More Pics of Turkey Run

My Cup Overfloweth

What an incredible day!!! There are days that stick out in your mind as special and rare, and today is one of those days. We celebrated Abraham and James birthday this morning with an all-you-can-eat breakfast at Golden Corral, and there wasn't one fit or spilled food item! Great start!!!! Then we drove to Turkey Run, a State Park in Indiana that is full of deep ravines carved out by a river. It is so green and so spectacular that it's hard to put in words. So, I won't try too hard, instead I'll put up a lot of pics! Lazy me. :)

We went on trail #3, on the map described as "difficult, very-rugged". Our little troop headed up there like old pros. We didn't have one emotional or physical breakdown, which is a feat unto itself. Instead we had smiles and giggles, and a lot of sweat. We revived with ice water and graham crackers. This place goes straight through these ravines, up a small waterfall, until you reach some stairs. There are hundreds of stairs, up and down all over the place, and then you reach ladders that go back into the ravine. So fun and a bit dangerous, yippeee!!! Then we gathered rocks to throw in the river and enjoy the scenery.

I felt so much gratitude today, for my family and for nature and for my life. It was so nice I didn't even dwell on the poopy smeared mess that Abe made while I was getting ready to leave the house. :) Then I topped off my wonderful day with women's conference, which I attended with my dearest friend Amity. We had a "date" to the stake center, where the men served us dinner and there was a great, comical skit put on by the stake presidency that was well worth the 1/2 hour drive!!! And then to be able to listen to the inspired Relief Society Presidency and President Monson, and feel my heart touched and to feel humbled and find a new resolve to be a better person was just icing on the cake.

I can almost guarantee that tomorrow will be a horrible day, as you other moms know, so I will bask in this happiness as long as I can.

Air Show

I thought I'd include a few photos of our fun family outing with our friends, the Pitchers, to the Indianapolis Air Show. It was really cool! I got just as excited as the kids. Who knew airplanes were so cool! It was scheduled to rain, so I packed ponchos, tarps, etc. preparing for a wet afternoon, and it rained a total of 7 drops (just enough for the kids to get a chance to don the rain ponchos), and then it was hot and sunny the rest of the day. Wouldn't you know I forgot sunscreen. Luckily, I seem to be the only one who was really affected by it, and boy, was I! A walking tomato, who later got blisters on my lips that turned into cold sores. What fun! Enjoy the pics. We wore the babies completely out. The american flag is draped from a skydiver. It was really cool in person. The best part of the airshow were the blue angels. They were so fast we couldn't get any good shots, but we got a good one of the Osprey.

Free Bird

Elijah has learned the new found freedom of riding his bicycle without training wheels. Yeah! He is so very excited about it. I can't believe my baby boy is now a 2-wheeling 4 year old. He's practically grown and married. :) And the pink princess bike is not slowing him or his ego down one bit!
I volunteered in Samara's class today, and have such a respect for these teachers. There is so much to teach, and the kids are all on different levels. Samara gets bored and draws pictures on everything. She's such a great little artist. She makes the pictures really colorful and bubbly and whimsical. First grade is not challenging enough for her, and I'm worried that she'll start having problems. Any mom suggestions out there, let me know!

Overall, I'm very pleased with all of my children's teachers, and the kids have made a great effort to do their personal best in school. It feels good to be enjoying them and participating in their classes this year. Last year I didn't get to do much volunteering. And both teachers have told me that they haven't had one parent volunteer in the 6 years they've been at that school. Does that just blow your mind?? I applaud those that take huge pay cuts and long hours to teach our children.

Reflecting

So, as I was reading this morning, I came across a talk by Kathleen Hughes called Remembering The Lord's Love. It is a really good one. Two lines really hit me, as a mother. She was speaking directly to the mother of the home when she said, "Our families need the peace of God in their lives, and if we can't or won't invite the Lord into our lives, then our families become a reflection of our own turmoil." That is a lot of pressure, but reality is, the mood and spirit in our homes depends directly on what we do. Then at the end of the article, she finished up with something that gave me much comfort. She said, "Peace. Strength. It is what we long for and it is posssible. We only need to turn toward His reaching arms." I love it!



