This blog spot is primarily a photo/memory album for our family. It also serves as a way for us to share what is going on in our lives with our friends and family that don't see us on a regular basis. Ashley, Worth, Ellie, Emma, and Mack
We are closing the February chapter this week and there is a lot to document for this month. We've celebrated Valentine's Day, Emma had a school field trip to the Jacksonville Zoo, Mack got a good report from school, lots of basketball is being played, we've taken another fun trip to SSI, Ellie went on a church ski trip, and all around it's been a blast! The kids are busy, the weather is warming up, and we are excited about what the spring will bring this year! These are pictures from the last few weeks.
Mack's teacher posted this from their class Valentine's party.
Emma is clearly the smallest person in her class and I didn't realize it until her teacher sent this from their field trip to the Jacksonville Zoo.
After Valentine's Day celebrations and field trips, the kids had winter break. Worth, Mack, Emma, and I headed to SSI for the break while Ellie left with the church for a ski trip. Our first night was spent at Crab Trap playing Golden Tee.
Winter break is a little cold for a beach day, but Worth took the kids early in the morning to do some metal detecting.
They didn't have any luck.
Emma has been begging to go to the WWII museum in St. Simons that sits near the Coast Guard station. We finally went and it was so well done! We were pleasantly surprised and learned ALOT!
Emma loved the museum and especially the sailor's knot station. There were instructions on how to tie the knots and you could try yourself.
There was also an interactive area in which you could build a naval ship.
Worth and Mack enjoyed the Radar training
Meanwhile Ellie sent us some pictures of her skiing in West Virginia
She had so much fun, especially having her friend Anna Beth there.
After the WWII museum, we had some lunch, then headed over to Ft. Fredrica. I'm assuming on Saturdays they have interactive exhibits because they have never had that when I've been there in the past. It was so fun to see the actual size of the huts the early settlers lived in. We also saw an exhibit of how to use a very old loom, as well as how a blacksmith worked back in those days.
These two by the water at the Kings magazine.
There is a picture of Amos and I in this exact spot when I was around 10 and Amos was around 3 years old. I'm trying to hold him and he is screaming in the picture. I sent him this picture of the kids and I and told him that they were much more cooperative at Ft. Fredrica than he was all those years ago.
We can't leave out a monthly picture of Leonard. These kids are obsessed with this cat.
Emma is playing so well, but her team does not have the best record so far this season.
Mack played against one of his best friends, Mason. They were so funny swatting at each other during this free throw. (Mack's team won this game)
The girls had to acolyte together last week. I couldn't resist snapping a picture of the 2 of them.
Dinner this month has been tricky with all the basketball games. This week, we ate Firehouse in between Emma and Mack's basketball games.
I can't leave Aspen out of the cat pictures. He is a sweet boy as long as he is OUTSIDE.
Emma will be participating in her gifted class "Wax Museum" this year. She has chosen to be Shirley Temple as her character. I can't wait to see how it turns out!
I was beyond proud to get this message from Mack's teacher the other day. He may wear us down at home, but at least he pulls it together in the classroom.
Basketball is here and we are running all over Valdosta for Mack and Emma's games throughout the week. Mack's team has only had 1 loss so far and 3 wins. Emma's team has lost 3 and won 1. Currently they have had to postpone her team's games due to a girl on her team testing positive for COVID. We opted to do that instead of making them play in masks, which was what the Parks and Rec were requiring.
In addition to basketball this week, I celebrated another birthday,(Not sure why those keep coming?!) and in lieu of the Daddy/Daughter dance this weekend, Worth took the girls to dinner and a movie. The girls were not thrilled to have to go to the actual dance, so that is why they opted to just spend some time with Dad over dinner and "Sing 2" at the theater. I asked all of them to make sure pictures were taken and I got one picture :(
Mack and I had a night out while the girls were with Worth. There were many things he wanted to do, but with my help he narrowed it down to going to see "Sing 2" (we went to the mantinee so we wouldn't run into the girls) and then picking up pizza to bring home for dinner, because he wanted to get his bath before dinner to watch the Olympics while he ate his pizza.
Next week is winter break, we will head to SSI for the weekend while Ellie goes on the church ski trip to West Virginia. I can't wait to see how that trip goes and hopefully have some good pictures she takes to post!
They were a little rough around the edges for this first game, but Mack's team has really picked up the pace since they played this one.
Mack is playing so well on defense this year.
