Faces Painted

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

The weather Sunday afternoon was gorgeous. P.K. called on his way home from work and asked if I wanted to get the kids out for a hike. He suggested a park where we had been before, but it was unfortunately wiped out in the recent floods. I told him I would do some quick research and have an idea of where we could go before he got home. Our time was limited as it was almost 5:00 before we would be able to head out.

This area is so rich in Civil War history. I checked a couple books out of the library this past summer to brush up on the Civil War. I had been wanting to check out Kennesaw Mountain. Rachel was pretty reluctant to go until she found out it was a Civil War battlefield because she is currently studying the Civil War in school. We were too late to look around the visitor's center, but we were able to hike up the mountain. There are over 18 miles of trails in the park, but we hiked one up the mountain that was about 1.4 miles (STRAIGHT UP!).

This was about half way. The kids all got their hiking sticks when we went on the Boy Scout camping trip. The view was amazing. The leaves are all changing which made it especially nice. I hope we can make it back next weekend because the leaves will be really pretty then.

The view was amazing. The leaves are changing which made it especially nice. I hope we can make it back next weekend because the leaves will be really be pretty then.

Hannah exploring some big rocks.

Aaron leading the way for a bit.

Hannah tuckered out and Daddy had lots of sympathy. I mentioned the incline and he added about 50 pounds on his shoulders.

The Atlanta skyline from the top.

There were several cannons at the top. There was a half circle of dirt in a mound around them. These are called earthworks and were actually made by the Civil War soldiers as sort of a bunker. Most of them are fenced off to protect them. I thought it was really neat that we were standing where those soldiers stood and fought such a long time ago.

As we were trying to get pictures of the sunset, we didn't think about the fact that it might be dark before we got back down. We were almost all the way back down before it was pitch black, but the last bit was a bit long. I was sure someone was going to twist an ankle on rocks or tree roots. Thankfully, we all made it down safely. PK and I were going to go back Tuesday morning while the kids were in school, but it rained. I am excited about exploring the rest of the park and can hardly wait to have a chance to go back.

Family Fun

Last weekend P.K. was off of work so we decided to have some family fun. Aaron's class had gone to a local museum on a field trip and Aaron loved it. A few weeks ago Aaron and P.K. had a guys day and they went to the same museum. P.K. purchased a membership so we could all go back.

This museum had the best fossil/dinosaur exhibit I have ever seen.

P.K. was on the third floor overlooking these dinosaurs. Hannah wanted him to take a picture of us from above. There were several flying dinosaurs suspended in air. That was her favorite part. One can be seen in the top right hand corner of the above picture. Hannah and I are standing between the two tails.

The kids were able to touch fossils. Some of course were replicas but there were also some real ones.

There was a gallery of several types of dinosaurs "with skin on." Hannah wanted to bring Boof Bear so he is in several shots.

We walked into one gallery just in time for an animal chat. The kids got to touch a snake. Aaron loved that part!

The girls were both looking forward to making giant bubbles.

We are looking forward to taking advantage of the membership and going back.

Life's A Beach

We had another great weekend. We took a short trip to visit some friends who are about to move back to California. We wish them Fair Winds and Following Seas!!

Our friends have beach access nearby their current home. P.K. and I both had our cameras and I think we took about 300 pictures. Here are a few...

A view from the top.

P.K. went down first to recon.

Then he took the kids and the sand toys down while I took pictures from the top.

Mommy's turn. I was wearing flip flops. Flip Flops and steep hills are not a good mix.

Whew! We all made it down.

I found this rock which looks just like a heart and gave it to my hubby.

I don't like to have my picture taken or post pictures of myself for the world to see, but this one is the beginning of a fun story. I started digging a hole in the sand because it is fun.

Eventually it was this deep. Aaron challenged me to make it deeper than his knee.

Still digging...

Mommy, I think you need a bigger shovel.

Aaron thinks his mommy is the best hole digger ever. At this point he told me my new challenge was to make a hole that reaches his chin. To which I replied, "Uh, No!"

Rachel decided to try to fill the hole with water.

Aaron and Hannah decided to help.

This is about the time I realized that having children running up and down a slight incline carrying buckets of water was going to make them sleep really well. Yeah!

Once they succeeded, I decided we should dig a trench from the hole back to the lake and see if we could get the water to drain down our trench to the lake.

It worked! It was so much fun that we did it all over again.

Then we had to climb back up the hill.

Weekend Recap

We had a wonderful weekend. The kids didn't have school on Friday because it was a built in snow day that we didn't have to use. (That doesn't mean we didn't have snow during our long winter. That just means the powers that be didn't cancel school when we had to take two hours digging ourselves out of our street. That would be a different post.)

