Gatlinburg with friends: May 2010

Once exams were over, we packed up and left for Gatlinburg. There was an osteopathic medicine convention in Gatlinburg that Cameron had the opportunity to go to. Our family, the Jones family, and the Passey family all stayed in a chateau for the weekend. Taralyn joined us for one night and the Rosie’s joined us for 2 nights. It was so nice to be able to spend time with friends, especially after all the kids went to bed.

There were so many fun things to do in Gatlingburg, we went shopping at the outlets, went to the Apple Barn, and went to Ripley’s Aquarium.

This guy went scuba diving with the sting rays..how scary!

 

Daddy showing Madalyn the fishies.

Mommy showing Madalyn the fish.

Madalyn liked being “in” the fish tank.

:) Family photo

Showing baby girl the jelly fish…not a fan of them though (even though they look cool here), just about every time I go to the beach I get stung by jelly fish.

We had a yummy spaghetti, chicken, broccoli, salad, bread dinner one night. The kids sure enjoyed it too!

The guys got in the hot tub (with the temperature turned down to pool temperature) and let the little girls play. They had a blast!

Dollywood May 3, 2010

My mom, grandma, me, and Madalyn took a short trip to Gatlinburg for a fun getaway and my dad and Cameron joined us one day to go to Dollywood. It was so much fun, there were no lines anywhere. I guess that’s what happens when you go on a Monday while many people are at work, or still in school (I had Cameron skip a day of school to come). It’s too bad it can’t be like that all the time. We bought season passes so we could enjoy many more visits to Dollywood this year.

This is Madalyn and Grandpa smelling the flowers.

Madalyn enjoyed many rides as well. She rode the ducks with mommy.

She rode the bees with her grandma.

She rode the pigs with her grandpa.

She rode the elephants with her daddy.

And she rode the merry-go-round with mommy.

We had 4 generations all on the merry-go-round. Here’s my grandma and mom.

My dad, Cameron, and I enjoyed the roller coasters all day as well. We ate good, greasy food, watched a show, and enjoyed each others company.

Cameron rode the bumper cars. (There was only 1 car left for the ride that was about to start, so I had him just jump on while I took pictures)

Me and my grandma rode the Ferris Wheel.

This is me and Cameron on the scrambler…this time I got to squish him. The last time we were at Dollywood he tricked me into getting in the wrong seat and he squished me the whole ride.

Last, but not least…Cameron got to do the new adventure mountain…*note to self* don’t wear flip flops to Dollywood next time, they won’t let you do adventure mountain. He enjoyed it b/c it was similar to the courses he go to do at COT last summer.

 

We had lots of fun at Dollywood and look forward to our next trip.

Still playing catch up (1st half of 2010)

**We started off the year celebrating the New Year with our good friends, the Passey’s and with Chris and Courtnie. We had ribs, yummy sides, and played games.

**We enjoyed having a cute little Valentine this year on Valentine’s Day. We celebrated ours after we put Madalyn to bed. We had steak for dinner, yummy!

**We had a wonderful Easter dinner at Cameron’s parents house. We ate dinner with Cameron’s parents, Brian and Kim plus the kids, Chris and Courtnie, Granny (Cam’s grandma), my parents, and my grandma. It is so nice having our families get along so we can celebrate holiday’s together.

This is us with my parents and grandma.

We also went to an Easter party at our friends, the Jones’ house.

I just love Madalyn’s Easter dress, I like how the blue brings out her eyes.

Madalyn loved her Easter baskets from the Easter “bunnies.”

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Thanks for being so patient as I update my blog with a few key things I don’t want to forget. :)

Playing catch up (rest of 2009)…

So, as you can tell I haven’t blogged in over a year. I’m just kicking myself that I haven’t been keeping up with this since so many things have happened this past year.

I’ll just do a brief update of what’s been going on in the Shawver household this past year.

*July 7, 2009 was our 2 year anniversary. (As you can tell, I’m am very pregnant.)

*Cameron and I moved to Cumberland Gap, TN in July shortly after our trip to Williamsburg (which is where the pic. above was taken) for Cameron to attend medical school at Debusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (LMU-DCOM).

 

^ Our house that we are renting for a couple years.

*August 27, 2009 at 1:39 pm our beautiful daughter Madalyn Grace was born weighing 7 lb 12.4 oz and 21 inches long.

*October 2009-Madalyn’s first Halloween.

 

^ This was taken at the Cumberland Gap Ward Halloween party.

^ This is Madalyn on Halloween before we went to a party at our good friends (The Sclater’s) house.

*November 2009 we had a Thanksgiving feast at Cameron’s parents house with his parents, sister and (now) husband and kids, brother and wife, my parents and grandma. It was a great meal and we had the best time with family.

^ Cameron’s parents house.

*With an extended family you get multiple opportunities to celebrate Christmas.

-The first Christmas we had was with my Grandma Dot, sister (Lauren), and parents.

Cameron got a fun “doctor” game

Grandpa and Madalyn

Love this picture of Madalyn!

4 generations of cute girls :)

It snowed for Madalyn’s 1st Christmas!

-The second Christmas we had was with Cameron’s parents, brother (Chris) and wife (Courtnie), sister (Kim) and (now) husband (Brian) and their kids at our house in Cumberland Gap.

Madalyn with her Nana and Papa (Cameron’s parents)

Madalyn’s 1st baby doll from her Aunt Kim.

Madalyn with her cute Christmas dress that Aunt Lauren bought her.

-The final Christmas we had was in Michigan with my dad’s side of the family. We go there every year for Christmas, it’s a great time to catch up with my extended family.

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This is a short version of what went on in our lives from the middle of 2009 to the end. I had that I didn’t have a journal of everything that has happened since Madalyn has been born so this is my attempt to be better at journaling the memories that should last a lifetime. The beginnings of 2010 to come soon. :)

And so we begin the wonderful world of blogging...

Where to begin....we have a pretty busy few months ahead of us. I (Audrey) will probably be the main (or only) one updating our blog. :) Cameron left on May 25th for Alabama where he is doing his officer training school for the Air Force. As many of you know, he is attending medical school at Lincoln Memorial University in July and he accepted the military scholarship to help us out through school. It's really a great deal...We get a sign on bonus, money to live on each month, and they pay 100% of his tuition, books, and mandatory things (such as health insurance, etc); which will really be nice. In return, he had to go to this month long training, a month long training next summer, and then he won't do anything else with the Air Force until after he gets done with residency, when he will owe them 4 years at hospitals on base somewhere.



It's definitely hard being without the husband right now, of course I'm much more emotional being 27 weeks pregnant, but at least he's not going to be gone for the first part of our daughter, Madalyn Grace's life, whom is due September 5th. :) We couldn't be more thrilled to be parents, we can't wait til our little girl arrives.



We recently moved all of our things to our new house in Cumberland Gap, where we will be living while Cameron is in medical school. I am currently staying with my parents in Johnson City while Cameron is gone. After his graduation, we will go to Florida to visit some of his family for 3 nights, then come home for about 4 nights, then leave for a family trip (with my parents and sister) for a week, then we will be full time in our new house. We are really sad to leave our friends and family in Johnson City, but look forward to what life has in store for us. *pictures of the new house to come later..when i have some :) Also, we graduated from college at East Tennessee State University May 9...almost forgot to mention that. :)