He has some dribbling skills to work on though
All of the pictures I've taken of Emma are a big blur. She is up and down the court the entire game. There was no way I was going to let her play in a mask.
Emma looks like a little peanut compared to some of these bigger girls, but she takes them all on with no fear.
This was Monday as we waited on Ellie in her piano lesson. Mack was peppering me with questions and talk, so I snapped a picture of him.
Despite having 3 kids' dental appointments, 2 kids' basketball games, dance drop off and pick up, as well as other normal Tuesday things, I was able to squeeze a Birthday Burn workout in. I stole this picture from my gym's social media page. They make it so fun when it's your birthday.
I didn't get any pictures of Mack's game, and this is the only somewhat clear picture I got of Emma at her game Tuesday. I thought it was really awesome of them to both win their games for my birthday! :)
Mommy/Son date night
He got a small popcorn and a blue slushy. He and I both LOVED the movie.
Per his request, we came home after picking up Hot and Ready pizza at Little Caesar's, he had his bath, donned his PJs and we watched curling on the Winter Olympics. He's really been into the Luge and Curling events so far.
This is our Daddy/Daughter date night picture for this year. I think I'm going to force the dance on them next year, if Worth isn't working. Stinkers.
It has turned cold in south Georgia. Hopefully, we only have a couple of weeks of it. Basketball hasn't really started other than a few practices here and there, so we had the most relaxing weekend just hanging out staying out of the cold. Also, this week, Mack had his 100th day of school and even dressed up for the occasion, Monopoly games were on constant rotation in our house, and the girls prepared and served us dinner Saturday night all on their own.
Our 100 year old 2nd grader. He carried a dictionary to school because he said they could bring 100 of something in to school. He said he would bring 100 words from the dictionary.
Mack's teacher sent this of him sorting 100 treats in class.
Worth's combo birthday and Christmas gift was finally delivered. A new chair for his office. I think it looks great. Now to find a cute throw pillow to go in it.
Monopoly has been non stop this weekend. One game didn't get finished last night so they are currently finishing it now.
Our dinner menu for the meal prepared by the girls last night.
They worked so hard and it paid off. The food was delicious!
Ellie got a Yummy Crate (a Kiwi Crate version) subscription for Christmas and we have all benefited from it.
We are finally home after some extended Christmas celebrations, a ski trip, and a BIG UGA win! On NYE we headed to north GA to swing by the Berryman's house to have a quick Christmas get together. (Jay had COVID when they were supposed to come to the Bowers house in Tifton.) We got to meet Hunter, the new Berryman fur baby. The Bowers kids fell in love with him.
After spending a couple of hours at the Berryman's, we headed to Jefferson to have Christmas with Amos, Anna, Hardy, and Ford. Grandma and Papa were meeting us there. We had awesome appetizers, exchanged gifts, grilled steaks, and watched UGA crush Michigan to win the Orange Bowl. The NYE night ended with only the Bowers family up and awake and cheering as we watched the ball drop in Times Square. (Hardy had a rough 4 year old end of the night episode that had Amos and Anna having to do some hard parenting and then promptly going to bed. Been there for sure!)
New Years Day we had Chancey Christmas at Amos's house. It is always a good time and this year the theme was tacky Christmas sweater. We didn't get to have Chancey Christmas last year because so many people in the family had COVID, so it was awesome to be back together this year. I will say that this year the loss of Uncle Jim was heavy on my heart. I really missed him and his laugh during our gift exchange.
We headed back to Valdosta after Chancey Christmas and packed up for our annual ski trip to Park City, UT. Park City never disappoints, and everyone is getting better and better on their skis. We even ran into some Tifton people while we were there. My old roommate Nicole and her husband Todd were there skiing as well!
We stayed a week in Park City, then flew home last Saturday. Worth and I readjusted some of our packing and last Sunday hopped a plane to Indianapolis for the National Championship game between UGA and AL.
I'll have to admit, I didn't have my hopes up for a win. BUT WE WON!!! I could not believe it! It was SUCH a good game. I was on pins and needles that entire time and we got a pick 6 late in the game and it was pretty much over after that. I kept waiting for them to pull it back - I just knew there was a flag somewhere on the field, but no, we did it. The Dawgs were on top! Worth and I wandered down to a lower section that had been filled with AL fans who were quickly exiting the building. We wanted to see the trophy presentation as closely as we could. I shed some tears and the whole thing really didn't sink in for a couple of days. It was unbelievable and such an exciting memory that I will forever share with Worth and so many other UGA fans. The entire walk back to the hotel felt like walking on clouds. There were high 5s to other fans, singing of "Who's that comin' down the track," and smiles from everyone wearing red and black. What a night!
