more camping scenes

world's largest & fattest caterpillar:



this girl would go upside down all the time if we allowed. she absolutely loves seeing the world another way.

jolly weekend

our weekend took off friday night with the annual balloon glow. we've managed to go to this every year since we've lived here. and saturday morning while we were eating breakfast, kai yelled HOT AIR BALLOON!! yes, they went right over our yard. it was as if we climbed our tree we could touch them. too much excitement here i tell ya.

then off for another camping trip. to gear up, this happened on the way there:


a couple friends who were in town from california joined us. kai had a blast getting some extra play time.


oh, and this sweet hat. i hope he wears it. alot.


our campsite was on the river. note: see our friend on the swing rope. he was the only one so eager to jump in.


ugh... more photos in a separate post. i cannot figure out how to load more than 5 photos per post.

10 things i love right now

1 when these two play quietly, staying focused for 5 min. without asking for something

2 kai's full-blown laugh


3 the hint of fall that's in the air and being able to have windows open all the time

4 this visitor. well, it's actually a love/hate relationship. i love that it's high enough so zaiah's not tempted to 'play' with it and because kai checks it's size each day and wonders if it's bigger than our neighbors. hate it because spiders this big creep me out.


5 camping with the kids

6 stacked wood against our garage, even though we don't have a fireplace


7 how much kai is enjoying preschool

8 the way andy is a daddy every day. we really are lucky.

9 the look of this sewing machine in our "spare room". now if i can get the courage to sew what i want to sew.


10 how she carries and cares for this doll

hurricane ike stopped by

it was a bit windy here on sunday. the kids had just gone down for a nap, and i was in the kitchen gazing out the windows mesmerized by the action the wind was creating. i was debating in my head whether to wake the kids and move them to the basement. it was that windy. within moments i heard a tree start to crackle and i watched our mammoth of a tree in our front yard topple over (luckily away from our house) and crash into our neighbor's yard, taking with it our utility poles and wires. really, doesn't sound like much but i had never heard and seen a very tall tree do this before. it was a little creepy. almost 300k houses in louisville were without power. some restored the next day, us not until last night.

i could complain about this, but really it wasn't bad at all. aside from not having refrigeration for our food, we went on with life as usual. and how could i complain when you think about others less fortunate in texas. kai surely loved discovering all the things you can do with flashlights and having tea by candle light.

so, this weekend andy has decided to get all ranger rick on us and chop this tree. i have some grand plans for some of the tree trunks and limbs. we were planning to go camping this weekend, but that will have to wait until next week.
enjoy the weekend! j



andy's car got hit by a branch:

the mailman brought this:

and ..... we are pleased to tell you he got in! so of course we celebrated with something sweet.
the kiddos don't really understand what we celebrated, but they agreed it was good.

happy weekend to you!

more camping photos

into the woods

we had our first tent camping trip this weekend with both kids. overall it went really great. we were there less than 24 hrs since we didn't decide to go until saturday around lunchtime. we packed quickly and arrived 30 minutes later. it was that close! and luckily we were all tired by the time it got dark because we managed to forget a flashlight. (must make a camping list.)

but these kids had a blast. especially going in and out of the tent. in and out, zip and unzip, in and out, repeat repeat.

our new tent is very big. so if you ever want to come with us we could probably fit your family in here as well.



and it wouldn't be a camping trip without roasting hot dogs, making s'mores, devouring s'mores: for a night night snack and breakfast.


we're getting sneaks of fall arriving. we'll be camping again soon i'm sure.
happy monday to you!

i might add more camping pictures in a separate post. this is all blogger would allow me.

soap

for some reason the simple task of downloading pictures to the computer is difficult this week. so that's the reason for a slight break.

i took this photo last week after a soap-in-the-eyes episode. pretty traumatic here. screaming for a half hour. he was pumping hand soap and it shot right into both eyes instead. this was taken right after he got his eyesight back and settled in the tub. so exhausted he nearly fell asleep in this position. it was such a precious moment i had to grab the camera.