Summer, 2011

We've had a VERY busy summer this year! First, in June, Savannah graduated high school....Whoo hoo!! Also in June, we had Vacation Bible School at our new church. What a blessing and sooo much fun getting to know people better. In July, Ashton went on mission trip to Jax with the youth group and had a wonderful time. She got to really know some of the kids better and develop some real friendships. She also got to see the world from an entirely different perspective. They worked with inner city kids doing block parties, Bible camps, and even street prayer walks. She was so blessed and grew so much spiritually. Later in July, we went on vacation to Charleston to see the Yorktown, which is a WWII-era aircraft carrier and Indy LOVED it! It was fascinating! We walked through the whole thing and were pooped when we finished! We also got to see Ft. Sumpter and downtown Charleston, rode a ferry, and visited a plantation. It was a lot of fun and very educational. After that, we went to NC to stay with mom and Richard and Leslie were there, too. We had a great week with family.

Unfortunately, Mom got sick and ended up in the hospital for a week or so. Thankfully, Richard and Leslie were able to stay with her for some extra time and when they had to go, I went back up with Savannah and the boys. We stayed for two weeks to help her recover. Speaking of Savannah, she moved up there with mom. Wow. One kid gone. Seems weird around here without her. Too quiet....yes, even with 3 others still here. So, now I'm home and we're back to school and regular routines. We start golf, football, and scouts soon. Savannah is up in NC looking for a job, which she will hopefully find soon, and helping mom do stuff around the house and driving her to dr. appts. She's my eyes and ears while I'm down here, so that's a huge help.

Well, that's a run-down of our summer. Sorry I've not put up pictures, but right now I'm just too busy. I'll try for next time. :-)

St. Augustine, Part 3

After we left the Old Jail, we drove over to the Fort in St. Augustine. There are more pictures, but the other family's kids are in them, too, and I don't really like to put pictures of other people's kids on here unless I have spoken to them, so you won't see those pictures unless you come to my house! (Come and visit sometime!!)

Anyway, when we went inside the fort, there were 4 guys dressed up as soldiers and they put on a display of their black powder guns.

While we were waiting for them to shoot, we looked over into the bay and saw a pod of dolphins swimming by! It was so neat! I got a couple pictures of them. I don't think I've ever seen a whole pod in the wild before. Pretty cool! I've seen one here and there, but never in a pod like that.

Here's the kids by one of the cannons.

Levi and Indy were running around from cannon to cannon pretending to shoot pirates. It was so cute!

Here's Indy on the top of the fort looking over into the courtyard area.

The boys really liked the fort.... I knew they would. I think they would have been perfectly happy to stay there and check it all out, except that it was so stinkin' hot!! Ugh. Plus, we were with the other family and the mom was ready to go because the little guy had had it. He was pooped and cranky. So, we left. I wish we could have stayed a little longer so the boys could really have looked all through the rooms and played more, but that's ok. They got the jist of it.

I think the main reason I even wanted to do such a quick trip to a place more than 6 hours away was that Indy has been learning about the start of America in school. We've talked about the Vikings, Christopher Columbus, the pilgrims, and even St. Augustine. So, I thought this was a great time to visit and make it more real to him. He was very impressed and I read the self-tour guide to them for some of the info. Overall, it was a fun trip and I am really glad we went. Ahhh, the joys of homeschooling.

(In case you're curious, Ashton did not go with us. Since she's in school now, she had to be in school that day, so she stayed home with Nicky and we did miss her. I wished more than once that she had been there. Oh well. Maybe next time.)

St. Augustine, Part 2

These were a couple pictures I forgot yesterday: It's Levi playing with the little chalkboard. See the wooden things with strings attached? These were pretty neat. There were letters printed right next to each hold and the kids could practice their spelling with these. They were given a word and then they spelled it by "sewing" the string through the correct letters. Kinda like a sewing card for preschoolers. Besides learning their letters and spelling words, they got to practice their small motor skills. I thought that was a really neat thing.

Here's Indy and Savannah writing with the ink and feathers.

Ok, onto the next couple hours.... we went next to the Old Florida Jail and took the tour. It was really interesting. We put Levi in the stocks.....well, actually, he put himself. lol

Here's Levi as the sheriff and Savannah as the crook! lol

This is the old jailhouse. It was really interesting because the sheriff had his house built right onto the jail, in which he lived with his wife and 2 small children. Notice how the left side of the building looks like a house and the right side looks like a jail. It was very interesting.

