The best homework project ever!

Parker had an assignment to build a model of his bedroom. He chose to use legos and had the most fun ever putting it together. We even printed pictures of the posters that he has in his room and taped them on the walls of the box. He was very proud of his creation. :)

Catching up - August

Hmm...what happened during August? It is mostly a blur. I remember what I have pictures of. This is why you don't want to get behind on your blog folks, lol.

We have a lovely family in our ward that invited us to visit their cabin in the mountains in the town of Seven Devils, NC (just a few minutes from Linville) and stay for a few days in exchange for taking pictures of it so that they could post it on a rental site. We said YES PLEASE! It was just beyond beautiful and lovely and taking pictures of it in no way compensated for the wonderful time we had.

Here are just a few pictures of the cabin. The downstairs had a pool table, large TV, and a cabinet stocked with games to play with the kids. Just awesome.













































Walking down the road from the cabin is a lake where we had a picnic. Again, lovely. I thought about how hard it would be to leave this place if we owned it.




























































About 5 minutes from the cabin there is a catch your own trout fishing pond stocked with trout that swim in from the nearby river. They were huge! The water was so clear and the kids were mesmerized just watching them swim around. They could have stayed there for hours just watching. "Look at that one! Look at his spots!











































Then we had some fun with the classic mining for gemstones. Parker has been talking about rocks in school so this was a perfect opportunity for show and tell once we tracked back into school.













































Greg's parents live just an hour from the the cabin so they drove up on Saturday and we went to an old country store/restaurant for some hard to find candy and good bbq. :D There was a local band made up of three teenage boys playing bluegrass and singing. They were really great!




































Then we took the kids to a local park to play on the playground and swim in the creek. The water was pretty cold but they didn't care. :)
















































































We heard about an alpaca farm so we had to go check that out. It is located on a 40 year old apple orchard. The farm raises the alpaca which are sheared once or twice a year and the fur is shipped to places that manufacture expensive hiking gear and socks. Alpaca is one of the most sought after fibers because it stays dry kind of like wool, but is breathable and warm and lightweight, and soft. What an interesting looking creature. They are in the camel family and are smaller than lamas. These alpaca are recently sheared. The farm was so pretty and also had horses, donkeys, goats, chickens, etc, that the kids had fun looking at.




























































































Next on to Linville Falls. The kids did a great job on the 2 mile hike to the overlooks and back. Meadow was pretending she was a Saltopus dinosaur (Saltopus means "leaping foot") and she would leap over roots and rocks and holler "Saltopus leap!" It was pretty funny. Parker was a velocitaptor that could run really fast in the same picture.
































































Parker is wearing this expression because a bug flew up his nose. He did not like that but he cheered up after a few minutes. :)

Catching up - July

What a whirlwind of a three months the summer was!

*Parker finished Kindergarten and we had a little party in his classroom. Another Mom and I painted faces and they got to make hats and ice cream sundaes and they each got an award. Parker's teachers gave him the award for the best laugh. :) It is quite a contagious laugh if I do say so myself. ;D
















He had a week and a half break (where we went to the pool as much as possible) and then he started first grade!



















































It was kind of a rough transition with the small break. Parker missed Kindergarten. His Kindergarten teacher was very warm and his first grade teacher is a little more business like, especially during the first 2 weeks when she was establishing the ground rules. It just took a little longer to get to know her. I had to park the van once and walk him in because he refused to get out of the car if we went in the carpool line. lol. He is doing much better now and likes his teacher and being a first grader. :) :)












*I was on the activity committee for youth conference which was also very fun and very busy. The theme was pioneers then and now and I think the youth really enjoyed it!

* I am about 5-6 months along. Enjoying the small window of feeling good during pregnancy. :)































































*One of our favorite missionaries came back and visited with his parents. It was such a treat to go to the temple with them and to have them over for the evening! Elder Cox and his companion were such amazing examples of Christ-like service to us and also our non-member neighbors. They would show up if they didn't have an appointment and ask what they could do for us, they mowed the lawn once when Greg was out of town, helped paint the porch and a toy box that we happened to be working on when they stopped by, and they along with Greg dug a six foot coi pond in our neighbors back yard. Our neighbor ended up inviting them to dinner and they were taught a first discussion.

Our kids adored them as well!



















































* And last but not least, Greg turned 36! Whooo! The kids had fun making him a robot pencil/candy holder for his new office. I forgot to take a picture of it so I'll do that soon. We made him his favorite cake which is yellow with chocolate icing of course. It was a happy day. :)

Mid-Life Crisis Planning

So I walked into the office the other day and Greg says "Check it out, I've picked out what I would like to buy when I am 50 something and having a midlife crisis...If we have the money that is."
















Greg: Doesn't that look like me?

Me: (Laughing) Actually it does.

Greg: I won't drive it all of the time, I'll just go out every once in a while and drive on some back country roads.

Me: (Silently conjuring images of 50 year old Greg on his all black motorcycle driving the country roads.)

Greg: Yeah, I wouldn't go to Sturgis or hang out with bikers or anything like that, I'd just like to drive to New Hill or maybe Sanford once a week.

Me: (Wondering what Sturgis is exactly)

Greg: "So, be thinking about something that you would like to buy when you are 50 something."

Any suggestions? The only thing that popped into my head immediately was to travel to some awesome places rather that actually owning something...hmmm....and maybe a matching helmet so I can ride on the motorcycle too. :)


Here is Greg on one of his more recent shoots (Monster Truck show at the beach) practicing looking natural sitting in the Grave Digger Monster truck. Parker thinks his Dad is pretty cool. :)

4 year old check-up

Meadow had her 4 year old check-up at the doctors today and the doctor was asking her safety questions like:
"What do you do before you cross the street?"
Meadow: "Look left and then right to make sure no cars are coming."

Doctor: "Do you know how to swim by yourself?"
Meadow: "Not yet."

Then the doctor asked her "And who is always watching you when you go swimming in the pool or the ocean?"
Meadow: "Jesus."

The female doctor smiled really big and I liked her response."Yes, Jesus is watching you but who should be in the water with you?"

Meadow: "Mom or Dad."

:) :) :) :)