Yes he's a Cowboy!

Even in a pink hat and ladies boots.

VBS

This summer we all participated in VBS and all the kids had such a great time, although by Friday we were all wiped. A week of early mornings and lots of activities is fun but tiring especially if you are 3 and 4 years old...and somewhere over 40...LOL..

The theme this year was the Big Apple Adventure, so everything was decorated to replicate NYC. My kids having been to NY a million times, since that is where my whole family is, got a kick out of it. There were lots of crafts and activities, I didn't get any pictures of lesson time which I am so disappointed because Sara Jones did such a great job, especially with picking up the trash with the pick up sticks, the NY stock exchange and 5 star hotels - where everyone had to be a bellhop and maid...it was so awesome.

I was what they called a cabbie (group leader) with another Mom and her teenage daughter. We had 9 of the sweetest 5th grade girls you would ever want to meet. They were so great. I loved it, made my life easier.
Every day they had craft time, game time, and lesson time, opening and closing ceremonies.
By the way it was 100 degrees every day...it was the middle of July and middle of the heat wave, so glad we did water games every day. This one was pretty good. They used water balloon launchers to launch water balloons and the cabbies (leaders) had to try to hit them from across the parking lot with a tennis racket. Surprisingly Cathy and I did not get wet.
This was a sponge game with two buckets and the team with the most water, after running with a sponge on your head wins.
This was Eric the break dancer, he performed in Opening Ceremonies and then tried to teach the kids how to break dance, we had some really good kids, but of course some of our girls did not want to try...some of them were too embarrassed (ah the preteen).
It was a great week, the kids had fun, I had fun, we can't wait for next year.

Great Smoky Mountains

While we were in TN we took the opportunity to drive part of the trail of the Great Smokey Mountains. I have to tell you I thought we would just be driving along the trail maybe see some animals and maybe do one of those stop at the overpass and look at the scenery. And while we did do this and while we did take some spectacular photos (see the first few pictures below) my husband had ideas of hiking to see some of the trails. Now I'm an out doorsey kind of gal, not for spending a week camping or anything, but I do enjoy an occasional hike and definitely some seashores. However I did not come prepared for this particular type of hike......

I love being their mom.

Truly they were some beautiful pictures along the way, and we even stopped at the visitors center to get a map so we could hike this great adventure.....with 4 kids in 98 degree weather with 90% humidity.

So we decided to take the trail to Laurel Falls, it seemed like a relatively short trail compared to the others and the guide said it was fairly easy. I don't know if you can see that sign that says DANGER...if you can click on the picture to make it bigger you will notice that it says bears are active in this area...I of course did not see that little sign on the way, I just noticed the 1.3 miles, one way.

So we began our hike up the hill in 98 degree weather with small children whining and complaining the whole way. Sometimes carrying said whiny children.
We made it an opportunity to see and hear different things...always a chance for learning.
Definitely the hardest part was the narrowness of the trail and keeping the kids to the right so we wouldn't fall off the cliff. It took a good 45 minutes and couple of times we were tempted to go back down the hill....did I mention the bear cub half way up the trail..... People were stopping to take pictures and capture the moment...really my out doorsyness goes out the window when you have a live animal nearby..I would rather he go his way and I go mine. But we decided to trek on as quietly as possible. Of course we were passing the crowd as they were trying to take it's picture, praying that we would just get to the top of falls so we could experience the sense of completion. As I reflect on it it really just reminds me of the trials of life. God allows you to go through some trials, sometimes it feels like it's never going to end and you feel like you are nver going to make it, then it does and you are rewarded in some way. Whether it's physical or emotional or something you just learned. We come through them stronger then when we went in to it.

Still smiling...

This is what we were rewarded with. It was SPECTACULAR. I was in awe of the beauty of it and how amazing it felt to actually stick my feet in this beautiful refreshing place.

Yes I am wearing flip flops...can you tell I did not plan on hiking.

They loved it, had it been any deeper they might have gone swimming in their clothes...
Oh wait I forgot Madison did....when she fell in face first. Of course after some complaining she felt pretty good.

