Friday, November 2, 2018

More Camping & Halloween

Jackson's Cub Scout group had another camping trip a couple of weekends ago.  This one was much larger than the last - with MANY more groups there.  Rachel went with them this time and loved it!  It was a cold weekend and started out wet but they pushed through and still enjoyed.

They got a new and bigger tent since the last time - they had lots of room inside.  Rachel took it upon herself to unpack and organize everything the first night after they arrived.


Cooking breakfast on the stove.



Jackson doing the climbing wall - he went all the way around all four sides without touching the ground. 


Bathroom, anyone?



Not too many pictures but they did enjoy it and can't wait until next time.  

A couple of other scouting events from lately - they had a clean-up day at the lake...



And this was a day at the Art Barn learning about different birds and such. 


And this week was Halloween.  Rachel went as Rosie the Riveter (she's wanted to be this since she learned about her in school last year)...and Jackson was Bumblebee (the transformer).






This next picture was taken the next day, after a haircut...doesn't he look so old here??


With Sherry, the Minion.  


And Michael even got in on the action this year...it was more of an inside joke between him and some of the other neighborhood dads...





Her friend, Lily, borrowed Rachel's rubix cube costume from last year...



Now we move into Thanksgiving and Christmas!  My favorite time of the year!!

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Misc., Birthday and Tori Gets Married

A few random pictures from over the last month.  Rachel took this selfie with Jackson at dinner one night and I just love it!


Big babies... ha!!


We went out to dinner for my birthday last month... I had a huge surprise waiting on me at home when I got home from work... My mom and Jim drove down for the afternoon to spend the evening with us!  How sweet is that!  




 Celebrating mine and Kim's birthday's at the Cheesecake Factory the next day.


We saw Grandpa for a split second one weekend when he was down for a conference. 


Rachel got braces about a week ago.  So far, it's going okay!  


And just this week, Jackson got two braces put on his upper teeth and next week he will get a palette expander put in - all to help give him more room up top.  Then later on, he'll get a full set of braces as well.  So we've been to the orthodontist quite a bit this month!  


And just this past weekend, my sweet cousin, Tori, got married!  We are all so happy for her!!

We were one of the first people there...all ready up front!





Rachel with Anna Grace and Julia.


And all five cousins!


Bruce walking her down the aisle.


Mr. and Mrs. Danny Ollis!







We love this one!


A few of us in the family - not everyone though.





It was a great night!

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Fall Break

Last week was our Fall Break.  We had originally planned on going to the beach with family, but Hurricane Florence caused us to change our plans.  I took the whole week off and two days were spent at various doctor appointments...but we did go to Chattanooga, Tennessee for a couple of days.  It was still SO HOT outside, in the 90's...so that limited our outside activities a bit.  We rented a condo on the Tennessee River so the river was in our backyard - which was neat. 


Looking back up at where we stayed (middle level on the left) from the river.





Wednesday morning we went to Ruby Falls and that was really neat.   






Looking out from atop Lookout Mountain.


Looking down the Incline Railway...we didn't ride it...


Enjoying ice cream at Clumpy's.  




Visiting the Chattanooga Choo-Choo.



Going out for a canoe ride in the river.




While we were waiting on dinner one night at a pizza place, the waitress brought the kids both a ball of pizza dough to play with.  That was different and they enjoyed playing with it!


A barge floating down the river...


Thursday morning we visited the Children's Museum for a little while.  





Rachel made (sewed) this pillow.






Atop Signal Mountain, right behind where we stayed.




We came home Thursday night (it was a pretty easy drive) and Friday we finally went to see Christopher Robin at the movie theater.