This was a statue of the famous sheriff, Joe Perry (I think), which the kids had to climb all over.

It was a fun tour and our guide was very animated and did a great job. If you go to St. Augustine, you should check it out. :-)

St. Augustine

Last week, we went to St. Augustine for the Old Florida Museum's annual Homeschool Day. We went with another family and actually ran into a couple more families from our own homeschool group. That was pretty cool. We went up on Sunday, the 20th, to our friend's property west of Gainesville, then on Monday morning, we drove over to St. Augustine. We had a great time! It was a really fast trip because we left St. Augustine about 4 pm and drove home that afternoon. Whew! (It's nice having a relief driver now....even if she only has her restricted!!)

So here are some pictures of things we did. Today I'm going to show you pictures of what we did at the Old Florida Museum. They had 4 stations set up for us to do a bunch of hands-on things....and I mean a bunch. The first station was an Indian village. First, we were in the village yard where there was a hut with hunting tools and weapons (You know the boys love that!) and a fire pit with a shelf built above it for roasting meat. In another area of the yard was a garden area where the kids could use Indian tools to dig a hole and plant some corn...and they actually had some already growing. Pretty cool. And, in another area, they had a lot of Indian games. There was a really cool game that we want to make. It was corn cobs that had been dried and stripped of corn with 2 feathers stuffed into the ends and then you threw them through a grapevine wreath that was hanging for an aiming game. It was really fun and the kids didn't want to leave it! There was also a place to "grind" corn with a stick. They tried all the things.

This is Levi trying the throwing game.
This is a close up of a corn cob with the feathers. Indy looks really authentic with his mohawk, doesn't he?? lol Except for the blonde hair, of course.

Here's Indy grinding some corn.

Another thing to do in the Indian village was to "dig out" a canoe. It was an old log and they used stones to dig out the insides, which must have been hit by lightning, because it was black. This, of course, means Levi's hands were black, too. Ugh. And, the day had just begun.

After the Indian yard, we moved into the "chief's house", which was a huge tent type building with a bunch of animal skins inside, along with musical instruments, misc. tools and weapons, the chief's "throne" (a big chair) and a little fire pit (with no actual fire) with food around it, like corn and beans. It looked really authentic and the kids loved it. Plus, they got to make a shell necklace. That was fun.

The third station (we'll get back to the second station) was an early pioneer home and yard. The house was very big and we all went inside while the guide (who was in costume) talked to us. Some of the kids got to hold spears and some got to lay on the "beds" and some got to sit on the potty. They were all amazed that the potty was right there in the house, with nothing to separate it from the rest of the living area. They also learned about sweeping the floors and how the youngest child in the family had to empty the potty. We teased Levi about that and he kept saying, "No way." lol Then we stepped outside the house into the yard where there were all sorts of typical games for that time period, including pick-up sticks and a little bowling game. It was really cool. Savannah found this weaving thing on the wall and started weaving on it. She liked that.

The kids also learned about how they made candles with a cotton strip for the wick and then dipped it in tallow (animal fat) repeatedly to make the candles. All the kids got to dip the candles a few times and when we left that area, we each got to take a candle home. That was neat. Here's Savannah and Levi dipping candles (yes, Levi has a mohawk, too). See the candles in the back hanging to dry?

The second station was an archiological dig area. They had buried actual findings that belonged to the Museum in boxes of dirt for the kids to find. First, they noted their "location" (see the "D 14" in the back?) then they filled their buckets about half full and emptied it into a sieve where they shook and shook until they found their treasures. Once that was done, they took their finds over to a table with a toothbrush to dust it off really well and then classify it by looking at the samples on the display wall. This part was a little bit over Levi's head, but Indy really liked this part. One neat thing even I learned was the difference between and artifact and an ecofact. I had never even heard the term "ecofact", but it's obviously pretty self-explanitory. I described it to the boys as this: "An artifact is something that's man-made. An ecofact is something that's God-made." For example, a pot or arrow head is an artifact and a turtle shell or bone is an ecofact. Pretty cool, huh? I thought so! :-)

The final area we went to was a more "modern" pioneer area (more like the mid-1800's). This area had a school house with old desks, slate boards (though they actually used little chalkboards) and ink and ink wells with feathers for writing. Levi liked the little chalk boards, but Savannah and Indy really liked writing with the ink. Outside the school house, they had a yard with a lasso to throw at a fake bull, a water pump and wash tub with washboard and some clothes to try washing. They also had some games, another weaving thing on the wall, and a plow for the kids to try pushing and plowing. It was a really neat area and the kids all had fun, even Savannah.

