Helen's Hair!

It was definitely time for Helen to get a hair cut! Her hair had not been cut since January! So this morning we played around with her "long" hair before we went to get it cut. She had fun with the hot rollers and having curly hair for a little while! After a few hours of playing, she looked in the mirror and said, "Mom, my hair melted!" I just laughed and told her to get used to it. Such is life with fine, straight hair! Anyway, we made a new friend today named Tonya and she cut Helen's hair this afternoon! Helen loves her new hair cut!

"Curly" hair!
This is her "before" picture! (The curls had "melted"!)

The "after" picture!

Lots of Beach Memories....

What a great trip! Thanks again to Nana and Papa for taking us all to the beach and giving us such a wonderful opportunity to relax and enjoy the beauty of the ocean! Here are some pictures that show some fun from our trip!

Helen LOVED the ocean! Her favorite thing was jumping the waves!

Beckett loved "boogie boarding" this time! I don't have any pictures of him in action, but he had so much fun doing it!
Burying Ty in the sand!
One of two trips to play putt-putt!
Helen and Lillie in the "kiddie pool"! I was in the big pool and we were playing "Burger King" where I would go to the drive thru window and place my order!
Connor and Marley

Look closely and you can see Michael W. Smith on the keyboards and Steven Curtis Chapman on the guitar! It was an AWESOME concert! Loved it! Check out "The Slam" tomorrow and Beckett will post a video from the concert as well as his thoughts on the beach trip! (Click "The Slam" and it should link you to his blog!)

They played HARD and then they CRASHED HARD!

No new pictures, just a quick update. This has been such a great week of relaxing, playing and enjoying our family! We have had beautiful weather and enjoyed some delicious seafood! (Only one minor "episode" early in the week when we found out that Papa must have an allergy to shellfish!) Nothing a quick trip to the ER and a shot of benadryl can't help! :)

Tonight (Thursday) Beckett and I had a special treat of attending "The United Tour" which is a concert tour featuring Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith. It was really awesome! I had seen on SCC's web site that they were going to be here at Beach Church in MB at the same time we were and I told Sean how much I would love to go! Well, he really blessed me by buying two tickets to the show and I got to take Beckett! We had a great time and it was much more than a concert for me. It was a real worship experience! They each sang many of my favorites as well as a few great praise and worship songs that we love! It was a special night and an awesome reminder of how deeply our Heavenly Father loves us!

We will be sad to leave on Saturday morning, but it has to end sometime! I'll post some pictures from our week sometime on Sunday!

Having Fun at the Beach!

We are having a great time on vacation in Myrtle Beach! Tonight we had a professional photographer take some family pictures at the beach. Kathy took this one of our family. We will get to view the ones that he took in a few days! The session went very well (the kids did great) and we had beautiful weather!

Here is the home we are staying in for the week! This picture is taken of the back of the house from the bridge that goes over to the beach!
Nana, Papa and the grandkids!

My Lone Palm.......

We are headed out this afternoon for a long awaited and much anticipated trip to the beach! Nana and Papa have graciously provided a house in Myrtle Beach, SC for all of their children's families to gather for the next week and play in the sun, surf and sand! Helen has never been to the beach and I haven't been since I was pregnant with her! (She and I had to miss the last family trip to the beach because she was very sick!) So we are super excited! My sister is in Asheville, NC for 2 weeks opening a new REI, so we are staying with her tonight and then driving the rest of the way to the beach on Saturday! I am looking forward to finding my "lone palm" and getting a little R&R! I'll post beach pictures soon!

Apple Days...

For the last couple of weeks we have been doing several activites with apples! We have learned about the seasons, the parts of a flower, pollenation and the seasons of an apple tree. We have read a lot of "apple" stories and learned about John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed). They have tasted several types of apples and we made applesauce one day. Beckett and Helen made apple print shirts and then wore them today when we went to The Apple Barn in Sevierville. Nana and Papa joined us and we left early this morning so we could get up there for breakfast! We had apple julep to drink, apple muffins and apple fritters with apple butter! (as well as plenty of eggs, bacon and biscuits!) After breakfast we looked at all of the trees in the orchard that were pretty much picked bare and then we headed into the store and bought several apples to bring home. After a quick trip to the Orvis store so that Sean could spend some of his birthday money from Susi, Grankaki and Granbob, and a quick trip to Eddie Bauer for me and the Disney store for the kids, we headed to the park so Sean and Papa could fish. Nana, the kids and I went to the Sugarlands visitor center while they fished. We watched a short film about the National Park and looked around the museum. We also enjoyed a short hike on the trail around the visitor center! It has been fun doing all of our apple activities and today was a fun end to our study!

After hearing the story, "The Little Red House With No Doors No Windows and a Star Inside" we cut open an apple to find the star!

Cutting up apples to put in the crock pot for our applesauce. (Don't worry, they used plastic knives!)

Helen and Beckett with their bags of apples from The Apple Barn. A picture with Nana and Papa by one of the many harvest decorations at The Apple Barn. (I just noticed that doll beside Beckett...she is a little scary! Oh my!)