surprise visit

julia called me this afternoon at work to say she & luke would be going to north carolina this evening to get a new car and they realized they'd be passing right through greenville. so on their way back, they came & shared pizza with us while we watched the last of the tech game. here's the sweet gurley family, with precious carrigan - and eva. so good to see them!

it's that time of year again...

you guessed it: it's football season. katy and i had a wonderful weekend in atlanta going to a wedding and visiting friends (see post below). still, my favorite and most anticipated part of the weekend was the first georgia tech football game. i always tell katy she doesn't have to do anything much for my birthday because the ncaa decides to start football season around the first of september. thanks ncaa!

as with every home football game, we started out the day with our usual tailgate. we didn't take any overall pictures of the set up, but the grill, lots of food, and satellite tv were present and accounted for. katy bought an excellent ice cream cake for a tailgate birthday celebration with all of our friends. here's a picture of me with the cake. i didn't blow out all the candles in one breath because of that first pesky y. good thing i didn't wish for an undefeated season!

last year the athletic association was running a special deal, so we bought four tickets and invited folks to games with us. this year we decided to get a little better seat location. we've got two tickets and are sitting with our friends the freemans and derek. katy thinks the game moves along much more quickly with linda there to talk to!


here are a few more pictures. the first is the view from our new seats in the upper east stands, and the second is beautiful tech tower, a campus icon, as seen from bobby dodd stadium at historic grant field (the oldest and winningest stadium in division 1-a football).

finally, here's a picture of katy and me after the game. we're looking forward to many more fun and exciting football weekends this fall!

doggies, weddings, and babies

three of my favorite things! first, we celebrated eva's first birthday this week with her first bandana that i found online at pawsh pooch, a doggie boutique by two women in kennesaw. i also found some peanut-butter flavored frozen dog treats near the ice cream in the grocery store. eva seemed to love it! we recommend putting it in a dog bowl, not a saucer (which is what the box shows) because as she licked it, it fell off the sides!

we went to atlanta for part of the long weekend for kaitlin & wallace's wedding and the first gt football game of the season. i'll let christopher tell you about the football...the wedding was beautiful. here are linda, angela, & me with the bride: our favorite campus minister, jamey, was the officiant. it was great to see him, and we miss him and his family a lot!we enjoyed staying with some tech friends, angela & joseph. they have a black lab named dixie that eva enjoyed playing with. chris & i got to meet luke & julia's baby, carrigan for the first time. she is around 6 months old and looks just like a tiny female version of luke. we also got to stop by for a visit with the yorks. it's hard to believe their son, ashton, is already one!

weekend with the goldens

chris' parents came to visit us in greenville for the first time last weekend. on friday night, we showed them around downtown and went to dinner at the lazy goat.on saturday, we went to the biltmore - mr. chris & mrs. cathy got to see it for the first time, and christopher & i enjoyed one last use of our annual passes before they expired. we decided to take a specialty tour and got to explore some balconies and rooftop terraces.
the gardens are always exquisite, and the weather was gorgeous. i can't imagine a family calling all of this home.our last stop on the estate was the farm, where mrs. cathy & i held baby chicks at the petting zoo.
the goldens came to church with us on sunday and left in the afternoon. it was a wonderful visit!