Sunday, October 11, 2009

Zipline

As promised, here's a couple pics of us at the zipline for our anniversary. You can see from this first picture, that it was a rather glamorous thing to do for our anniversary. Actually, you can't totally tell that because you aren't getting the full shot with the harness tightly around the lower regions, or the enormous work gloves I had to wear. And for me, I had to wear tennis shoes with capris (we weren't allowed to wear anything that came above our knees due to the harnesses I guess.) I have this thing about wearing tennis shoes.

My hubby, you can hardly tell since he is so far away. I thought we would be going on a zip line, hike for a while get to another zip line...... but actually we were attached to a zip line the whole time.(Me and a stranger, this man said this was on his bucket list. He was unsure pretty much the whole time, but was proud of himself at the end that he had accomplished it) After going over one zip line we would then "hike" over things like this:

(This is one of the guides showing the lady behind him that it didn't matter if she did fell because we were attached to the line, it was kind of strange to walk across it)

We had a little training class at the beginning because we had to know how to hook ourselves on, make sure that when unhooking we would right away attach ourselves to a safety line.... this at first seemed silly until we got to a couple places where the area we were standing on was like standing on a 2x4 hugging a tree for your life, way up above the ground. We also had to learn how to stop ourselves -- hence the ugly work gloves because we had to use our hands to brake. You can barely see me in this last picture, but I am there. This was the very last zip and it was so long. I shouted the whole way and the guide at the end was using the slow down signal and had the rope out to stop me, but I figured why not have fun, it was the last one, they couldn't ask me to leave now. Found out my husband pretty much did the same thing. It was so much fun and I'm looking forward to doing that again. Isabella is looking forward to when she is 10 and she can go along with us. :)

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

A month?? Really?

I can't believe it has been a month since I last posted. I don't know how some of you can update every couple days, I want to, I just don't get around to it I guess. Ugh! I'm so disorganized, any of you organization freaks out there want to give me some pointers. Anyway, so where HAVE I been.....

Well, this past month has been busy. Right before my last post my husband and I went to this adorable place to celebrate our 13th anniversary. And if you read this before there are zip line pictures, come back and look tomorrow. I was downloading the pictures today (yes, I'm that behind) and I realized that the zip line pictures weren't on my camera. Like I would actually take my big camera down a zip line, not nearly as compact as my husband's point and shoot. So, I have to find his camera and cord and I can download those.
We had such a fun weekend. And this place was one of those "we definitely will have to come back to this place." Then the next weekend was labor day and we went to the beach with my parents And don't let this above picture fool you, I realize this would look normal for the average sisters that are 26 months apart, but Amelia is actually down in the hole and Isabella is on the side. Amelia is maybe an inch shorter than Isabella. I'm hoping that and the fact that I dress them alike alot is the reason people continue to ask me if they are twins..... honestly, I've been asked this so many times this summer its been comical.

We actually were at the beach twice, the first time with my parents, and then a week and a half ago we went camping at the beach. Isabella had a couple of days off from school, so we had planned to go away for a last little hoorah before fall truly arrived. The water was nice and warm so I had fun playing in the water with my girls, we rode bikes, visited with friends, and got rained on in the loudest, strongest thunder storm I've ever camped in. It was a great trip, minus the thunderstorm that pretty much kept us up all night. Oh and the raccoons that got into some of our food -- this was the big talk the next morning around the campground because I believe the 'coons were a problem this year, everyone had them "stop by" and were amazed at how smart they were getting into things. Thankfully, most of our stuff was in the car. I didn't take many pictures.... I know that's awful. But instead I just really enjoyed my time. I'm trying to learn how to balance my need,.... I mean want, to take so many pictures and just spending time enjoying what's going on. Its great having a thousand pictures, but if I haven't been truly enjoying my family, what good are the pictures, right? There's a balance, I'm sure, I'm just finding it.




And my Amelia was so, so cute on her little scooter. We took our bikes, but Amelia is still getting used to her bike, can't quite get the whole pedaling forward without constantly going backward into her brakes, so she wanted her scooter. And boy did she become the scooter queen. I wish I could have a video of her to post, she had the most determined little look and would just ride this thing back and forth between "#63 and the stop sign" (those were mommy's rules) and she even rode it around the campground with daddy. The cutest thing ever!

