Mark leaves for work pretty early in the morning. June proved a great time to catch some pretty spectacular early morning skies. He took these pictures with his phone camera.
Look to the Skies
Reply
Tag Archives: Adventures
What to do when you’re overdue
Herein lies my photojournal of what we did to keep busy while waiting on Emmie.
Park Day
Watching “Da Builders” as Malachi calls them. They have cleared land behind our section of the subdivision to build another section. I knew Malachi just had to see them working. He was so excited and didn’t want to leave. Neither did his two partners in crime.
 |
| Note construction hat in hand. |
Our last appointment with Dr. J had a longer wait time due to babies being born. Like a two plus hour wait time. Once we realized that he had not one but two deliveries, Mark offered to make a mocha frappe run. Only one other person in the waiting room went for it besides us. It was truly yummy though.
Our homeschool care group end of year party was at the local Kroc Center which just so happens to have an indoor water park. Yes, it was a bit o’ fun!
And two days before Emmie arrived we attended our annual Pops Under the Stars concert by the local symphony. This is a family tradition now. We were expecting rain. And we got it. It rained a bit before the concert and right before the fireworks were supposed to go at the 1812 Overture. No fireworks and no overture but the rest of concert was a hit.
Fourteen Years
Actually, eighteen years ago, this happened:
Our first date lead to this…
It doesn’t seem like we’ve been together for eighteen years, but we have. I’m so glad that Mark chose me. I could not imagine my life with any other.
One day, I’ll digitize all of our wedding pictures (a must since they are in an album that is enjoyed regularly by our crew), and I’ll tell the full story of our wedding day. I’m sure, by the pictures, you can tell it was not a very traditional wedding. But it was our wedding and for us it was an opportunity to honor God for the gift of each other. We did so with our own “unique” flair and our marriage has been defined by lots of opportunities to do things differently from that point on.
I love you, Mark. Thank you for being my everything and for putting up with me and all my crazy ideas! Let’s celebrate by hugging our babies and eating Japanese food!
From Let it Snow to Let it Ice
Not to be outdone with our Seventh Year Snow in January, February decided to bring in ice. Two inches of ice. Shut down our city and our power. We were only without power for less than a day but we knew people who were four days plus without it. Or they would get it only for it to go out again.
Thankfully, we did not have any lasting damage. No problems with trees snapping or hitting our roof or fence or any thing else. We were very blessed. And, we all learned that snow is waaay better than ice.
Looks pretty but…
It was all ice.
Zoe was getting icicles off the dome.
And she also left her mark in the ice.
Trying to de-ice the rabbit cage.
The greenspace behind our house. We got to listen to the sound of snapping trees for a couple of days. Not fun to hear.
I believe the dogs loved the ice and snow more than anyone. We had a lot of trouble trying to get them to come in when the temps went well below freezing.
So here is a re-cap of the weather that week.
Monday: 70 degrees. So beautiful I took the kids to a local walking and nature trail and we were sweating after a mile walk.
Tuesday: Colder but tolerable
Wednesday: Ice
Thursday: Still icy
Friday: A bit easier to travel but still icy. Oh, and an earthquake.
Yeah, not kidding. Mark and I were watching a video that evening at about 10 when we heard a rumbling and then the house shook. Every nerve in me tensed up not knowing what it was (Mark was thinking helicopter…I’m thinking an attack on our local army base or something). We ran outside and neighbors started popping out too trying to figure out what was going on. One neighbor claimed helicopter as well but when we all looked up in the sky there was nothing but a pretty clear sky. No sign of any aircraft. Another neighbor was on the phone with friends who lived over an hour away and they said they felt something too. Mark and that neighbor both agreed earthquake. I finally relaxed a bit but ya’ll…that was the first and last earthquake I ever want to be in.
After all of that, we are now anxiously awaiting a “real” tornado (we usually have the wind blow hard and they call it a tornado) and a massive hurricane. Finally, all of our natural disasters will be done. Forever. I hope.
This is all so freakishly weird because we live in a very mild area. We’re about three hours from the ocean and right on the banks of a large river. We have hot summers and lots of pollen but that is typically it. Our winters are usually in the 40s and 50s with some 30s but I do not remember having so many 20 degree highs. Guess we will just blame climate change…or global warming…or whatever.
Snow Day 2014
Yes, we were hit not only with a polar vortex (new to me phrase) at the first of the year, we were also blessed with our snow day for the next seven years (we hope). This was a classic southern snow for us: Here one day and gone the next.
We got about an inch and half and it was enough to play in and keep Mark home from work. Perfect. And a bonus was no loss of power (which we lost when the cold came through but that was only for an hour or so).
After breakfast we walked the neighborhood and the kids enjoyed sliding down a neighbors hill on a real sled. FYI, a tote box top does not work well for sliding in one and half inches of snow.
They were so ready to play and so ready to come back in too. It was very cold outside.
