Girl's Night Out...

Oh how I miss my girlfriends.  I made some truly amazing friends in Clarksville, the kind of relationships that will last forever, and boy, have I missed them these last three months!  Thankfully, Holly, Erin and Lisa were able to make a trip to Savannah last week to have a fun filled girl's week!  Erin and Holly both have three year old girls, and Lisa and Erin are both pregnant...so it was actually more of a girls and kids week!  It was awesome.  We had such a great time together, visiting, eating, beaching, catching up, shopping, laughing...and talking...into the wee hours of the morning.   Well, actually probably til about 12:00 or 1:00am...but to moms with kids that get up at 6:30, those are the wee hours!  :)   I got my friend reserve filled back up and can hopefully make it until we get together again!  I'm also praying for some new friends here in Georgia...I know...patience...the friends will come...I'm just anxious. 

Anyway, on Wednesday night, Steven volunteered to watch the kids so we could go have dinner and explore a little of Savannah.  We went downtown to City Market (a cute square that has a fountain, restaurants, and shops) and ate at Belfords.  It was amazing!  Afterwards, we walked to Wright Square where we met for our Haunted "Ghost" Tour.  Our guide was very good and we learned lots about the history of Savannah and the spirits that are said to still haunt it.  In addition to the scary stuff, I found out about many more old homes that are now museums that I'll need to explore.  Looking forward to really getting to know our new city. 

 Holly, Erin, Jenae, Lisa

 Pretty flowers in City Market Square

 Dining at Belfords

 Erin and Holly

 Me and Lisa

 Our Ghost Tour began with a full moon........ooooooohhhhh  spooky!

 Spanish moss grows on all of the Live Oaks down here, except this one pictured below.  All of the trees around it have moss, but this tree grows over the place where the gallows were originally located.  The tale is that a pregnant woman was sentenced to death for killing a man, and as soon as the baby was born she was hanged.  14 days later the baby died too, and the mother still lives in these trees, searching for her baby.  yes, be scared.  I'm a skeptic when it comes to ghosts, but it is extremely strange that there is no moss on this tree...I could possibly be convinced.  we'll see...

Below is the remodeled, but original structure for a children's hospital from back in the day (not sure what days...I need to do some more research), but it's said to be one of the most haunted buildings in Savannah.

Do you see any Orbs?  Ghosts?

 Below is a beautiful mansion made completely of cast iron.  Savannah burned down twice in the past, and to ensure against that, some built their homes completely out of iron.  crazy.  extremely beautiful.  haunted. 

 Cemetery downtown.  haunted, too. 

Loving the fresh seafood

We explored a few local restaurants with Pete and Deena and had some amazing fresh seafood.  The first stop was our favorite little place down at the marina in Richmond Hill (a little town between Savannah and Ft. Stewart) called Fish Tales.  They have a beachy outdoor atmosphere and yummy food! 

The Crab Shack is a huge restaurant, and may even be a chain, but it was super fun.  It was all outdoor, open air, under the live oaks, right on the water just outside Tybee Island.  We stopped there after our last day at the beach.  They not only had good food, but an awesome "feed the alligators" viewing area.  James had fun watching the alligators swim around and checking out the teeth on the life sized (or bigger) gator statues.  Pretty touristy but fun times.  Definitely a fun place to take kiddos! 

Shark Bait...

Steven and Pete went deep sea fishing and caught 15 sharks including 3 hammerheads!  Steven's co worker, Shaun, a retired LTC, offered to take them out in his boat and show them a good time on the water.  They intended to catch some fish, throw in some shrimping nets, and bring home some dinner, but sharks were the only thing biting that day.  It didn't matter, they had such a great time and came running in the door with big smiles, grand stories, and toasty sunburns!  What an awesome experience, thanks Shaun for showing the guys a good time! 

In case you're wondering...sharks have to be at least 4 feet or something much larger than the ones they were pulling in order to keep.  I don't know about you...but I'm not sure I know how to cook a hammerhead shark steak anyway!  :)  ohhh, they also saw some dolphins, but the jury is still out on that one since there are no pictures to document that story!  just kidding. 

 Hammerhead Shark.  wow! 

Beach Party

We spent two days at the beach this week and James enjoys every minute.  He loves to play in the waves, watch the pelicans dive in the water for dinner, chase the seagulls, play in the sand, put on sunscreen (yes, he loves it), and make sandcastles.  We are thrilled he likes it as much as we do because we intend to be there often over these next few years!

Happy Fourth of July

We celebrated our country's freedom this week with some of our dearest friends, Pete and Deena.  Steven and Pete met while they were students at UK, were in the National Guard and deployed together during that time, and have been close friends ever since.  After we got married and left Lexington, Pete met Deena and she is just amazing...so glad he found such a wonderful woman!  It makes the time we all spend together so much fun!  They spent about four days with us, and we had such a nice time at the beach, watching fireworks, the boys went deep sea fishing, eating fresh seafood, and just catching up. 

These pics are from July 3rd at the Richmond Hill fireworks.  James did surprisingly well staying up that late and was amazed at the pretty lights.  Happy Fourth!