Anywhooo...enough pondering and reflecting. I thought that I'd post a few pics of our private trip with the girls to Disneyworld. I had to use a disposable camera, so we just barely got the photos back. It was a really fun trip with those two munchkins. Thanks to Amity and Jennifer for watching and loving our little boys while we were gone!

Here is one of the girls in a rare hug moment w/colored tongues from slushies. This day was 96 degrees with 90% humidity. It was miserably hot!

Here we are after an hour or so wait in line for Space mountain. The beauty of it is, with no babies, we could wait an hour w/no problems. Go big kids!! :)

We had 3 Character Dining meals. This was breakfast the Yacht Club (or something like that??). We saw Chip, Dale, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto. And an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet for dad. Couldn't get better, eh?!

And of course the princess meal, with the whole Cinderella crew, mice and fairy Godmother included. I'm not biased or anything, but my girls are even more beautiful than Cinderella!

And the crappy picture of all of us. The disposable failed to get the beautifully lit castle in the background, but at least you can see us. We have some wonderful memories.

I Love Fall

UGH! I just finished writing all about our adventures on the farm, and I accidentally deleted it. I don't think I'll be as elaborate the second time around.

We love this time of year here in Indiana. The crisp, cool air, the apples ready for picking, the colors just starting to change, it is picture perfect midwest. We have already been to two different orchards with friends. We went to Anderson Orchards, a 200 acre orchard, last week to pick fresh apples and raspberries. It was SO much fun. The kids loved every minute of it. There was even an old farm dog there that followed people around and licked them.

We also went to Stuckey Farms this week. It has a barn that is now a gift shop, full of wonderful country things, like jams, syrup, carmel, gourds, etc. They even have live honey bees in a case making honey for all the kids to watch. They sell fresh apple cider, and all sorts of good stuff. Once you get in back on the farm, they take you on a tractor ride to the rows of apples and other veggies, to pick to your hearts desire. It is every kids dream there, running up and down rows of plants, sampling the apples, digging in the dirt and climbing on the dirt piles. What fun! And we were able to enjoy both of these activities with friends.

Indiana, especially Brown county, is absolutely breath taking in the fall. It's know for it's covered bridge festivals, and the dense foliage is a sight to see. In jeans and a sweater, it doesn't get much better than this. If this makes you jealous at all, good! It'll give you a good reason to come and visit us while you can! Spare bedroom....tempting, yes??? Enjoy the pics.

My first entry

Yeah, I think this works! I'm so excited to have figured this out. I know it's not rocket science, but 8 years away from the world of technology and computers and into the world of fingerpainting and crayon doodles turns ones brain to mush. I love mush, and wouldn't trade it, but it does me no favors when it comes to things like creating a blog. I'd love to have a cooler background template, but can't for the life of me, figure out how to download it from another site and get it to work here. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open.

So, we are doing wonderful. The kids are all settled into their various school and sport activities, and Abe and I are having a ball hanging out! Kiah is working hard in school and really wants to get honors (which would be a HUGE deal for her), so she's quit soccer and is focusing more on her schoolwork. We're really proud of her. Samara is doing wonderful in school academically, but is struggling to make friends. Her best friend from last year (seriously, her clone! These two couldn't have been more alike) moved away, and she hasn't had much luck in the friend department. But I have full confidence that she'll do just fine. She is very social and resilient. Elijah started preschool, and is having fun. This year he only goes 3 days a week, so Abe has his big bro home often during the week. Which is a wonderul thing, since the boys are such good buddies. I love watching them play and take care of each other. They couldn't be closer. James is plugging along, trying to stay motivated down this last stretch. It's more of a challenge now that we know where we're going next (Primary Children's Hospital in SLC for Cardiology fellowship for 4 years), to stay focused on the job here. But he loves his work, and is doing a lot of good for many children. I am doing the mom thing, volunteering in classes each week, keeping the ship afloat, you know, all of that stuff! :) We're all really happy. We have incredible friends and an amazing ward, and we coudn't really ask for more. This is a long post, so I'll cut it short. Ci vediamo!!!