Little Boy Blue

Isn't he the CUTEST???? This is my nephew Joseph (or Baby Joe as he might be forever called in our house...) - he just had his 1st birthday and he LOVED his cake! Can you tell? :) He and Caleb are best friends (of course) and I just could EAT him up!!! Happy birthday Joe - we sure do wish we could have been there to celebrate with you! Enjoy your legos - we love you SO much!!! (I guess that means I have to take his birth announcement off my fridge now? :) )

Where did the week go?

Here it is Friday night - I'm not sure what happened to this week! I mean, I lived every moment, and enjoyed (most) of them, but I wasn't on the blogs at all? My little crew kept me very occupied (duh - they always do), but there were a few other things I suppose. So here's our week in a nutshell:

1. Started a crazy new exercise video with a friend, who shall remain nameless because I don't know if she wants to be "outed" or not. But she asked if I would do it with her and I agreed - it's always more fun to have a friend along the ride! We both are runners but felt like we need a kick in the pants - to sort of jumpstart our muscles and bodies again. So we're doing the Jillian Michaels "30 Day Shred" DVD. I thought it would be a joke - that it would be easy. Never really been into the whole exercise tape things, but this one is for REAL! Felt like my quads were on FIRE for 3 days. No lie. But we're doing it! So far so good!!

2. Enjoyed our 31 cent ice cream at Baskin Robbins on Wednesday night. The kids were SO excited - Callie told EVERYONE that we walked passed at church (we went after choir practice). They all went in saying they were going to get mint chocolate chip ice cream (my favorite that I've brainwashed them to like too! :) ). Then Callie noticed someone had pink/purple swirl ice cream so she wanted that. THEN the boys realized that the pink/purple ice cream was cotton candy flavor, so that's what they ALL got. Eww. So when I realized I wasn't going to get to just "taste" their mint ice creams and just enjoy my no sugar added variety, I had to abort and go with the full fat yummy mint chocolate chip for me. oh well - it cost me $1.32 for all of us to get ice cream cones -can't beat that!

3. Finished up my freezer cooking. Back in the day, (before Beth abandoned me and moved to Raleigh), we'd do all this in a day. This time around I had to sort of space it over the span of a week. But it's done now, and these are the meals in my freezer:
* French Onion Pot Roast
* Mushroom Gravy Pot Roast
* Sweet & Sour Chicken (2 batches)
* Chicken Enchiladas
* Italian Chicken Rollups (2 batches)
* Chicken Burritos (2 batches)
* Shoyu Chicken (2 batches)
* Smothered Chicken
* Catalina Chicken
* Angel Chicken Pasta
* Grandma's Pork Chops
* Glazed Pork Chops
* Zesty Onion Meatloaf
* Lasagna
* Stuffed Shells
* Chili
* Hamburger Stroganoff
* Taco Filling
* Salisbury Steak
* Santa Fe Stew
* Poppyseed Chicken (2 batches)

I also made Beef Enchiladas and Chicken Divan, but we already ate that this week. The big difference in my cooking this time was that I couldn't "halve" any of the recipes anymore - I guess now that we're a family of 6, that's just how it is! :) After typing up all those meals, I guess it makes a little more sense why I haven't been on the computer - I was cooking during any spare minute!

4. REALLY enjoying the music for our worship concert that's coming up in a few weeks. You know it's SERIOUSLY good when you listen to it while running (I don't even skip the "slow" songs) with your arms raised in the air in the midst of your 4 miles - I couldn't help myself!!!

5. Another great week of piano - they called Mom tonight after their lessons to play a song for her. There were several days when I found them in the front room playing different songs. One time they were both on the bench with their books trying to play "Old MacDonald" -they've both got it in their books, but it's not the same...they didn't care - they thought they were cool for playing a "duet"! :) I'm amazed at how well they are doing and how much they are picking up already - after only a few weeks. It's definitely time consuming for me, but SO well worth it.