At home, we've been busy with Isabella going to school, searching for a new church, I've gotten back to being more organized with my meal plans now that the summer vacation is over, and we have also been having some fun family time. The girls were racing by pushing apples with the noses down the halls.

Kenny and I raced the girls as well, but who really wants to see our butts up in the air?! This was part of family devotions --- can anyone guess what we were learning about? Hmm, wonder what kind of prize I could give if you guessed right.

Then this past weekend, we went to a "reunion"/get together for my old high school.

And in case you are wondering if that's my whole graduating class, no, here is my class:

Ok, to be fair, this is 44% of my class -- there were 9 of us. :) I went to a very small Christian school. But don't feel bad for me, I actually loved it. And I think pretty much everyone that showed up for this get together agreed. We had great times, great friends, great teachers and great memories. I wouldn't change it.

So, that has been my life in a nutshell for the past month. Give or take a few things in between of course. We have been gone 4 out of the past 5 weekends, and still have several things planned for this month. The nice thing is that even though the months from September to December seem like the busiest for us, at least it is fall. I love fall!!! Its my happy spot, once I get jeans and long sleeve shirts out, I'm so content. Hope everyone has been having a good fall as well!

Friday, September 04, 2009

13 years (and 4 days) ago


I married my best friend! And today........ I love him even more. I am not going to use the cliche "it feels like just yesterday...", because actually, it doesn't. I will admit 13 years has flown by, but when I think back about what we have done, what we have enjoyed, what we have gone through, how we have been blessed over the last 13 years, it definitely doesn't seem like just yesterday. When I realize how old I am to be married for 13 years, sometimes I wish it was yesterday. :) The picture above was taken by Isabella while we were at the beach in May. I think she did a pretty good job. No, she did not change the coloring in photoshop and burn the edges, but she'll get there. :) I put this picture in a frame for our bedroom it says "Love with no regret." A few weeks ago when visiting a church (haven't told some of ya'll about that yet, but we'll talk later) they were talking about: Are there things you would go back and do differently? do you have any regrets? are there trials you wouldn't change because of what you learned? etc. So Kenny and I have been talking about this off and on lately. I really don't have real regrets, at least not in the sense that I would go back and change things - well, maybe I would change gaining 20 pounds, but I'm talking serious things people! NOW, if you would have asked me in the middle of a trial, say infertility, yeah, I would have said you could have it. But then that would mean not having my 2 girls, not seeing God work, having a different life than I have now - nope wouldn't change it. And if I would like to go back to say high school or college and be the person I am now, rather than that person back then, sure every now and then I would love to change that. But again, if I was the person I am now, but my husband was not the person he is (or vice versa)...... you get my drift, my life might not be my life now. So I thought the frame was appropriate when I saw it. I am so thankful that God has given me an amazing husband, who is an amazing father to our girls. There isn't anyone else I can imagine spending the last 13 years or the next many, many more with.
I'll have to post picture later because I'm in the midst of packing and cleaning for a long Labor day weekend at the beach, but to celebrate we went away this past weekend. The place we stayed at was marvelous! It was like a little mediteranean village and was Rustic Chic (as their sign said.) It had a spa, which was oh so wonderful when my hubby booked me a massage. We also went on a zip line tour and had so much fun. Just another thing I love about our marriage, we love spending time together, truly enjoy being with each other and trying new things together. (And yeah the zip line pictures will be attractive, we have helmets, harnesses, oversized gloves.... yes the perfect picture of romance.)
To my hubby: I love you Babe! With no regrets! Well, I kind of regret that my wedding dress had a big bow on my butt, but other than that, no regrets. :)

Monday, August 24, 2009

I survived.... ur I mean SHE survived her first day of school

Well today was it, the first day of Kindergarten for Isabella. Of course, she loved it! And if you had placed a bet on my crying, well you would have lost. I was honestly too excited for her to cry. I'm sad that she's growing up so fast, but I couldn't help but be excited with her. We already knew that she would love her teacher and she's been talking about things she's said or stuff they've done all evening. She already learned the concept of raising her hand to talk because she was doing that tonight in family devotions. :) She met friends, but has no idea any of their names. This too is no surprise. She wanted to carry her backpack today, although since its just half day K5, her teacher said there is really no need for her to bring one. I let her for today.... what's a good first day of school picture without a backpack. And I had to have a picture of both of my girlies. Amelia missed her sissy today. When we were leaving she asked "Are we leavin' Sissy?" after I said yes she said "I so sad." And when we went to pick her up, boy, you would have thought Isabella had been gone longer than a 1/2 day. Amelia was so excited to see sissy. She said "Did you have fun? What you learn?" :)

I just dropped her off by myself this morning so that Daddy could in turn meet us after she was done to go out for some fun. I told Isabella not to expect that every day, that was just a celebration of her first day of school. All together, it was a great first day of school. Here's hoping that tomorrow goes as smoothly!



