Warm Days Outdoors

 Monday was the usual running Jake to PoPo Practice.  I spent the time getting photos printed at Walgreens.  They didn't listen to a thing I said and when I went to pick them up, the guy I talked to was gone for the day.  Grrrr.  179 photos of NOT how I wanted them.  And...that was the worst thing all week.  So, pretty good week!

Tuesday we had a really bizarre adventurous day with Katy and kids.  We met at the park to walk on the greenway and play a while.  As soon as we arrived, we watched a crew set up to film a Redstone bank commercial.  Then Katy let loose her hounds in the dog park-which was FLOODED.  We discovered (after not looking very hard) a busted water pipe, so she called the city.  They arrived and fixed it within minutes!

The dogs were soaked and muddy, so off we went to walk.  We got in maybe a mile, hehehe.  The kids wanted to poke around off the trail and found a backpack in the water!  They fished it out and Katy opened a side pocket to discover some business cards with a name and number and she left a voice mail.

The guy showed up to get it a little later!  It had been stolen from his car.

We kept walking until we reached another park, then went back to get some lunch.

Ollie Powered scootering!

I went to Taco Bell to get lunch for us, it took half an hour!! SLOOOOOW service.

I am not eating anything fried at all to see if that helps the tummy.  So far, so good!
I like the cantina bowls.  :)

The kids played while I was gone, then we ate lunch and everyone decided to head to the other park, so Chan and I went to the library super quick between location changes.

She grabbed half the anime section and ran for the self check kiosk while I grabbed 5 various nature study books.  One, Southern Sanctuary, is an entire year's worth of photos and observations from a nature preserve in Huntsville!

Jake called to say he had to work over, so we had time for a quick game of soccer!

On Wednesday, we laid low and Thursday we had lunch with Amanda and the kids went to ballroom dance and attended the Christmas party.  One of the boys there has set his sights on Chan and (hehehe) asked Jake via Facebook for permission to ask her out.  Jake said, "Go for it, best of luck!"

I, with no formal training in prophecy, foresee said boy being turned down.

Poor kid, do the rainbows and Pride gear not register?

After dumping my kids on someone else discovering both kids were set up for the afternoon and making sure Gina didn't mind running them partway home, I actually mowed a trail through the pasture.  That was some major work, I was sweating so hard it was running into my eyes.  ack!  It needs more work, but I got a good start on it.

Between that and walking to the creek the other day, Murphy has decided that the fence is just a suggestion and has been getting out nonstop.  I have gone out and moved fencing, added fencing, threaded wire into X's on any gap wider than 4 inches and what he does is walks along the fence pushing his head into squares.  He walks along one row (it's field fencing, like for horses because we had 2 90 pound dogs when we set it all up) and tests every gap, then moves up a row and tests that, then back along the 3rd row up over and over until he finds a spot he can get through.

I have posted him for rehoming, I am NOT having a repeat of Zephyr in which a dog goes missing and I never ever know why or where.  So, if you know someone looking for a house dog, I have one.

Nia can't be moved off the bed because she will freeze to death.  She's in her 'but it's WINTER' mode.

She and Murph are eating a TON of food!  oh my gosh.

That's it for this week!  No holiday plans, but hoping to get some hiking in between the rain chances.  Matt and Jake will have 5 days off starting Wednesday!

Play Day!

We don't have enough play days with friends any more.  So when one works out, it's like a holiday around here.
Ben stayed with Alex and Emma all weekend, but wanted to come home last night, so we headed off to get him and stayed for dinner and hung out.  BAM it was 5 hours later, I don't understand how time keeps speeding up, a day passes in moments.

Today, we met back up with Katy and her crew as well as Amanda and her kiddos at Shakalaka, then headed to the park to play for a couple more hours.  We finished it all off with a grocery shopping trip. Woot. I am taking kids camping Wednesday to help Park Thursday, we needed food.  Last time, they ate everything I brought and then some.

Jake.

Shakalaka has been off our radar all summer because they don't do any sort of homeschool discount while school is out.  So today was extra fun, the kids love jumping, Ben most of all.
Since they opened the Ninja Course in the spring, that has been the new favorite.

With ropes, poles, ramps, climbing wall, slack line, rings and more, they pack a LOT of upper body work into a small space.

