Edisto Beach.....

I love the beach!  Did you know that?  It's true.  I love to feel the sand between my toes.  I love the smell of the salt air.  I love to see the waves  crashing on the shore.  I love looking for shells while walking on the beach.

How can people not see that handiwork of God when they see these things?

I know that people who live at the beach don't get there as often as we think we would if we lived there. I wonder at times if you live in a place like that do you become immune to the beauty and awe?  I know when Steve and I lived in the Asheville area, we commented to each other regularly on how people seemed to not notice the the beauty of the area around them--like looking at that picture on the fridge--if you don't stop and really look at it then after awhile, you just don't notice it.  

We still miss seeing the beautiful sunsets that we so enjoyed in Asheville.

Don't get me wrong, there is beauty and marvels to behold no matter where you live.  We often stand outside in the evening or morning to watch the beautiful colors as the sun rises or sets.  We love driving across the dam and watching the people enjoying beautiful days on the lake. 

But the beach, there is something extra special for me there!  

This past week was very difficult and it was so wonderful to escape to Edisto for a few days.  The place where we can just get away from the rest of the world and be still.  

This trip we took a friend who had never camped before.  She got the really experience.  True to our campers name "munner magnet" we had quite the storm.  When we first got there the wind was so strong that we almost couldn't get the bed end closest to the beach out and set up.  If the wind had been any stronger, we would not have made it.  We finally got set up and then the next round of storms rolled in.  Lightening and thunder and wind and rain like we had not seen before.  So what did we do during that time......

Well, the big girls played polly pockets, the boys wrestled, Casey went back and forth between the two and Max?  He hung out on the couch......

 We also watched some dvds on Mommy's computer and we had dinner.  Luckily I had planned spaghetti and had the sauce in the crock pot so Steve didn't have to go out in this weather and grill.

 After the rain, we rode bikes and played in puddles.....

 Then we went and walked on the beach.  We were supposed to stay dry....yea right!!!  4 of 5 kids came back soaked!!!  One of us "fell" into the water.

The next day was much better--over cast and cool.  We were able to really enjoy being on the beach.  We found lots of shells and dug in the sand and splashed in the waves.

 We played chase.....

The girls dug some holes that "accidentally" ended up resembling Mickey Mouse.

 Landon tried really hard to pose like the big boys......

 We rode a lot of bikes.....

Did you know there is a 4 mile long bike trail?  It was beautiful.

 Landon and Casey loved seeing all the little crabs all over the boardwalks.

 We might have taken a picture or two or fifty....

 We rode to the education center and enjoyed all the animals and activities they had to offer.....
Like driving a shrimp boat...

Drew walked around to the front of the boat (see him in the window....)

Here is a better picture.....

I wish I had a picture of Shelby's face when she saw him!!!

The next day the waves were so harsh that we took the kids to the cove and let them swim there.

 They had a good time watching dolphins and playing on boogie boards......

 Drew pulled Casey for a long time and she loved it!!!

 Landon found a starfish but was scared to pick it up so the big girls came to his rescue and picked it up so he could see it better and touch it.

 The girls drew a dolphin and and then filled it in with sand......

 Some of us, read that all 3 boys, took a nap on the beach.

 Casey found part of a starfish that was in the shape of a cross.

We rode bikes to get ice cream on Saturday night.  Casey and Landon both rode the mile to get the ice cream although one of them didn't ride all the way back.

We found a playground to play on after ice cream.  Drew kept his self entertained.

 We found a raccoon.....

 He wanted to be friends......the girls not so much....

See Landon, the raccoon was sitting just behind him.

 Almost home from ice cream.......

It was a great trip!  I'm waiting to go back.....

Until we meet again.....

A week ago today, we had the difficult task of saying "until we meet again" to a great neighbor and wonderful man.  Ross was our neighbor.  He was a great man who had his priorities right...God first, family second!  We are so heartbroken for his wife and young family of 4 boys and one on the way.

I can remember the very first time we met Ross and his boys.  He was helping his son sell popcorn for scouts.  He stopped by our house--we had just moved in a few weeks earlier.  He introduced himself and said that he really just stopped by to introduce himself and not to sell us popcorn but that we could buy some if we wanted.  Then he started laughing.  I don't think I ever saw him when he was not laughing or smiling.

