Abby’s Saturday // Two Hundred And Fifty-Five :: Sunday Edition

Highlight of the Week

Derrick & I had the most amazing opportunity this week!! Seriously, we are still looking at each other & saying, “Did that really happen?”
If you are unfamiliar, our home amusement park of Kennywood has been building a new roller coaster – their first new roller coaster in 9 years. It’s a record-breaking coaster with all sorts of crazy stats, like the tallest inversion in the United States, and the most inversions in the world. Obviously, as a coaster “enthusiast” (and that’s putting it lightly – there truly is no word to describe the level of love Derrick has for roller coasters) he has been watching the whole process, from them tearing down the Log Jammer to building this brand new steel beast with baited breath & a ridiculous amount of anticipation. Well, about a month ago, we watched as the construction crew put the last piece of the coaster in place & our level of excitement has gone thru the roof as we’ve watched it run test laps. The grand opening of the ride was announced for July 13th, with a media day taking place on July 12th. Well, with Derrick’s growing & successful YouTube channel, he got an invitation to come to the media event!!
So, at 5am on Friday morning, before the sun came up, we headed down to Kennywood to be a part of the group of people specifically invited, not only photograph & record video of the new ride, but to ride it!!
WOW – what an incredible experience! (I’m going to take more time to write about it & the significance of it this coming week – otherwise this post could get really long.) It was so much fun to be a part of & we were so honored to be invited. It was a beautiful day & we simply had the best time. Steel Curtain is an amazing ride – it fits into Kennywood’s coaster lineup really well & is definitely going to be a huge hit with the park!
Derrick already has video content up on his YouTube channel about it & tomorrow he’ll be posting his full review of the ride – so you should go check that out!

Yes, This Happened

• So yes, if you’re paying attention, today is Sunday & I always post “Abby’s Saturday” on – Saturdays. I had every intention of writing this post yesterday, honest! But, while Leander was down for his afternoon nap, I chose to write in his baby book instead of writing this post (I’m so determined to keep up with that task & not give up simply because he’s the “second child”). So, then I figured I would put this post together while we watched a movie after the kids went to bed – but our poor sweet boy wasn’t feeling good & needed lots of Mama-snuggles after dinner. (We’ve introduced lots of new foods to him & for the most part he’s done fantastic, but his tummy always is upset after anything with rice in it: rice cereal & yesterday it was rice teething cookies.) So, there was no Abby’s Saturday post yesterday! Seriously though, I’m in charge & if I can’t bend “the rules” every once in a while, what’s the fun of being in charge?
• It’s summer reading club season at the libraries & I took Braelynn to one of the programs on Monday – a magic show. It was a lot of fun, but she’s a bit shy in large groups, so she simply sat all snuggled up in my lap. The theme of all the summer reading programs this year is Space, so it was a “Space themed” magic show – complete with a small, green alien robot who talked – she wasn’t too sure about him!
• Tuesday was my favorite day of the month: our Tuesday’s Together meeting! This month, we decided to do something a bit different: instead of meeting & discussing a business topic (which is what we always do), we decided to nix the topic & simply get together, relax, encourage one another, and hang out! It was so much fun & so rejuvenating! Next month, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled “programming” (so, if you’re a small business, creative, entrepreneur in the Greensburg, PA area, you should totally join us)!
• If you missed my blog post this past week with the highlights of Erika & Sean’s wedding last weekend – it’s one of my favorites! Don’t miss it!
• Since I’ve been working away on Erika & Sean’s wedding photos, Braelynn has been a little more curious than ever & has been watching me edit more with this wedding than any other. It’s sparked some fun conversations – she asked about Derrick & I’s wedding (and we hopped over to YouTube to watch our highlight video), we reminisced about Ellen & Jonathan’s wedding (and we hopped over to YouTube to watch their highlight video), and we talked about Amy & Nathan’s wedding next summer! All of this talk about weddings has obviously given Braelynn a lot to think about, when on Thursday morning, as we were driving to the store, she announced, “Mommy, I’m going to get married one day.” And I agreed (although, it won’t be for a long long time – she isn’t allowed to date until she’s 30 after all!) Then she stated, “Mommy, when I get married, I want Alethea to be my flower girl.” Cue all the happy tears – such a beautiful, heart-warming moment (if you aren’t familiar, Alethea is Ellen & Jonathan’s little girl – Braelynn’s cousin).
• Leander officially figured out how to move forward this week! He’s been getting up on his knees & rocking back & forth for a while now & he’s a pro at scooting himself backward & in 360º circles, but just this week he began army-crawling across the floor! We said after being with his cousin Leah all weekend last weekend & watching her crawl all around, he figured he better get his little tush in gear & get moving too!!

Feeling Blessed

Braelynn, Leander, & I are back down at the Lake House this week (with my Mom & sister, Ruby). Our church here has VBS this week & we always try to attend – they really go all-out & make things so much fun! Braelynn still talks about VBS last summer, so I’m looking forward to this summer & how much more she is going to love it (especially since she has little friends from our church down here now). I know I’ve said this before, but I’m just so thankful for the flexibility of my business. I am able to be 100% mobile by bringing my laptop with me & sneaking in chunks of editing & emails & blog-post writing, while being in a different state & relaxing with my family. I never want to take this season for granted!