Pawley's Island, July 2008

Lauren's new doll (left) from Build a Bear: Friend's 2 B made workshop. She named her Princess Emily Brat.
Adult night out!

Lauren's parade signs for the 4th of July!


The "fun" pool at the newest condo that Mary and Jeff own.



Lauren enjoying the lazy river at the "fun" pool.

Lauren adores Penny!

Uncle Jeff the grand marshall.

Watching the 4th of July parade. Aunt Mary bought a crown for Lauren to wear.

My little yankee doodle girl!

Somebody help Philip!!!! Wayne, you're a police officer...do something! What do you mean you can't!!!!

Our new best pal! ARRRRR!

These pictures were taken at the Atalaya castle in Huntington

Beach State Park. All of the pictures with the family were taken

by Aunt Mary on my tripod. Years ago, I got into the hobby of photography.

One thing that motivated me was the idea that I could do this

myself and save tons of money by not paying another photographer.

Of course, it is not always easy when you want certain pictures with

yourself in them!

These sepia tone photos look awesome!

I love this picture!

Our annual summer/beach portrait

The Ratledge-Grace Family.

The happy newlyweds!

From July 2nd until July 8th, 2008, we made our annual visit with Aunt Mary and Uncle Jeff in Pawley's Island, SC. We took Aunt Becky and Uncle Wayne along with us for the first time and had a blast! Aunt Mary even babysat Lauren for a couple of nights so that we could have two adult night outs! We had so much fun at the beach. I believe that Becky and I could stay there all day-every day if our family would let us! Lauren really enjoyed playing in what she refered to as the "fun pool" at their new condo. She even made a little friend there one day!

I took some awesome portraits of Lauren and a few of all 3 of us at Atalaya in Huntington Beach State Park. It was soooo hot, the sweat was rolling down my back. Lauren was a trooper and did a good job. I also tried to do family pictures of all 5 of us on the beach, but the wind wouldn't die down enough to cooperate. I tried to edit our fly-away hair as best as I could!

We celebrated the 4th of July for the first time at the beach. In the morning, Lauren made signs for everyone to "wave" at the parade. It was so cute! They each had the person's name written on the sign, a drawing, and the words "parade today." Unfortunately, when we arrived on the parade route at Pawley's, we discovered that the signs were still at home! To make it up to the very, very, very disappointed Lauren, I believe that it was Aunt Mary who might have cooked up the idea for a parade in their neighborhood that night! So, we had a BBQ for dinner with Jeff's brother and wife in attendance. Then, on to the festivities! Aunt Mary and I provided lovely vocal renditions for the patriotic parade music, Uncle Wayne was the camera man, Uncle Jeff served as Grand Marshall, Lauren rode on a bike with Philip, and Becky was dressed at Lady Liberty with Penny the dog bringing up the caboose! It was a hilarious sight and I really need to post the video on this blog! After dark, we drove over to the new condo to watch fireworks on the beach. It was a bit crowded, and we had to stand. It was really awesome for a while, but then we all started getting gunk in our eyes, so we ended up leaving. What a neat thing to experience, so much different then the 4th of July festivities around here!

Our little ballerina princess

Our little ballerina stared in her first ballet. She was gracious enough to allow her Mommy/paparazzi to take a photo shoot of her before opening night:

"Isn't She Lovely?"

This was the pose used during the school's photo shoot. A little hum-drum. That's what prompted me to take my own pictures and even add the rose as a prop.

Lauren looks so elegant and graceful in this shot.

These two photos, above and below, are my all time favorites. I have them in frames in my house.

I just wanted to share the portraits that I took of Lauren dressed up in her ballet costume. I was very proud of how well they turned out! Walgreens almost didn't print them out for me becuase they looked professional. It helped that the lady working at the time I picked them up knows me. I am a "regular customer" after all! This is not the first time that has happened, which is flattering to me and my photography skill.

This was her first year to take dance, and she loved it. Naturally, being the girly-girl that she is, Lauren was THRILLED that the tutu was pink. Pink is her all time favorite color of course!

Our little ballerina stared in her first dance recital at the end of May. She had several fans that attended the show: Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Wayne, Aunt Becky, Memmie, Pappy, Jenna, and Mary. She performed two routines: ballet and tap. She did such an outstanding job and was not scared in the least! The name of the song that Lauren performed her ballet routine to was titled, "Isn't she lovely?" The tap routine was performed to, "Animal Crackers." After the show, she was soooo excited and kept commenting about what fun she had and that she couldn't wait to start dance class again in August! In fact, she said, "This was the best night of my life!" Isn't that the cutest thing! Philip and I were both so very proud of her. I couldn't help but cry during her first performance. I guess that I was experiencing so many different emmotions about seeing her up on that big stage: pride, love, joy, happiness, sadness that Philip's parents or both of our grandparents couldn't be seeing this moment, fear that she might get stage fright, admiration, and the list goes on.

It seems that as well as Lauren performed, I feel that tap is more Lauren's style. That was the routine in which she truely shined! My friend Jenna, her mother Mary, and myself all noticed that "spark" in Lauren's eyes when she tapped! Watch out world, we have a little "star" on our hands. Of course, I've always known that seeing as she has always had quite a "big" personality and sense of humor since she was just a few months old! She gets that humor honestly...from both sides of the family!

I am going to enroll her in a pre-jazz class this fall in addition to her ballet/tap class. Although it will stretch out my time waiting in the lobby to 1 1/2 hours, it is all definitely worth it to see her do something that she loves. I am so grateful to the teachers at A.D.U. for doing such an outstanding job this year, not just with Lauren, but with their entire dance school. I am pleased with my choice in dance schools, and I am looking forward to many more exciting years of dance in the future.

Be on the look out for some pics that I took before and after the recital. I will post them at a later date after we return from the beach!