Nash-Vegas!

Graem and I love any excuse to take a trip to Nashville...and Mason loves any excuse to take a trip to the farm! What better reason did we need than for the USC v. Vanderbilt football game?

After dropping Mason off at my parent's house, we headed on up to Nashville, met Deborah and Jason, and had a great time hanging out at all the honky-tonks on Broadway! The only unpleasant part of our trip was a period of about 3 hours on Thursday night. Those Gamecocks really can increase a girl's blood pressure! Seriously, how did we lose that game??? I think I saw some of the players out at Tootsie's in the wee hours of the morning the night before the game. That must explain it!?!

There is nothing I love more than a celebrity sighting. Unfortunately, my celebrity sightings are few & far between. The only real famous person I have ever seen was Jeff Gordon at the Hard Rock Casino in Vegas (the one in Nevada, not Tennessee). I was hoping to run into a famous country star, but the only quasi-celebrities we encountered were:

• Kelli Pickler (she sang the National Anthem at the game)
• Matt Mason (from "Nashville Star" -- which I have never watched, but he was great and I like his last name)
• Andre Bauer
• Todd Ellis
• The Crackman. I will have to delve into the subject of the Crackman in another post. He is quite a character and certainly deserves his own post. Stay tuned...

Beach Crawler

I think I have figured out how to post a video...hopefully this will work!

Hilton Head Happenings

What a great week to spend at Hilton Head...with school back in session, the island was much less crowded than it is during the rest of the summer. We had perfect weather during the first part of the week...until Hurricane Fay decided to blow in lots of wind & rain.

The last week of June we were at Ocean Isle...and although Mason loved the beach during that trip, he could only take so much of the sun & sand before he was ready to head back to the house. What a difference 6 weeks makes! On this trip, Mason was all over the place and simply could not get enough of the beach! The beach at HHI is so nice and wide that he had plenty of room to crawl...and the waves are so calm that Mason loved crawling in the edge of the water. I have a video but I'm having trouble uploading it to the blog. For now, enjoy the pictures and I'll work on getting the video posted.

The Whole Clark Crew - at dinner in Savannah

Chillin' with Uncle Brian

Nap Time!

Checking out the sea kayaks...

Beach Crawler

Acting Silly at the Condo

Living Large at Lake Murray

Okay, so Mason isn't "large", but he knows how to "live large!" We had a great time at Lake Murray on Saturday. We enjoyed hanging out with the Smyths, the McCartys and the Dickens!

In typical fashion, I think Mason caught as many fish as Arch did! Yes, that would be a total of zero. In reality, I think Arch actually caught a couple of fish this time. Good job! Way to provide for the family, now that you will have another mouth to feed in a few months!

Mason LOVES a boat ride! Check it out:

Ta Da!!! Announcing my blog...

I know what you are thinking, dear reader. "Is her life really so interesting that she must BLOG about it?" A similar thought has crossed my mind. The pressure to come up with witty blog entries has never been greater. Be warned: I cannot promise that this will be interesting or witty. On the other hand, I do promise that this will be a great way for you to keep up with the happenings of our lives. Furthermore, I promise to include some really cute pictures! AND it won't require me to clog up your e-mail inbox with large photo files that you may or may not have any interest in looking at! AND I have a really cute blog design to boot (thanks, Jennisa)!

Big confession: I have never made a scrapbook (gasp)! All of my great memories are filed neatly away in my noggin, which has become increasingly less reliable with time. I am most grateful to my wedding photographer for putting together some incredible photo albums so that I can have something to look back through! Maybe I am feeling a little guilty about not doing a special scrapbook for Mason. That is one of the things a mother is supposed to do, right? Alas...a BLOG! An e-scrapbook of sorts! What a clever forum for documenting all the happenings of our lives and sharing it with the ones we love and that love us!

Welcome and enjoy!

P.S. Just for the record, Mason has a baby book. I have worked on it *twice* and hope to have it finished sometime between now and when he graduates from high school.