P.K. came back home on Friday from his two weeks away. We were all glad to have him back. Friday night we had family movie night and watched The Water Horse. The kids thought it was a good movie, but P.K. and I thought it was sssllloooowwww! Regardless, I love family time when everyone is relaxed and we don't have to think about getting to the next activity.

Saturday morning P.K. took Rachel and Aaron to swimming lessons while I got ready to clean out the garage. Maybe this wasn't a fun part of the weekend, but we purged some STUFF! We drug everything out of the garage, went through it and put what was left back in. The Goodwill got some good donations from us. P.K.'s Saturn was full. I finally gave up my big Rubbermaid containers of clothes I've been dreaming of fitting back into one day. If I ever win the battle of the bulge, I will treat myself to a few new items. I also donated a lot of activity books and supplies from my short lived teaching career and our homeschool days. We gave a couple tricycles to a friend with a little one who will get a lot of use out of them. Our neighbor who was outside watching her kids play inherited several Pampered Chef cookbooks (I had duplicates), some chapter books that Rachel isn't interested in reading, and a computer keyboard. P.K. tried to get her to take some other things, but she doesn't want her garage to look like ours. We parted with a file cabinet that we picked up at a used furniture store in our early days in California. It was an ugly green, but it has served us well. As we took out drawers, I learned that it had once been purple and blue. One of the the college guys across the street helped P.K. carry it to the curb. The poor kid didn't know that it had been through three states and probably carried spiders from all three states. I didn't volunteer the information either because I didn't want to touch it. One man driving by saw all of the stuff pulled out on the driveway and thought we were having a garage sale. We would have paid him to take some of the stuff. P.K. also gave up his trunks from his Coast Guard days. They were slightly damaged. I think he was ready to part with them many moves ago, but I get a bit sentimental. One of them served as our coffee table when we were first married. Why is it so hard to part with our stuff we don't really need? How did we become so emotionally attached to this stuff? It made us really happy when someone we know would agree to take something. I think because we knew it was going to a good home.

BEFORE

AFTER

As you can see from the pictures, we will never park a car in the garage. At least I won't die from embarrassment when someone catches us with the garage door up.

The city has several days a year when residents can put extra junk out for garbage pick up day. Luckily for us, our next garbage day was the bonus pick up day. I thought I would let you see the treasure we put out. There is a huge box of stuff behind the black garbage bags.

The kids were so well behaved all day long. Hannah played outside the whole time. Rachel and Aaron spent a little time watching their favorite shows, but other than that they were outside. In line with our obedience brings blessings philosophy, we treated our well behaved babies to dinner at Red Robin. Yum!

Hannah discovered seeds from maple trees. P.K. and I call them helicopters. Hannah and Aaron collected them in buckets and all the kids watched them twirl off of the deck. P.K. and I found them to be very nostalgic. I love it when nature entertains them!

Sunday we went to church together. Rachel and Aaron had Celebration Sunday in their class. At the end of each unit they have a special day to play games, win prizes and review what they have learned. Rachel won a movie pass to the new theatre just down the road from us so we took an opportunity to see a movie. We saw The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. We all loved it. I thought it would scare Aaron and Hannah. We showed them a preview before we went and they both wanted to see it. About a third of the way through Hannah (who is 4) asked me if we could rent it when it comes out. I told her we would be buying this one. It was a good two hours, but it went by quickly. Go see it if you haven't already.

I had to take a picture. I thought they were too cute with their ($3-gasp)boxes of movie candy. They seemed so grown up. P.K. and I were reminiscing about the days when we would take them to a drive-in movie and they would be all over the place. They are all at great ages. Family outings are so much fun. I know it won't be many more years before they would rather see the latest movies with their friends and not their families. But a momma can pray...

Monday I did my usual Monday morning Bible study with my friend Becky who is stationed in Washington (state). When we got off the phone an hour and a half after we started (makes it sound like we did some heavy duty studying...which we did...our current study is tough, but we do get off track...maybe me more than Becky...I totally digress...my point exactly)my house was very quiet. For a brief moment I thought the rapture had occurred and Becky and I who are trying to learn more about God and do his will were left behind. But alas, P.K. had taken the kids outside to ride their bikes and play with the boys next door.

We live on a dead end street and they were building a road at the end for the Tonka trucks. P.K. actually took this picture so I am not sure about the orange cones. Our neighbor is VERY safety conscious so I'm guessing he put them out. It's not a bad idea though. Hannah loves to dig. If you give that child a shovel and a patch of dirt, she is set.

It is weekends like these that make me sad when the kids have to go back to school and the rest of us go back to the craziness of day to day life.