Creation Museum Adventures

Posted on June 15, 2017 by Abbie

This was our third trip to the Creation Museum and it was just as good. T

The last time we were there, we had a miscommunication with Ace and he missed out on ziplining. We made sure to get him in to this trip. He had a blast.

The petting zoo…of course, was a big hit.

Emmie loved the duck which they all named Cucumber. She would squeal each time he gave her a little nibble on her hand.

And there were chickens! She really wanted to give them hugs but they weren’t having any of it.

Ceili Rain and Emmie each choose a fox for their souvenirs!

Quick picture before we head to our next great adventure…the Ark.

At the Convention

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Abbie

We sat through a lot of sessions and all of us learned a lot.

And also got some silly pictures in.

The treat was hearing Andrew Peterson sing on Thursday evening and hearing him speak on Friday morning.

The most we saw of Cincinnati was the rooftops of several beautiful buildings near the parking deck.

The kids were thrilled to meet some new authors but also one that was familiar to us. S. D. Smith wrote a book about rabbits with swords. I grabbed it up for free on the kindle, read it to the kids aloud, and we were hooked. We highly recommend The Green Ember and the whole series! Seriously…rabbits…swords…who could lose.

The House on the Corner

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Abbie

After looking at the cost of hotel rooms in and around Cincinnati for our larger than normal family, we decided to look in to renting a house. We went through Deborah’s Guesthouses. It was an absolute score! The price was much less than two hotel rooms. We were five minutes from the Creation Museum and the little area we were in was nice, quiet and near a park!

Little Ponderosa Zoo

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Abbie

I’ve mentioned before how we decided for Christmas this past year to give the kids an experience rather than a bunch of gifts…because ya’ll, our house is covered in stuff.

Well, the experience included a trip to a home school convention in Cincinnati to hear and hopefully meet our favorite author and singer, Andrew Peterson, a trip to the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. We made our trek in April.

About a month before the trip, we had a family movie night and stumbled upon a cute little movie on Pureflix called Little Ponderosa Zoo. We soon learned that the Little Ponderosa Zoo wasn’t just a movie but an actual place and it happened to be “pretty close” to our route to Cincinnati. Since I needed to get out every two hours, we decided to include this little zoo in our trip.

Ya’ll, it was the best decision. A perfect break during a long road trip and an opportunity to see some pretty neat animals up close and personal…and feed them! It’s a wildlife sanctuary and most of the exotic animals were “pets” before the owners realized they were actually real wild animals.

If you are ever in the middle of Nowhere Tennessee and want to get out of the car and rest for a couple of hours. Little Ponderoas Zoo is THE place to go!

Rabbits! Ready and willing to be loved on.

We walked out of the barn and Emmie saw all the goats. She ran up to them and began proclaiming, “I wuv you! And I wuv you! And I wuv you!” She was in heaven.

Liam and Silas were super excited to feed the ponies.

We fed kangaroos too!

My super excited treat was seeing a little rescued monkey as everyone was leaving. He was very curious about all of us and played peek-a-boo with me, running away from me and then eventually getting a little closer as I continued to talk to him. And then, oh my, then he looked at me and gave the biggest grin. I flipped out. And no one was there to witness it or get it on camera! Most of the monkeys are generally from abusive or neglected situations. This one, was just absolutely adorable!

See you in Seattle!

Posted on May 25, 2017 by Abbie

At the end of March and first of April, I had the great privilege to attend the NF Symposium in Seattle. Not only that, but I also participated in the Children’s Tumor Foundation’s Volunteer Leadership Committee. It was a great experience and, as it turned out, my roomie for the weekend was also newly pregnant. We were able to commiserate together and I succeeded in getting us a little lost too!

We go there Thursday afternoon and were able to do a little touring before the training started the following day.

Of course we visited the Space Needle. This was my second time there and just as neat as the first time.

