Sweet Summer time

It's been well over a month since I've blogged, which I feel really horrible about.  Besides being extremely busy and traveling, the only excuse I have is that I truly haven't felt like anything has been interesting enough to tell you about.  So I guess I'll just give you rundown of what the Parsons family has been up to so far this summer.

Jackson is growing leaps and bounds right now.  He's starting to do new things everyday.  He's starting to feed himself little bits of solid food and beginning to crawl.  I can't believe how much he is growing and developing!  It makes me miss my snuggly, little newborn!

We have traveled a lot so far this summer.  Mid-June we traveled back to Lexington/Columbia, SC for Bryan to defend his dissertation.  He, of course, defended successfully and I am now (unofficially) married to a Doctor!!  I am so proud of my smart, dedicated hubby!  The past five years have been hard on both of us, but all the hard work is paying off.  It was great to spend time with friends in SC.  All the babies have grown so much and it was a lot of fun to get them all together.  We all commented on how it didn't seem as though Bryan, Jackson, and I had been gone for 6 months.  It was almost as if we'd never left.  I was surprised, though, at how much I've already gotten accustomed to TN.  I felt myself longing for home (Martin) even in Lexington.  The visit was bittersweet, to say the least.

After we visited SC, we traveled to Ocean Isle Beach with my mom, step-dad, and sister-in-law.  We had an absolute blast!  It was Jackson's first trip to the beach -- SO SPECIAL!  The first time he was on the beach, he was not having it.  The noise and power of the waves scared him a little so we had to keep him up on the sand.  The next day, though he did great!  He sat in the surf and played in the sand.  Plus, Jackson absolutely LOVED the pool.  He would just sit in the float and splash and laugh.  I have a feeling I'm going to have a little fish on my hands in the summers to come.  After the beach, we traveled to Charlotte and got to spend some good, quality time with Bryan's mom.  We did lots of shopping and even more relaxing considering Jackson woke up at 10 till 6 am every day at the beach.

All in all, this summer has been wonderful and it's not over yet!  I'm hopeful that for the rest of the summer we can make more connections with people here in Martin and spend some quality time with new friends!