Surprise Baby Shower

We try to get out to Greensboro, GA (Clay's hometown) at least once a month to visit with Clay's grandmother and uncle and work on cleaning up more at his mom's house. Recently we have been trying to coordinate our visits with Amanda and Edmund (who live in NC) so we can all be there at the same time. So...last month we planned on going out there the weekend of August 14-16th. About a week before, Clay told me that he had to be on-call for work on Saturday morning and since it was right after 'close week' for him, I didn't think anything of it and we decided we would just drive out Saturday afternoon.

When we pulled up to the house, there were a bunch of cars parked in the driveway but I just thought that Amanda had friends over since she and Edmund had gotten there the night before. That was, until I saw a minivan with Florida tags - I thought to myself, I think that's Aunt Sandy's car. Then it hit me - this wasn't just a typical "cleaning weekend" in Greensboro. It turns out Amanda and Edmund planned a surprise baby shower for us!!

I have to say, I was completely surprised! In fact, even after I realized the surprise I still thought Clay was really on-call that morning - but no - that was just an excuse to get us to leave Atlanta on Saturday afternoon instead of Friday night like we originally planned. They really got me good! Had I known we were having a party and weren't just cleaning all day, I probably would have worn something a little nicer and bothered to fix my hair!

It was a great time of catching up with our friends and family and seeing some out-of-towners like Sandy and Steve from Florida and Mr. & Mrs. Bishop from South Carolina. I'm so glad they were able to come. We had a ton of delicious food including Edmund's fabulous baby back ribs! We ate, played some games and won fabulous prizes, opened presents, ate, talked, and ate some more!

"Gator" outfits for our brand new "DAWG" fan courtesy of Sharmein & Jeff

Everyone was so thoughtful and Baby Jones is so blessed to have so many people who care about him and spoil him even before he arrives. We received wonderful gifts and some very sentimental gifts like handmade baby blankets from both of Baby Jones' great-grandmothers.

Clay and I are so thankful to have such wonderful family and friends and can't wait to introduce Baby Jones to everyone! Thanks to Amanda and Edmund for throwing a wonderful shower!

Carter Family Festival

The first weekend in August, Clay and I traveled to Hiltons, VA (right outside of Kingsport, TN) to attend the Carter Family Festival. This is a 2-day long Bluegrass tribute to the Carter Family. Clay and his family have been attending this event for many years but this was my first time at the festival.

The festival is held in an open-air building with no air conditioning. It was hot but they do have ceiling fans to cool the place down a bit. It has a stage for the performers, a dance floor, and then stadium like seating for the audience.

There were many different bluegrass groups there including the Dan Tyminski Band who is probably most famous for the song "Man of Constant Sorrow" in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? All of the groups were really good and Baby Jones really seemed to like the music. He was very active and "dancing" all around in mommy's tummy. We even got to see cloggers. Clogging is an American Folk Dance that began in the Appalachian Mountains and is similar to tap dancing. It is a very interesting dance. A lot of the audience had on their "clogs" and went out on the dance floor to clog and two-step. Clay and I decided it was best if we didn't clog because we didn't want to make a fool of ourselves trying it but we did learn how to two-step. It was pretty funny trying to learn and we definately would need more practice if we ever try it again.

Below are some pictures from the festival weekend.