We also hiked down to Pike Place. This was a vat of fresh cheese. I really wanted it but my pregnancy belly said, “nope…you don’t.” A scalpie for Facebook. This is an ongoing joke about my parents who are also known as the self-proclaimed “Scalpie Pros.”

I don’t know what I was doing here. Proof positive that I take the corniest pictures.

After walking endlessly, we finally found a place to eat…

We had pizza…and it was so good ya’ll!

The coolest thing was finding Benedict Cumberbatch’s doppleganger on the train. Well, Cumberbatch as Sherlock.

Mark didn’t agree but from a distance, trust me, Random Train Guy looked like him.

Aside from the fun touring, I learned a lot about what exactly Children’s Tumor Foundation is doing and there is so much hope for treatments for Emmie in the future! It is great to be raising funds for an organization who has a passion for research and integrity. I told Mark that after learning all that CTF does to fund research, I am even more encouraged in supporting their efforts to end NF!

Speaking of CTF, join us on our next walk coming up in September OR donate to Team Super Ems’ Sidekicks! https://join.ctf.org/events/-/e129272

Off on an Adventure

Posted on May 21, 2017 by Abbie

Liam had a great chance to strike out with his grandparents, Papa and Grandmere and his cousin buddy (the one closest in age to him). They adventured around Florida, visiting family, and took a couple of tours.

This was March. It was still a little chilly in Florida but it didn’t bother Liam too much. He loves water! And fast water slides.

They got a great tour of the Kennedy Space Center.

They also got to tour the Wycliffe Bible Translators campus. The boys were quite impressed and Zoe was very jealous.

One of their last stops was to visit cousins. These are special cousins to us as they have been praying for us and Emmie and our adoption for so long. So grateful for Facebook to get to know them and then for an opportunity for Liam to visit them and see all of their amazing plane memorabilia!

I know they had a blast and made a lot of memories but all of us were so glad to get our Liam back! As an added bonus, we got to visit with cousin H at our drop off point!

And cousin H tried to take my dog!

Goodbye Hello

Posted on April 27, 2017 by Abbie

It hurts to have to post this but this was a significant part of our life and I like to keep these kinds of records. One morning at the beginning of February, I set out on an early morning to get to a dentist appointment. As I tried to turn out of our neighborhood, I failed to realize there was a blind spot and got a little to close to a gentleman’s truck bumper. It was scary, but thankfully I was not hurt. To be clear, I have not had a wreck in well over twenty years. It had been raining and when I realized there was a truck there, I slammed on my breaks and slid in to the truck. I think he was slowing down too which, I think, kept both of us from getting seriously injured. I was also in our big ol, super safe Taurus and didn’t even feel a bump. Believe me when I say the picture looks much worse than it actually was.

The sad news is that we had to tell our beloved Taurus goodbye. Really, ya’ll. This car was amazing. My least favorite part of being an adult is going car (or appliance) shopping. Mark knows this and he did his best….for both of us….to minimize our annoyance.

We found a nice Hyundai and are all set. While it’s smaller and not as nice as our Taurus, it does get great gas mileage and it’s what we need right now.

It’s not red! Oh what were we thinking?!

Taking Emmie to an appointment in Atlanta, I hit 42 miles per gallon ya’ll! Of course, that was before I had gotten in to Atlanta.

Life is Good

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Abbie

Last year was so hard ya’ll. Yes, we had a ton of good, but surgeries, adoption trips, stresses were all in there. When we capped it off with losing our twins, Mark and I both knew we needed a trip away. Mark’s parents graciously agreed to watch the kiddos. I begged for a relaxing getaway close by. Mark agreed (he really wanted to do a cruise again but I really wanted to just rest).

We went to my favorite beach on the east coast, Jekyll Island.

Of course, a trip to the southern coast is not complete without a pit stop to Pineland. Ya’ll, they have the absolute best pastries and breads!

Mark reluctantly agreed to my cheesy pose.

The rest of this blog post are pictures of the beach and our happy times! It wound up raining and tornado warning like crazy on Saturday night and Sunday. But, it was clear enough for us to go on a 17 mile bike ride around the island. The thunderstorms meant we had a good deal of time to relax and rest.