What have we learned?  Things we already knew--life is short and tomorrow is not promised to any of us.  Hug your family.  Make sure they know how much you love them and how important they are to you.  Tell your friends the same thing.  Stop and take time to call that person who has been on your mind, your best friend from high school.  Our pastor always says not to let the urgent out weigh the important.  Ross lived this message.

Ross was a great husband, dad and friend.  He will be truly missed.  But we won't say goodbye, we'll just say until we meet again.

Virginia Creeper Trail

We had a great time over the July 4th holiday.  We went with some friends to ride the Virginia Creeper Trail.  This is a bike trail that is 34 miles long.  We rode the first 17.  Whimps I know.  It gets better--those 17 miles were down hill!!!  

It was to be a fast trip--go up on Saturday, ride the trail on Sunday and head home on Monday.  It was fast-all except for the drive up!  We had the bright idea that we would go through Asheville.  Now Steve and I have lived there and we know how traffic is on holidays and weekends during leaf season--unfortunately, we forgot!  I am not fibbing when I tell you that our 5 hour trip (with stops) turned in to are you ready 11 hours!!  11 hours people--in a car with lots of kids!!  

It took 2 hours to get from the SC state line to Hendersonville, NC at which point we stopped at Chic fil A to eat lunch with 500 of our closest friends who had been stopped on the interstate with us!  We called some friends and had them remind us the best way to get to where we needed to be without the interstate.  We didn't listen!  We believed the NCDOT website that said the roads were clear.  And if they meant clear of cars going over 2mph they were right.  So we made our painful way up to the next exit only (only a few miles that took almost 30 mins) and got off and went the way our friends recommended.  We finally made it to......

and then this happened.....Yep our friends had a tire on their camper to loose it's tread.  Thankfully we were almost to the TN welcome center.  So we spent the next hour replacing a tire and adding air to all of the others.

We finally made it to the campground in Virginia.  It was on top of a mountain and we were looking out over a Christmas tree farm.   The kids entertained themselves while the adults set the campers up.

After a great nights sleep--read my lips typing July and no need for the ac--we hit the trail.  

It was beautiful!!  There were numerous places along the way to stop and play in the cool cold mountain streams.  The kids wanted to stop at everyone and I think we almost did.

 Steve carried Landon across some of the rocks so that he could see the waterfall (it was small) and it kept him out of an area that had rocks to throw.  It really was a LONG WAY TO ANY HOSPITAL--who knows if it was a good one or not!  There was no cell service either so it wouldn't have been good if we had needed that hospital.

 Drew was with the adults in that he was good watching everyone else play in that cold water!

We did manage to get a pretty good family shot.  Thanks Connie!                                                                     

The cold water did not bother this guy at all!  He loved every minute of it!

Since Casey and Landon are so young, they got the pleasure of Steve pulling them in their bike trailer.  

It must have been very hard on them..........

About half way down the trail, there is a great little place to eat.  We heard the desserts were wonderful.  We had a picnic lunch earlier in the day so of course we had to try the chocolate cake and ice cream.

I think they both enjoyed it as is evidenced in the mess they made eating it.

This is one of the many train trestles we crossed.

AHHH, we finally reached our destination!  If you ride straight through, this ride should take about 1 1/2 hours.  If you stop and enjoy as much of the trail as we did it will take you about 6 hours.

After we had our bikes and selves shuttled back to the top of the mountain, we got ready and drove back into Damascus for dinner and their fireworks show.

The kids had a great time playing on and old engine and a caboose while we waited for the show to begin.

 Finally it got dark--right before all of the adults were ready to fall asleep!  The kids however were still going strong.....

 It was a nice fireworks show and NONE of my kids cried this year (well not because of the fireworks anyway)!!!  We must be growing up!

 The trip home was better/worse than the trip up.  We decided not to go back through Asheville but through Charlotte.  The trip took 5 hours.  That was good.  The bad part was that the first 2 hours were down steep windy mountain roads.  Here is one shot of our GPS and I took this near the end where we were having stretches of straight areas.

We had a great trip and would go back and do it again!!  But next time we would stay in Damascus.  