Our snowman! He looks so tall…
but really, he’s sitting on the picnic table in the back yard. I wish I had grabbed a picture of a neighbor’s snowman. After it was built (over six feet tall), their yard and another yard were free from snow.
Snowball fight.
Our first snow in this house.
A Bunch of Characters Invasion
We were thrilled when Uncle B &B asked to come for a visit. Weeks of preparation made for a fun and relaxing visit. That and fifteen smaller hands pitching in. We were a flurry of activity and even ventured out to play putt putt and see a bit of our area.
The dishwashers.
Zoe working on a recipe with cousin J.
Story time.
Craft time.
Happy Thanksgiving!
This past Thanksgiving was spent at Papa & Grandmere’s house. We were able to visit Granddaddy & Ge but for some reason didn’t get those pictures save one…
Malachi helped clean up.
There were a couple of masked marauders.
Papa’s nose had to be caught.
Sweet smiles (with a photobomb).
Books were read…surprised, anyone?!
Bryant constructing and building at Ge & Granddaddy’s. I think we were busy eating and watching “the” game.
I wonder…
Since Zoe didn’t make semi-finals, we were able to check out of our rather expensive hotel room and check in to a nice timeshare that some friends so graciously set up for us. That gave us the opportunity to explore other things in Pigeon Forge. After we checked out, we headed to Apple Barn restaurant and enjoyed an amazing lunch with Ge & Granddaddy. It was cold and wet and we’ll use that as our excuse for why I didn’t get pictures.
The next morning, we decided to do Wonderworks. Aunt Yaya and her family had gone to this museum on a previous visit and we were told it was well worth the cost.
So, off we went.
It was totally worth it!
The kids really enjoyed all the activities. We played and played. Left for lunch and then came back and played some more. It’s basically a giant, hands on, science museum. Totally counted as school.
Wet n’ Wild Bible Bee
In between Bible Bee activities, we managed to have a little fun. It just so happens that Wilderness at the Smokies has an indoor waterpark. The kids had a blast and I enjoyed chasing toddlers around the toddler area. It was a bit cold for me but the kids loved it and played until they had purple lips. Mark enjoyed it too. Except for going down backwards in the funnel ride. Something he made sure not to repeat on subsequent trips down.
Obviously, my pictures are limited because it was a water park. But I made sure to capture this:
Zoe, Ace, and Liam loved the flow rider. We had seen one at the waterpark we went to this past summer but it cost extra. This one was included in our stay. I think they enjoyed it as much as they thought they would.
A fun bonus was seeing so many modest swimsuits. Usually, we are in the minority when we go to water activities as far as dress is concerned. This time, we were the majority. That was just a fun extra to our activities.
National Bible Bee or Bust…
Zoe worked hard this summer as she participated for the first time in the National Bible Bee. We were so excited to see her not only do well but also qualify for the national competition which was held in November. It was held in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and since that is driving distance, we felt we couldn’t pass up the chance to go and experience the bee from a national perspective. She competed against over 85 children in her age division (7 to 10). We found out in December that out of those 85 she placed 46 over all! Not bad for a first timer. Aside from competition (which included working to memorize over 70 passages and studying Ephesians…competitors competed in an oral round and a written exam for the first round of competition), we also got to meet a lot of new people. It was a friendly and fun compeition that our whole family enjoyed.
On our way!
The competition was held at Wilderness at the Smokies which also has an indoor waterpark. The waterpark is the first thing you see when you enter the resort. The kids were so excited!
Zoe on stage during opening ceremonies. Gee, she made a friend…anyone surprised?
All ready for a day of competition. She had fun and we were so proud of her.
While Zoe competed in oral rounds, I took the kids (with Grandmere and Papa’s help) to the indoor play area. Liam had fun on the ropes course.
Enjoying some slide time.
Michael Ferris was the speaker for the closing ceremonies. Mark said he gave a great speech. It was extremely late and I was shepherding kids to and from the restroom…such is the life.
On the way out of town, Emmie decided we needed pancakes. We stopped at one of the many flapjacks restaurants and enjoyed some yummy food. Apparently, the food took awhile so Josiah sorted and organized the jelly holder for them. Not sure where that OCD tendency came from.
After the extremely late closing ceremonies, we headed for the dessert reception. Our crew was tired and cranky but they managed a big smile before requesting the camera be put away.
Oh and a fun treat was seeing these people:
We walked out of opening ceremonies and I looked up at Family Research Council’s booth and realized I had seen them before but couldn’t place them. In fact, I almost went up and started chatting since I just knew I knew them. It took a half minute to realize…that’s Josh and Anna Duggar (you can’t see Anna in the picture but she is holding their youngest with his head turned). Duh. They weren’t busy and I wanted to go up and actually speak to them…but then, what would I say without looking like a total dork?! Mark wondered the same thing later. Oh well. It was neat seeing them and stalking with the camera.
