road trip

During the spring break we drove down through Kentucky, spent some time in Tennessee, rested in Florida for a week, whirled through Savannah, spent two days in Hilton Head, S.C. and made it safely home with stories to share and memories to treasure.

Rock City filled with cliffs, overhangs, a swinging bridge, huge rock formations, and trails through rocks was a highlight for our family. The boys love geography and the theory is you can view seven different states from the look out point.

We slept in a tiny cabin on raccoon mountain close to Rock City. The next morning we walked up the hill and prepared to go exploring through a cave! Now this is not something that has ever been on my bucket list; caving has never even crossed my mind but am I ever thankful that Adam suggested this great adventure.

Tennessee boast of over 14,000 caves in its rugged state. Our family took the family-friendly tour through Raccoon Mountain Cave. As we entered the damp, underground cave, the beauty of the cave was startling. The tour guide gave us an excellent tour. We marveled how God has designed and sustains the whole underground world! Caving, otherwise known as spelunking, is something I would do again w.k. (without kids - or at least a two year old)!

Sitting on top of the cave.

We rented a home in Orlando, Florida and besides swimming in the back yard pool we did a lot of biking. Disney has a bike path through it's Camp Wilderness that you can go in for free. We love biking - this is something the whole family can do regardless of age, it burns boys exuberant amount of energy, and it is a way of exploring through different places. Knowing that there would be some heavy duty biking on our trip, I committed myself to getting into some sort of shape before we left. I could picture these boys taking off on their bikes and me straggling way behind. My exercise payed off because I kept up with the rest of the family just fine...until we got to the hills. At one point I was working my way up a hill and focused my moaning and groaning on getting up that hill. The seven year old went whizzing past me and on hearing my intense breathing yelled, "Are you embarrassed mom?!" Yes, Yes, I am!

We saw a deer and a wild turkey during one bike ride.

In Florida we also went to 2 natural springs. This is another highlight for all of us. The first spring, Ichetucknee Spring allowed us to take a 2 hour tube ride through the most gorgeous nature. Turtles sat on logs as we floated by and white, graceful cranes swooped around us. Trees covered with moss surrounded the river. This was a wonderful experience, enjoying God's creativity! (the next three pictures are taken from the Internet)

We also visited Wekikwa Park. We had a picnic lunch at this park and played in the water. You could see where the natural spring bubbled up and filled the reservoir. During the month of March, most parks have cheaper rates so it would only cost our family $5.00-6.00 to enter the park.

We spent an afternoon touring through beautiful Savannah. We have learned the best way to tour through old cities is to go on some sort of tour. This time we took a trolley bus tour. Their system worked well with giving a professional tour for 90 minutes and then dropping you off at your desired location. You can then get picked up and dropped off through different parts of the city for the rest of the day.

And now for something we will never forget: I dressed everyone in bright yellow for easy spotting but unfortunately wearing yellow attracted a lot of attention from other tourists. In a city filled with older people and not too many younger children, this resulted numerous comments. "Are all these boys yours? Any twins? Where's the girls? Are you going to keep on trying for a girl?" The comments were endless and repetitive, but Caleb who is smack-middle of the terrible twos did not help us fade into the background.
At one point he did not want to get into his stroller and had his mind set on walking in the middle of the road. Adam grabbed him and I held the stroller still so Adam could get him into the stroller. When Caleb heard Adam say, "No, you may not walk on the road" he decided to throw the most tumultuous temper tantrum ever. All at once his legs started kicking, his arms were flailing through the air, his upper back went completely rigid, so stiff in fact, you could not bend him to sit in the stroller, and to top it off he was screaming. While Adam and I were dodging his swinging limbs we tried to buckle up this feisty two year old in his stroller. The other four boys, dressed in bright yellow stood by us watching this public scene. And then to top it off, a trolley bus pulled up along the street across from us. The driver, who probably never had kids, then parked the bus. The tourists on the trolley leaned out of their windows and started taking pictures of our family, all dressed in bright yellow, with lots boys, and one going absolutely crazy. This is for real. The tour guide took his microphone and broadcasted loud enough for everyone on the street to hear, "Is he for sale?" At that moment the two year old was for free.

After Savannah we spent the weekend in Hilton Head before heading home. Again we explored the island on our bikes, and hit the beach for an afternoon.

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The boys bought two of these alligator heads for souvenirs. Kind of a weird thing to claim at the border!

april fools flop

The boys woke up on high alert this morning. Today was their mother's favourite day; a day not only allowing practical jokes but one that even encouraged well- thought out pranks.

They carefully poured their cereal, took extra caution when they brushed their teeth, and convinced themselves that mine and Adam's conversations were codes for a hilarious joke.

Instead of a prank I planned a "April Fools Dinner."

