Zing Zang Zoom......The Ringling Bros. Circus

Riding the train to the Time Warner Cable Arena to see the Circus!

Waiting in the COLD until it's time to go in for the pre-show

Taking pictures with the cast of the circus during the pre-show

The girls took this picture just for Grandaddy.  They rode this motorcycle around during the beginning of the circus

Elisabeth stuffing herself with cotton candy.  She was a gooey sticky mess afterwards but she enjoyed every minute of it!

The elephant that walked around at the beginning of the show while everyone sang the National Anthem

The horses were beautiful.  I especially like the black and white ones.

Flying thru the air with the greatest of ease....

Crazy clowns.  They don't bother me but they creep John out.

Tightrope walking.  He was not hooked in.

Elisabeth felt this was way too dangerous!

I think she was hooked in but he wasn't.  How do they do that?  And why?

These 2 women were shot out of these cannons at the same time.  They flew across the performance area and landed so nice and neatly on the mats that were laid out for them.  We missed the shot of them actually coming out of the cannons.  It was really cool!

If you look closely you will see a guy coming out of the ring of fire.  He jumped through it and did a flip.  Craziness....

I just loved the elephants. 

Wonder if her leg was all slimy after that?

These tigers took some really good swats at this guys face.  I really wouldn't want to be in the ring with them.

These guys swung around and around in and on top of these human hamster wheels.  They were amazing and made me very nervous.  How do you learn to do this without killing yourself?

This guy did a flip and landed back on the wheel while it was up in the air and starting to spin.  It made me so nervous I almost couldn't watch!

We were due to go to the circus on Saturday afternoon at 11 am which meant that to drive to the train station, ride the train and get there in plenty of time for the pre-show we would've had to leave at 8:30 am or so.  Well......Mother Nature had other plans for us!  Instead it snowed and continued to sleet all morning so we opted not to go to the circus on Saturday morning as planned.  I think I was more disappointed than the kids.  We read on the web that they would allow us to come and trade in our tickets for one of the Sunday performances given they had tickets still available (it was 1st come 1st serve).  So we decided we would load up and try to make the 3 pm show.  We left our house around 11:30 and arrived at the arena around 1 pm and were able to trade in our tickets.  We wanted to be early to ensure we could get tickets and get the best seats we could.   The only problem was the pre-show didn't start until 2 pm so we had to stand outside for an hour.  It might not seem long but in 20 degree weather it was COLD!  We were frozen by the time we got inside at 2 pm and my fingers were so cold I could hardly pull the tickets out of my pocket!   The circus was great though and worth the wait.  We had an awesome time!  The girls stuffed their bodies full of cotton candy and popcorn and I think our seats turned out to be better than the original ones we had.  God worked it all out despite my worry, disappointment and a tinge of anger.   I'm so glad we were able to go and that everyone had a great time.  :-)

Ice/Snow Storm

Meg Riding our sled

Crashing and spinning into each other

The sled my dad refurbished for Ansley & Elisabeth for Christmas.  In the right conditions this thing can fly!

Ansley riding her sled

Getting read to sled down the hill

Coming back up the hill for another ride

They put 4 or 5 sleds together (8 people total) and had a sled train going down the hill.  Pretty funny to watch!

The sled train

Belle playing in the snow

Elisabeth making snow angels

Elisabeth

Elisabeth and Bryce

A not so perfect landing!

Pulling Kate around the cul-de-sac

Bryce pulling Elisabeth around the cul-de-sac

Gracie, Ansley and Meg heading over to the hill to sled

Our cul-de-sac before anyone came out to play this morning

Me riding the sled........it goes fast and is hard to stop!

Our street early this morning. Not much snow.....mainly ice.

Between the time we went to bed last night and 6 am this morning we had some snow and sleet in Fort Mill.  There wasn't much snow but because of the sleet and freezing rain it made everything slick and made it perfect for sledding!  We have a great hill in a neighbor's yard in our cul-de-sac and that's where all the kids on this end of the street come when it snows!  It's great!  We spent the morning sledding and then when we couldn't feel our hands, feet or noses anymore we came in for some hot chocolate and snacks and then headed back out for some more sledding.  It isn't supposed to snow anymore but it's supposed to drop down to 12 degrees tonight so everything out there will be a big sheet of ice tomorrow.........which will mean more sledding!  I like it as much as the kids do!

Fantastic Friday

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  We've been very busy and I just haven't had much to say and I "lost" a bunch of pictures from the company cruise and the polar bear plunge and that had me kind of depressed about blogging.   Anyway......I decided to jot down a few things that make this Friday Fantastic.  So here it goes:

1. It's Friday (need I say more)
2. Ansley has no homework on Friday so we all feel "free"!
3. Ansley is getting better each day with her retainer
4. Elisabeth is going to gymnastics in a little while and she loves it because it's HER activity and isn't something she has to go and sit and watch her sister do.  It's fun to watch her get sooo excited about it!
5. We are in the process of setting up Ansley's baptism at church.  She asked the Lord into her heart about 2 years ago and we've taken it slow since then but this is something she really wants to do so we are finally moving forward with it.  Yay!
6.The business continues to do well and God provides for us in ways that we couldn't have imagined when I decided to quit work 2 years ago.
7. God has great things in store for us......I can't wait to see what they are.   :-)


I hope you have a fantastic Friday and a wonderful weekend!

New thru 30

I am reading through the New Testament in 30 days. Want to join me?? You can find the reading schedule at www.newthru30.com.

Happy New Year!

Let's get this party started!

We spent New Year's Eve in Savannah and we all stayed up until midnight! I didn't think I was going to make it! The kids were still going strong but we made them go to bed after the ball dropped. I hope each of you has a wonderfully blessed 2010!