The Wright Side of LifeThe family is one of nature’s masterpieces.

Over HERE at my other blog:

www.unbearablywright.com

I used to roll my eyes to myself when older people would constantly lament at how fast time goes and how it seemed like their kids were babies “just yesterday.”  Well, I officially no longer roll my eyes!  In fact, I am squarely in the “just yesterday” camp.  When Lincoln turned One Year Old on June 9th, I felt like I could not grasp that my precious new baby boy was not really such a baby anymore.  He’s been walking for 2 months, and as his pediatrician told me recently, “Once they are both walking and turn a year old, they’re officially a Toddler.”

To celebrate Lincoln’s momentous day, we had a fun, simple playdate with the Phillips at one of our favorites, Little Bear Indoor Playground.  The kids all had a wonderful time playing, and it was stunning to see how my little guy has gone from this:

To this:

At what seems like an impossible speed!

Judd and Linc are such buddies  They give each other hugs and kisses when they see each other and play so great together – I love it!

Giving Lincoln a birthday smooch:

Lincoln returning the favor with a hug, which makes Judd guffaw and Sissy laugh too:

Happy Birthday song:

I had made cupcakes and brought them for the group in honor of his birthday, but Lincoln sure was not liking all that sticky frosting:

This picture was taken mid-fling as he tried to hurl the offending cupcake against the wall.  See the determined look??

Olivia helping Lincoln open his gift:

At home that evening after dinner, it was time to have our family’s little celebration for Lincoln.  This time I went with a vanilla-frosted cupcake in the hopes he would actually eat some of it!

“Mmmmm!”  He liked this one MUCH better:

Scarlett giving Lincoln some birthday loving:

The girls hovered around him in hopes of snagging extra cupcake bites:

Simultaneous cupcake shoveling:

The following week on Wednesday, it was time for Jim and Scarlett’s rescheduled date.  Grammie was going to take Sissy out on a special date too, and I was trying in vain to get a picture of the two of them.  First Victoria wouldn’t look, and then just when I thought I’d gotten one with *both* of them looking…

Grammie was distracted and looked down at Lincoln :-p  He is pretty hard to look away from though because whenever I am taking pictures now he stops whatever he’s doing and tries to run into the frame, all the while giving the BIGGEST “cheese!” grin he can muster:

The kids are so lucky to have such a wonderful great-grandmother in their day-to-day lives!

Daddy and Scarlett, ready to head out on their dinner-train-dessert date:

Thanks Mikayla for being willing to curl Scarlett’s hair for her special evening!

Scarlett and Lincoln

Originally Jim was supposed to have been released from the hospital Monday morning (the 23rd), but he was notified late Sunday night that he would have to stay through til Tuesday.  Since the girls were getting very antsy about Daddy being gone in the hospital, I decided we needed to go visit him together – after the recent hospitalization and passing away of their much beloved Papa (Jerome), I knew it was important for them to see that even though Daddy was sick, he was going to be okay.

The girls diligently worked all morning on painting several pictures for Jim, and we decorated an area in his room with their artwork, then spent some time hanging out and chatting:

Although I don’t think they could even verbalize how or why it made them feel better, the relief in their overall attitudes was tangible that afternoon and evening.  My girls wanted to make sure their Daddy was going to be just fine!

Finally back at home on Tuesday afternoon, Jim spent a couple of days still taking it easy per the doctor’s orders… however, he always had at least one (if not two) sidekicks helping him relax.  I don’t think any of the kids wanted to have him out of their site:

The following weekend after being out and about for a bit, we came home and discovered that Nana had found and captured a box turtle for the kids to see!  I didn’t get any pictures of it, but it was fairly good sized and the kids were super interested… for a few minutes anyways.  Lincoln mostly made this “huh-huh-HUH” noise – I call it his Alert Sound.  For instance, he made that sound non-stop one afternoon until I went into the living room and saw him pointing at this dead bird that one of the cats had dragged in and lovingly laid next to the floor lamp.  So although Linc was interested in looking at the turtle, he mostly seemed to feel like it was something he didn’t really want to mess with, made the Alert Sound, and wandered off to find something else to do that was a little less threatening.  Scarlett and Victoria both took turns holding it, but it was definitely Sissy who stayed interested – in fact she made Grammie stay outside with her for 40 minutes following it around as it tried to escape

