Love those Summertime Vacations...

I'm finally reconnected to the world after having been "unplugged" for a week, and I'm starting to get over my withdrawals! Let me catch you up...

We got to attend our church camp meeting in Tennessee. We really enjoyed seeing friends and family that we haven't seen in a while.

The campgrounds were beautiful. so many pretty places to take pictures...

Carson would have stayed in that creek for 3 days if we would have let him.

It's always fun to visit with fellow bloggers!

Connie (from The Snodgrass Family), Me, and Chari (from Fresh from the Chari Tree). I was even standing on my tippy toes ...it doesn't seem to have helped much.

Steve Robinson gave the kids a wheel chair ride. There are many forms of entertainment when you look for them...

From camp, we went over to Pigeon Forge for a little R and R.

Here's my handsome hubby and my little peanut.

Two silly boys with their Granna.

Here's a picture of us riding the train...not that you can even tell we're on a train...

Oh, THERE it is!

Is a caption really even necessary for this one? You can just see the excitement on their little faces.

All tuckered out...

Just as we were leaving, a young man gave this basketball to Jackson. He had won it in an arcade game but didn't really want it, so he asked Jackson if he'd like to have it. That just made his day. It also made a great pillow on the way home :)

I also managed to sneak in some outlet shopping and a goodwill trip while we were gone. Shocking, isn't it!? I'm still excited about some of the bargains I found. I'll be sharing them a little later on, as well as some projects that are in the works.

TTFN...Ta Ta For Now!

Cowboys and Indians

Our living room was a battle grounds for some cowboys and Indians on Sunday afternoon. Jackson is the little Indian, the Cowboy is Rev. Hedstrom, the conference President.

The boys just love it when the Hedstroms come through for a visit.
We all got a kick out of the cowboy game - things get pretty interesting when a 5 year old is making up the rules! It takes a special kind of person to go out of their way to make a little boy's day. Someday Jackson will look back and treasure times like these...

Bridge Street

We enjoyed an afternoon at Bridgestreet Shopping Center in Huntsville.

Carson tried his best to get those coins out of the fountain. The little redneck...

Curtis and Jennifer Going were visiting for the Church Expansion Department, and we really enjoyed spending some time with them. I lost count of how many books the boys begged her to read to them. Kids really do know who their friends are!

One of my favorite shops at Bridgestreet is the "Chocolate Crocodile".

Truffles as far as the eye can see.
I got a healthy snack in there. A strawberry. Dipped in DARK chocolate. It's good for you.

I have a pretty hip little shopping buddy, dontcha think?

Day 19

Well Happy 19th Day of Christmas. I don't have any Christmasy pictures to post, but I'll at least ramble out an update. Carson's getting a bit better, he slept all night last night without much coughing. Mr. Fixit came through once again and has saved our bathroom from destruction. The kitchen is slowly coming together and is getting finished. The only Mavis the Train in Alabama has been found and promptly bought. (whew, big sigh of relief) But I can't give a good report on the Christmas tree. If it doesn't shape up, it will find itself disowned from the family as soon as Christmas is over. But we did have a great time the other night with our friends, the Overalls. We had a fun time playing Dutch Blitz, a horrible time playing Trivial Pursuit, and we toned it all down with a slow and easy game of dominoes.

I gave Jackson the camera and let him take some pictures. He does pretty good sometimes.

David O and Faith.

Jackson informed us that he was giving Faith a ring for Christmas. I'm not real sure what he meant by that, but there was an element of concern amongst the big people.

I have no idea what this picture has to do with anything. Give a 5 year old a camera, and you never know what you'll find on it. Boy, he really should brush his teeth...

Those boys will make cowpokes out of the girls yet.

I'm slowly getting caught up on my posts. I think I'll reward myself with some hershey's candy cane kisses. Can't seem to get enough of those things...

My Pastor....in a Tutu.

We went to our friends' place for supper and shakes (our own hand made creations of many strange and wonderful varieties), and a game of phase ten. The supper was wonderful but we got ourselves thoroughly and hopelessly stomped at the game. While we were busy getting ourselves whipped, the boys were destroying the girls playroom. We discovered a mess that stopped us cold in our tracks. But we were so tired, it ended up being funny. As you can tell David and David (yeah, it gets pretty confusing) had us laughing as we "made the best of a bad situation". It took all of us to get the room put back into even a hint of order.

Um, Dear? That's not where most folks wear their tutu.

But you do look cute in pink.

Thanks David and Valerie for a great meal, we really do owe you one. But I wouldn't blame you if you promptly hang a "no boys allowed" sign on your front door. I've taken on the task of trying to make my boys into more tidy, respectable, civilized creatures, and it's lookin' like it's gonna be a long ride...