Wednesday, August 19, 2009

10, 9, 8, 7, 6,....

...5! In 5 days, my 5 year old will be starting K5.
Can you believe it? I'm feeling pretty strong today, I think I'll be fine and won't cry.... anyone want to place some bets? She's so excited, she has been asking me every day, "how many days until I start kindergarten?" and she has been finding it quite hysterical how her Daddy pronounces kindergarten, I'm sure her teacher will hear about that. This past Saturday, we went out and had a little "going to school" photoshoot. It was just going to be us, but then I decided I could use Daddy's help (no one can make her laugh like him, and he's great at carrying desks. Love you Babe!) We had a mommy/daughter date day afterwards though so its all good. She could so easily be my retro girl, so I had to have some retro looking shots and then some school shots as well. Just so you know, the red high tops were too small on her.

She has told me everyday since Saturday that they hurt her feet. I'm a bad mommy, but they were too cute not to stuff her feet in them for this photo shoot. :) I told her to just wait, she was at least in high tops, try wearing a pair of heels with toes so pointy its unnatural, then tell me about suffering for beauty. I'm only posting a few of the pics, if you're friends with me on Facebook, I have several of them on there. Here she is, the cutest kindergartener:


Wednesday, August 05, 2009

One of the many....

....MANY things, I love about my husband. This past weekend was my birthday and this was my first birthday present:
I was at a Bible study with friends a couple days before and Kenny helped the girls make me flowers. It's just the sweetest thing. I love that he is helping our girls do special things for me. I love that he loves me enough to take the time to do this with our girls. And this isn't the first time, he does this kind of stuff alot. I love that they see him, loving me. I love that he is a good example to them. And quite honestly, I love being spoiled every now and then too. He just didn't realize until our girls that I would be easy enough spoil with paper flowers.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Little smart aleck

Amelia must be a baby genius, I think she read my last post about Isabella being so funny and decided she needed to step up her game. She has been such a crack up lately. She doesn't talk as clearly as Isabella did at her age, but with a chatterbox for a big sister, who really gets a chance to talk? So some of the things she says are more about HOW she says them rather than what she says. For instance, we were up in Michigan for the 4th and went into a Joann's Fabric store.... we walked into the scrapbook area and Amelia said "Howee cow! HO WEE Cow!" (Holy cow if you need interpretation) It took me a while to stop laughing. Then today the girls were watching a show on Noggin and Amelia said "No way, NO Way! No he didn't!" And really how did I end up with such a little smart aleck? (No comments from some of you! :) I really thought we wouldn't have to work on that until she was like 9, but 3?!? Today we went to lunch with a friend and I could tell by the way the girls were playing at the restaurant that when we went into the next store they could easily get out of control. My husband is probably nodding his head right now because he knows, the girls can get silly, which is cute until it turns to "Let's be as loud as we can, let see how many times we can make mommy say sit down, touch everything in sight....." and when they are with a friend, which means audience, it can be worse. (And now I'm sure Andrea is nodding :) So as I was buckling the girls in the car to go to the next store, I gave them the whole speech "While we are at the store I don't want you to........ I want you to........ if you don't......... if I need to call Daddy......" The nice long speech that I thought had just the right amount of firmness and motherly love, :) and then as I'm finishing up Amelia says "Sooo.... we need to be good." Uh, yeah, that's what I meant. Little smart aleck.