I was inspired by our turtle friend, and early the next week we made a turtle craft that the girls really enjoyed.  We first went outside a found a few rocks that were not-too-big and not-too-small, and brought them in to wash them up.  Then the girls got to paint their rocks, and I encouraged them to try and design them like the turtle shell we had seen, which was really beautiful.  After the rocks dried, I hot glued two popsicle sticks into an “X” under the rock, forming the legs, and then added one more half of a stick for it’s head.  The girls added googly eyes, and voila!  Turtles:

Speaking of arts & crafts, below is this picture that Scarlett drew – I am horrible at actually keeping the physical copy of their artwork, so I try to take pictures of any that are extra special (like this one).  Scarlett drew it and brought it to me to explain that “there was Lincoln, with his eyes, nose and mouth, his two arms – in one arm (left) he’s holding a nice spider that has eyes, and two legs, and his penis.”

I busted out laughing.  I tried so hard not to laugh, but she was just so proud of herself and so earnest and I couldn’t help it.  When she asked why I was laughing, I semi-recovered and just let her know that I was impressed with all the fine attention to detail.  She accepted that and made sure to hang up her picture on the fridge for all to see.

And to end the post, just a few pictures of Grammie and her boy – he is getting so snuggly and loves giving big, wet kisses!

Linc is eyeing Grammie, trying to decide where he’s gonna go in for the smooch:

Got her!

Now that she’s been properly loved-on, he can relax and watch some Curious George

Sunday, May 22nd arrived and this had been a day that both Jim and Scarlett were looking forward to with great anticipation… it was going to be their Medieval Times date!!  However, Jim had gone into the ER very early the previous morning feeling so terribly sick from what we thought was the flu.  After running several tests, they discovered that he had full-blown pneumonia  He would need to stay for a few days to recover, rehydrate and rest.  After spending most of the weekend with Jim at the hospital (thanks to Grammie, Mikayla and Nana for helping out with the kiddos and keeping them more than occupied!), I went home Sunday afternoon and collected all my girls for a revised Girls Date to Medieval Times.

The kids had been playing so hard all weekend in the super hot weather, and with no time for a nap before we had to depart, it wasn’t 10 minutes into the drive that two very excited, but VERY exhausted little girls fell fast asleep.  We arrived at our destination (a solid 30-minute drive) and sat in the parking lot letting the sleeping beauties get some rest:

Mikayla and I occupied ourselves taking mostly cheesy, ridiculous photos, but this picture was actually normal:

Sissy woke up, feeling dazed and definitely in need of some sunglasses against the glare of this 100+ degree day:

After rousing Scarlett, we stepped out of the van and the girls were totally blown away.  It’s funny how HUGE and amazing it seems to them – I loved it!  Although I had been a bit anxious that the experience would be a little over their heads, I shouldn’t have worried – they ate everything up, from the faux castle exterior, to the introductory announcement that it was almost time to enter, and every step along the way!

Scarlett was practically BURSTING with excitement with each new thing we encountered, and Victoria was mostly in sheer awe.  I don’t think she cracked a smile for almost 30 minutes, as she clutched my hand tightly, unsure what was real and what was pretend.

Holding her flashing flower (still no smile):

See Scarlett’s stance?  The trying-to-hold-it-in excitement??  :-)

When the “master of ceremonies” came out onto this little balcony, Scarlett was literally hopping up and down, while Victoria listened earnestly to every word he said:

Seated in the arena:

Mikayla in the arena:

We were cheering for the Green Knight, and with all of our recent practice cheering for the Bulls, the girls were pros at waving their green banners and clapping for our guy:

Victoria was SO into the knights fighting… almost as much as she was into her ribs:

And then, the Green Knight bestowed upon her the special Queen of Beauty sash – this was her expression:

Here we are, with my little Queen of Beauty.  She felt SO happy and thrilled that she had gotten this coveted sash:

After the show and dinner was over, we took our little books and had the knights sign all of them.  The girls REALLY liked being able to meet the knights, and even though with the first one-on-one encounter they were a little shy, by about the 3rd knight they were confident and racing up to them to ask for autographs.  Mikayla asked this knight for a smooch, but failed to realize how incredibly sweaty these guys are after running around for an hour in full-blown armor – ew!

