Bye, bye summer vacation

Logan and Trevor Brazile, Logan was very impressed with T, and Trevor won the event and took home around $50K, not bad for a day's work.


My cousin, Micaela getting Fred Whitfield's autograph. I still say she ambushed him in the hallway and used Jaiden as an excuse. I think she told him Jaiden wanted his autograph, and how could he say no when he looked at J's beautiful little face! (she looks really impressed, doesn't she? LOL)



The time has come (hey, that reminds me of a poem from Alice in Wonderland, "The time has come the walrus said, to talk of other things, of shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings.), but I digress. Tonight was open house at school, which means the kids will be there bright eyed and bushy tailed on Monday morning, sigh, I love summer vacation why can't it last a little longer....8 months longer would be good. Austin will be in the 7th grade this year, how is that possible? He should still be Logan's age....and he starts pre-K next week, too!

We had one final "fun" trip of the summer last weekend. We went to the Best of the Best Tie Down Calf Roping. I was very cool, and all the "big dogs" of the calf roping world were there. You never know who you'll run across at one of those things, as we were going toward the stands I saw a man coming toward me and I had the thought, "Wow, he looks like my uncle, Randy." Imagine my surprise when I realized it WAS Randy! He and my aunt Brenda, cousin Micaela and her hubby Mario (I guess I can just call him cousin, too, it simplifies things), and their adorable children were there. It was fun to see them, and I could tell, that given a little time, Logan and Jaiden could really have a good time.

I did manage to get a few really good shots of some of the ropers at the trade show. Logan really got into asking them to sign his program. How could you resist such a cute little kid! He got lots of autographs. He was especially impressed with Trevor Brazile because he tickled him. Austin didn't get to go because he was with Mom at my brother and SIL's house for the weekend, but I think he made good use of their pool and entertained their twins, too. They rewarded him by a birthday dinner to Shogun and another dinner trip to Playtime Pizza; he was happy.

Now you're caught up on the goings on of our household, enjoy the pictures, and pray for me as the new school year starts, it's going to be a good one!

I hope this works, it's hilarious!

VBS is Cool!

This week is our church's Vacation Bible School and it has been so much fun! First of all, whenever there's a Hawaiian theme involved you know it's going to be good! I'm helping with the music and I just love to see the look on the little faces when they sing these songs. The guy who wrote all these songs and made up the moves to go with them is truly gifted. I took a few pictures, but don't have them off my camera yet, but I'll get those on here before too long.

VBS is one of the best things a child can be involved in. I am so glad to see some of our Awana kids who don't normally come to church. We're hoping for a few more kids, We had 126 tonight, at 130 Brother Jeff (youth pastor) has to wear a hula skirt for parent's night Thursday night. Austin has already invited friends, I think he's wanting to see Jeff with flowers in his hair!

Independence Day

I had to try leaving the shutter open a little while just to see what I would get. I love the way these turned out!

Chris was passing Logan a green sparkler, I thought the light on his little face was really neat.

Giant sparklers are so fun, but getting him to be still long enough to snap a good picture was a real challenge!

This one I left the shutter open for a few seconds. He was swinging the sparkler like a rope (imagine that!). I thought it was really neat to see the arc and the movement of his arm. His head was pretty still, amazingly enough.

Our 4th of July was pretty low key this year. My grandmother is in the hospital and just seems at times like she has given up on life. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and is having a really tough time dealing with it, as we all are. I spent a couple of hours with her today, then came home and threw someing together for our church picnic. I guess I just wasn't in the mood to stay in town with all those people (I had no idea there were that many people in Fulton County!), so we came home. We are close enough to town that we could see the biggest fireworks from the field, so we parked the truck on a hill and watched a few from there. Logan hates the big bangs, so he was happy, too. Casey was gone, Austin was with Mom, so it was just Chris, Logan, and me.

Logan liked the big fireworks so much we decided to run into town and get a few little ones for him. The fireworks stand had 36" sparklers, which were the most fun thing we found. After a few cones, fountains, and sparklers we were done for the night. It was good to be home and not fighting the traffic in town. Trust me, more than 20 cars in Salem constitutes a major traffic problem, and last night they were parked up and down Hwy 62, all in the city park, fairgrounds, and in any space big enough for a car to squeeze into.