Here's Indy trying to roll this thing with a stick.

Here's Levi trying to plow with one of the little girls we went with.

Here's Savannah trying to lasso the bull. She got it more than once and decided that she now wants a lasso. lol Hmmm.... a rope for Christmas. I might be able to handle that. lol

Here she's trying to teach Levi how to use the lasso. I'm not sure he really ever got the hang of it, but he sure had fun! lol

Well, that was the first 2 hours!! :-) Stay tuned tomorrow for the next couple hours! lol It was a really neat experience, though, and I'm really glad we went. :-)

Oh, wait....I forgot this. This was a corn stripper thing. It was neat how it just stripped all the corn right off it. The kids all got to try it and really liked it. Oh, one funny thing was that they told us that people used these corn husks for toilet paper. The kids all got a kick out of that. :-)

Trip Pictures #3

This is the final installment in my vacation photos. I'm sure by now you're overjoyed that it's nearing the end, huh?? lol

This is a waterfall about 10 minutes from my mom's house. It's at the end of a trail through the woods that is a very nice walk. We took the dogs, Big Mac and my brother's dog, Zoe and they both had a lot of fun splashing in the water. Just about where Ashton (in pink) is standing, there's a little pool that is perfect for the little guys.

Here's Levi (left), Indy (center), and our nephew, Aaron next to that little pool.

Here's a nice little picture of Savannah, Ashton, Indy, and our other nephew, Andrew. Now, you wanna see where they are??

Look at the very tip top of the waterfall. See the pink? That's Ashton surrounded by the others. You can imagine how I held my breath at seeing them up that high....and that close to the edge! Apparently, the trail we walked goes up even further than we went, to the top of the waterfall. And, according to the kids, the waterfall actually goes up even higher than they are, but they couldn't see a trail....thank goodness!!! lol

Here's the two doggies enjoying themselves. Poor Zoe is so old now that she's slower than she used to be and Mac just wants to play with her.

Here's the little boys playing on the rocks. Just as we were getting ready to leave, Levi slipped on the rocks and puctured his head....wow, big surprise, huh?? lol But, it was pretty small and he was fine. When we got home, I put some cream and a band aid and he was just fine. At 5 bandaids heal a lot, don't they?? lol

Here's a good one of my brother. Smile, Rich!! :-)

A group shot. L to R: Me, Savannah, Ashton, my SIL Leslie, Rich, Andrew and on the front row:

Levi, Aaron, Indy. I was so impressed with this picture! I set it on a rock and then set the timer. It actually worked! I was so excited!! Oh, I forgot Mac and Zoe, too!

I think it was the next day, we went gem mining. The kids always love that. They get their "treasures" examined by the staff and then separate the "treasures" from the regular "pretty rocks".....then they keep both. Naturally. They always ask to go gem mining, though. And, we like to watch them.

My mom has Andrew's old pedal thingie at her house. It's been too small for Andrew, but too big for Aaron, so when they moved to Texas they left it here. My boys are the perfect size and they just love this thing! Every single morning before I was ever up, the boys would eat some cereal, let Mac out, and then go in the front yard and play on this (and another little bicycle thing) in their pj's. It was sooo cute! Just outside the bottom of this picture, there's a crack in the driveway that the boys are not allowed to pass and they're very attentive to that crack because they know they'll have to come inside if they aren't. lol Isn't Levi cute???

One day I took the kids over to the cemetery to see my dad's grave. They all know he's not there, but in heaven instead, but they like to go there. I think they feel like it's almost like visiting him. While the boys were running around Savannah laid down in the grass. I thought this was a neat picture.

And, here's the boys "visiting" Grandfather. We bought one blue flower to add to those already in there. It's the brightest blue one there.

This is a picture of kudzu, which is a vine that grows rampant in NC during the summer. In the winter, it's just a bunch of brown, dead-looking vines that are pretty ugly, but in the summer, I personally think they're pretty. But, they do take over everything that doesn't sit still. My aunt used to have a goat named "Billy" (Billy goat, get it?? lol) who they'd tie out in different places in the yard to eat the kudzu up. He loved it!! It was pretty funny. Anyway, Savannah wanted to take a picture of this to show Juan because he didn't believe that it was everywhere. She just had to show him.