Scarlett’s book:

Victoria’s book:

What a fun time that the girls still talk about!  I hated that Jim missed his date with Scarlett, but I was thankful we could still salvage the trip and turn it into a memorable Girls Date

During a playdate at the Phillips’ house, Amanda served up some chocolate pudding and Lincoln was in l-o-v-e.  Yuummm!

All of our kiddos eating lunch – a far cry from when it was just Scarlett and Olivia in the beginning!!

We also had our end of the year party with our homeschool group – it was a great first year with them and we look forward to many more.  The girls were VERY proud of their accomplishment certificates  I love Scarlett’s outfit in the picture below – she picked everything, from dress, shoes, necklace (that she bought with her own money from her birthday – she negotiated the cost down from $1 to $0.50 at a yard sale!) to bow.  She looks like a member of the Young Republicans:

Grammie Wright was down to visit for a couple of days, and the girls were anxious to have a tea party with her – complete with the new Beauty & the Beast tea pot set:

Grammie Wright also got to sit and watch a Bulls’ game with us and see the girls all decked out in their team paraphernalia!  Jim ordered all new team gear for all of us gals and Victoria and Mik got there’s first, while Scarlett and I were left on the back-ordered list.  Sissy sure did love her personalized “Victoria” shirt

Jim came home early from work mid-week one day, which is super unusual for him and stayed pretty much in bed for the next couple of days with what we thought was a bad cold or flu.  He rallied late Friday afternoon to go along for Linc’s first haircut.  We arrived and Linc didn’t seem nervous at all – super smiley and acting like his normal charming self:

But when the hairdresser tried to strap him into the chair, no amount of trying to talk him through it would make him settle down, so he ended up getting a really awesome cut… from the comfort of daddy’s lap and with a sucker to keep him otherwise distracted.  He looked so much older and very handsome!

Speaking of Lincoln, he has some pretty awesome dance moves.  We have a bootleg version of the movie “Rio” that the girls love, and whenever the opening sequence begins, he puts on his Dancing Face…

…and starts busting a move:

It also won’t be long until he is opening all the doors – eek!  He’s just so tall, and is always trying to “help” me out like his sister do by opening the back door so that the cats can go in or out:

A couple of pictures of Lincoln with his hair before it was cut….

(I thought I could give the girls juice boxes and Lincoln wouldn’t mind… um, I was wrong. He hollered himself right into his very own capri sun-)

(but while those are tasty and all, nothing beats drinking straight from the hose until he you can hear the water sloshing around in his belly as he walks!)

And AFTER his haircut!  He went from looking like a baby to looking like a little boy.  I love it!!!

All of the kids love this inflatable pool that Grammie bought for them – Scarlett and Lincoln playing:

If one of the girls decide they are just NOT going to smile/look up for the camera, there is no getting them to cooperate.  Victoria was not wanting to pause – even for a moment! – to bother with getting her picture taken.  First she looked away to her right…

… then away to her left

Then there’s this clown, who not only will literally stop mid-tears when a camera is pointed his way and give a full-blown smile, but also thinks it’s pure comedic gold to stick his finger up his nose:

On Tuesday morning, May 10th, Victoria headed off to work with Daddy.  Jim had made the plans and arrangements a few days before and Sissy was practically bursting with nervous excitement!  Nevertheless, my brave 2.5 year old packed her “work bag” with all of the essentials (paper, glue, scissors, stickers, crayons) and went to work:

Victoria was super relived when she arrived at Jim’s work and discovered that she wasn’t expected to sit in her own office all alone – that is what she told Jim.  It’s always tough as a parent, because even when you think you’re being very attentive and in-tune with your child and try to talk with them about potential anxieties (“Don’t worry, they have a potty and Daddy will help you” or “Daddy will get you a drink when you get there to keep at your desk” or “Everyone there is happy you are coming and will be friendly,” etc.) you just can’t always predict what they might be worrying about!!  So there Sissy was, super excited to go in with Daddy, but almost sick with nervousness about the thought of having to sit all alone doing work makes me feel both bad for her, and at the same time made me think “Wow, that’s super brave that she would go in anyway!”

After doing a walk-around and chatting with everyone, eating a donut, and getting her work station all set up, Victoria spent most of her time happily “working” and crafting one-of-a-kind pieces of artwork for various co-workers:

The Chicago Bulls made it to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in more than a decade, and the whole family got into watching with Jim – getting dressed up in team garb, cheering on (literally) the Bulls, and letting the girls stay up til half-time on most game nights.  They loved it!  It was so much fun to see them really get into it, ask a million questions and start to piece together what was happening.  Plus, I’m pretty sure there is nothing cuter in the world than hearing Sissy say, “Daddy!  There’s the Balls’ [she can't say BULLS, it comes out as BALLS] coach, Tom Tippytoe!”

