Vacation Bible School

This week we had Vacation Bible School at church. 

 I lucked out and was able to be one of the leaders in Link's class.  

They had some cool crafts this week.  I loved the throwback to the spirograph!

Ethan was a youth volunteer this year.  He was located in preschool crafts and loved it!

The youth are on the stage during snack.  We have an amazing youth group!

Future fourth grade boys do not sit with the girls!

That's ok because future fourth grade girls do not want to sit with the boys!

Big Ethan and little Ethan! 

Link's favorite time was outdoor games.  This was the nastiest activity.  Dirty sock game.  YUCK!  

It was a three day VBS and all three of us had the best time!  

First Swim Meet

The fellas had their first swim meet this past week.  

They were so excited to compete!  

Nate and I had NO CLUE how long these meets last!  We were SHOCKED at the 3 1/2 point when they cancelled the last few heats due to darkness.  

That being said....they are SO excited for the next meet.  

Tuskegee Airman Museum

Lincoln is going into the fourth grade this year.  In Alabama, the fourth grade class creates an Alabama History Project.  Thankfully, we have friends who were in fourth grade last year.  They gave us the list of locations we need to visit.  We decided to get a head start this summer and go to a few.  Our first location was the Tuskegee Airmen Museum.

There were two hangars of memorabilia.  

We had a good time seeing the planes, clothes, and other exhibits.  

We have 9 more places to visit in Alabama this year.  

I know we made a good decision on our first stop!

A Tranquil Moment

When we weren't hiking, we were spending lots of time in our cabin.  

 The boys spent almost all of their time out on the screened in porch.  

 We had amazing weather the whole time we were there.  It was nice to spend time in the hot tub and be able to get out and cool off.  I guarantee we couldn't have done that in Alabama! 

We had a great time celebrating school being out and our summer beginning!  

Smoky Mountains Day 2

 On day two, we started off on the Roaring Forks Motorway.  

 We got an earlier start today.  The hike was shorter and the boys (Ethan) were much happier today.

 Unlike the Abram's Falls hike, this hike was all up hill to the falls.  We stopped a few times.  The boys thought this tree would be a perfect place to hide a hidden immunity idol.  

 This hike was so pretty.  I could have stopped to take pictures all day!

 You had to be very cautious when walking.  Lots of roots today! 

 I loved that they could walk behind this fall.   Once again, there were SOOOO many people.  I am perched on a wet boulder with about 50 people behind me waiting to take a picture of their loved one!

 I turned around and was back on the path. The guys had to cross HUGE boulders to get back to the trail.  They all had fun doing that scary task.  

 The boys and I loved that the return trip was downhill.  Poor Nate does not do well going down.

 They enjoyed this hike much more today. 

The drive back was gorgeous!  

Smoky Mountains

 We went to Tennessee last weekend.  We stayed in a log cabin that had a foosball table and hot tub at the boys' request.  My request was hiking every day.  After some chatting with a friend who went weeks ago, we decided to start at Cade's Cove.  

 There were lots of pull offs for photo opportunities.  

 We saw a momma bear in the tall grass.  A family that stopped beside us told us that there were two babies in a tree, but we didn't see them. 

 We ate a quick lunch and then started our hike! 

 There were LOTS of people on the trail.  We traded family pix with another family.  

 About a mile into our hike, someone got really cranky!  When I called him out on his moaning and groaning, he decided to walk WAY ahead of us.  I laughed when we caught up to him at this point.  

 This guy did great, but it could have been because he was 

loving the positive attention we were giving him for not pouting.  

 Our expected payoff was Abram's Falls.  I do have to say (for me) it was a little disappointing to get there and have TONS of people sitting around.  I expected this serene beautiful waterfall.

 We traded off family photos again.  

What you don't see is the line of people waiting to get his exact photo opp.  

 Initially, Ethan was happy to head back.  

What he didn't remember was that the beginning of our trek was mostly downhill.  

 We thought we might see a bear on our hike, but we didn't.  We did see a snake!  

 Three hours later.....

As we were leaving, we saw a huge crowd of cars.  We stopped and finally saw one baby bear in the tree!  Nate and I had a blast.  Link said he had fun.  Ethan said...."It was ok."  

After a few hours playing foosball and soaking in the hot tub, I was ready for day two.

Lincoln's Award Ceremony

 He was so thrilled.  :)

 He won the A honor roll.

He also won the Aspiring Author award!  I think he was most proud of this award!  

This guy worked hard this year!