I guess I'm turning into an old fuddy duddy.....I can live with that!

I didn't think it would post twice!

Obviously I have no clue what I'm doing, but I thought this little celebrity lookalike thing was kind of neat. I would mind looking like Vanessa Marcil.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Trace family tree - Genalogy

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

A few more birthday shots.

I never thought I'd be a pool toy!

The Splash Brothers!

Logan and his buddy Jaron.

The birthday boy!

I finally got my pictures to load, so here are a few more from the birthday and with the gift Sissy got him. This afternoon we had lots of fun playing with the swimming pool. I lounged in a lawn chair with my feet in the water while the boys splashed around a while.

My baby is 4! When did that happen?

I guess it's always easier to blow out candles when you're sitting in Nana's lap. The tiny baby mom is holding is my cousin's (Kristi) new baby boy, Reid. He was born May 29.

Logan officially turned 4 Monday morning at 8:19 AM. We looked at his pictures last night and it's so strange to think he was once that small!

We had his birthday party Sunday afternoon (Austin had baseball games all day Saturday), but it was mostly just family. He didn't care, he was the center of attention and was showered with gifts. Last year he wanted Ray Barker (our neighbor) on his birthday cake, but this year he wanted Larry Boy (Veggie Tales). No bakery around us had Larry Boy, but I did find some Bob and Larry toys at the Christian Book Outlet, so he had cake with Bob and Larry.

Yesterday (Monday), I took cupcakes to daycare for him to share with his class, so he really ended up having 2 birthday parties. He was so cute when I got to school, he was wearing a big crown with "It's My Birthday" on it. He was also enjoying all the attention there, too. I didn't find Larry Boy cupcakes, but we did find Indiana Jones, which is probably his second favorite character!

Austin is trying to blow up the big water slide/pool thing Casey got Logan for his birthday, it looks like we're going to have water fun this afternoon! Yes, I'll have my camera in hand.

Who needs a water park....

I was almost this wet after he came over to give me a hug.

The look on his face in this one just cracks me up!

I wish I had sound to go with these, his high pitched giggles were hilarious!

....when you have the trusty old Wal-Mart sprinkler! Logan saw me watering my plants yesterday afternoon, and the next thing I knew he came running out of the house in his swim trunks. How can you say no to big blue eyes and and a sweet little face saying, "Pleeeeeeeaaaseeee, can I play in the water?" We looked for the toy squirty thing, but it must have gotten tossed in our big garage cleaning spree a couple of weeks ago. I did, however, find the sprinkler I don't remember buying, and it was more fun than the toy (and probably cheaper).

I kept wondering where Austin was, because he's usually the first one out when I mention playing in the water, come to find out, Logan "accidentally" forgot to tell him, and since Austin was watching a movie, he (Logan) didn't want to bother him. Yeah, right, he just didn't want to share the water! Oh well, Logan had a good time, and I told Austin I would make sure he knew when I got the sprinkler out again...which will probably be this afternoon.

My brain has ceased to function!

A cute little ring bearer....before he got bored!

The bride wore boots! Lindsey and her little sister, Leslie, wore their matching boots for the wedding.

Logan was really enjoying himself, can't you tell?!

I have no idea why my last post just published links to the photos instead of the actual photo. I'm sure I didn't hit the right button, but I'll try to post more shots from DC later.

Saturday (yesterday) I had wedding photos to do. It was fun, the wedding had a western theme as both the bride and groom rodeo, and, Logan was the ring bearer. Maybe ring bearer isn't the correct term....entertainment crew would be more appropriate, he was hot and bored, not a good combination for a little boy who will be 4 in a few days. He roped with the ribbon he took off the pillow, made faces, got up close to the groom so he could see their faces, he's mess, but he looked really cute!

Whew, what a week!

[Photo]
Burnside Bridge, Antietam Battlefield, Sharpsburg, VA. I'm on the Confederate side of the creek. The tree to the left was there at the time of the skirmish, oh, if only trees could talk!
[Photo]
The Bloody Road, Antietam Battlefield, Sharpsburg, VA. At the time of the battle in 1863, there would have been crops on either side of the road blocking the sunken road from view.
[Photo]
Caisons with Ammunition boxes at the Bull Run Battlefield, Manassas, VA.

