Labor Day Camping Trip

Ansley, Jan, Ron and Elisabeth all went Rock Climbing at the campground in Charleston. Jan and Ansley are getting their harnesses on.
Ron is getting ready........

And last but not least little Elisabeth is getting ready. This was her 1st time......she was very very excited!

Ansley headed to the top. She made it much quicker than the last time she climbed it. This wall is 50 feet high.

Almost to the top.

Elisabeth is ready to go!

Look at those little legs climb!

Go Elisabeth Go!

Ron climbing the wall. Unfortunately I was so busy taking pictures of Ron with his camera that I have only 1 or 2 on my camera of him climbing the wall. Sorry Ron. He did make it to the top..

Jan climbing the wall - she made it to the top too!

Back on the ground

Ansley and Elisabeth climbing the boulder wall

The dock out in the marsh at James Island County Park. One of my favorite areas of the park.

Poor Elisabeth was exhausted and fell asleep on Ron's head

Ansley holding a shrimp that someone caught from the dock

Throwing out the net to catch some shrimp. It takes talent to throw it correctly.

Good throw

They grow spiders big in Charleston........very creepy.

Elisabeth staring at the people catching shrimp on the dock

Relaxing (right after Ansley's shoe fell in and I had to rescue it before it went bye bye down the river)

Me and Ansley hanging out on the dock. Elisabeth couldn't join us......I think she was sound asleep. We wore her out every day.

Splash park fun

Wow this water is cold!

Come and get me! (Nope - that water was too cold for me)

Watching and waiting for Elisabeth to get blasted in the face by the water that is fixing to shoot up from the ground. She always seemed to move just before it happened. She's not dumb.

Is it cold Ron?

Brrrr.....it's cold once you come out of the water. It was quite breezy that day.

Go Grandpa Go!

Everything to Me

I tell you.....these new Christian songs lately have just made me cry! I heard Mark Shultz sing "Everything to Me" on the radio for the 1st time today on the way to church and had to turn it off because it was making me cry. I printed the lyrics below. It's his life story of his mother giving him up for adoption and how thankful he is that she made that choice. I think about Elisabeth's birthmom often.


Everything to Me

I must have held your tears
When they took me from your arms
I'm sure I must have heard you say goodbye
Young and so afraid
Had you made a big mistake
Could an ocean even hold the tears you cried

Oh you had dreams for me
And wanted the best for me
And you made the only choice you could that night

And you gave life to me
A brand new world to see
Like playing baseball in the yard with dad at night
Mom reading Goodnight Moon
And praying in my room
So if you worry if your choice was right
When you gave me up
Oh you gave everything to me

And if I saw you on the street
Would you know that it was me
And would your eyes be blue or green like mine
Would we share a warm embrace
Or would you know me in your heart
Or would you smile and let me walk on by
Knowing you had dreams for me
You wanted the best for me
Oh I hope that you'd be proud of who I am

Oh you gave life to me
A chance to find my dreams
And the chance to fall in love
You should have seen her shining face
On our wedding day
Oh is this the dream you had in mind
Oh when you gave me up
You gave everything to me

And when I see you there
Watching from heaven's gate
Into your arms I'm gonna run
And when you look in my eyes
You can see my whole life
See who I was and who I've become

Cuz you gave life to me
A brand new world to see
Like playing baseball with my son late at night
And reading Goodnight Moon
And praying in his room
I'm so grateful that I had this life
When you gave me up
You gave everything to me
Everything to me

You can listen to it on youtube.........http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqqj35r8aUc

1st day of 4 yr. old preschool

Showing off her new Kai Lan backpack

Monday, September 9th was Elisabeth's first day of 4 year old preschool. She is going 3 days a week at our church. She was so excited to start school again! She can't wait until she can go to the same school as Ansley. She got a new backpack for her birthday and couldn't wait to use it. She had a good first day.......and so did I :-)

1st Soccer Practice

Oops......don't pick up that ball with your hands!

Elisabeth had her first soccer practice on Monday night, August 31st. She is playing with Victory Sports which is a Christian sports league that is run by a couple that goes to our church. It is such a great ministry! Anyway...it is hilarious to watch 4 year olds try to learn to play soccer. They have such a short attention span and are just all over the place. We just had to laugh. We applaud the coaches because it takes great patience to coach the 4 year old team! :-) The name of Elisabeth's team is the Stars.

I forgot to get soccer socks so Elisabeth had to wear her shin guards under her regular socks which didn't come up high enough. Kind of dorky but we'll try to do better next time. I also need to go and get her a soccer ball so she can practice at home. She's definitely going to need some extra practice if she is going to know what to do at the first game in a few weeks. She just thinks it's so great to be doing a sport that is all her own........instead of going to watch Ansley do gymnastics and never getting to participate.

On another note, Ansley started piano lessons this week. She is taking from a sweet lady that plays piano and leads worship at the women's bible study at church on Tuesday mornings. I think Ansley is going to enjoy taking piano from her. I am going to try and learn a thing or two again too so maybe I can play some songs with her! We'll see how that goes....who knows maybe we'll be able to play a Christmas carol or two by the end of December. Woo Hoo!

Heaven is the Face

If you haven't heard Steven Curtis Chapman's new song "Heaven is the Face" then you should definitely listen to it. So sweet and so very sad. If you cry easily then you might need some Kleenex handy.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_q3LGYR3oM

The Lego Store

Ansley next to the miniature R2-D2 that had been built
The Lego Master building the 8 foot R2-D2 and one that is smaller

John, Ansley and Elisabeth building Lego bricks to be used on the 8 foot R2-D2

Some of the bricks they built

The 8 foot R2-D2. They weren't going to complete it until the next day. The kids wanted to go back on Sunday but we said no to that. Wasn't driving all that way to see R2-D2's head be put on his body. Sorry. You'll just have to use your imagination.

In the Lego store at their table where you can create whatever you want.

John checking out the robotics area. It was less crowded down there......that's where I should have been. The rest of the store was crowded (and that's a huge understatement)

Elisabeth building a hotel out of big Legos.

Ansley car creation

Using computer software to pick and find instructions on making things out of Legos. Ansley was making a dog but we didn't get to finish because we had to find a restroom (story of my shopping life). The computers are very popular at this store so once you leave one you lose it.

All built out of Legos. Cool huh?

John being silly

Elisabeth creating something out of Legos

It's an ice cream cone!

The Lego store in Charlotte opened in late July but they had their grand opening a week or so ago. So we decided to spend a Saturday afternoon on the northern part of town and go to Ikea and The Lego store. First we headed to the Ikea store which was very cool and very very big. We had to speed walk through it because it was huge and you could spend hours upon hours in there. But we knew that we needed to get over to the mall to the food court because that is where they were building an 8 foot R2-D2 out of Legos and we wanted the girls to get in on the action. They were able to help build Lego bricks that were used to build the R2-D2 and got certificates for it and everything. We spent hours in the Lego store building and playing and buying. Yes, after you spend that long in the store and see all the cool stuff they have it just makes you want to buy a Lego set of your very own to take home. We bought a Lego set of SpongeBob and then another one of a house. We have put both of them together and had fun spending hours on it and sorting through a zillion small Lego pieces. I need to take a picture of the finished product before they get totally destroyed. But that's the beauty in Legos.......you can build, tear it apart and then build again. The kids have now eyed several other Lego sets that they want. I eyed some too but of course out of the whole store I picked one of the most expensive ones. Guess I won't be getting that one anytime soon :-) (It is really cool though.....it's a carousel made of legos but it works --- like the horses go up and down and it really plays music. You can just guess how much that costs....)