Grandma turned 90!

It was wonderful celebrating grandma’s 90th birthday this past Friday.  She was  so happy to have all five of her children there to be with her on such a  special day.  Actually with our two boys in the group there were four generations at our party.  It was a wonderful weekend and we are so happy to have been able to be a part of it.

Grandma turned 90!

It was wonderful celebrating grandma’s 90th birthday this past Friday.  She was  so happy to have all five of her children there to be with her on such a  special day.  Actually with our two boys in the group there were four generations at our party.  It was a wonderful weekend and we are so happy to have been able to be a part of it.

Quick camping trip!

Monday afternoon Tim decided we should go for a quick camping trip.  He didn’t have to ask us twice.  Three hours later we were on our way.  We hadn’t been able to go camping since Tim started school so we were very excited to get up to our special spot. 

With views like this who can resist camping here?

We arrived Monday night with just enough time to check out  our camp site and then get everything ready for the night.  Our idea of a quick camping trip is to skip the tent and lay all the seats in our van down and crash in the back.  This cuts hours of set up and prep time down to maybe 30 minutes. 
Tuesday we woke up very early….thank you boys…..built up our fire and enjoyed our traditional quick camping breakfast.  Fresh fruit, yogurt, bacon cooked over the fire, donuts and chocolate milk.  (Usually hot cocoa, but in our excitement we forgot our cooking ware)  Tim and I enjoyed the fire while the boys ran around exploring the area around out campsite.  We didn’t get much time to enjoy the fire as the boys were anxious to get the inner tubes in the water.
Johnston and Jameson checking things out.

Johnston getting his tube ready.

The water was freezing!  (It wasn’t even 10am!  Craziness!)

We couldn’t keep Coalette out of the water.  She was in doggie heaven!

Jameson did so well sitting on the side of the tube without falling off.

These guys are such awesome kids!

Johnston enjoyed the challenge of rock climbing up and down the creek bed.

This is the creek bed right beside our campsite.  Johnston and Tim climbed  up to the first waterfall and then came back a "safer" way for the rest of us to climb up.

Coalette swimming in the pool beside our campsite.

Thumbaleena had a blast camping with us for the first time.  She wasn’t the best at swimming, but she climbed the rocks and hills like a mountain goat. 

I ran out of battery power right before we hiked up to the set of falls that are beside our campsite.  It was beautiful up there.  The first falls we came to had a pool about 40 feet by 10 feet.  The water was about 4′ at the deepest part.  We had to slide down a rock face to the pool and crawl up carefully to get out.
The second part of the climb meant crossing the creek above the first falls, scaling a rock face with a rope and other adventurous things.  This was definitely something Jameson and I did not want to tackle so we stayed behind to play in the pool while our guys braved on.  Tim told me later that Johnston did great going up the rock face, but coming down was a little tricky.  I’m so proud of him for doing it though.  I look forward to the day that Jameson and I will be able to tackle the next stage of the creek hike.
We hiked, tubed, explored, and completely wore ourselves out.  We would love to get one more overnight trip in, but if we don’t we are so thankful to have gotten one fun filled, adventure packed camping trip in this summer.

Quick camping trip!

Monday afternoon Tim decided we should go for a quick camping trip.  He didn’t have to ask us twice.  Three hours later we were on our way.  We hadn’t been able to go camping since Tim started school so we were very excited to get up to our special spot. 

With views like this who can resist camping here?

We arrived Monday night with just enough time to check out  our camp site and then get everything ready for the night.  Our idea of a quick camping trip is to skip the tent and lay all the seats in our van down and crash in the back.  This cuts hours of set up and prep time down to maybe 30 minutes. 
Tuesday we woke up very early….thank you boys…..built up our fire and enjoyed our traditional quick camping breakfast.  Fresh fruit, yogurt, bacon cooked over the fire, donuts and chocolate milk.  (Usually hot cocoa, but in our excitement we forgot our cooking ware)  Tim and I enjoyed the fire while the boys ran around exploring the area around out campsite.  We didn’t get much time to enjoy the fire as the boys were anxious to get the inner tubes in the water.
Johnston and Jameson checking things out.

Johnston getting his tube ready.

The water was freezing!  (It wasn’t even 10am!  Craziness!)

We couldn’t keep Coalette out of the water.  She was in doggie heaven!

Jameson did so well sitting on the side of the tube without falling off.

These guys are such awesome kids!

Johnston enjoyed the challenge of rock climbing up and down the creek bed.

This is the creek bed right beside our campsite.  Johnston and Tim climbed  up to the first waterfall and then came back a "safer" way for the rest of us to climb up.

Coalette swimming in the pool beside our campsite.

Thumbaleena had a blast camping with us for the first time.  She wasn’t the best at swimming, but she climbed the rocks and hills like a mountain goat. 

I ran out of battery power right before we hiked up to the set of falls that are beside our campsite.  It was beautiful up there.  The first falls we came to had a pool about 40 feet by 10 feet.  The water was about 4′ at the deepest part.  We had to slide down a rock face to the pool and crawl up carefully to get out.
The second part of the climb meant crossing the creek above the first falls, scaling a rock face with a rope and other adventurous things.  This was definitely something Jameson and I did not want to tackle so we stayed behind to play in the pool while our guys braved on.  Tim told me later that Johnston did great going up the rock face, but coming down was a little tricky.  I’m so proud of him for doing it though.  I look forward to the day that Jameson and I will be able to tackle the next stage of the creek hike.
We hiked, tubed, explored, and completely wore ourselves out.  We would love to get one more overnight trip in, but if we don’t we are so thankful to have gotten one fun filled, adventure packed camping trip in this summer.

Wordless Wednesday!

My guys got haircuts!

All was going well…..

….until daddy decided to change "cheese" into all kinds of funny things!

Wordless Wednesday! - Almost

My guys got haircuts!

All was going well…..

….until daddy decided to change "cheese" into all kinds of funny things!

Summer's Ending

School starts at our house on September 1st so we are enjoying our last remaining days of summer.  We’ve been making sure to get as many hours of pool time in each day that we can.   The boys have been clocking endless hours outside building, gathering, exploring, riding bikes, skating, and anything else they can come up with. 
I ended up watching three little girls this summer which was CRAZY!  Girls are way different then little boys!  I had a blast though and enjoyed a couple months of dolls, braids, and playing girly stuff.  We played so hard each day that all the kids crashed after lunch each day giving me a much needed break.
BreeLynn (left) and Sahvana
Jordyn

To top off our summer with the grandest of events was Tim’s graduation from Georgia Tech.  I can’t believe we’ve made it through two years of him being gone 5 days a week.  He graduated on Wednesday the 29th of July and to celebrate we drove down  to Florida to spend four days at my parents.   I am so proud of Tim for not only returning to school 20+ years after he started the first time, but for being on the den’s list each semester.  He worked so hard to keep his grades up, but he worked even harder to make sure that the boys and I had as much time with him as possible.  On a funny note he did enjoy all the ribbing he got for his age.  All his study partners were born the year he started GT the first time around back in ‘85.   He is an amazing guy and I am so blessed to be married to him.
Just a cute picture of Jameson eating lunch.  With the added kids at the table his booster seat got booted to the floor for meals.  Good thing I keep a clean floor!