6. I'm on "snack duty" for soccer tomorrow. Jacob is so excited because I got him chocolate milk boxes for his team. He doesn't like juice. At all. Never has. Only drinks milk and water. No matter where we are. Poor kid. So he always gives the juice box that every OTHER kid brings for snacks at soccer to Callie. And he just drinks his water bottle. Which is fine, but I wanted to get him something fun since it's his turn. He's super excited about his chocolate milk tomorrow! :)

7. Our pool opens tomorrow!!! Guess what we'll be doing after soccer games? :)

8. So that's about it. A great week. We're all good. Really good. I'm preparing myself for next week. David's going to be gone at a conference until Thursday, so that's not going to be fun. And it's Teacher Appreciation Week, so I'm still trying to formulate my plan for that. But we're all good. Have MUCH to be thankful for. And I AM thankful!! :)

GPS - God's Plan of Salvation

The kids did their musical on Sunday night as well. They have been SO excited about this and we were SO excited to see them! I know I said the same thing at Christmas time, but it brings back so many memories of when I was in these children's musicals. Their musical was called "GPS - God's Plan of Salvation". The story was about a kid taking their driving test and the GPS was trying to direct her all along the way. It compared the GPS to God's Word - that it guides and directs us. They had songs about the "Rules of the Road" (10 commandments) and Psalm 1:1 - different songs that spoke about ways we can live our lives to follow the Lord. It was GREAT!

Here's Jacob's face again...lips pursed, surly face. I think he was nervous and so he made this crazy first for the first song. Thankfully he snapped out of it and did GREAT for the rest of the program. It helped that he and Josiah were right in the front row - right in front of their director too! :)

The whole choir - the boys LOVED this motion. Putting their arms around their necks and swaying back and forth. I don't know why it cracked them up, but it did! :)

Josiah got to hold the sign for the 3rd commandment - and he was SO proud and excited about it! (See Jacob over his right shoulder?) :) Josiah almost didn't turn around in time because he was so "into the singing" he told me!

All 10 commandments - our boys know them now!

Another of their favorite motions....they were singing "Oh NO!" during this one! :)

This was at the end of their "Modern Day Idolatry" song - very cute! They sang about how we can take things from this world and turn them into modern day idols...their music was solid, I'm telling you!

Lyrics in the last song were "You're the Way, the Truth, and the Life" - this was them spelling the "L" for Life. Jacob loved this one especially.

I was so proud of the boys - they did a great job and had so much fun doing it!!

Missions Awards

On Sunday night, the kids were all presented with their Missions Awards for the end of the year ceremony. I LOVE that our church is so missions-focused...even with the littlest ones! Jacob's class (4-5 year olds) are called Mission Friends, and they all got a certificate.

Not the best picture, but I LOVE Jacob's expression in this. When he gets a little bit excited and embarrassed, he gets this cute little face - he sort of purses his lips together and tries REALLY hard not to smile. It's hilarious.
Here's Josiah receiving his RA plaque. Royal Ambassadors is the program for the boys, and his 1st/2nd grade class was amazing. They were actively involved in so many different projects throughout the year - feeding the homeless, making Build-a-Bears for a children's home, raising money at Christmas for the Lottie Moon offering, doing Laps for the Lord to raise money for missions at Easter - it was great. I LOVE that they were seeing FIRST-HAND how to serve our community!

So Long, Insecurity!

On Saturday morning, I had the priviledge of attending the Beth Moore simulcast titled "So Long, Insecurity". It was based on her new book that came out several months ago by the same title. It's a WONDERFUL book - I'm almost done with it - and is very eye opening about a lot of things.

You all know how much I love Beth Moore. Her biblestudies push me deeper into the Word of God than anyone else's. She cracks me up like no one else does. I have done her studies every week, 2 semesters a year, for the last 7 years...until this year. I had to take a break this year to get our little family settled and adjusted. It was the wise decision for me, but a hard one. So it was SO good to hear Beth's voice again! :)

The boys were supposed to have soccer games that morning, so the plan was for David to drop Caleb and me off at the church early and then take the big boys and Callie to soccer. He'd swing by after soccer was done to pick Caleb up and then head home for the afternoon until I was done. But he called 5 minutes before the simulcast started and said their games got rained out and he could come get Caleb if I wanted him to. YES - thank you! He took him home and took care of all 4 kids for me so I could sit and soak in the message. Caleb got to have his normal naps and even took a bottle (YAHOO!!) without a problem.

I loved the day - loved the message that Beth brought, loved some time just for myself, loved the break, loved digging deeper into a passage of Scripture that I've read a thousand times but saw in a whole new way. It was great. Travis Cottrell leads worship for Beth at these conferences and he was awesome, as always. Our worship ministry is doing his newest worship CD (called "Jesus Saves") for our worship concert in a few weeks. It is amazing music and so much of it is STRAIGHT Scripture. I love that! (And David loved that I got to "practice" my music!) :)

Get Beth's book, get Travis' CD, and you'll be good to go for a while! :)

First Nap Honors go to....

