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!)

Look Who's Turning 40!

It's my turn now! On Tuesday, September 30th, I will celebrate my 40th birthday! That is exactly what I wanted to do....celebrate! So, I decided that rather than be sad or depressed about it....that I would do something ACTIVE and fun! Yesterday, the kids and I traveled to Chattanooga and I ran/walked in the 5K Race for the Cure! My neighbor, Martha and I have been doing a training program that takes you "From Couch Potato to 5K" and although we have not finished the program, I still wanted to participate! A couple of months ago, I looked for a race that would take place near my birthday and this one in Chattanooga was perfect! My sister-in-law, Kathy lives in Chattanooga and I asked her if she would like to run with me. She said yes, and she was so sweet to stay with me and run/walk the race rather than run the whole thing! (Which she could have done in half the time it took us!) My sister, Susi drove up from Atlanta and my mom and dad drove over from Nashville to celebrate with me! We all went to J. Alexander's for a late lunch after the race and had a great time. Sean stayed at home to host our Sunday night small group. We didn't think that we would be back in time for group, so he wasn't able to go with us. We missed him, but it was still a great day and I had so much fun!

Coming down "the home stretch"! It was fun to see and hear Beckett, Helen, Ty and Marley cheering for us as we came to the end of the race!
We made it!
My family! Beckett, Marley, Ty and Helen

Which Will It Be?
I was just looking at these pictures that I took of Helen as she was painting the other day and I noticed how she is using her left hand in one picture and her right hand in the other! Will she be ambidextrous? Who knows? Either way, she really enjoyed herself!



You can double click on the pictures to see them more closely and to better appreciate the amazing artwork! :)

Hiking Harpers!

It was a beautiful day on Satuday so we hit the trail! We have a nice area very near our home where we can be "in the woods" within about 10 minutes! We hiked along the ridgeline and looked down at the lake and we also hiked alongside the lake. It was a great morning just enjoying God's creation and each other!

Taking a break to get a picture!

Helen hiked in front of me and I enjoyed watching her bounce along!

I didn't want to forget how cute she looked as she walked along the trail, so I took this little video clip! What a sweet memory!

Busy Week!
We have stayed quite busy for the last week! Sean and I went to "Quiet Waters" last Thursday and Friday night. Our church hosts this time once a year and it is an opportunity to get away and seek our Heavenly Father through prayer, reflection and some instruction. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Knoxville which was very nice and had a great time! My mom and dad came over to stay at the house with the kids and they all enjoyed that. They don't have many opportunities to be together without Sean and me present, so that was fun for the kids! (I think they get away with more when we aren't here!)

Sunday night was our first Growth Group meeting at our home for the Fall season and we had a great time! We had many new families come and we had a FULL house! On Monday night, Sean and Beckett began BSF (Bible Study Fellowship). Beckett and I have been attending the day program for the last four years and now that he is in first grade, he can go to the school-age program. Helen and I still go to the day program on Wednesdays. Sean's mom and dad are keeping Beckett on Wednesday mornings so that we can still go and we are so appreciative of that! Beckett does his school work in the afternoons on those days!

Tuesday night was our first Homeschool Family Connection meeting at our church. My friend, Sarah and I have started a group to help families who are educating their children at home to connect and find support! We had a good turn out and we are excited about this new group!

Last night we had some friends over for dinner and had a great visit! After dinner we moved into the living room to talk and our conversation became quite long and boring for the kids! They were VERY well behaved, but around 9:30 they moved to our bedroom and began watching "John and Kate Plus Eight". When our friends left, we went back to check on them and Beckett was on our bed alone. I asked him where Helen was and he told me that she had gotten too tired, so he put her to bed. I went in to check on her and she was all tucked in her bed, safe and sound and I was just so proud of her big brother for the way he had taken such good care of her! Just had to share! :)

Tonight we are hosting a table at the Young Life banquet! Didn't I say it had been a busy week? We are looking forward to this event, but I must say that we are also looking forward to a Friday night with nowhere to be and nothing to do! We are planning a hike on Saturday morning, so I'll share a few pictures of that sometime soon!