Scarlett, wearing a Bulls’ jersey that Jim had bought for Mikayla when she was three years old:

Later that week, Mik and I took the kids strawberry picking with our homeschool group.  It was H-O-T that day, and the kids could hardly look up at the camera for the sun glare:

The girls had vague recollections of strawberry picking in summers past, plus we had talked about what kind of berries we would be hunting for and so they felt confident and ready to dive in.  Due to the field being almost picked clean, the girls truly had to HUNT for the berries:

Once the girls were fully searching, I tried to spend a little more time with Linc, who wasn’t feeling too sure about all of the goings on at first.

“See, Linc, we have to look for a red berry.”

“Yeah, great mommy, you have fun with that.”

Sissy really dug into the bushes trying to find those dark red berries:

Finally, Linc got into trying to help me pull the strawberries off their stems.  I really thought he’d be more interested to eat them, but he mostly liked to hold them and put them into the bucket:

Scarlett is pretty strong – she lugged this half-full 5-gallon bucket all around:

Lincoln was way jealous of Scarlett’s bucket, so we had to get one of our own:

“Hmm, mine seems more empty than hers did…”

At the end of picking, we were all hot and sweaty, but it had been fun!

Lunch afterwards in an air conditioned restaurant and shopping around Old Navy with the Phillips helped to make it an officially great Friday

Scarlett had held firm to her desire for a “Belle Birthday” for months and months, and although definitely more conventional than last year’s cow birthday request, it was virtually impossible to find JUST Belle merchandise.  Every Belle-related item also had at least two other Disney princesses accompanying her, so we had to settle for a “Belle + princess friends” theme.  I was shocked that Scarlett managed to take a nap that day, since she had woken up SOOO excited for her party!  Awaking with just enough time to put on her dress, fix her hair and fasten her party hat on, my 4-year-old girl was ready to greet her guests:

Party hats are a MUST in our household.  Scarlett is very adamant about that – I truly don’t know why – but most other kids I’ve ever met loathe wearing birthday hats, while she insists everyone wear them!

We kept the scale of her party small this year – parring down Scarlett’s extensive invitation list to only a few people.  With almost everyone in our house’s birthdays all bunched up together during May – August, moderation is the key for celebrations… now if only I could get my darling husband on board with that (“How about a jump house??” and “Let’s have it at the Botanical Gardens!” and many other terrific <and expensive!> ideas were submitted by Jim and summarily tossed aside~) we’d be all set

I did do one silly, fun thing for the kids however: a Spaghetti Pool.  Buy a cheapo plastic or blow-up pool, cook up about 10 boxes of spaghetti and throw into said pool once cooled off, and let the kids stomp, fling, swim and frolic in those noodles.  A cheap, entertaining and memorable activity!

Olivia and Scarlett squealing as they investigated the Spaghetti Pool:

Collin and Victoria running laps up and down the driveway:

IN the Spaghetti Pool with a big smile:

Elizabeth, trying to wait patiently as the adults and kids gathered for prayer before diving into the food:

I made sure my party hat was on at all times, just for my birthday girl:

The dinner/cake spread.  A create-your-own taco dinner (with seasoned chicken and beef options), fresh guacamole, cheese quesadillas, spanish rice, all the fixings AND of course, the princess castle cake (back left of the table):

Happy Birthday Scarlett!

Cousin Mindy came over one evening in late April to visit and play, bringing with her a special project for her and the girls to work on together:  painting a jewelry box.  Scarlett and Victoria had so much fun trying to make it look pretty and they really enjoyed their craft.

