US wins GOLD!!!

The US Women's Soccer team, Nicole included, have won the gold!!! In an amazing game against Brazil today, they pulled ahead 1-0 in overtime play, holding on to win the gold!!! See the link to NBC below to see pictures from the medal ceremony. How cool is that!?! Congrats Nicole and the team!!
http://www.nbcolympics.com/soccer/photos/galleryid=245105.html?_source=rss&cid=

Photo from www. isiphotos.com. A great website with a ton of soccer pictures of all the players.

Tropical Storm Faye

Wed. AM
For all of you wondering, we are doing OK so far. Just waiting to see where Faye is headed after her trip into the Atlantic. We will keep you up to date so there is no need to worry just yet. Thanks for the calls of concern and just keep the many Floridians already affected by her rains in your thoughts....

Wed. PM
Its amazing what 8 hours can do to a tropical storm. As of now, we are just set to get lots of rain on Thursday, but no major threat. The storm will likely come in much farther south than originally thought. Now in another 8 hours? Who knows. Either way, ESI closed on Thursday, so no driving to Jacksonville, regardless. Josh only has a few meetings in town, so it may be a work from home Hurricane Day (similar to a snow day, not not nearly as much fun!!). We will keep you posted if things change.

Thurs. AM
And we are still waiting for Fay to come back on land. She is taking her sweet time deciding what to do and leaving us all in limbo. This morning we have some rain and wind, but they are forecasting the heavier rains to come in later today. We are staying at home, or close to it, and seeing how things play out. Looks like she just has a lot of rain to dump and hopefully that will be all. Maybe by this afternoon...

Thurs. PM
Well, Fay finally made landfall today and it has finally started raining, after waiting for two days. The wind has died down some since earlier today, but we expect the rain to last well into tomorrow. Thankfully, it isn't predicted to be as much as many of the areas already impacted. Hopefully, by tomorrow night, things will dry up a little!

Fri. AM
After a very windy and rainy night, we awake to much drier skies for a little while. The wind is still kicking pretty good but things appear to be winding down. ESI is closed for the morning so the fate of a trip down to Jacksonville later today is still to be decided. Otherwise, we are staying close this morning, awaiting another band of rains predicted for later today.

Sat. AM
Finally, after at least 8 inches of rain, a ton of yard debris to rake up, a broken wind chime , and a neighbor with a giant tree down, Fay has finally left the First Coast. We awoke to no wind and no rain this morning. Thanks goodness! Fay may be gone from Florida's First Coast but she is now headed to, yep, you guessed it, the Florida Panhandle. How is it possible that the first real storms we and Craig have to weather, amazingly is the same storm!? If this is just want a tropical storm is, I don't know what is going to happen if a real hurricane ever hits us! Yesterday afternoon and Thursday night were by far the worst, so she definitely went out with a bang! We have actually been very lucky. It looks like Jacksonville actually got hit a little harder than we did, so I am just thankful that she is gone! See ya Faye!

Jessie and Veron's Wedding

This weekend we had the pleasure of going to one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever attended. Our friends, Jessie and Vernon, who we met through Rayonier (Vernon also works for Rayonier) tied the knot at the Golf Club of Amelia. Everything looked perfect and we all had a great time. Another plus to the wedding was that it was a true reunion of the Rayonier Wives Club. Sykora and Rusty moved away right before their new beautiful little girl was born and this was the first time to meet her for many. Plus Katherine, who is due in just a few short weeks, was there as well. They moved down towards St. Augustine, so not that far away, but far enough away that its hard to get together as often as we would like. Jessie and Vernon are headed off to Atlanta too, so there goes that new wife! At least Holly and Hillary are still around! Anyway, here's to a great couple officially starting their lives together! We couldn't be more happy for them and we will miss Jessie and Vernon as they start spending more time in Atlanta!!

Tour de Pain 2008

A few weekends go, Josh and Brian competed in a very unique race down in Jacksonville. The race was actually three different races in a 24 hour time period. It is appropriately called the Tour de Pain. The first race is a beach 4-mile beach run in Jax Beach on Friday night. This was the first beach run Josh had ever done and definitely one of the larger turn-outs of the races he has done since being down here. He got stuck in the back but passed over 800 runners to finish out strong. After a tasty carb loading dinner at an Italian restaurant and some Olympic ceremony watching, it was off to bed for the next race bright and early Saturday morning. This race was a 5K on the streets pretty close to the ESI office, just by coincidence. Then it was back to Brian's apartment (where we also spent the night on an air mattress) to rest, watch some Olympics, and fuel up for the next race at 3:30pm in Downtown Jacksonville. The last race was a mile run under the blazing sun. Luckily, the weather had cooled down into the upper 80's/lower 90's because just earlier that week we had some of the hottest weather all summer at close to 100 degrees. Both guys did a great job overall and they can now say they have done the Tour de Pain!!

Weekend on the Suwannee

For our anniversary, we rented a house on the Suwanee River for a weekend in early August. The house was so beautiful, just being redone with everything we could have needed. The house looked out over the river, with a floating dock. They also had some kayaks, so Josh and I ventured out along the river on Saturday. The river was calm, with lots of wildlife, included a few alligators. We made sure to stay on the other side of the river for those guys. After kayaking and a lunch to refuel, we went and visited one of the local springs that feeds the river. The water was crystal clear coming out of the ground, and COLD (pictures to come). We finished off the night with a dinner cooked on the campfire (more like some wood, charcoal and a bottle of lighter fluid that Josh wouldn't put down). On Sunday before heading back to Jacksonville, we stopped at Itchnetucknee Springs State Park. Here you can hop in the river and float down a crystal clear (and thankfully, warmer) river on a tube as it flows towards the Suwanee River. An experience I would recommend to anyone (pictures to come soon)!! All in all, a great weekended away to celebrate four great years of marriage! Click below to see more pictures...
http://picasaweb.google.com/hillary.sherrill/SuwanneRiverWeekend

A Weekend in Boone, NC

Back in July we went to Boone, North Carolina to have a weekend with the Sherrill Family at Kim, Donald's and Robbie's house. They have a beautiful house, with an amazing lot full of trees and even a little stream up in the mountains, just of of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were in a little piece of Heaven! The weekend as so much fun, with plenty of delicious food prepared by Kim, swimming in one of the many creeks, shopping, Art in the Park, bubbles (who would have thought it would be such a hit with a group with only one person under the age of 12!), and plenty of fresh blueberry and raspberry picking (and eating!). Minus a kind of smelly tent experience, we couldn't have asked for a more wonderful weekend with family. Hopefully we can make it up there sooner, rather than later next time around!! Click here to see more pictures... http://picasaweb.google.com/hillary.sherrill/WeekendInBooneNCSherrillFamily

Ferguson Family Reunion

A few weeks ago we headed to Gastonia for the Ferguson Family Reunion. It was well attended by much of the family and we had a great time seeing everyone. The biggest surprise was how big Ruth Ellen is getting, we couldn't believe it. She is up, run and yelling. Before long she is going to be talking it up!!