Love his cheesey grin.
After spending some time marveling at God's creation we headed back down the mountain.

A little hot...a little tired...but mostly grateful that we had this experience.....Did I mention the little guy was completely not having it.

Vacation

We went with Michael's family to Pigeon Forge TN for a few days its an 8 hour car ride for us and a 4 hour car ride for them, so it was a fun place to kind of meet up instead of at the beach this year. Pigeon Forge is nice, very touristy but we had a lot of fun. There is a lot to do there. We didn't get to take picture of the Water Park but it was great, they had something for everyone. If you live less than 10 hours away I would recommend it for a four or five day trip but anymore and it would seem too much.

Click on image to make it bigger and be able to see the pictures better.

Business Trip to Boston

Michael had a short business trip to Boston (we have been spoiled he hadn't traveled for almost two months...but this was a short one). One of his life long dreams was to sit on the Green Monster at Fenway Park..So I guess it helps to have connections because he flew into Boston at 5:00 and went that night to a baseball game and one of his connections was able to get him on the Green Monster. If he had been a little earlier he might have been able to make it on to the field..but none the less it was awesome for him. The only thing that would have made it better would have been ME with him beside him....Of course I tend to get a little rowdy at sporting events so maybe that might not have been so good with his co-workers.

One happy Man...Oh how I love him.

Fourth of July - Part 2

So as an early Christmas present from the grandparents was a new swing set for the kids. The old one had some rotted wood and really was way past being safe...but it was free when a family who's children were already grown gave it to us...so it was a huge blessing for the past 5 years and for that we are thankful.

It took Michael only a couple of hours to take down the other one...although the pieces are still in the backyard.
It took another couple of hours to sort through and organize all of the wood into appropriate piles.

And of course a MILLION screws, nuts and bolts.

It has a picnic table that sits underneath like our old one, that was quite a nice bonus.

Rock wall and monkey bars make it all the more fun.

Finally by Monday ....in the sweltering heat and after asking 1000 times is it done yet, they were
ready to play on it and have fun, for about 15 minutes because then it was just too hot.
But they LOVE it.....The fine print wasn't kidding...it took Michael with a very little help from me

all three days to get it together.

After the swing set went up and we went in to cool down and eat...we went to see some fireworks. I forgot to bring my camera for that...I wish I had but I think being out in the heat all weekend fried my brain. The country club up the street from us does them every year so we parked in the parking lot by the supermarket and waited with a couple of thousand other neighborhood folks to watch the fire works.. It was great...everyone except Jordan loved it (she is sensitive to noise...but we had headphones for her and it was fine)...but we could definitely feel it, like we were standing there lighting them ourselves. Jaden kept asking for more.

Fourth of July

The girls did their dance camp that they absolutely love again this year..It is a worship dance camp and it is a week long, it's only a few hours a day and then they get to march in the 4th of July parade down downtown Fairfax. This year Madison went to the camp but only 6 year olds and older can march in the parade.....which really is OK because she would have complained the whole way. She was much happier sitting on the sides watching with us....although she kept complaining about the heat.

This was the last day of the camp and they were recapping what they had learned.

We arrived what we thought was early enough to find a good seat little did we know that people actually come out the night before to put tarps down to hold the spot they want.
Luckily one of the mom's from camp spotted us and said we could share a spot with them, it was very nice of her and as you can see Madison and Jaden got the best seats.
After we found a spot I walked the girls over to their group where they got to wait for their turn to line up for the parade.

They had some of the best counselors this year...truly great kids.

I thought this float was so cool to try and fit down the narrow streets of downtown Fairfax, which is tree lined...it was quite the site seeing them maneuver this thing.
He was pretty much done by an hour into the parade with the wait from before the parade started.

The first sighting of their group.

I guess Kaleigh's group was a little slower because they had to run to catch up to the big group, but that is her with the pink visor in the middle.

A well deserved drink after their march.

Yes that wild crazy hair is wet with perspiration.

The whole group who marched in the parade. The purple t-shirts are the counselors and the blue t-shirts are the kids.

My fourth of July beauties. Jaden was not co-operating..although I did have him in a red shirt and blue shorts.