As I opened up blogger today, I noticed that it has been exactly 1 month since I have posted. Sorry. This summer has been flying by, at the start of the summer, I sat down with my calendar and filled in all the things that I wanted to do: playgroups, free movies, library programs, etc. We have not gotten to everything I wrote down. Some due to better options -- getting together with friends rather than just sitting at a library story time for 1/2 hour (pfft, I can read a book just as dramatic as them :), some we've missed due to rain -- can't have outdoor movie or music programs in the rain, and some just because we are hanging on by our teeth trying not to get over run with things to do. All in all we've had a fun summer so far. In the last month we've gone camping for Father's Day, went to Michigan for a week, spent the past weekend celebrating Kenny's birthday doing fun family stuff, and just little fun things here and there. I feel like this summer is flying by, normally I wouldn't care because when it flies by, it just gets to my favorite season quicker, but this summer, oh I just wanted it to stand still. I'm not ready for my baby to go to kindergarten, I'm not ready for counting down to holiday breaks and summertime to spend all day with her. And I'm not too sure that my little smart aleck above is either. She adores her sister and I think she's going to miss her during the day. Sniff, sniff..... why do they have to grow up?

Saturday, June 13, 2009


This girl can crack me up like no one else. The things she comes up with. For instance, a couple weeks ago, she was putting on her crocs and she has this little jibbit that is a pink breast cancer ribbon - she said "I know this is to remember Nunu." I said "Yes, that's so anytime you see it we can remember Nunu." She let out a sigh and said "I wish I could get a tattoo on my foot that says I love my Nunu." I honestly wasn't sure whether to laugh, cry because it was so sweet, or start worrying now that she is thinking about tattoos.

Then their are things that are so sweet that make me thank the Lord for her tenderheart and pray that He continues that work in her. For instance, one night praying she was going through all the normal, thank you for Daddy, Mommy..... and then she said "And God, help everyone have food. If they don't have food, please give them some, we have enough." :) Again, laughing, crying....

And I know that God has used her to be an encouragment to a lady in our church. This lady's brother has Lou Gehrigs/ALS, Isabella obviously doesn't know what this sickness is, but she knows that she needs to pray for him. Mostly she just remembers his name and that's really all that matters anyway because God knows exactly who he is and what he needs. She will remind us to pray for him at home and the last couple weeks she's made sure that if anyone forgets to mention his name in church that she will do it. Such a sweetie -- the prayers and childlike faith.

She is growing up so fast. She just brought me roses in from outside, yes its 9:15 at night and she was outside with her daddy and had him cut some roses for me and came up the porch saying "Oh, you're going to LOVE what I got for you mommy...." And I do, I love the little giver much more than her gift!

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Sisters


"Its their beauty that captures your attention
Its their personality that captures your heart"



I'm not sure if I've used that little phrase on my blog before, but yesterday I dropped the girls off at dance camp and then headed to my hubby's work (Lunch date - yay!) I used this phrase on a calendar I made for him and when I read it, I automatically thought of this picture. And I also thought how true it is of my girls. Granted, I'm a little biased, but I think they are beautiful and yet its their sweet, silly, fun, tenderhearted personalities that I love about them the most. Its fun to watch them play with friends, but when its just them either at home or on trips like Disney, I just love watching them having fun together and being so close as sisters. I'm hope that God will continue to build this sweet relationship!

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Kindergarten here she comes!

I'm not sure how it happened, but in a blink of an eye, my first baby is getting ready for Kindergarten. Today we had a busy day; we had to run by the drs to get her immunization record, then we needed to be at the school for me to pay registration, then we met with Isabella's teacher and Isabella had to take an oral readiness test. We left early because you just never know about doctor's offices, thankfully I was thinking ahead (for once) and brought my camera with me because the drs office had the paper already out for us and we had time to kill. We went to a little park area and took a couple pics of the girls. I was thinking that I would take pictures of her before her test, you know, kind of documenting this first big step for kindergarten. This next picture is the exact reason I told Kenny we are going to have to watch this one like a hawk as she gets older. I told her to pose on the bench and that's what she did. :) We got to go to lunch with Papa and then the girls got chauffered around at the school. Papa works there, so he drove them around in the golf cart.... I can already see Isabella trying to use that for some kind of popularity points at school. :)
We love her teacher, I think either of the kindergarten teachers would have been great, but I was hoping for this one after we had gone to the open house. Isabella's test lasted almost an hour -- I wasn't allowed in there, I guess they didn't want any hints from mommy. She passed with flying colors. She was at her age and higher on everything. A couple things cracked me up: 1. The teacher kind of laughed and said "well, I couldn't really give her credit for writing her name because she wrote it with a lowercase i at the beginning..." I laughed because I know my daughter, and I looked down and saw this cute little i with a heart at the top --- she doesn't normally do that, but lately she has talked about "fancy writing" and I can just see her little mind thinking "the teacher is going to LOVE this" 2. She didn't get credit for knowing her address because..... well I've never taught it to her, I know bad mommy. (Not to worry the teacher said they would be memorizing it in class, phew) 3. one of the areas where she was just right at her age was "Body Image" --- and no this doesn't mean she doesn't find herself attractive because she would have scored high on the not so humble points. But the teacher said one of the things it was talking about was knowing things like "where your neck is, where your elbow is....." Isabella has what some would call "brain farts" when it comes to certain things, she is like her daddy in that you have to say a name like a thousand times before she will remember it. She constantly tells me "look I'm walking on my hips" when she means heels and she is always calling her elbow her ankle. I didn't ask. 4. She scored very high on the "language" area. Wow, what a shock, she so rarely talks around here. :)
Now I have 2 1/2 months to try and mentally prepare myself for her actually starting Kindergarten. The only supply she needs to take to school (since the teacher said everything else would be provided) was a big box of tissues.... how fitting, I might use those all up the first day.
And in case you thought I forgot about my other girly, I currently have a new favorite picture. I am going to print this as big as I can.