[Photo]
St. Louis from the air. The Gateway Arch is to the lower left, and the big red thing toward the upper right is Busch Stadium!

Our week started at 12:10 AM Monday morning, we left with a bus load of kids for the airport for a 7:00 AM flight. The kids were so wound up that no one slept on the bus. We boarded the plane and some of them got a little nervous, out of the 33 kids we had only 5 or 6 had ever flown. Austin was one of the "never flown" kids and when we taxied down the runway his eyes were as big as silver dollars. He loved it, though. We had a layover in St. Louis, and on the descent we saw Busch Stadium and the Gateway Arch out the window. Austin flipped, he's a die-hard Cardinals fan. We left STL at 11:30 and arrived in Baltimore at 2:30, there's a time change so the flight didn't really take that long; a couple of hours.

We left the airport and loaded on the tour bus to begin our week. We were all exhausted, but kept going. Our first stop was Bull Run Battlefield. I did find out that the Union Army named the battles after a city and the Confederates named it after a creek or landmark. I guess people liked the Rebs names, because most of them stuck. To the Yankees, this was the Battle of Manassas. We left the battlefield, went to supper, then checked into the hotel. Some of our kids went to see the new Indiana Jones movie, but most of them just went to bed. I had been awake since 7:00 AM Sunday morning and this was now 9:00PM Monday night. I opted not to go to the movie, so did Austin, he was so tired he wasn't feeling very well. A shower and a good night's sleep perked him right up, though.

We left Manassas and headed for Harper's Ferry, WV. This is the neatest little town, if you have the chance to see it, GO! It's at the convergence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers and the site of the John Brown revolt. I had no idea it was an arsenal/armory and they made guns there. Since it was in West Virginia, it was the gun supplier for the Confederates....see why Johnny Boy picked that place to stage his rebellion. He wanted to cut off the gun supply to the slave owning states.

After Harper's Ferry we went to Antietam Battlefield (Battle of Sharpsburg for you Yankees). It was really interesting, but I'm a history buff. I only wish we'd had more time to see it, but we did get to stop in a couple of places. If you read about the Battle of Antietam it will probably mention the cornfield and the Bloody Road, I saw those.

From Antietam we went on to Gettysburg, PA for supper, then checked into the hotel, which had a pool. It was nice to let the kids swim and wear themselves out because we herded them back upstairs at 9:00 for showers and bed and no a single one complained.

Wednesday morning we headed out to the Gettysburg Battlefield. I had no idea it was so huge and that lots of the fighting took place in the town. There are some old homes that were built in the early 1800's that still have bullet holes in the brick from the Battle at Gettysburg. It was amazing to know we were standing on the same places that had once seen the worst battle in American History. So many lives were lost at Gettysburg. Once again, it is worth the trip, but plan on more than one day to see it all....in fact, if you want to see it all you'd better just plan for a whole week! It's a beautiful little city, too.

Wednesday afternoon we hit the Smithsonian in DC. The Natural History museum is a neat stop, but we didn't have very long. We left that one and went to the Air and Space Museum. It's pretty cool, but I really wanted to go to the National Gallery of Art, which we didn't have time to do. :( We had supper then got on the bus for night tour of the monuments and memorials. Unfortunately, a really bad thunderstorm rolled in while we were at the Lincoln Memorial, so we had to cut that trip a little short. We found out the next morning it was the worst storm they'd had in about 23 years.

Thursday's agenda was a guided tour of Arlington Cemetery and the memorials, which was really neat. The changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknowns was very moving. These guys are dedicated! We also saw the grave site of JFK and Bobby Kennedy. We went to the Vietnam Memorial (where I found a cousin's name on the wall and got a rubbing and took pictures), WWII Memorial, FDR Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and a sashay by the White House. George and Laura were home, but we didn't get invited in since they were entertaining the Israeli heads of state. I guess 33 kids and 10 adults from Arkansas just weren't important enough!

