side saddle

Addy got this car toy from some friends that has 2 settings--one for riding, and one for pushing and walking. A few weeks ago she figured out how to sit on it even in the second setting, and now that's pretty much her favorite pastime.

This is often how we find her... side saddle.



Such a lady.

sb in sc

We spent Doug's spring break in Hilton Head, SC. We scored a gorgeous house with some other graduate students, and it was a beautifully snooty place. We loved the beaches, the history, the dolphins, the alligators, the weather, and the peeps.

Addy was quite the beach baby... she loved the sand and even the coolish water (she cried one day when we tried to leave!)

Dolphin Tour

Spanish moss all around

Harbour Village

Pinckney Island Wildlife Refuge

Birthday girls

Wiiing (got that?) after the kids were in bed

See the dolphin just off the shore? So cool

Big thanks to Andrew who worked hard to get deals on the house and the dolphin tour, and mad props to everyone for making it such a fun trip!

my oh my

stay classy: church edition

The Shafers were on a roll today. We learned the top 3 ways to be a class act at church:

1. Walk into church and realize the talk you thought you were giving next week is actually TODAY. I had 15 minutes to put together a 15-minute talk. Awesome.

2. Make a scene when your wife is sitting up on the stand and your daughter rolls off the pew and slams her face onto the plastic Cheerios container. It left a doozy of a bruise, perfectly shaped like a Cheerios container. It's safe to say she screamed like the dickens.

3. Have your phone start ringing during the other speaker's talk. It was my phone, but since I wasn't sitting with Doug he had to frantically search through the depths of my bag to find it. It took an uncomfortable amount of time for him to turn it off. Who was calling? Walgreens Pharmacy. Turns out my prescription from last week was ready. Already knew that, thanks.

We always know how to make a good impression.

dunlop family pics

When my family was together for Christmas, my sister Jessica took pictures for us at this old steel factory in Birmingham.

The original 7

Jessica does great work, and with everything going on with our dad, it was great to wrangle all 27 of us for these shots.

Plus, we were overdue for updates. My mom likes to hang up matching pictures of the families taken on the same day, so the last picture she has hanging up of "my family" is just me... pre-Doug, pre-Addy. Yeah, long overdue.

now doug won't mock biggest loser... as much

See the girl in the black vest below?

Her name is Sarah and she's one of the sisters Doug taught whilst teaching at the MTC.

Since then she's gone on a mission, gotten married, struggled with her weight, and now she's doing this:

Small friggin' world!

She actually got voted off tonight, but the girl looked GOOD in her follow-up. I'm happy for her, but selfishly I'm also grateful she's given Doug a reason to not make fun of me for watching the Biggest Loser.

Thanks, Sarah.

THIS JUST IN: I just realized that I know why that girl Sarah's husband looks so familiar to me. We served in the same mission. Small world indeed...

kite runnered

On Saturday we went to a kite festival at a local park. There were booths, food, bands, kite demonstrations, and a gabillion people flying kites.


Parking was a nightmare (NIGHTMARE), but it was warm and windy and ideal for kites and blowing Addy's feathery hair. Heck, even Ben Franklin seemed to be enjoying himself.


BUT... we learned that there were some people that weren't just there for fun. They were handing out free kites, so Doug let ours go for a while. He could see this small little yellow kite that was weaving in and out of all the others. He was impressed with how well it would cut and move around without getting tangled. At one point he saw it get near ours, and then fly away... cutting our string and letting our kite fly free! The dude TOTALLY kite runnered us.

Doug was not pleased (and neither was the 7-year-old and his dad near us that also got their kite cut). Soon after, though, we happened upon the yellow kite duo that was attacking everybody. See them below in blue?

Doug watched them for a while and realized they were hardcore. In fact, they were so hardcore that he felt honored to have his free kite cut by them. No harm done.

dental school prom

Last Friday we hit up the Winter Ball, or--as some lovingly refer to it--the dental school prom.

It was held at the historic Jefferson Hotel, a gorgeous hotel downtown. We enjoyed delicious desserts, no-dinero black jack, and dancing.

We felt a token school dance-style pic was necessary

Gambling with some pros (note: anyone else that played around me seemed to be a pro... me no good)

Working it

We didn't realize that the ball and Cyd's visit fell on the same weekend, so a shout-out to her for doing my hair, shopping for last-minute accessories with me, and staying in that night with all the kids!

a barno weekend

My sister Cydney came down with her kids for a visit this weekend, and we scored some quality sister and cousin time. So awesome.

My nephew Tyler is a history fan, so we visited one of the Civil War battlesites here in Richmond and then met up with some of their friends at Monticello in Charlottesville.

Playing in the "mini-Monticello" in the visitor's center. Addy took the cooking very seriously.

Doug had never (never?!) played checkers before, but somehow he still beat me. I was angry.

Our cousin Kurt also stopped by with his family for some dessert. (Cyd, Doug, and I made the chocolate bowls by dipping balloons into melted chocolate... sounds easy, but it was a high stress project!)


The best part of the weekend though was just hanging out with my sister and watching these kids play together. Addy adored them and you could see it on her face all weekend.

The boys loved our backyard and turning everything into guns

Watching basketball together

Wii-ing together... Just Dance and shooting stuff

My double chin is terrifying here, but how much do you love the faces on these girls?! Eliza was so sweet to Addy, swapping "lovies" with her and keeping constant tabs on her.

Thanks again for making the trek down, Barnos! We loved having you. Sigh... why must our families be so spread out?!