Ellie was enamored with Hunter.
Gift exchange with the Berrymans!
Grey was beyond excited.
Banks was being so patient waiting his turn.
Mack is always excited to see Bo.
Emma getting some love from Hunter.
I think Bo is most happy about Hunter.
And Emma was most happy to be holding baby Ford.
Mack got a monster nerf gun from Uncle Amos and Aunt Anna. I can't wait for pay back!
New Year's Eve with the Tifts.
Emma was so excited to get to feed Ford breakfast.
Meanwhile, Hardy and Mack snuggled with some iPad games for the morning. Ford was close by trying to get a peek.
It was around 75 degrees New Years Day in Jefferson. So we had to do the best we could with the Tacky Sweater theme.
Poor Papa gets victimized by Grandma's craziness.
The white elephant gift exchange started off with the kids. Some of them don't quite get the "steal" element and therefore have to be helped by a nearby adult. Once they figure it out, it's on!
There is never a shortage of crazy gifts.
Believe it or not, Ellie stole this. She actually wanted it.
Grandma gives crazy gifts, so she is due even crazier gifts.
The growing Chancey Family! Mimi, Aunt Pat, and Uncle Jim would be so proud.
We spent the night at the condo in SSI so that we wouldn't have to get up so early to get to the airport in Jacksonville. Even doing that, we still had to wake the kids up at 4:45am. Ellie did fine flying, but passed out in our car from the airport to Park City.
Mack did great until we went to get our skis and boots rented. They were slightly understaffed and the wait was a long one, so Mack just laid out on the floor in line and I let him.
The view from our room was worth the wait and the long travel day though.
Our first day of skiing (for me and the kids) is always with an instructor, so I don't get a ton of pictures, but I snapped this one of the girls on Day 1.
Every afternoon after leaving the slopes, we end the day by soaking in the hot tub on our floor. This year, we had a great view.
I didn't do great taking pictures this year, but Mack was insistent on me taking pictures of the views. I have plenty of pictures like this from this trip. Just soaking up how beautiful it was there.
Worth and Ellie after finishing up the King Con (blue) slope. Ellie and I are a little slower (cautious) on the blues, but we hung with everybody this day.
Only family picture I got the entire week.
Mack, making snow angels.
We usually eat dinner in the condo every night. Ellie cooked completely by herself one night. She served pizza, salad and drinks. She did an awesome job.
One night the hot tub on our floor was locked and not in use, so there is another one with the heated pools in a common area for the resort. The views are even better from there and although the pool and hot tub are cold to walk to (outside,) it's warm once you are in it. This picture is terrible of me with no make up post skiing, but I wanted a picture of the background.
Ice skating is another activity the kids enjoy one of the nights during our trip. Worth and I sit by one of the fire pits around the rink and have a glass of wine while watching the kids skate/fall. Ellie did really good this year.
Mack, on the other hand, was on the struggle bus:)
After an Instagram post I made of us on the mountain skiing, Nicole Branch called me to inform me that they were also skiing in ParkCity. Nicole and Todd live in Pensecola Beach, FL and I rarely get to see her. They came over for the ice skating fun with us.
My 3 musketeers ready to take on another run!
Nicole came to ski with us Friday. It was so good seeing her.
Another picture request from Mack.
Worth and I made it to FanFare in Indianapolis!
We met up with Kathryn and Darren briefly. She was a nervous wreck, unlike me who was just assuming we wouldn't win.
Kate brought Bo and he was SOOO excited to be there.
Indy was colder that Park City. Thankfully we only had to walk outside for about 8 minutes, everything else was an indoor sidewalk.
Filing into the stadium was a much smoother, easier experience than that of the 2017 debacle at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
My phone refused to latch on to any sort of signal once we got in our seats, so once again, I had minimal pictures. It was sucking my battery so bad, I ended up just cutting my phone off until after the game. I'm so glad we took this picture though with our hopefully optimistic faces.
And then it happened! We won! 33-18
Go DAWGS!
The celebration in the stadium was unreal. It was so funny to watch the AL fans leaving. They had no idea how to lose. Only one guy took off onto the field and was arrested. He was so happy though!
Best shot I could get of the trophy presentation from where we were standing.
I'm so proud of the DAWGS and this guy right here. I remember him when he was dreaming of being a coach!