We were supposed to go to Mt. Vernon Thursday afternoon, but the storms had been so bad around that area that the power was still out. Someone mentioned tornadoes in that area....I guess we took the weather with us! We went, instead, to the Holocaust Museum, and even though our kids were only 11, 12, and 13 years old, they were stunned by the cruelty suffered by some at the hand of the Nazis. We got to ride the Metro (subway) from near the White House to the Holocaust Museum, which was very cool for the kids.

After leaving the Holocaust Museum, we went to Alexandria for supper at King Street Blues BBQ then a walking "legends" tour of Old Town Alexandria, VA. We saw George Washington's "city" home when he was in the DC area and not at Mt. Vernon, we also saw the boyhood home of General Robert E. Lee. A couple of the streets are still cobblestone, and most of the sidewalks are brick from the early 1800's when there was a brick factory in Alexandria. It was very interesting.

Friday was our last day in DC. Since we didn't have much time we opted for a trip to the National Zoo instead of the National Archives and Supreme court. It was more fun for the kids in our age group than the Archives or Supreme Court would have been, although, many of them wanted to see the Archives just to see where National Treasure had been filmed.

The plane ride home was eventful from Baltimore to St. Louis. About 40 minutes from the St. Louis Airport we had to fly through a line of thunderstorms. It was very bumpy, and our landing in STL was the hardest landing I'd ever felt. Our flight from STL to Little Rock was delayed an hour because of the storms, but we made it back to Arkansas around 8:00 Friday night. What was even better was pulling in our driveway just after midnight. The trip was fun, and I'd love to go back and see more....maybe someday, but not with 33 kids.

We're off!

Our bags are packed and we're ready to go......reminds me of a song.......I'm standin' here outside the door.....I'm leavin' on a jet plane.....

Sorry, the lack of sleep is already getting to me, and it will only get worse, I will probably be awake for next 24 hours, anyway. Austin is counting down the hours, his suitcase has been packed for 2 days, but I just finished mine off today. I love the blue and orange backpacks the tour company provided us, that's our carry on, and you wouldn't believe the stuff I have crammed in there! I have snacks! I'll be the most popular person on the airplane. I also bought the cute little green purse to take with me so I wouldn't have to lug my big one around. This goes across from shoulder to hip and has everything very handy. I've got my camera, extra memory cards, and my zoom lens ready to go, too. I'm looking forward to it!

Say a prayer for traveling mercies for our group, it's a little nerve wracking taking other people's children this far from home, but I'm praying that God will grant us a safe trip and a wonderful learning experience for the kids. I'm just wanting a good, close look at that Hope Diamond!

I should have lots to post when we get home Friday, so check back!

Four days and counting.

These photos aren't mine, but get ready, I'll have lots and lots after June 6th!

Austin and I (along with 42 others) will be leaving at 1:00 AM Monday morning for Washington DC. This trip has been in the works for almost 2 years, and the kids are really excited about it. We (11 adults) will have 23 kids ages 10, 11, and 12, and our itinerary is very busy. Austin has never flown and is a little nervous about that, but I told him he would enjoy it.

I love history and am really looking forward to this trip, but am a little sad that Chris and Logan have to stay behind, it's going to be hard to be away from them for 5 days. I've been to DC, but not the surrounding areas. Some of our stops will include: Antietam Battlefield, Harper's Ferry National Park, Gettysburg Battlefield, Smithsonians, day and night tours of DC and the different sites/memorials, Mt. Vernon, Holocaust Museum, National Archives, Supreme Court, FDR Memorial, and Arlington National Cemetery. We've been told we will have some "down" time (but I don't see it) and will be able to go to other museums if we choose. Casey went to the Spy Museum 2 years ago and highly recommends it. We're also supposed to get to go to the National Zoo. We will be really tired, but it will be fun.

Here's the bad part, I bought a 4 GB memory card for my camera only to discover that the camera and the SD card aren't compatible. The 2 GB cards from the same company work, it's just the 4 GB that doesn't! So, I have a 2 GB card and a 1 GB card.....I hope 650 something pictures will be enough! If not, Austin has a new camera and the 4 GB card worked in it, he can take 1772 shots with his. Hey, don't laugh, you don't know what a shutterbug I am! (Yeah, the blog doesn't show it, but I really am.) Oh, and I'm taking a friend's wedding photos on June 7th...Logan is the "ring bear" and asked if he got to growl. I'll have lots of sharing to do!