Diligently decorating:

Our cat Sparky is so bizarre.  Actually BOTH of our cats are incredibly strange in their own unique and equally disturbing ways, however Sparky has recently developed a new favorite past time… whenever one of us is lying in the living room floor he immediately runs over and sits on that person’s behind, as demonstrated by Mikayla below.  WEIRD:

I like letting the girls do crafts several times throughout the day, and as long as they ask me first they are usually welcome to get all of their craft supplies out whenever they feel the urge.  One such day I was walking through the dining room and stopped dead in my tracks because Victoria had created this awesome spider of her own accord:

Lincoln has a couple of favorite books right now and if someone is stationary in the living room for more than a couple of moments, he hurries to find one of the books and brings it over for some reading time :

Daddy and Lincoln, playing some hilarious peek-a-boo:

While it wasn’t yet scorchingly hot, we tried to get out for a walk on most afternoons.  Victoria likes pulling Lincoln in the wagon… at least for the flat stretches of road

During the first weekend in May, my mom and I put on a dual garage sale at my house.  We both made good money and sold a lot of things we didn’t have use for anymore (or that the kids had outgrown!) and overall on Friday – the first sale day – all of the kids really enjoyed the hustle and bustle of shoppers and were content to play outside with Nana and I or relax indoors a bit with Grammie.  On Saturday, however, the girls were treated to nearly an entire day with Daddy as he took them to Discover Mills mall to shop and play.  Since we’d been there last time around Christmas, the mall had added a fun “kids town” with a miniaturized hospital, town hall, prison, restaurant, fire station and so forth.  Jim said the kids had such a blast there and played in “town” for over an hour!

Dr. Scarlett Wright:

Meanwhile, back at the garage sale Lincoln was walking all over the place!  I knew he had been able to walk for a few weeks, but he just flat-out refused to take anything more than a few tentative steps.  Finally though, something clicked and once he successfully took a dozen or so steps in a row he was off and virtually ceased crawling altogether:

Mik, Nana and I had a fun time hanging out during the garage sale! At one point on Saturday the traffic died down and Nana offered for me and Mik to drive the neighborhood and check out the other nearby garage sales.  Most were total busts, but Mikayla made and purchased a great find for Lincoln – something vital that every little boy needs:  a cowboy hat, miniature 6-shooter and hip holster.

Sheriff Wright:

The following week was fairly low key, and the weather cooperated for lots of outdoor tea time (yes, Scarlett is dressed like the queen):

We had Elizabeth, Sam and baby Joseph over to play and I couldn’t believe how much bigger the baby has gotten!  It’s good to be able to get my little-baby fix via Joseph

Victoria wanted to hold Joseph so badly, and Elizabeth was kind enough to oblige even though Joseph wasn’t personally too thrilled with the arrangement:

You would think a squalling one-month old would freak out most 2-year-olds, but not Sissy.  She just sang “rock-a-bye baby” and “dearest duckling” to him and tried to soothe him – it was a proud mama moment for me!

“It’s okay little buddy, don’t cry!” she was saying to him. Even Scarlett was trying to help:

The kids played outside a while, too, and ate half of a watermelon.  Lincoln LOVED being able to run around with the Big Kids!

The entire week leading up to May 6th, Scarlett would announce several times daily exactly how many days remained until she turned four.  ”Mommy, in THREE more day, I will be four!” and so forth  On the morning of her birthday she awoke to several presents from various members of the household and got to select whatever she wanted for breakfast.  Since her birthday party wasn’t until the following day, we mostly had a low key time on her actual birthday, while making sure to have lots of fun anyway!

This talking Beauty & the Beast tea set was a huge hit (from Grammie) and the girls drank about 2 gallons of watered-down Earl Grey tea that morning since I let them use real cream and sugar in the serving dishes:

Even if you are just running errands with Mommy, you can’t go out on your FOURTH birthday in just any old thing.  So in true Scarlett fashion, she got all decked out and asked Mik to curl her hair and put on her crown – she even got a little lipstick  I still had to beg and plead to snag a picture, but she looked so adorable that I couldn’t let the opportunity pass – she even held up double fours (you know, just in case I forgot why I was taking this picture~):

Grammie and the birthday girl:

Mommy and the birthday girl:

It’s a sweet picture of us but I look pained for unknown reasons (maybe from pleading with her for the pictures??) and Scarlett’s hand placement is…well, distracting.

One of our stops was by the bank and is unanimously a favorite because all of the kids score a sucker:

While we were waiting for our bank teller to finish up the transaction, Victoria kept doing all of these legs-flung-over-the-side poses for me in her seat:

Later that night our family gathered around a small cake to sing Happy Birthday to our precious 4-year-old girl:

I cannot believe my first child is four years old.  She made me a mother and is one of the loves of my life – I am thankful for her each moment of every day~

My friend Amanda recently gave me a disc with a bunch of pictures that she took and contained either shots I asked her to take of my kids (when I didn’t have my camera handy) or pictures of our kids together.  Even though it’s a huge mishmash of events, I wanted to post them to the blog anyway so that we will have them!

