Vogel State Park Beach

After hiking up Brasstown Bald the kids were ready to hit the beach and cool off!  The water was still  icy cold and the kids still didn’t care!  Jesse had a great time swimming close to shore and playing in the sand so I got lots of photos of him.  However, Trey & the rest of the big kids stayed all the way out at the barrier, well out of (decent) photo taking range.

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Hiking Up Brasstown Bald

On the second day of our camping trip (June 4, 2010) we hiked to the highest point in Georgia, Brasstown Bald.  It wasn’t a very long hike, but it was STRAIGHT UP!  Oh.  My.  Goodness!  I wasn’t prepared for that at all!  We all made it, and it was absolutely beautiful, but next time I think I’ll take the shuttle.

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Flashback Friday: Sweet Cousins

Yesterday my niece Cora Jane turned 7! In honor of her special day, my SIL posted some of her favorite photos from the last seven years and it made me start thinking about some of my favorite photos. My favorite photo ever of Cora Jane is a black and white of her sitting on the back steps of their home. However, since I don’t have access to that photo, I went to my second choice, my very favorite photo ever of Trey and Cora Jane. This photo was taken in March 2004 not long after we moved back home. And it represents one of the main reasons we moved back home. Phil started *hinting* that he wanted to move home not long after Trey was born. However, it wasn’t until we learned that Trey’s cousin was on the way that I got on board the moving home train. Knowing that Trey, who I was convinced at that time would be an only child, would be able to grow up surrounded by grandmas, papas, aunts, uncles, and COUSINS that he could share all of life's grand adeventures with was all the convincing I needed. And it was one of the best decisions we ever made.

More From Vogel State Park

As I told you a while back, we spent the first weekend in June camping at Vogel State Park in north Georgia.  After a busy first day and a restful night in the tents, the kids were up bright and early and ready to play in the ICY COLD stream that ran right by our campsite.  Luckily, the Dads were willing to step into that icy cold water because the Moms were staying safely on the banks.

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The kids played, chased a snake, and helped one of the park rangers build up the rock walls to make little pools for little fish that they were putting into the stream.  It was a laid back kind of morning, leading up to our big hike up Brass Town Bald.

(Be sure to click on the last photo album to view more photos from the kids playing in the stream.)

Triple Play

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The Saturday before school started we attended the triple birthday party for Emma, Jake, and Piper!

There was a slip ’n slide…

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and a bouncy boxing ring…

but the hit of the party…

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was the dunkin’ booth!

 

 

 

 

 

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When the late afternoon summertime thunderstorms rolled in, the party headed inside and the kids showed off their dance moves.

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Happy Birthday Emma, Jake, and Piper!

Happiness is…

My first day of preplanning the boys got Happy Meals for supper. In fact, they’ve been eating a lot of Happy Meals this past month, not that they mind. I think their not minding might have something to do with the Super Heroes toys that are coming in them. In fact, last Thursday Jesse had to get shots. Afterwards we told him we’d go get ice cream. He said he’d rather have a Happy Meal.

August Rush

Wow! Where has the time gone??? We are already in the middle of our second week of school, and I’m still in June on the blog!!! At this rate it may be next summer before I catch you up on all the fun we had this summer. I’ve been getting some, ahhh…, gentle reminders that I am not upholding my end of the blog:-) So I thought that I would share with you tonight our August rush back to school!

I started back to school on Monday, August 2nd! It was wonderful to get back into our routine and to see all the familiar faces of my coworkers and friends. I really have the best of both worlds…I have a job that I love with people that I am honored to call friends in a place where I am not only encouraged but expected to talk about our great and wonderful Lord, and I get to do all this with my boys just doors away! God is so good! We had four wonderful days of preplanning and then it was time for open house. I had to be in my classroom, so Daddy went with Jesse and Trey got to go to his classroom by himself. He thought he was so grown!

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Open house was a great success, and before we knew it the first day of school had arrived…Monday, August 9th! My big boy was going to third grade and my baby was heading to K4. What an emotional day for me!

The boys were up bright and early and ready to go!

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Now if you think Jesse’s teacher looks familiar you are right! We are blessed to have Mrs. Weaver, his teacher from K3 teaching his class for K4. So far Jesse has had no problems adjusting this year. In fact, on the second day of school, he informed me that he could go in ALL. BY. HIMSELF.

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Trey has been blessed with two fabulous third grade teachers, Mrs. Walsh and Mrs. Cook. He is enjoying third grade so much. I was a little worried about the added work load and study schedule this year but he is lovin’ it! In fact he’s already had his first history quiz and spelling test and aced them both! He came home the second day of school extremely excited about his first history quiz. He said that he just had to make a 100 and he worked hard to accomplish that goal. His favorite subject is history he says, because you get to study cool people! If his math genes came from the Tyre’s (& maybe a little from the McCrea’s:-), his love of history definitely comes from his Papa Richard!

We’ve also already had our first pep rally! The boys were so excited to wear their new Eagles’ shirt and I had planned to get a picture of the three of us all matching, but I never got there. I did manage to snag a photo of these two cuties though!

So that’s our school year so far! We are enjoying every minute of it!

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

Wordless Wednesday

Camping at Vogel State Park

We arrived at Vogel late Thursday afternoon.  And it started raining almost immediately.While this was frustrating for the Dads who were setting up camp, it didn’t bother the kids at all.  They had a blast playing in the rain and the stream.  This water was icy cold, but the kids dived right in…and they stayed in the streams and therefore wet almost the entire time we were there.

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Jesse showed no fear and got right in, but it took Trey a little longer to warm up to the idea.  And the Mamas…well, we took refuge on the covered bridge.  It was the perfect place to stay nice and dry and capture all the fun on film.

    

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View the album above for even more photos of our fun!

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