Beautiful Sunrise

This weekend we camped at the beach. It was a wonderful 3 day weekend for our family. And we are amazed at how well Claire does! Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of us camping, but Bradley took this pic of the sunrise on Monday morning while he was fishing.

1st Camping Trip

Labor Day weekend we took Claire on her first camping trip. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I'd take her camping when she was so young, but she did really well! And, when I say camping, I don't mean the tent kind. Ha ha ha...we took Bradley's parents camper. I've never camped like that before! We had a bathroom and everything. Wow. Awesome. Claire loved the outdoors. She listened to the birds sing. She watched the kids play. And she loves the wind on her face. Here are some pics of our time.

Claire and her Granddaddy went walking a lot.

Bradley went fishing for a few minutes.

Happy girl, playing outside.

Bradley is cooking us some breakfast!

While Bradley was cooking breakfast, Claire was eating hers.

Camping at Jordan Lake

Last week Bradley and I decided to spend a 3 day weekend camping. He loves to camp at the beach so that he can go fishing too...so we decided to go to Topsail and take his parents' pop-up camper. We love it b/c we can regulate the temperature better in there, you have more space and right now...since I'm halfway through my pregnancy, we thought it'd be much easier for me than getting in and out of a tent. Well, we drove down on Friday night and began the process of setting the camper up. Unfortunately, we didn't get very far. Some cables or a pulley or something on the pop-up broke and we were unable to crank it all the way up. So, after an hour and a half of trying to get the thing put back together again (oh, what an ordeal since Bradley's collar bone is still healing and he hasn't fully regained all of his strength), we packed everything up and headed home...very disappointed. Well, on Saturday we decided that we still wanted to go camping, so we regrouped, got all of our tent camping gear (including the trusty air mattress!) and headed for Jordan Lake State Park which is only about an hour away. We found a beautiful campsite right on the lake and stayed there for 2 nights. Chad and Jamie came and camped with us one night and on Saturday, since we were so close to Raleigh, Ashley came and had dinner with us all. It was such a relaxing time for us. Bradley may not have been able to fish at the beach, but he still was able to fish and we still had our relaxing weekend...after a few bumps in the road. :)


The view from our campsite was amazing. The lake was on 2 sides and we could just walk right down to the water.

Bradley's setting up all of our gear.

Bradley was able to get many hours of fishing in. I'm glad that he was still able to fish, despite the fact that we weren't at the beach!

Chad and Bradley sitting on the shore fishing.

Outer Banks Fishing

Over the Memorial Day weekend Bradley and I went to the Outer Banks with Chad and Jamie to camp and fish. We had beautiful weather, and quite a bit of good luck when it came to fishing. Both Chad and Jamie caught a big one and Bradley and I were able to reel in a ton of small bait fish. It was the first time for me to go out to Davis Island and I think I'll definitely go back.


Here is Jamie holding up the big fish that she caught.


Unfortunately there are a lot of stingray-like creatures called skates and poor Bradley hooked two really large ones. Here is Bradley fighting the first of the two that he hooked. These creatures were huge. Chad and Bradley said that the second one that Bradley hooked was as big as a car's hood! Crazy!

Chad and Jamie are looking on as Bradley fights the skate.

Here is Chad reeling in the large fish that he caught. It ended up being a Red Drum, which is the kind of fish that most people try to catch at the Outer Banks. Bradley had to get in the surf to help once the fish was close to the shore. It's amazing how much strength these creatures have, especially when they fight as hard as they do to stay in the water!

Chad, Bradley and Chad's cousin, Cory, are weighing Chad's fish. It was appoximately 25 pounds.

Chad proudly displaying his catch. It was 43.5 inches long and 25 inches in girth. Bradley and Chad have been fishing together at the Outer Banks for over 15 years, and this was by far the biggest that Chad has ever caught there! I was really excited to be there for the big catch!

The Latest Camping Experience

Oh, this picture makes me laugh. But, in all reality...we had SO much fun. Bradley's parents have this pop up camper (which hasn't been used in YEARS). We decided to try it out on our latest camping trip. And it was really fun...especially when there was a 2 hour thunderstorm on the 2nd night that we were there. If we'd been in our tent, we would not have been nearly as comfortable!! This may be the future of camping for us...I'll bet in 50 years we'll have another picture that looks just like this...:)


Bradley was not very amused that I was taking pictures of him setting up the pop up camper at 9:30 at night. But I was just so excited to be there and wanted to capture the moment forever. Thanks for being a good sport Bradley! :)

Camping Trip with Sunday School

The first weekend of June we battled the rising heat, and more importantly, severe storms, and went camping with our Sunday School Class. This is the second trip that we have taken with them. There were a total of 12 people that went just an hour West of Fort Worth to Mineral Wells State Park. The thunder and lightening threatened us all evening, but thankfully the rain held off until 10:30 pm. We had a blast, though. We played games, ate great food and just enjoyed the fellowship. We were impressed with our friends Matt and Cassie that made a lamp with a light bulb, extension cord and a bucket. Looks like a Wilkie creation!