we're back!

We made it back from out thanksgiving trip. We were in Baton Rouge a few days and then we drove to Gulf Shores, Al. We had tons of adventures. I got to meet my step brother's wife Raegan. They've been maried for 7 years and it should not be as long before we see them again. I also met my other step brother's kids. I hadn't seen them in 8 years so I could hardly remember meeting their 10 year old, Triston. Madison is their 6 year old who played great with Ellen and Arianna. Then I saw Neal and Paige and Will and got to meet their baby Parker. It was a little too cold to play for a long amount of time on the beach for the first few days we were there. The wind was very strong. But we got in the water a few times anyway. Then when Daniel got there on Wednesday the weather started getting much nicer. We never had any rain and hardly any clouds which made for some great sunrises and sunsets. We built sand castles, dug holes and broke lots of shovels, jumped waves and found lots of great shells and a few creatures.

This is all the kids at Fort Morgan. This old fort is in great shape. We visited the museum and then the kids ran all around the grounds exploring all the dark, empty brick rooms and climbed on the cannons and brick walls.


The men are working hard building something!


Making fun of my mom's comment about us not going out to far in the Gulf because of the sharks. We're not afraid of sharks!

scooters

Dad took us out to eat last night. This is Davie, Michelle, Samantha and the girls while we were waiting.

Arianna's got the tigers "basketball" helmet on.

Baton Rouge

We made it to Baton Rouge. The car ride was long and difficult but great. I was so thankful to be able to ride and have mimi and BB to help in the car. I'm staying with dad and Davie in the same house that I was born in. It has been through one more round of remodelling but in the bedrooms and bathrooms this time. It feels like a new home and looks beautiful. The girls and I got to meet my nephew Parker today. What a cutie. He is 9 months old and is a shocker to us all because he sleeps so well. I am going to work on getting some pictures on tomorrow.

packing

The girls decided to wear their swim suits all day today (under their clothes) because they are so excited about the beach! Arianna came out of her room this evening and walked around the house with her goggles and the suitcase and I just had to get a picture. I told Daniel it was perfect for the blog:) Then I took a picture of sad daddy and the indian princess on the couch. Dad is sad because he has to stay here an extra week. But, he'll be happy when he's flying and not driving all the way to Gulf Shores! Ellen is the indian princess. We got the idea after watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Charlie Brown's Mayflower Voyage. The girls and I collected feathers from the backyard and made the head dresses and they walked around with their shirts off saying they were indian princesses. By the way, she is doing an awesome job reading. She is sounding out words and reading signs. She asked me the other day when we were in the car what ex-xonett meant. I told her I didn't know what she was talking about and then realized that she was reading the Exxon sign! very cute and i was very proud:)
I am very excited because we are leaving tomorrow morning to visit family that I've never seen. I'll write more about that later. Off to finish packing!!

it worked

Okay. I can't believe I just got that video on here. They make it so easy:) We made that video after getting one from our friends Shael, Lily, Tom and Cole in Indy. The girls watched the video of Lily and Cole about 50 times and then we made one to send back to Lily. Then we exchanged one more round of video shows. Lily and the girls used to put on shows together when they played. They still talk about each other all the time. I'm hoping to make a trip back up to Indy if and when Daniel has to go to defend his thesis. Speaking of the thesis, he sent it off for the last time. . . we hope. So, if he goes to defend it then I'm going to try and go with him. I wish is wasn't such a long drive but I'll do it if I can hang out with shael and claire again.

the dancing show

wouldn't it be fun if we could make a show together. . . dance all over the world with drew and lily and all our friends. (says Ellen)

K9 cops and Firetrucks

We had a field trip today to see K9 division of the Sheriff's department. They explained and demonstrated how they train and use the dogs. It was very informative. In fact, I think it was a little too informative for k-5th graders! It was amazing to see how well trained they were and how they performed through the agility course. That was the most excited part for the girls. I didn't take any pictures today but after being around the cops it reminded me of some cute pictures I took at the children's museum of the girls in the firetruck.
I'm really putting this up here for Claire and Drew. They are good friends of ours from Indy and Drew was absolutely infatuated with firetrucks. To this day, when we see one, the girls tell me they think Drew would really love to see that. I still remember seeing Claire one day on the road in Indy and I called her and asked her where she was going and she said they were following a firetruck. The children's museum (Edventure) has a great place for the kids to dress up like firefighters and climb on and drive a truck. One of the great things about homeschooling the girls is that we have the freedom to go to places like that in the off hours. That means we don't have to fight the crowds on holidays and weekends. We usually go in the afternoon and basically have the whole place to ourselves. The day I took these pictures was one of those days.

Fall Field Day

This was an event that was put together by the local homeschool group. There were tons of families with kids of all ages. Most of the games were divided into age groups 6 and under or 7 and up. This first picture is of a kick ball game. Notice the girls in the outfield playing together while the ball is being played in the infield!

This next one is of the egg relay. You can see all the ages and Arianna is by far the youngest player! Ellen and Arianna did awesome the whole day. We were out there playing games such as sack race, clothing relay, pie eating contest, 3 legged race.
They also had face painting by one of the high school girls and bubbles out for the kids to play with. I was impressed with this event that was put on by a bunch of moms. I'm sure I'll be more involved next year.

And the winner is . . . Arianna

We were on one of our trips to Kroger and saw some colors and pages set out on a table. I stood there a few minutes while the girls colored and realized it was for a coloring contest. After the girls finished with their pages they didn't want to leave them. They didn't quite get the idea that it was a contest and what that meant. The manager and I talked them into leaving their coloring as long as we could bring another one to do at home. Anyway, a few days later, we got a call that Arianna had won! Keep in mind this contest was for all ages. Supposedly they "judged" them taking into consideration the age and what is appropriate for that stage. Arianna was so excited. I was even more proud of Ellen who didn't get jealous but was actually more excited that her sister won! The prizes were a $10 gift certificate to the store and a Disney t-shirt that fits like a sleep shirt. She was so cute with the money. She walked towards the produce section and said, "I think I'll have some apples and pears." Then we explained that there were probably some toys in the store that she could pick from. We then continued to wander the isles looking for just the right one. She ended up with some sparkly finger nail polish, a doll, and another thing she could share with ellen.

a day in boone

We drove to the mountains hoping to go on a hike and see the leaves. We actually saw a rainbow while driving (the girls first time to see one in real life). As we turned the corners into Blowing Rock it got foggy, rainy and cold. The weather wasn't going to let us go for a hike. We spent most of the day with Scott and Anna and their family. Daniel had the kids outside building a fort while we had visits from Matt and Ginger and Dan and Erin and family. We carved our pumpkins that afternoon before hurrying off to Mountain City for my parents band Deja Vu's performance and Herritage Hall. We spent the night at moms house while daniel stayed in Boone to play ping pong with the guys (part of his birthday present). I picked him up at Matt and Ginger's house and we played in the leaves some before returning to SC.