Curious Landon

We love watching CG at our house.
We've learned lots of things:
*like how to make rainbows with a glass of water
*how to make a metal detector using a radio and calculator
*how a well works
you know all important things!

Well today as we were watching, Landon looked up and said, "Where is George's mother?  Is she dead?"  That lead us to another topic!  Finally I got him to understand that George is like our dog Max.  He's part of our family but not our child.  He has a mother that is like him and not like me!

Gotta love Curious George and Curious Landon!

Whirl wind

Life has been very busy lately.  What has happened?  I thought that things were supposed to slow down as summer approached.  Not this summer--well at least not for a few more weeks!

The big kids went to beach blast with our church this week!  They had a great time and neither one got sunburned.  Well one is pink on the face but no major sunburn!!!  And they weren't eaten by a shark.  They left Sunday afternoon and the first thing I saw on the news website Sunday evening was about them clearing the water at Myrtle Beach on Sunday because of a shark.  Just a reminder for me to hand them over to God daily!  Then my parents blessed me by taking home both of the little people.  Man my house was quiet!!!

I'm in charge of preschool crafts this year for about 300 kids.  I'm pretty excited and think we have some cute/fun things for them.  I sure hope they think so!!!  There is a great team of ladies and youth helping and we are going to have a great week.  That being said, there is something about getting crafts ready for VBS. I've had a "bad" past few days with one of my "easy" crafts.  It is going to be so cute as soon as I figure out how to fix a small glitch related to the LARGE size of this craft!  We (all the people's brains I've been picking about this) will come up with a plan--I have 2 but one involves LOTS of cutting on my part and possibly that of the wonderful ladies helping me but who may never speak to me again if I say that we need to cut the center out of 1800 paper plates by Wednesday morning.  Hummm back to the drawing board on that one!
Every year at VBS time, I think back to a particular VBS when we lived in Greenwood.  Drew was 5 and Shelby was 2.  Melinda, my friend, was in charge of VBS crafts for the entire church--not big enough to have a preschool craft person and an elementary craft person--and she had asked me to help her with a "small" project.  What did she need?  To make 100s of beads out of dough!!  We didn't have a huge budget and we lived in a small town--no craft stores!  So we were making these things while sitting on my back porch.  Not to bad until you know this....Drew was inside throwing up!  Melinda's girls who were (2, 1 and 1) and Shelby were playing on the back porch with us.  Helping as all 1 and 2 year olds do!  So Drew doesn't go to night 2.  Day 3 rolls around and we are back at it finishing the last beads when we get the call that VBS is cancelled.  Yep CANCELLED--not just for that night but for the rest of the week.  Seems that I was not the only one with a sick child.  We had so many staff and kids sick that we couldn't even staff our VBS!!!!!
I had never heard of canceling VBS before--EVER but we had no choice.  Melinda and I still laugh about that week now.  We were not laughing about it that year but now we can laugh about it and do!!!  So this week in all the craziness that goes with getting ready for a VBS that will potentially have 1000 children, I'm thankful that I'm not making hand rolled dough beads!!!
Remember I said the big kids went to the beach?  Well guess what I found when I opened one of their suit cases....a game, a bathing suit, 2 pair of socks, a dirty pair of shorts and a dirty t-shirt!  Now trust me I sent said child with towels, several shorts, several t-shirts--you know clothes for a trip!!!  I also gave the child a drawstring backpack for dirty laundry.  It all went to the beach in the suitcase but "wouldn't fit in there to come home" and I didn't know it till we were home.  We are still trying to locate said backpack--I'm hoping it's at the church.  This same child was also kind enough to buy younger siblings who didn't get to go to beach blast a treat.  The bag with said gifts and their own souvenir is?  Well they had it at breakfast and we are trying to locate it now--hoping it's with the backpack!  Are you laughing?  Our children's minister was cracking up when she found out one of my kids came home with a basically empty suitcase!  She asked where the clothes were and I told her that was what I wanted to know!!!!
So now after VBS both big kids are heading to week camp.  I have to say I might be just a tad worried that one of them will not have any clothes when they get home!!!

So now that you have heard all about the fun we are having, you will understand my new theme song!!!
Here it goes....