This is SOO Amelia, Sassy thing trying to be Miss Big Girl with her teddy on her hip.

Friday, May 29, 2009

My girls

So as not to confuse anyone I won't title this post as Mother's Day, but these pictures were taken on Mothers Day. Instead, I've decide to use the title My girls, which is very original and I'm sure I've never used on a post before.

My husband is always so sweet about planning something for me on Mothers Day and really hype it up to the girls. I think I pretty much got cards/drawings or atleast a Happy Mother's Day from them every day the week leading up to Mother's Day. They really get into holidays, even if it doesn't consist of them getting a present. Although Isabella normally tries to "do something special for us" by saying "Since its Mother's Day, I'm going to sleep with you tonight" or "Since its YOUR day, I'm going to play the Wii with you." Sneaky little booger.

Hey little girl...... who's baby are you? Oh, mine, well aren't I just a lucky mama!


And what about you sweet thing? Mine again! Yes, I am blessed indeed. And I love you even with strawberry seeds in your teeth and your desire to eat that nasty pork just to frustrate me on Mother's Day. :)
I have to say, I feel very blessed to have a wonderful husband, who was always so sweet to me during those "difficult" Mother's Days and who now makes so much special for me, and for my 2 beautiful girls that God has allowed me to be mommy too. But as an extra little reminder of how blessed I am, I can't even tell you how many people came by and complimented us on our girls. That's always kind of fun.... no one made mention of me looking good, but I'll take all the compliments on how cute and sweet my girls are. Besides, if they don't notice me, they won't notice how many desserts I had that day either.
On our way home late that afternoon, we pulled over next to a field of poppies for some great pictures of my girls.

Prettier than the flowers they are in and I didn't have to bribe them to hold hands --- I will have to bribe them to give me better smiles. There's my girl with the dimples so big, you can't help but smile. And what mommy wouldn't love this picture? So sweet, so innocent, but we can't forget....So sassy! Oh I love these girls!!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

More of my newest nephew

I wish I could tell you we have been at the beach since Sunday, building sandcastles, enjoying the sand between our toes, basking in the sun, ...... BUT we have pretty much had rain all week. Kind of odd weather for here or so I've been told, and we've never been here when it rained every day. At least my hubby is with me, rather than at work, but not quite the nice warm vacation we were expecting. :) We have still had a good time, just had to improvise and search out for other things to do rather than swimming/lounging by the pools or going to the beach -- granted, that is actually why you come to the beach, but we have been able to find a few new things to do that we haven't done before. And thankfully, we have had a few evenings where we could walk down to the shops, swam at the indoor pool, and did some biking yesterday when it wasn't raining, but too windy to sit on the beach. All that to say, I don't have beach pictures to share ...YET, I'm still praying maybe God will give us a few hours tomorrow. :) So I thought I would go ahead and post a few more pictures of my nephew Ian. He will be a week old tomorrow, but obviously these pictures were taken on Friday and Saturday in the hospital. Don't you want to just kiss those cheeks? I think I can smell that new baby smell right through my computer.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Today

I had totally planned today to be a busy day. We're leaving for the beach on Saturday, so I was planning on finishing up packing, giving the girls baths, cleaning the house (I hate coming home to a dirty house, plus our neighbors will be coming in to feed the animals :) and I then I figured I would be ahead of schedule so I had actually planned on uploading a couple pictures and telling you about my wonderful Mother's Day that I had on Sunday.








