Grandfather Mountain

Grandfather Mountain

Starting the trek to the top! So beautiful..

See the theme yet? Kids were having so much fun! They honestly ran up that steep, rocky trail. It was all we could to do keep up :)

I was so disturbed by this man! He rode his bike all the way up the mountain!! What was he thinking? Geez....crazy!
So, I don't typically take pics of spiders, but I just happened to have my camera in my hand when I found this one. So, Pops... this one is for you!

My favorite, favorite pictures are ones of sleeping, peaceful kiddos. Especially when they are my kids. They were exhausted!

Happy Birthday weekend, part 1

Home, sweet camper :)

We are fantastically blessed to have friends who let us borrow their camper! This is not just your basic camper! (And they aren't your basic friends ;) ) It has more amenities than our house does! Needless to say, this is the only way I will camp! We did this last year for Chad's birthday weekend and it just worked out again. Chad loves the outdoors and so do the kids. So, this was our weekend in a nutshell. We camped near Grandfather Mountain. Beautiful camground, right on the water. I honestly think the stream was the kids favorite part. The water was probably 60ish degrees! Even Carrigan kept saying 'more wada, more wada!' The weather was beautiful, minus the little bit of rain. But nothing soothes you to sleep more in a camper than rain!

This is only half of the adventure. We hiked up Grandfater Mountain and even went across the mile high swinging bride. I will make another post with ALL of those pics. Enjoy these for now!

All the kids fished. I hate to even mention the name of the place we fished because they were so rude. But they did catch a great fish :) and had so much fun! Glad daddy knows how all that equpiment because all I did was get a hook caught in Caelyns pants... really... not kidding!

I probably gave a little bit too much attention to these 'smores' pictures...We had sooo much fun and it was the first time the big kids at all the ingredients! Yunny... yummy.

Daniel Boone Inn is typically a once a year treat for us (Christmas tree shopping). But, we couldn't resist. Look at the pics and you will see why it's one of our favorites!

Over Cancer...

Can't take any more cancer!

Ava has passed away due to her brain cancer.

My best friend's mother has a rare type of cancer and just found out today that she will have to take a chemotherapy pill everyday for the rest of her life. This pill makes her insides 'on fire'. She is nothing short of miserable.

Caelyn's preschool teacher, Mrs. Deanna has newly diagnosed breast cancer.

This is Caelyn and Mrs. Deann

Struggling today. Holding my kiddos longer and tighter and I might just say that I have a little bit more patience. They are each a blessing and I am sad that I it has taken someone else's tragedy to open my eyes.

Oh, I have an ear infection, sinus infection, strep throat, and mono... but no cancer :)

Praying...

Ava

I'm not exactly sure why this picture reminds me of sweet Ava, although most things these days remind me of her. We pray for her daily, the kids pray for her. Friends, friends of friends, kids of friends.... are all pulling and praying for Ava. This week has been especially tough on me. Things that used to seem to important to me seem...almost trivial. Blessed to have the 3 most amazing and healthy kids, and one rockin' husband!

I am writing this as I learn the news of Ava's passing... No words to express sympathy to the Hunters right now. I now know why that picture reminds me of Ava. Carrigan knew.

We recently did a photo shoot at this 'farm'. The family has gone out of town for about 2 weeks and have given us access to come 'play'. The kids (and chad) are in love! They have 23 acres, 3 horses, 6 goats, and countless chickens. In this picture Caelyn is eyeing the chickens as they leave the hen house... she wants to see the eggs! Oh, and the outfit was completely her doing, down to brothers boots!

The rest of the pics are me merely loving the gorgeous NC weather.... and my new camera!

It is obvious she was a little cranky? The horses sent her over the edge. I still can't resist her many faces!

Don't think I forgot Carson, he was requesting not to have his picture take today... so I enlisted him as my assistant. All of Carrigan's smiles are because of him. I also bargained with him that I will take him for his own photo shoot. He was surprisingly ok with it.

Turning into such a beautiful little lady.

I do have one more athletic event to blog on... the kids ran in a 1/2 mile fun run! It was really neat.