Our last night there, we had a big family gathering. We had all sorts of cousins and aunts and uncles and "button-hole" cousins and it was a blast! They do that all the time, but we always miss their get-togethers because we live here, so we really enjoyed this one. Here, Levi is playing with the golf putting toy my cousin Jason gave him for his birthday. Everyone is watching him and cheering him on. He seriously played with that toy for about 2 straight hours!

Afterwards, my grandmother gave each of the little guys a bubble gun of some sort to play outside with. They had a lot of fun with that!

On our way home..... Indy and Levi got these nerf guns from my brother and SIL for their birthdays. Oh joy, joy! lol See what they do with them?? This was on the ride home! lol

Well, I guess that's it....finally. Hope you enjoyed "seeing" our trip instead of just "hearing" about it. Luckily for you I'm not going on another trip for a long time!! lol

Trip Pictures #2

Remember I told you about walking in the clouds? Or did I? Well, here it is. One day we went for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. As we were stopped at one of the overlooks, Savannah spotted this pine tree sticking out of the rocks. I love unique tree shapes, so she took a picture of this one. Pretty cool, huh?

This was the view from the place where we stopped to have a picnic lunch.

The road not taken.....

The higher we drove, the closer the clouds got. The kids thought this was really cool to see the clouds so close.

When we got to this point, the clouds seemed to be surrounding us. I rolled down my window and let the kids stick their hands out the window to touch the clouds. They were so excited!

A clouded valley....

We finally actually got fully into the clouds. And, we found a visitor center. Of course, we stopped and got out. The kids ran for joy in the clouds. It was so neat to watch them. And, it was so cool up there, too! Luckily we had some jackets in the car because we really needed them! Just 15 minutes before it was hot as all get out, and here it was cool enough for a jacket. It was neat to get a "glimpse" of winter weather in the dog days of summer! :-)

This is the visitor center we stopped at. The park ranger who was there said the weather and clouds were like that all the time. See my mom taking a picture of me taking a picture? We laughed.

Finally we headed back down the mountains and as we did, we stopped at several overlooks to enjoy the view. Ashton just had to climb these rocks!

One of the overlooks. See how high it is?? 4760 feet above sea level. I live like 2 feet above sea level! lol

There were several of these covered tunnels cut out of the mountain. They were really cool. We even rolled down the window and shouted just to hear our echo!! lol It was funny.

Another day, we went on a family picnic back at the geyser. This picnic included some second, third, and fourth cousins I hadn't seen in years. It was so much fun! This is the "creek" that runs beside the geyser. Savannah took this picture. She does good, doesn't she?

All the kids played in the creek for a long time. It was hot and then it rained, so they were wet anyway. I guess they figured it wouldn't even matter. It didn't. lol They had so much fun playing together. I really like getting my kids with cousins up there because we don't really have too many cousins down here and certainly none on my side.

Here's another one of the creek that Savannah took. I thought this one came out really good.

While we were at the geyser, the train went by. The kids ran across the whole field to get a good view of the train. I got there a little late, but the conductor had already waved at them.

One day the girls went horseback riding at a friend's ranch. They had a lot of fun. The boys didn't get to go because it cost a little too much for all of us to go. But, they did let Indy sit on the horse.

One night, my SIL Leslie came in and told me to get my camera and go to my room. There sat Levi and Aaron in the chair "reading" Horton Hears a Who. It was so cute! Unfortunately, Levi looked up as I walked in, so it's not as candid as I would have liked. Oh well.

We also went on a "treasure hunt". Actually it's called Letterboxing. You can do a search for letterboxing online to find out more about it and if there are any letterboxes in your area. Basically, people put together some sort of box with a pad of paper and stamp. They post directions online on how to find it and then you take your own pad of paper and stamp with stamp pad. You find it and stamp your stamp on their pad and their stamp on your pad then leave a message telling them where you're from. It's pretty cool to see what people have been there. Here we found one in a state park about 10 minutes from my mom's house. It was a fun adventure.

This is the lake in the state park. So pretty.

My mom likes to play board games with all my kids. She plays Scrabble a lot with Ashton and Uno with Indy and other misc. games with Savannah. Here she's playing one of Aaron's board games with Indy and Aaron.

Well, that's it for group #2. Tomorrow is the third and final entry for trip photos. Just know that I actually took about 400 pictures!! This is only a fraction, but a good array of things we did. See you tomorrow!!