But instead, this is what I got to do.......






I guess that's a pretty good trade off. This is my newest nephew, Ian Michael. His due date was June 3rd. His biggest brother's birthday is today 5/15, his big brother's birthday is tomorrow 5/16 and he surely did not want to miss out on that fun. His 13 year old brother was most likely not hoping to share his birthday today, but we figure he'll have to take that up with God, because He thought it would be a great idea. :)

He was 7 pounds 5 ounces, 18 1/2 inches long, cute little nose, sweet tiny lips, precious baby smell.... oh wait, I don't think they actually wrote that down.

And he looks just like his Auntie.

Ok, maybe not, but he does have dark hair....... at least for now.

(I'm taking my laptop, so I will upload some more pics of him and the couple from Mothers Day, I try to do everything way behind and out of sequence around here)

Sunday, May 03, 2009

A hiking we will go

We promised the girls that if the weather was nice we would go hiking on Saturday. We weren't able to head out until later in the afternoon, but it still looked like a pretty day so off we went. Kenny and I love hiking, we used to hike while we were dating, loved hiking before the girls were born, most of our vacations were centered around something outside... camping, hiking, etc. When Isabella was born, we would still throw her in a backpack and be able to go hiking some, then she was old enough to walk while hiking and Amelia was born. Our hiking changed from "Wow, what a great workout" to "How can we get rid of these sticks without her noticing?" I remember when Amelia was a baby and we took them out hiking, Isabella stopped every couple feet to pick up a rock, a stick, examine a leaf, hang from a limb, climb a rock.... then Amelia got hungry so we stopped to feed her, not a whole lot of hiking, but some fun in nature. When we were done, not making it anywhere near our destination, we turned around and headed out. A couple met up with us and said "How far was it in to the waterfall?" Kenny and I both just laughed and said "We don't know, we've been in there for over an hour and maybe made it 1/2 a mile." But we had a great leaf and rock collection.

So yesterday, although we knew we had to go somewhere local, I thought maybe we could have a nice little hike. We went to a state park not far from our house and if any of you live near us you know where I'm talking about, and you'll know that this rock we are sitting on is only about 15 feet into the hike. Somehow it is new everytime to Isabella and she just has to defeat it. We had just climbed off the rocks and were on our way when a huge crash of thunder and lightning happened -- Isabella screamed so loud you would have thought she had been struck by lightening. Honestly, I'm surprised no one came running into the woods to see what was wrong with this poor child. Obviously, we went back to the car. Kenny and I weren't ready to give up yet so we drove up the mountain a little and within a few minutes the rain had stopped and the clouds were gone. Oh good, the drama has passed, now we can have a nice hike. Not so much... The rain did stop, but as we were slowly collecting rocks, ..... ur, I mean hiking, Amelia decides to take off running. She trips, falls and of course is crying like crazy saying that she is bleeding. I took out my magnifying glass and saw a slight drop of blood. Finally, she's consoled and happy and we meet up with some guy and his 2 dogs. Our girls are animal freaks so anytime they see a dog they want to pet it, but thankfully have learned to ask first. This guy said, "He's friendly"...... he should have added "He's a crazy spazzed out dog who I just hyped up on drugs", the dog comes running at us and runs right passed us and back. We could tell it was just hyper and didn't want to hurt us. Well, at least 2 of us could tell that. We walk away from the man and the dog decides to have yet another turn at running at us, Isabella freaks out and starts running, the dog runs passed her, runs into her and totally knocks her legs out from under her. Airborne then landing hard on her hiney. This was literally about 2 minutes after Amelia fell. So now we have another one that is hurt and inconsolable, Amelia wants to get back in on some of the love action trying to convince me there really is blood........ and I realized then, this hike was not going to be at all what I had imagined. :) Oh well, its all good. We hiked to our typical, never make it any farther spot and sat down by the water, throwing rocks and eating snacks. It decided to start thundering again and we decided it was definitely time to go home. We opted for a family movie night...... inside..... no lightning.... no dogs..... ok so there were some dogs, but they were in the movie. This picture is for Auntie Becky. My girls didn't understand why we had to look up at the tree, but I told them not to worry, Auntie Becky would understand. :)