Scarlett and Olivia pouring pile after pile of sprinkles on their Valentine’s Day cookies at the SASCH (homeschool group) party:

Victoria, Scarlett, Oliva and Kinedy (Olivia’s cousin) as we prepared to head into the circus – our homeschool group had negotiated a reduced price on the tickets and Amanda purchased extra for our family and theirs and turned it into a really fun birthday outing for Olivia’s 4th Birthday!  We had a great time

Linc is such a clown

Me too!

At Little Bear in March – Judd was walking and Lincoln crawling, and they sure had fun trying to master all of the many toys there:

But Linc’s favorite was getting pushed around on the car!

Amanda and I went together for The Pioneer Woman’s book signing event at Borders in Buckhead for her second book, the story of how she and her husband met, fell in love and she became a transplanted city girl living on a huge Oklahoma cattle ranch.  “From High Heels to Tractor Wheels” was a great read and I now have a signed copy sitting on my bookshelf!  Plus, it was a great gals-night out

Just lovely!

At the zoo in March, soaking in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold weather, and as always, being silly:

“Think we can bust in there?”  Linc and Judd swap strategies.

There was much threatening involved to secure this picture:

Victoria pretty much ALWAYS has Judd in a love-lock (doesn’t that evoke nicer connotations than saying “headlock”??):

The kids always love playing on the bamboo, whether it’s draping casually on top of it…

Or stealing a smooch near it…

Or using it like a fireman’s pole!

I think the girls would stay in the goat pen for hours just brushing and brushing them down.  You wonder if the goats mind it or if at this point they barely notice all those kids hovering around them.

Finally!  The best attractions are at the end, according to the kids – the train ride and carousel.  Lincoln was literally drooling with excitement

While the girls took their own row right up front behind the conductor:

Linc’s first carousel ride on his own horse – he LOVED it!

Scarlett loves the carousel too – as long as it’s a non-up-and-down horse.  She prefers the stationary ones:

The girls dressed up in their self-made flower outfits at the Smith-Gilbert Garden’s kids program.  They hold one once a month and they are terrific!  The girls typically enjoy it immensely, but this day Victoria did NOT want to be a flower, only she wouldn’t tell me that… she just got quieter and quieter and looked like the saddest flower in the world:

From our April 1st camping trip with the Phillips – Amanda and Mikayla holding up my canopy tent gaffe.  Seeing that the weather was forecasted to be a bit iffy, I made a late-night Target run the night before we left and splurged on a canopy tent with screened-in walls.  Perfect!  Maybe we wouldn’t need it, but in the long run it would be great to have, weather camping, at the beach, or even on our deck.  Except, well, it was late. I was running.  Not so much on the paying attention to detail… and what I ended up with was JUST the screened-wall add-on and not an actual canopy to attach it too.  There was much laughter (at my expense)~

The boys playing in the gravel (Linc with his sock-mittens):

Chilly but mostly unfazed, they played on and on:

At the beach house – my smiley boy

Buddies!

Our BIG camping trip with our friends the Morbers, started off better than we could have hoped for – the long 6.5 hour drive went smoothly and even with two vehicles, three kids, one teenager and two adults we made better time than googlemaps predicted thanks to a very few, fast stops.  Arriving at our campsite, we were happy with the proximity of our two sites to each other and the overall setup went very well too!  We did a quick run into town to stock up on some basics and came back to get the kids tucked in and asleep, before gathering around the campfire in our Snuggies

After a good night, we headed over to the cabin we had rented as a backup – it had an actual kitchen (totally cheating, I know) and a private bathroom.  It was fairly rustic but it was so nice to simply gather up in the mornings and head there where we could cook up a big breakfast of pancakes and ham, fruit and hot tea and everyone could play for a while.  Once we were all fed and packed up for our hike, we headed to the trail entrance.