Like father, like son

Chris saddled Hooter Friday afternoon and Logan couldn't wait to get on him. I couldn't resist a few pictures of him riding with his daddy, wearing the big, almost-ever-present cowboy hat. I just didn't realize, until I loaded the pictures onto the computer, how much he looks like Chris! Just look at the expressions on their faces. It just cracked me up!

Saturday 4/12/08

Chris hadn't seen the floodgates at Norfork Dam open, so we took Logan (like he's really going to remember it) and went to see it. Austin and I went yesterday, and it looked like they had closed them just a little because the water was whiter than yesterday. Anyway, to hear the noise of all the water and to see that much water pouring over into the river was an amazing sight. Logan was less impressed with the dam than we were, but he loved the fish hatchery. They looked at fish while I dashed in to use the facilites, and I didn't think we were going to get him away from the fish. We ended up taking him back to the truck crying, "But I have to see them ALL!" all the way. It's really cold and windy, so we've promised him another trip to the fish hatchery when it warmer.

I wish I had gotten a picture of our wayward dog, Darrell. He chased us down the dirt road today, and we didn't notice it until we were at least a mile from the house. Instead of turning around, Chris put him on the back on the truck. I say ON because we were in the flatbed dually, so Chris had to tie him to the headache rack so he wouldn't try to jump off. I don't think he enjoyed his ride that much, because it was cold and windy, but maybe he will think before he chases us again. When we got out at the fish hatchery he whined, but we made him stay on the truck. He was really happy to be home.

Wait, just one more!

We were at the park Monday when I took DH's cousin's daughter's senior pictures. Kayla is very photogenic, so the pictures turned out great.

While we were waiting on her to arrive, the ducks and geese came to say hello. (they should have seen Logan and known to run, but they didn't). I didn't know I'd get some cute shots with Logan and the ducks and geese.

Take a really close look at the goose picture, Mr. (or Mrs. whatever the case?) has learned a new move, the goose arabesque. I was impressed!

The rest are Logan....excect "bottoms up" and you'll know which one that is.

It's been a long, soggy week!

Tomorrow (Friday) we are going to be out of school because too many of the roads our school buses had to cross are washed out. Several bridges are washed out to the point of dig it all up and start from scratch. I've been a little stressed out today by all the falling water and knowing that the floodgates are openend on Norfork Lake and people down river may lose their homes...again! We have a great lake in our big field, it used to be a pond, but I think it more closely resembles a lake. I think I need some paddleboats!

I love it when funny and unusual things happen. That was the case last night. I was dreaming that someone was in my yard with a chainsaw trying to cut down all my oak trees. It just kept on, and kept on and I was really worried about losing my trees. I finally got semi-awake and could still hear the sound. This made it worse, I was convinced someone was coming after my trees! When I finally got the sleepy fog to clear and get fully awake I realized there were no evil lumberjacks in my yard with chainsaws trying to cut down my trees. The sound I heard was just Chris snoring

But here's the funny part, this evening, the neighbor brought us 8 baby oak trees! I'm so glad I'm not caught in the middle of some graet "white oak conspiracy"!

I'm smart....

....or so I was told this afternoon by my adorable, very intelligent, 3 year old son. He walked up to me, wrapped his arms around my legs and said, "Momma, I love you, and you're really smart!" I asked him why he thought I was smart and he said, "'Cause you know lotsa stuff, like how to make chocolate milk!"

Sweet words from the same mouth who told me earlier in the day I was a mean mommy because I made him lie down for a nap. Of course, he wasn't sleepy at all, he just fell asleep almost immediately just to spite me....yeah, right!

DVR's are a wonderful thing!

One click of a button and I have instant entertainment for a rowdy 3 year old. We used to miss Logan's favorite cartoon, Go, Diego, Go, but not anymore. In fact, I have several episodes saved and protected. Technology is a wonderful thing!