At the playground, the kids ran and ran and finally one of them realized they were TIRED and sat down to rest!  They occupied themselves for a few minutes playing a game by telling a story one sentence at a time going through the alphabet.  So the first sentence began with an A, then the next person added to the story with a sentence that began with a B.  And so on.
I stood away and used my zoom.  I recently listened to a story about a chimpanzee and felt a little like playing scientific observer.

I snapped a couple quick group shots, with barely any of the group actually looking at the camera.  AH well.  

The book club is reading Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier, I LOVE that book.  I am excited to get to read it again.  :)  

That's the news, we area packing tomorrow for an overnight to help with the Fiery Gizzard reroute, then back home for 2 days, then BACK to do a caving trip, good thing we all love South Cumberland-best state park there is.  We are lucky to have it so close.

Osum Park Day!

With the weather cooling off, it was time for a park day!  

I posted online about it and did not hold much hope, but 4 other families showed up, 16 kids in total!  2 of the families had cousins along as well.  :)  Some of the younger kids went to play in the water.

We have not seen this face in weeks!  They have been at the beach-well, and working.

They walked around the lake, played cards then played the ninja game and finally ended with Catan before just sitting around and talking.

We hung out until 6 before everyone realized, "we must eat".

Eyrin got a hold of some markers and a very willing Chandler.  Her thigh says 'Chan is osum-Jac is werd'
Her other one says 'you or osum!'   Eee!  I love phonetic spellers!
Awesome should totally be osum.

The baby-who is nearly TWO-is learning to flip.  It is SOOO cute, I swear he is the most adorable blond baby boy in the Universe, I could watch him just toddle around for hours on end...well, okay I HAVE watched him for hours on end.  I know Amanda thinks I am dotty, but when the monkey is not yours, the circus is sheer entertainment.  Even the way he makes big eyes with his mouth tiny and round is enthralling.  hehehe  Oh well, at least I enjoy the little kids, I could be allergic.  ha!

Orr Park

 On the first day of each season, I like to celebrate and the more people I can drag along, the better.

Matt and I have kicked around driving to Orr Park, which is south of Birmingham at Montevallo for the better part of a year now.  I decided today was the day.  I posted to see if anyone from dance wanted to drive down early and join us.  They all did!  Matt surprised me by taking the day off and Gina drove to meet us with Brit at the mechanic's when we dropped off his car to get the oil changed this morning.  Everything fell into place.

We arrived around 11, with Amanda and Sunni right behind us, Katy was about 90 seconds behind them and Stephanie pulled in as we were unloaded.  We joined the 4 other families at the pavilion across the creek by the playground and were happy to see another big group of homeschoolers already there.  The kids joined forces super fast, playing all kinds of running and sweating games.  The moms set up picnics and got drinks ready and chatted with one another.  We broke into smaller groups and strolled around to explore so there were always plenty of adults around where the kids were playing.  There were about 35 people in our dance group and the other homeschool group, so there were many games of Frisbee and soccer for the older kids, the younger playing on the playground and riding scooters or flying kites and all ages had the hoops and bubbles going.

Orr Park is lovely on its own.  There's a wide creek right through the middle with big trees and rolling hills and walkways.  Today the sun was up after DAYS of clouds and rain and cold.  It was cloudless and warm and everyone was giddy from the beauty of the day.  And the pollen.

The reason we wanted to go here in particular when there are a hundred other pretty parks in the state was to see the tree carvings.  Tim Tingle got permission to start carving dead cedar trees many years ago and over time has transformed around 30 into people and animals.  One of the younger kids said, "WHOA! 1997!" when he saw the date carved into the tree.  It made me smile in that way that I am sure Europeans smile when we say things like, "My house is 80 years old!"

Zoomed in on a bee tree!  

Matt and Emma headed over to a tiny island to hunt for a cache.

The water was too deep to wade, so they took the pipe over.  Emma strolled it.

Guess what she saw!?

They looked for a bit, but the snake must have taken the cache when it hid itself!

While they crashed around in the brush, I played around with my macro back on Terra Firma.

Happy Clovers!

We wandered around a while, went back to eat a while, wandered around a while, went back to chat a while.  It was a really relaxing and WARM day.

Much too soon, we had to hit the road for dance.  While the worn out kids tried to master something called Crazy Foot Mambo, the adults sat outside and watched the little ones play and chatted about camping and dreaming of vacations in other countries.  Typical warm weather fare.  :)