it.

This frap basically rekindled my love for Sbux.

Kaley found us at some point and we all got on Instagram.

As the only two boys, Jayden & Clark were kinda forced to hang out, but by that night,
it wasn't forced at all. They had a blast in the arcade.

Clark counting all the loot they won when they accidently rigged one of the systems.

Arcade fun.

Jayden's brother won himself plenty of tickets too.

Around ten we headed upstairs with all our liquid fuel and watched a movie until the wee hours of the morning.

Waking up was a little harder to do. We were wiped out from the day before.

We spent the better part of the morning in bed, all on Instagram.
After Poptarts for breakfast, we rode all our favorite rides again then came back to
the room to shower, pack up, and be outta there by noon. Crazy times.

We had a blast, and made tons of memories, and I swear I got a tan in an indoor waterpark and still have water in my ears. Totally worth it.