JACOB!!!! He begged me to let him just have "rest time" on the chair today. He assured me that he was NOT tired and didn't need a nap since he had one yesterday...and look who fell asleep!! :) (I'm not requiring a nap every day anymore since he's starting school in a few months....but this boy is a sleeper so it's going to be an adjustment!!) And yes, that is a light sabre already tucked into the corner of my brand new chair!!!

We're going to try and stop by Chick-fil-A for dinner tonight - it's spirit night tonight at Josiah's school and the principals are making milkshakes! :) When David dropped Josiah off this morning, the CFA cow was there and they were handing out chicken biscuits - I was SO mad and VERY jealous!!! Then we've got soccer practice and hopefully am able to pick up David's bday present at some point - it's finally IN!!!

I told you it was tall!!

I told you I wasn't exaggerating! This new mattress set is TALL!!! Our bed is now as tall as Callie (who didn't quite understand why I wanted her to stand next to my bed to take a picture - I needed her for scale reasons!) The comforter BARELY touches the dust ruffle now - it's pretty funny! I sort of like being up high though!!!

Out with the Old, In with the New!

Last night, we cleared out the living room in anticipation of our new furniture being delivered today. The kids were pretty funny when they woke up and came downstairs to an empty room. Callie said "Hey! Why did you vaccuum all this?" Then Jacob came down, still very groggy and half-asleep and said "Can I watch a show?" to which Josiah replied "Yeah, but you'll have to STAND UP!" They were all pretty tickled.

We moved our old furniture into our dining room (since it's empty :) ) to await their new homes once they are sold/donated.

When I told Callie that the living room was empty so we could wait for our new couch to come, she went into the kitchen, saw our old couch in the dining room, and said "here it is! I found it!"

Here's the new couch! It's huge - that was one of my big things - I wanted the biggest couch I could get! And comfy enough for Josiah to curl up while watching his one show after school.

And the chair and a half - Caleb likes the ottoman the best I think! :)

And more good news? We've already sold some of the old stuff on Craigs List! Yippee!! Now I'm totally ready to paint the living room (the mustard color looks HORRIBLE) and kitchen - hooray hooray! :)

Happy 37th Birthday David!

Whew! What a crazy night! It's a good thing we went out LAST night to celebrate - just David and me - because tonight was nuts!! David got home at 6 pm, grilled the chicken that I had marinaded for the chicken alfredo, kids were running around outside like crazy people and getting filthier and filthier by the minute, and Caleb was crying because he was so hungry for dinner! We finally sat down to eat at 6:40 I think - reminded children of manners about a thousand times, ate dinner, and then QUICKLY lit the candles so we could sing to David. The hilarious thing is that Callie was the only one that ate any cake (and only a few bites at that). She almost didn't get any either because she was refusing her broccoli. The boys didn't want it because they have both declared their distaste for peanut butter (Jacob has ALWAYS adamantly hated it, but Josiah is a new declarer). David & I wanted to wait - we were just trying to hurry up through the "celebration" so we could get the crazies in bed. Gave them all a good scrubbing in the tub and finally had them all in bed by 7:30 pm. Whew. They were nuts!

As I mentioned before, no present for David to open. I got him a GPS, but it hasn't arrived yet. Sigh. He's excited about it though - he's been asking for the last year for one. He makes home visits to our church members every week, so this will help him a great deal. When it gets here anyways, it will help him! :) At least David had some birthday cards to open today! And before you feel TOO sad for him, he's got lots of new things to celebrate anyways. On Saturday, we bought a new mattress set for our bed and it was delivered last night. The mattress we've had since we got married was from when David still lived at HOME - so it's probably as old or older than we are!! Needless to say, we slept great last night! :) (I'll have to take a picture of it - it's SOOOO thick it makes our bed super tall now!)

And then last night we got a babysitter for the kids and we went out to a japanese steakhouse (hibachi grill style) for dinner last night. It's just so fun and we LOVE it - and it was GREAT to be able to go without little people!!! We had been looking at furniture stores recently and went to one last night after dinner...and bought a new couch and chair for our living room - yippee!! Again, it was so nice to go without little people!!! :) We finally were able to take our time looking around without pulling kids off of sofas or telling them to stop laying in all the beds, etc, etc. We finally found what we were looking for and got it ordered - it's coming tomorrow! Our first couch that we've picked out and bought ourselves - we've always had hand-me-downs to this point (which we were VERY thankful for, but this is exciting!).

So don't feel too bad that David didn't have a present to open from me tonight - it's been a very expensive birthday weekend! :)

Something you don't see every day....

Superheroes playing tennis (well, not really tennis...I think they said if they hit the ball past the other one, they get a point...or something like that)...

Thanks to Michelle Obama....

Home Depot had some veggies & herbs on sale B1G1 on Sunday afternoon, so I decided it would be okay to FINALLY try planting a little garden. It's something I've said for years that I wanted to try (mainly for the herbs - I'd LOVE to have fresh herbs), so we'll see what happens. I am NOT a gardener....so we'll see what happens! The kids were SO excited about it....I hope they aren't devastated if it doesn't work!

A Little Birthday Cheer at the Office

Shhh...don't tell Daddy that some little fingers got to the cake while it was cooling.....
I made 2 Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cakes and we surprised David with them at work today for him to share with the staff. I even brought in a gallon of milk for them - it was that kind of cake! :)

David's secretary had this awesome Yoda balloon made for him! :)

The kids all made birthday signs for his door...

So far, very fun! More fun tonight...although his birthday present is on backorder...sigh...

Callie at 3 years old

I can't remember if I posted about Callie's 3 year check up last week - I'm thinking I didn't. I initially forgot about her appointment (OOPS) and had to call and apologize (so embarrassing). I knew about it the day before and then totally forgot the day of until 45 minutes after my time was supposed to be. I was able to get in the next day and it worked out. She did great and was excited about her turn to pee in a cup (she goes to all the doctors visits and the boys have gotten to do this several times now, so she was excited for her turn!). This is probably TMI, but it cracks me up. After she was done, she turns to me and says, in her very serious voice and with her finger pointed at me, "This is for the test. This is not for drinking." Of course, that is as a result of her asking at some other visit that the boys had "Why is the doctor thirsty??" Ewww. Had to explain that this was a different kind of cup!!

Anyways, her appointment went great and all is well with her. She is 36 inches (3 feet tall) and weights a whopping 27 pounds. She weighed 24 pounds at 2 years old!!! The doctor said "i'm guessing that she's always been on the petite side?" Yep. So 25% percentile for both, but she's doing just great!!

This video is of her latest and greatest hobby - reading books outloud. She has always loved books but has started reading them to herself - making up stories as she goes along. It is absolutely hilarious to me!

SO much to be thankful for.

I had to go in and look at them all last night. After my cryfest on the computer you know.

Caleb Isaac. He really is such a happy, contented baby. People ask me all the time - "is he really this happy all the time?" Yes. He sleeps great. He eats well. He's so cute in this exploratory, crawling stage. Everything makes him SO happy. I love nursing him because he just looks at me and plays with my hair. Like he has no where better to be in the world. I love him.
Callie Elizabeth. All of 3 years old. And yet she is quite a little lady these days. She mimics everything I do. She completely adores her daddy. She tries to keep up with the big boys, and can in a lot of ways. On Sunday nights when the big boys are at choir, I get a few hours with just her and Caleb. We usually are running an errand or two, but she always is SO much fun to shop with! Last night we went to Home Depot to get some herbs to grow (!!!) and when I told her when were going shopping, she said, in her squeally voice, "OH, that will be pun!!!" (because her fs come out like ps now a days.) I don't know what I'd do without her! I love this sweet little girl.

Jacob Aaron. This one cracks me up. He is everywere, all the time. But he is soooo tender and loving. With his little brother. With his sister some of time, he can be so very helpful and "big brother-y". He's getting ready to start school in the fall, and I can hardly believe it that the time has almost already come. He is VERY observant, and also very black and white. He notices things that Josiah doesn't always notice - he's very clued in. He loves to be held, loves to hold, loves to give hugs, love to roll around on the floor and be tickled - he's definitely our physical one. Boy do I love him.

Josiah David. He's growing up very quickly. This has been an amazing year of growth for him. We had so much change, and I was nervous about how he'd handle it. But he has done amazingly well, and we have seen his confidence skyrocket. He is so very smart, but has also really grown in his confidence in himself and his ability to do things himself. Just this past weekend the children's choirs had a special rehearsal and sleepover for the 1st-5th grade choirs. I wasn't sure if he would want to go (especially since Jacob wouldn't be there), but he INSISTED on being there. And he had a GREAT time - totally loved it! He really does have a desire to please us, and also is really developing a love of Scripture and God's Word. David has been having him read the Scripture passage in their devotions each night and he loves it. Thrives on attention that quality time brings. I love this boy.

wow

so here i sit at the computer after having cried my eyes out for the last hour. I hadn't intended to still be awake, but after checking in on sandi's blog, i got sidetracked on this site:
http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com. It's the story of Todd & Angie Smith. He sings with Selah, and she has recently written a book. 2 years ago, their baby girl passed away after only living a few hours outside of the womb. Their story is absolutely unbelievable. Their pain is unfathomable to me. And yet their testimony is completely miraculous. I've got more to say - we heard an incredible message today about why bad things happen to good people - but I can't process it all right now. There are so many hurting people around. So many people whose lives have been absolutely turned upside down. Satan would have nothing more than to just sit back and laugh at how he has destroyed lives. Destroyed families. Destroyed marriages. Destroyed children. But then there are stories like Todd & Angie Smith. Who have absolutely been amazing testimonies of the fact that God is still God. That He never changes. and that His good WILL be accomplished - no matter what Satan is trying to use for evil. Unbelievable.

2 more "hiking with Callie" memories

Two things I forgot to post about from our hiking trip:

1. As we were hiking up to see one of the waterfalls, Callie noticed that one of the people walking DOWN the mountain had their jacket tied around their waist. She decided to take her hoodie off and wanted it tied the same way. Then, for the rest of the day, she pointed out everyone ELSE that was wearing their jacket around their waist and said "look - we match!" She was so proud of herself!

2. As we hiked, Callie was constantly in a state of conversation. Sometimes she was talking to me, sometimes she was singing, and sometimes she was just talking. A lady passed us by and said "oh, isn't she darling!" Callie got this very angry look on her face and replied "NO I am NOT darling!!!" The lady and I just died laughing. I'm not sure what she thought darling meant, but she didn't want any part of it!

So I Don't Forget....

....when Callie gets into a hot car, she starts crying that HER NOSE IS HOT!!!! A little dramatic, I know, but she freaks out!

Blog Book Info

Several of you have asked for more information about how I did my blog books. I can't take all the credit for this one - my friend Beth's sister-in-law (Vonda) recommended Blog2Print to us. She used it to order her blog books and was SO thrilled with them. I've had several friensd make books in the past using blurb.com, and their books are GORGEOUS, but I kept putting it off because it requires you to create your book post by post, picture by picture. I didn't feel like it mattered to me THAT much to devote THAT much time. The books are incredible looking - for you creative types, maybe you'd LOVE it. It would have driven me mad.

Blog2Print basically is a one-click thing. I entered my blog address, selected which dates I wanted the book to encompass (Jan. 1 - Dec. 31 for each year, except 2009 which was too big to fit in one book so I split it into 2 volumes), and then hit "go" and it creates your book in a matter of minutes - literally! I changed the cover color and the pictures that go on the front/back of the books, but that was it! So 15 minutes later, I was done! Right up my alley!

You totally should do it - it's so worth it to have my blog - my journal essentially - in paper form. I LOVE it!

A new trick courtesy of our pastor

Remember this picture of our pastor Rocky holding Caleb when he was born? I have so appreciated the way that he always has been with our kids. Talks right to them, very engaging and loving with them. (I remember one weekend when we were here interviewing he SOMEHOW ended up sitting next to Callie at lunch on Sunday afternoon - and her 2 year old ways after a long day past nap time. It didn't phase him at all - and I thought wow! He is a REAL guy!!
On Saturday, I had to hold Caleb during part of our special choir rehearsal. We were practicing for our worship concert in May and Caleb had to stay with me for part of it. Rocky had come in early to wait for his wife Sherrie who is singing in the choir with us. He saw I was holding Caleb and came up and got him from me. He then spent the next 15 minutes walking around with him, playing with him, and even feeding him his snacks! When he gave him back to me after rehearsal was over, he told me that Caleb learned how to get his OWN snacks (from his snack trap)!! He taught him a new trick! :) So thankful to have a pastor that is willing to love on my kids a bit!! :)

Back on top!

Okay, so I'm FINALLY done uploading all the pictures from our vacations last week. It really was a GREAT spring break for us - very full, but very fun and lots of memories were made. This week has been good to settle back into the routine. I spent the first few days just WASHING everything - the thing about camping is that EVERYTHING has to get washed when you come home because it all smells like campfire! Luckily the weather has been beautiful this week so I was able to air out things outside which helped.

We also started our new routine with piano practices added in. Josiah is pretty self-sufficient with his practicing now, but Jacob still needs alot of help to walk him through what he's working on. Josiah was particularly excited about all of it - he's so black and white! Most days, he did his practicing BEFORE he left for school! We're enjoying it though - they are both loving the sense of accomplishment they are getting from it!

Now to catch up on reading all of YOUR blogs! :)

Caleb's 1st Bloody Lip

See the bloodstains on his overalls? And his puffy little lip? Poor guy - he's still smiling though! He fell (somehow...I didn't see it happen) and bonked his lip and it was the first fall that drew blood. He's a trooper though - very tough! :)

My Blog Books are Here!!!

We got back from camping at 8 am on Saturday morning. We had to be back in time for the boys' soccer games, so we left the campsite at 5:30 AM (yes, that means we were up at 4:30 am to pack up - we put the kids in the van and then packed up the campsite and tent). The kids slept on the way home and I was THRILLED that we didn't have to go straight to the field. We got home, David took a shower, I fed the boys breakfast, and then they left for their games. I was able to stay home with Callie and Caleb (give them nice LONG baths) and start unpacking the car. After the boys got home, they had lunch, showers, and then everyone settled in for a nap. Once everyone was situated, I headed downstairs to clean up after lunch and then planned to take a nap myself. I went out to get the mail and saw two large boxes on the steps - it was my blog books! All intentions of taking a nap went out the window - I was SO excited!!

I sat down and read my 2007 blog book completely through - it was so fun to relieve all those memories and see the pictures of the kids - they were SOO little! I haven't made it through the other years yet, but I'm SO excited!

David & Callie looking at the 2007 book (Callie LOVED seeing all the pictures of her as a baby!)

The cover of the 2008 book - the picture is from our 10 year anniversary trip (sans kids!) to Key West!! Oh we were so tan and rested skinny....sigh....

2009 was such a HUGE year that I had to break it into two volumes! :)

Caleb's Laugh

This is what I heard behind me everytime he'd pull my ponytail around. I'll look behind him and he would just laugh that cute little belly laugh!! I love how you can hear the waterfalls in the background - it was so great!

Waterfalls!

After a great lunch of chili and mac&cheese, we got into the car and drove about 20 minutes across the border into North Carolina to see some wonderful waterfalls. We were looking for Bridal Veil Falls, but because of some road closures due to debris, we had to alter our plans. We went to the next closest state park to see Hooker Falls (ironic isn't it? Couldn't find Bridal Veil Falls, so went to Hooker Falls instead!). It was great - we were able to park and hike to see 3 different falls! First, we hiked about 1/2 a mile to see Hooker Falls...

Josiah was pretty excited about all of this. He wanted me to take pictures of all 3 falls (like I wouldn't anyways) so he could decided which was his favorite.
We even got to see some kayakers come over the falls!!! That's one sport DEFINITELY not for me! The kids (& David) were enthralled!

Josiah wanted me to take this picture of the "smooth" water

Next we hiked about 1.5 miles to see Triple Falls - see the 3 waterfalls? Very cool!

I do believe she's posing!

This is much of what I saw on our hiking adventures. David and the boys way up in front of Callie and I....waiting on us. They were very patient! :)

And then we hiked another 1/2 mile (up the rest of the tall mountain) to see High Falls! It was amazing!!!

Another view of High Falls.

Can you see David and the kids down there? Caleb, Callie and I stayed up top and David took the older boys down to climb on the rocks in the water.

We were able to find a safer climb about halfway down. Then I sat with Caleb on my back and David came to get Callie. She didn't want to be left out of course!

Caleb had been on David's back all day, so he thought it was pretty funny to now be on my back. He kept pulling my ponytail around so he could see my face...and then he'd just laugh and laugh!

There was definitely a moment when my heart was in my throat. David was CROSSING the water with all 3 of those sweet kids, and I thought I was going to have a heart attack! But they made it safely and just absolutely LOVED it!!!

Waving to Mommy - David probably said "wave to mommy and show her that you are okay!"

It was a great afternoon of hiking and exploring!! We were thrilled to get to see all those waterfalls - and so close!! What fun!