A Whole New World

I asked David to shift car seats to make it easier to put Baby Joseph's seat in while Kelli was here. And so David decided Caleb was close enough to 1 and close enough to 20 pounds to go ahead and put in the big boy seat - facing the front! Caleb LOVED it! :) The first time I drove him in it, he kept looking at me in my rearview mirror and just smiling away! It's a whole new world for him now!

Movie Night!

It was nice coming home from vacation on Thursday night - because we still had two days of our "weekend" ahead of us since Friday is David's day off. After everyone had good, long naps on Friday (we really wore them out on vacation!), we had a family movie night on Friday!

David had picked up a free movie rental at the Blockbuster Kiosk (LOVE those free codes!!) to watch, so after getting Caleb in bed, we all settled in to watch.

Unfortunately, there was a problem with the DVD, so after spending 10 minutes trying to clean/fix it, we had to give up and switch gears. We found the Prince of Egypt VHS tape (old, old, old, I know!) in the recesses of the closet and decided the boys were old enough to watch it.

They were riveted! We had talked through the book of Genesis on vacation and so they were SO excited to see the movie of the story of Moses. They were quick to correct which parts in the movie weren't "right" - as in, not exactly how the Bible teaches it! We enjoyed ourselves....even if it did end up being a late night! :)

Night Night Caleb!

In preparation for our trip to Spartanburg for the music conference during the first week of August, I knew I'd have to make sure Caleb was totally weaned a little before his birthday. Now, I've ALWAYS weaned by kids when they turned one, but for some reason, this one felt strange. I don't know if it's because I felt pressure that he HAD to be done since David & I were going to be gone, or because of the possibility that he's my last one, or what. He's always been a good nurser - all of my babies have - but he really seemed to just like that time with me. Probably because it was the only time no one could get to him and pester him! But he'd play with my hair and just look at me. So I was sort of sad to see it come to an end - happy to finally get rid of the nursing "gear" if you know what I mean, and happy to start getting my body back (hopefully), but still sad. Sigh. So this was the night of his very last feeding. Night night Caleb!

Saying Goodbye to the Mountain House

It was finally time to head back home. Sad to say goodbye - we had such a wonderful week. It was everything that I had prayed for...and so much more. Again, so very thankful for the blessing of this week. We needed it!

Enjoying one of my FAVORITE traditions about the last day of vacation...you gotta eat up all the ice cream left in the freezer, so ice cream for breakfast!!! And a double scoop at that!

The boys played archery on the deck while we packed up and cleaned up...

On the way home, we stopped at Fuddrucker's for lunch - a first for the kids. They LOVED choosing their own cookie after their lunch...and they all chose a different type! Go figure! :) What a week!

The Lake - at Ridge Haven

One of the coolest things we did on vacation had to be THE LAKE!! We had access to a Christian camp that was on the same mountain that we were, and so on our last night, we picked up a couple pizzas from a local pizzeria (love that!...and by the way, yes, we have to get 2 pizzas now for our "little" family...) and headed to the lake to enjoy our last night. We timed it perfectly, because the campers (this was a REAL youth camp) were all across the street from the lake having dinner and some kind of hilarious dance camp. We had GREAT music to play too, for sure! :)

PS - There are a million pictures...but we had SO much fun and I knew the kids would LOVE seeing these pictures again....Feel free to skip over, but they had to get in THE BOOK!

All suited up in our lifejackets...everyone had to wear one...rules.

Callie was super excited. David had brought the older three earlier in the week and they told me they LOVED it! So I was anxious to see it for myself....

And Caleb and I were done. We got into a tube for about 45 seconds and then got right back out. He did NOT like his life jacket. I saw fish swimming around the dock where I got in, and the thought of tipping over into that lake just didn't get me excited. I guess I'm a water snob. Just give me a nice clean pool or ocean where I can see my feet ANY day!!! I decided I'd do just fine sitting on the dock and taking pictures - and enjoying my kids!

There was the huge platform that had a rope swing from it.

David successful!! The boys didn't have enough arm strength to do it (but they tried!)

Instead Jacob thought it was pretty cool just to climb way UP on the platform and then jump in. I couldn't believe he wasn't scared at all! (and there's Josiah in the canoe below - he was amazing at it! Go figure!)

Look out below!

Apparently Josiah has canoeing in his genes. He just hopped right in and maneuvered all around the lake! Like he'd been doing it all his life! I'm not sure that I could have done it!

They had this HUGE waterslide...it would have freaked me out to do it. I DIDN'T do it. But the kids - all 3 of them - did it about a thousand times. Over and over. This is Callie - she shot out of there so fast! Totally loved it - no fear!

There's all the fun, brave people in our family! :)

Jacob coming down on his stomach...

Trying it out with a tube (not a good idea - they about flipped over the slide...)

Caleb just happy to hang out with mommy. He grabbed a cup that we had used to drink orange soda with our dinner...I think he was trying to lick an remaining drops out of it! :) He's a smart one!

This sign was at the lake. This vacation really did give us rest - despite the full, busy, adventurous days. We had wonderful time together as a family - much needed time. And so it WAS rest for us. As I was sitting on that deck watching my husband and 3 of my precious kids with the other one crawling at my feet, I felt rested. Refreshed. So very thankful for the gift of this week.

There's Callie again. Notice that there is no one at the bottom to catch her. That's because she just did it over and over again. Wouldn't tell anyone - didn't need anyone to go up with her to the top or come down with her. That girl had NO fear! She LOVED it!!!

David helped the boys to climb up the rope swing from the bottom (since they couldn't hold on from the top) and he'd push them to swing...This is Jacob giving it a try...

Josiah swinging

Dirty face boy...

David in the kayak...

Can you see how far up that slide goes? I still don't think the picture gives you a fair representation of the size...

Trying again on a different tube...same result....

Trying to slide down and land IN the tube this time! :)

Don't you love how babies can be happily entertained by just about anything? Caleb's playing with pine straw here :)

A hole in one!

Right into the donut!

Callie came out like a starfish everytime - she is so light that she just flew down the slide...and would come out with her arms and legs totally flailing out - hilarious!

Climbing up David to swing

Hmmm...you think I could squeeze under there?

I just noticed the rest of my family is out THERE!

Josiah showing off his kayaking skills

Zoom in on this one - his feet are NOT touching the chair!!!!

Josiah hollered for me all the way across the lake..."take a picture of me doing this Mom!"

Can you see all the fish down there? By the kayak? Yep - that's why I was the photographer and not the very cool mom who played in the lake that day!!! :)