Christmas 2014

Me and handsome little man at church.

Dani, Elia, Emily, Julianne-the four BFFS.

McNees and Nelsons 

Beans, the musical fruit....

Rob even ate a bowl!!!!!

Picnic at the Peaks

Here's the concrete table.  It was pretty chilly and windy but the sun would come out an warm us for a few minutes.  The creek ran behind us.

After lunch of course, the kids had to play in the creek.  It's about 54 degrees and windy....

Look at his feet........

Thank The Lord for my hoodie!

Goober a hiking around the lake.

Emily had to have one of "natures corn dogs" too!

Apple Fest

Laura enjoying the crazy, spicy, burnt Brunswick Stew.  

Even though it was rainy it was still beautiful.

The best part of the day is that we got to visit Paw-paws old land.  It was a divine appointment that we were able to meet Dan and Darlene who current own the land.  Much has changed, but the memories are still very fresh.  Tears were shed for me a couple times.  It was a great day full of new memories.

Apple Day 2014

Meeting at the Daleville Food Lion.

Yet another wake up call that I'm getting old.  I haven't seen one of these in a long time!

Kids were like what's this thing? A space ship?

Ohhhh you use it to make a phone call???  Ellie's face is precious!

Alex making "Apple spaghetti."  He really didn't like to eat it but liked how it was made.  The old man was a hoot!

New countertop- finally!

Well it's in :)

First Day for Alex, second week for Em

Well this year he set his alarm and got up all by himself.  He got dressed, made his bed, opened his blinds, got a little breakfast, brushed his teeth and say and waited for bus time.  Let me just take a bet now that this will prob last 1.5 weeks.  The day will come when I'm going to have to blast him out of bed with dynamite!  He is MY child.....

As the bus pulled up and he hopped right on in I got a little misty-eyed.  Only 4 years ago my little kindergartener was kicking and screaming and I had to force him to get on the bus.  Let's just say that was the most traumatic 2.5 weeks of my life!!!!   Now he's growing up and doesn't even wave to his family standing at the house watching...

Oh me.

Emmy-G's first Volleyball game

Checking out the Holy Cross Gaels (their mascot looked like the Viking). Those were some BIG girls! 

Emily's first VB game was Friday afternoon at Holy Cross in Lynchburg.  They lost all 3 games.  The first one was pretty bad.  But the last two were really close and I thought they were going to win.  But all in all they have their first game under their belt and will only get better with time.

She finally looked back at me :)

Pulling up her knee pads and getting ready to play!

"Work as a team and CALL the BALL!  GO EAGLES!!!!"

Two "true freshmen" keeping the bench warm.  Taking mental notes and observing the more experienced 8th graders.  Em actually got some decient play time!  

Day 1 of Robs vaca

Well after a slow moving Saturday morning we finally decided to go and DO something different.  We went all the way to Pembrook and hiked to the Cascades.  

Well we finally got there around 1:30pm and got to the end of the road to the parking area and there was a line of cars just waiting to park.  You couldn't park on the side if the road.  There were park rangers holding the line while we waited for people to come off the trail, get in their car and leave.  Oh and we had to pay $3 to park.  Well we waited for about 25 minutes and we finally got a parking spot.  

Ok, off on the trail we start.  There was no description of the "intensity" of the hike.  It was "2 miles up and 2 miles back."  But if I had to rate it now, I'd call it moderately strenuous and felt like 5 up and 5 back!  We went up one side of the creek on a relatively smooth trail but it was boring and just non stop up hill!! 

Yes, we had whiners but we finally made it up to the cascades.  It was beautiful!  Worth the exhaustion and muscle fatigue.  We were prepared for Rob and the kids to swim, but... Do you remember the movie Titanic????? That's all I can say about that.

See the people on the right below the falls?  That should give you a perspective of how tall the falls were.

Some crazy people were in the water.

Well we'd had enough so we decided to take the more "adventurous" hike back.  It was a lot better but also had a lot more obstacles and we REALLY had to watch our footing all the way back.  It was soo beautiful though.  There were other small waterfalls along the way and I was just blown away by all the rocks and boulders along the creek and trail.

This was one of the huge rocks on the trail that looked like the Forest service had to carve out to make way for the trail.

There were well constructed bridges that kept the hike interesting.

Two little love- bird hikers......

We won't see this again for another several months or more...

Another think about this side of the creek's trail- I was just impressed with the construction of the well laid rocks (stepping stones) along our hike.  I'm sure it was a huge job to lay all these flat rocks precisely for the hikers steps. Just have to say nicely done!

Well we are just about at the end of the trail.  The trails were shaded the whole way up and back and the weather could not have been better.  It was a great day and I hope we can keep doing these "spir of the moment" get always.  

So now I can say that we've hikes to the Cascades!  

Next hike, either Dragons tooth or Peaks of otter.  We'll see!

 

Surfside 2014

One of the last days.  Papaw Zyearout made a cool sandcastle.

Em working hard.

Pops eating Doritos and a Pepsi as a mid morning snack.  

Kids working on Granny Nelson's word search books.

Little beach volleyball.

Our last night of vacation eating at the Gulfstream Cafe in Garden city. Good eatin'!

How sad.... Driving home .  Alex is in the back behind Em.