Me and Mikayla:

After Jim got all loaded up with Lincoln in the carrier, he realized he had forgotten his (prescription) sunglasses, and since he pretty much wouldn’t be able to see with just regular sunglasses he would be forced to go shadeless and wear this squinty look most of the hike:

After we made it down a small portion of the trail, we came across a picnic area with bathrooms and of course Yours Truly had to stop and go.  What can I say?  I do not enjoy squatting in the woods (and I’ll give you some first rate evidence as to why that’s a bad plan deep into state parks in just a few minutes).  While I was taking care of business, Mikayla took a Serious-Explorer-Face photo of Jim, Linc and Scarlett:

They really look the part of intrepid adventurers, don’t they?

We love Mikayla dearly, but she can be a big brat in this one area: taking hideous pictures of people.  She thinks it’s really funny to take pictures of people when they’re blinking while chewing, from an unflattering angle (just as an example) and then she cackles over them later when reviewing the pictures on the camera.  As such, Jim has decided to just make faces anytime she even sort of points a camera at him in an effort to ruin her fun:

Finally, we were ready for the non-potty-break-stopping portion of the hike to begin.  There were railroad ties used to prevent washouts as we descended towards the first waterfall, and we made a game out of jumping down each one.  Mostly, I was trying not to dwell on the fact that we would have to come back up all 280 wide steps.

Scarlett:

Me and Sissy (Shaun, in the background, did NOT in fact join in on the jumping):

The first fall:

We made it!

Jim and Lincoln hiked back up to the top of the fall, off the beaten path:

Mikayla, with her new hiking shoes, was finally able to go off-roading without fear of breaking herself and ventured out quite a ways:

Mikayla and Victoria, nestled under a rock outcropping:

Queen Scarlett, surveying her domain (actually just resting, but that is how she looks, isn’t it?? )

Next we began the really adventurous portion of the hike.  We headed off to find the second falls, and this is where the terrain became pretty steep:

You couldn’t really get to the falls from the path, so we all crossed a huge fallen tree that was lying over the creek and then scrambled up some slippery rocks so that we could actually be under the waterfall:

After that, we stopped for lunch and then went totally off-path for about 40 minutes.  It was strenuous but really fun and a great workout.  We also had some amazing views that made my stomach drop to realize how high up we were!

And now, the reason that it is NOT the best idea to squat near a bush in the south while out in the deep woods:

See the rattlesnake?  It’s coiled up there in the underbrush – Jenny spotted it and thankfully it was’t a big daddy one since it’s rattler was still relatively small.  Nevertheless, EW.

After our epic hike every last one of us took a 3+ hour nap back at the campsite.  That evening, Shaun and Jim took the kids (minus Linc) to explore the beach, which was sadly closed til the weekend.  Scarlett, Victoria and Clark had fun running all around anyway:

That was the last evening making dinner at the cabin, since it was not available the next night.  Here are Shaun and Jenny, relaxing in the screened-in porch, demonstrating for Jim their “We always look awkward like THIS in pictures” faces.  Good job, guys:

Once again, we had a great time visiting and catching up by the fire, roasting Peeps (who knew?? they are truly a delicacy when roasted over the campfire – thanks Jenny for introducing us to the magical wonder that is a slightly burnt Peep) that night and everyone was sleeping great until it started raining… and it got COLD.  We had seen on the weather forecast that if the rain hit on Friday it would set in for the day.  Naturally, this happened to be the day we no longer had cabin access – ugh.  Being troopers, we headed into town (45+ minutes away) and picked up a few things from WalMart, had lunch and played at a ChickFilA, and finally made the decision to see a matinee of the new kid’s movie Rio.  It was SUCH a cute movie, and all of the kids loved it – even Linc!  It was his first movie experience and he did really well.  For dinner, we grabbed pizza and salad before heading back to our waterlogged campsites (literally – one of our tents that held our extra blankets and Linc’s pack-n-play was SOAKED, all contents unsalvageable). We had a really fun day in spite of the foul weather!

HOWEVER, back at the campsite as our tents grew cold and damp and the weather forecast changed from the previously “Oh, it’ll be sunny and glorious tomorrow with a high of 85!” to “Mmm, it could be cold and rainy again, or possibly sunny,” the group decided that if the morning didn’t bring much sun we would all cut our camping trip short so that we would have great memories of our time together and not refer to the trip as “That Awful Camping Trip When it Rained for 3 Days Straight.”

Sadly, the next day did dawn cloudy and chilly and so we all began packing up.  Although I wish it would have stayed nice out for more of the trip, we loved getting together with the Morbers and decided it must happen again much sooner and next time we’re going to the beach

Before loading up – taking a last picture at the campsite with Linc: