Hiking

On Saturday, the 19th, we decided to try out the hiking trails.  We decided to take on a 4 mile rugged trail through the woods.  No we do not hike on a normal basis, but you don’t have the opportunity every day to hike great trails, right?  So why not go all out?  That’s exactly what we did!  By the way, the temperature for the day was in the 90s…and very humid.  So here we go!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We packed up several cold drinks and small food items and headed off.  Sydney started with the backpack, Joe with London on his back, and me with the camera:)  The rest followed in line as we headed into the woods.

We started out feeling great with smiles on our faces.

 

There had been a bad storm the night before that made the trails VERY muddy and left behind a few fallen trees.

All I can say is boys will be boys.  That is a very large worm that Harrison grabbed, and he is standing on the trail, in the mud.  The rest of us dodged the water and mud as best as we could….not Harrison.  He just trudged right through whatever was on the path. 

Taking a break along the trail…starting to sweat pretty good.

Picture fun on one of the lookout stops.

The sun was VERY bright.

 

On the road again…we started picking up walking sticks at this point.  Although Harrison decided to collect firewood…only Harrison.

A bug friend…anyone know if this is a moth or a butterfly?  I vote moth.

The lookouts were beautiful…the sky was sooo blue!

The firewood is getting heavy.

Love this shot.

Taking a break.

Right about now I was wishing they made these for adults…but then again who would carry me???

Back at it…now everyone has a walking stick.

Ahhh, a cool creek.  How about splashing a little on our faces?  Nah, the boys just stuck their heads straight in!

You know it was hot if Sydney was willing to stick her head in too:)

Harrison is now up to his knees in creek water…crazy kid.

Yes!  The sign we’d been looking for!

It looks like Holland is still hanging on to her smile!  Here we are at the end…4. hours. later! 

It turned out to be another great day!

Nashville, Indiana

On the evening after our fishing venture, we headed into “town”.  The town was Nashville, Indiana and was a perfect picture of smalltown USA.

Quaint shops, native flowers in full bloom, and cottage style homes abound in this small town.  Hope I can give you a small glimpse of our visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course we stopped at the local ice cream depot…hand dipped ice cream in a waffle cone, my favorite! 

A very peaceful evening.

Interesting Find

 

Ok, so we are heading back to camp and we come across a 3-4 ft.  Timber Rattlesnake.  It was such an exciting find that I thought it deserved it’s own post.  I got as close as I could without endangering my life.  Although, a few of the pics got a little blurry when  I started backing up to move out of it’s way.  Here goes…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bye Timber Rattler, thanks for the show….stay in the woods and away from my campsite!

Summer Vacation Part 1

Well we’ve finally reached a place with WI-FI, giving me a chance to update the good old information highway in my little life!  So we started off on Thursday, June 17th, with camper in tow, and ended up at Brown County State Park in Nashville, Indiana.  For those of you who are not familiar with the layout of our state, that would be about 1 hour or so south of Indianapolis.

 

This particular park boasts over 15,000 acres, and includes hiking, biking, camping, fishing, and more.

Now, before I start with the photos, I want to warn you that I took over 500 pictures during the 3 day stay at Brown County…so I’ll do my best to pick only my favorites:)  But they say, a pictures worth 1,000 words…so I’ll let my pictures do the talking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Site 414 was our “home” for three days.

 

The crew decided to climb to the top of and old fire tower…I on the other hand opted to watch from below…it was a long way up and I don’t care much for heights.

This is a view from above.

 

That little white dot is me.

We headed to Ogle Lake to try our hands at fishing.  There were a lot of little hands willing to give it a try.

 

 

These little dragonflies kept landing on the poles, I finally caught a picture of one.

Busted…on the picnic table!

We finally caught a fish!  A decent sized catfish I might add…we let him go after everyone got a good look at him.

 

A few shots of some of my favorite subjects…Harrison informed me that that was the last one I was allowed to take of him.

  

Of course we had to take a break on the playground before heading back to camp.  Jackson decided to create his own playground attraction…as most boys do.

Holland quickly followed suit…

and of course everyone had to give it a try!

And when everyone was done even London climbed up (that alone was a great feat for such a little person).

A beautiful view of the handiwork of God!

Friends

Today was a hot one…perfect day for a swim!  Especially after sweating it out in the garden.   Hot dogs and chips is probably the easiest way to feed 11 hungry kids….so that’s what we did.  Not necessarily “clean eating”…but none of the kids were complaining:)  Just the perfect way to spend a day…with friends.

   

Ok…in case you didn’t notice, Monroe, my dog, has his nose in the picture…he’s eyeing those hot dogs!  He may be old but he hasn’t lost his love for food.

So it was a little bright out…I think London has sensitive eyes like her father.  Thanks Nick for taking London for a swim, her mom wasn’t really up for the frigid plunge.

We finished the day beading with the girls’ close friends…

They were hard at work making all sorts of beaded creations.

Here are some of Sydney’s designs, although I think some of the designs were learned from friends…the patents are still pending on these:)  I’ve been attempting to get them to turn their creations into jewelry as there is not a ton of use for small beaded creatures, but they have tons of fun doing it nonetheless!  So all in all, the day was definitely a success!  Thanks friends for fun times!

No Longer A Stranger

“Keep on loving each other as brothers.  Do not forget to entertain strangers , for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”  Hebrews 13:1&2

About a month ago our family had the opportunity to entertain a “stranger”.  At the time, that’s what he was to us,  a stranger from Australia. 

Several months back this energetic Aussie entered Joe’s office looking for real estate investment opportunities.  He was here and gone in a day, but he and Joe maintained communication via email.  After some time passed Craig (our Aussie friend) decided he needed to spend some time in the area (1 week) really seeing what was out here.  So we opened our home to him and we now have a forever friend. 

We learned about koalas, poisonous spiders, kangaroos, capsicum (i.e. peppers), blokes and mates (i.e. friends), beach (sp?) root, gardens (i.e. a backyard), and more.  We shared stories, experiences, faith, and overall life for a week.  We now have a new found friend…another divine appointment I am certain.  We look forward to future visits, thank you Craig for blessing our family!