I wrapped 5 presents and hid them. Before dinner the boys had to find the presents and whatever they opened up is what they would have to eat their spaghetti with during dinner time. I had salad tongs, serving forks, and a big scoop wrapped up -  great challenges for eating spaghetti. We had fun green juice, twisty straws, and sunglasses to add to the celebration.

At about 8.5 minutes into dinner I apologized to Adam and promised never to do this again. Suppers are a normal messy occurrence with these boys but this was plain disastrous. Noodles and sauce covered their faces, twisted between their fingers, and landed up in large piles beside their dinner plates.

During our after supper prayer I felt a glob of wet, soggy noodles slide into my hair. Caleb was sitting on my lap and flung a fork full of noodles backwards. What didn't land on his head, flopped on mine!

scenes of winter part 2

~an "odds and ends" kind of blog post~

A hill in the front yard of our cousin's home serves as a perfect tobogganing hill. He takes snow and builds ramps, sides, complete with lights strung up for night time sledding. What a great time for kids!

Me to Kyle:

"Kyle, you have a charming smile! Who loves you?"

"my dad, mom, grandparents....lots of people."

"Does your older sister love you?"

"Probably not."

Snuggling after nap time.

A family gathering during Christmas.

"my husband rocks" t-shirts!!

Our dear aunt M. created hard cover books for two of our boys. One was filled with poems that she wrote and the other book was an "a b c" book. She filled the books with pictures that are familiar to our boys. We have all enjoyed reading and looking at the pictures. But best of all, the books reminds us of a special aunt who spent many hours creating and sharing memories.

Our middle guy spent the past two years sleeping in a nook in the upstairs hallway. With a solar system dangling above his head and a skylight to look out of; it was a cozy little place for him. Now with all of the boys two years older, it was time for doubling up and for the middle guy to get his own space. We switched everyone around and thankfully it has all worked out. The boys are happy with their new roommates.

scenes of winter: Part 1 - skating

Some serious pond skating happened during the month of January. The weather conditions were perfect, so great in fact we hardly spent time inside. When the boys came home from school we would all skate till after dark and when the hunger pangs became too strong, we would reluctantly head inside for supper. Friends joined in on the skating action making wonderful memories for all of us.

Having issues with most sports, I had decided while growing up that skating was not my thing but last year I managed to skate across the pond with wobbling legs and a thumping heart. This year I became confident and even took up playing hockey. It kind of shocked me. But the pond had a huge problem. Earlier this year beach flooded and froze over making a ramp onto the pond. While the boys loved tying their skates and taking off down the ramp onto the pond, I abhored it. The thought of gathering speed and my legs flailing out from under me, causing a face plant on the ice, was very real to me. Every time I went skating I would have to slide on my knees to the edge of the pond and then some how try to get up on my skates and look graceful while doing it!

Three days after I took this smiling picture of Adam, he did a spectacular fall on his newly sharpened skates. He came inside holding his hat under his eye, just covered with blood. It was a shuttering sight. After we determined where the cut was and tried to clean him up he headed off to the hospital for stitches. His eye turned into a dark crimson purple and swelled right up. By Sunday it looked like he had been in the fight of his life. He skipped wearing his contacts and put on his glasses to disguise the horribleness of his black and purple eye but it didn't deter the enormous amount of comments. We both heard, "hows the other guy"  and "what did your wife do you this time" more times then we thought possible. Adam and I just smiled and did a half- hearted chuckle each time. What else can you do?!

We did get a good laugh out of: "are you trying to keep up with your boys Adam?!"  But we thought the funniest comment of all was: "your family really needs to consider making your barn into a ER!" 

Watching dads tie skates reminds me of dads taking their children fishing. It is a lot of work for them!

family day fundraising breakfast

Every-other Sunday evening, young people from our church called the "college & careers group" come over to our home for Bible Study. Last February, as Family Day was approaching we thought about hosting a pancake breakfast to raise funds for Elisha House. Elisha House practices Biblical Counselling for families in relational difficulties; they counsel woman who have crisis pregnancies, and they provide post-abortion counselling. Elisha House is very dear to our church.

Our group was overwhelmed by the support of our congregation last year so we decided we had to keep up a good thing! We set out to organize another Family Day Breakfast.

 We arrived early to church, ready to set up and serve breakfast to a couple hundred people. This group of young people know how to work and serve! Immediately they found "their station" and went to work. Thankfully the whole breakfast went smoothly...meaning, we didn't run out of groceries and have to find a store opened on Family Day!

We went through 75 pounds of bacon, 70 dozen eggs, and hundreds of pancakes. Wow!

Family Day is a great day to enjoy breakfast and fellowship with one another. It was such a wonderful atmosphere and again we were thankful for everyone's support.

Red Rover never grows old!

When the last pancake was eaten and the clean up complete, we were eager to see how much we raised.
We were grateful to raise $3100 for Elisha House!
Until next year...