Friday we decided to take a walk on the beach before supper. We wound up walking all the way to where we wanted to eat. Mark had to chase the birds on the way.
Saturday, we biked. And biked and biked. And found treasures like Driftwood Beach

And the marshes…

We found Ace’s store.

And visited the remains of the oldest settlement on Jekyll.

We stopped at our hotel for lunch and snacked at the park right next door. These little squirrels desperately wanted to join our meal. While Mark was running to the room, one of the squirrels even jumped on the bench beside me and sniffed at my shoe.

Our much deserved reward for 17 miles of cycling.

In January and February, Jekyll has an island treasure hunt. They hide glass blown decorative balls all over the island. We searched for two days but never found one. However, our search led to another part of the island I had never seen and it was absolutely picture worthy!

If you go to Jekyll, you must cycle to St. Andrews Beach. It was so peaceful and gorgeous. We met some deer too!

We found a great Tex-Mex restaurant on the island.

A fruitless treasure hunt led to a mad dash for covering when the rain began to pour down…and a great selfie. One of my favorite pictures of us of all time.

Sunday, we decided to use a movie gift card and head to see Rogue One and then eat at my favorite restaurant on neighboring St. Simon’s Island, Barbara Jean’s. We crossed the giant bridge to St. Simon’s in a tornado warning and got there just as the storm hit the island. Five minutes after we ordered, the owner called and told them to shut down (not a big deal since we were one of two sets of customers). They brought our food out quickly. We ate as fast as we could so they could close up and then we headed back out in the crazy weather.

Always an adventure!

A Whole Bunch of Characters

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Abbie

While visiting the EC, Papa and Grandmere requested we try to get a whole family picture that Sunday after church. They drove over for church and pictures and Aunt B lined up a photographer.

The photographer did a wonderful job. It’s no easy feat getting nineteen kids and six adults lined up for pictures.

Alas, she succeeded!

The nineteen kids in question. Okay, there were better pictures but this one. Well, this is their personalities shining through and I couldn’t resist. Look at Emmie and cousin A! They were so adorable!

Grandmere and the granddaughters! They may be small in number but they are mighty in spirit!

Papa and the grandsons! Numbers and spirit exceedingly great!

We even managed to get a pretty good shot! I love our little fam.

To the Country

Posted on April 18, 2017 by Abbie

Top priority this year was to go see the EC. That’s short for Mark’s brother and his family. The kids were blessed to spend time with them while we traveled back and forth to Ukraine and frankly, Mark and I were jealous. We needed some niece and nephew time and good ol’ visiting with Mark’s brother and wife.

In January, we were off. We spent three and half days with eighteen children and four adults under one roof. Oh yes we did. Our kids were a blast! And Mark and I got in our much needed visiting time!

A and Emmie had so much fun with the babies. Of course, reading books was a favorite. Josiah with cousin H. Games were a must.

Mark got a great panorama shot of family worship!

My niece G. Our nieces are growing into some pretty amazing young ladies! Liam and Uncle B had a good round of Uno.

This year the EC asked for really nice swings for Christmas so they could read outside. Mark and Uncle B installed them while we visited. And of course we all had to test them out.

The EC have a great piece of property which includes goats, chickens, cows, cats and a dog. While we were there, Uncle B came home from a vet call with a calf who didn’t look like it was going to make it. The kids absolutely loved spending time on the farm and feeding the animals. And, as of last report, we were informed the calf was doing good and thriving.

As you can imagine, leaving the farm is tough. Really, leaving the cousins is tough. They made a ton of memories and it’s such a blessing to see cousins that get along…even if they (along with a sibling) leave you stranded at the pond to find your own way home. I continue to pray that they will all stay close as they grow up.

While we visited, we crashed a birthday party (with permission of the hosts) of some of their friends. It was a great time meeting new people and watching a bonfire!