Warm fall afternoon

Today should be the last day of our warm fall weather.  It was almost 80 here today.  I enjoyed having the windows open and all the fresh air!  This afternoon, there was little homework to be done, and only one thing on our agenda for the evening, so we had a grand time playing outside!!  The leaves have almost all changed, and with the wind and rain we are supposed to have this weekend, I had to take the opportunity to snap a few pictures of the fall beauty before it is all gone!!  The kids came up with a fun idea this afternoon.  Actually, Weston is the one that had the idea.  He raked a pile of leaves in front of the swing set and then the other kids took turns jumping in.  It was GREAT fun!!!

They raked, and played, and swung!!!  :)

Evan kept wanting to get in the pile in front of the swings, so Weston made him his own pile to run and jump in.  I honestly couldn't ask for a better oldest child!!!  He is kind and thoughtful and always help me with out complaint!!  This week while Barth was out of town, he babysat more than one night for the little ones while I had to run someone here or there.  I must say, it is really nice having a child old enough to baby sit around here!!  :)

Evan had a blast playing and jumping in the leaves that Weston raked for him!

\

And then after he had jumped for a while, he got a rake and helped Weston re-rake the pile for more jumping fun!

Here are some action shots of the swinging/ jumping fun!!

Then Brian and Aaron decided to make a long pile to see if they could clear the pile when they jumped!!

Oh, the simple joys in life!!  They are the best and make for such fun days and good memories!!!

Working together as a team to have a bit of fun.

Then Weston decided to bury everyone!  That was pretty fun!!  Weston is the idea person in our family most of the time!!  :)

He actually buried himself first before the others.  Then Evan came over to help get him buried all the way!  :)

Amber wanted a turn getting buried too.  None of the others wanted to get buried though.  

It was a delightful, fun, memory making kind of afternoon!!  A perfect end to a beautiful day!

My little monkey!! :)

Last night before bed and after scriptures, the kids were playing and doing shows for me. One of them asked something about how big they were getting, so we went into the bathroom to get everyone's weight, just for fun. While we were in there, my crazy little monkey started climbing the door jam!! As a child, we liked to climb the arch in the hallway, but we always used both walls. Aaron just scaled the entire side of the door frame by just pulling himself up there. The other kids wanted to try, but no one else could do it!!! Aaron is one strong little guy!! I love it!!!

Walk to the park

We have been having some unusually warm weather this week. Like tying and breaking record highs. Don't get too concerned though, it has only been like upper 70s so not too bad. Just perfect if you ask me!! :) The mornings are cool and crisp and perfect. Our afternoons and evenings this week are crazy busy, so I decided this morning that we would walk to the park and spend the morning playing there for a change. It was beautiful. I love Autumn in Kentucky. It is so pretty!!! Amber and Evan had fun racing all the way there. It was such a nice morning that there were a few others at the park too. Usually when we go, we have the place to ourselves, but we were not the only ones wanting to enjoy the warm weather before it got back to regular temps here with highs right around 50! It was a fun and relaxing morning for all of us!

Autumn time

Autumn is upon us here!  The leaves continue to change colors day by day.  A few days ago, when we were outside playing, the bigger kids got out the rakes for a little bit of leaf fun!  Brian and Aaron worked hard to make a big pile for everyone to jump in.

Weston, who had been working on his own pile, came over to help.  These leaves were all from our ash tree.  It was all red and lovely, but it loses its leaves first.  I am kind of sad because we have ash borers in it.  I wonder how much longer it will survive.  It lost quite a few branches this year.  :(

Time to jump in!!!  Oh boy, was it lots of fun!!

Here was Weston raking his own pile before he joined in the fun of raking up the big pile with the other boys.  This was one of the warmer days that we had this week.  The pictures are all a little fuzzy, but they were all taken with my phone.

And then the boys got into a leaf fight!!  They would get a pile on their rakes and then throw the leaves at each other!

Out of order, but this was the pile before they started jumping in the leaves.  Amber and Evan are waiting for the cue to run and jump!

I'm going to get you Mommy!!!

I can never tell what color the maple trees behind our house will turn.  It all depends on the rain and how hot it was in the summer, etc.  This year, the leaves look like they are going to be a beautiful orange.  The tops of the trees are mostly changed, but the bottom parts are still mostly green.  As the tree continue to change, I will post more pictures.  This time of year is one that I really enjoy here in Kentucky.  I love the nice weather and the beautiful colors!!!

Terrific Thursday

Today was another nice day. We got to the beach at our usual time today. (9:30) The weather was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky. The boys set out to make "Spa la la la la land" like they had yesterday. :) It was so fun! Weston gave rides on the boogie board to the little ones so they could visit "Spa la la la la land!" (they sing it like you would for deck the halls-it was sooo cute and funny) One of the pictures shows Brian and Aaron relaxing in the spas that they made and another one has Amber relaxing in Aaron's spa. :) We had dad take a picture of us as a family. Barth got a picture of me as I sat on the sand bar, enjoying the children playing. Barth was brave enough to get back in the water and wade around a bit. It made him kind of nervous, but he eventually got over it. Brian also found a sand dollar today. The sad thing was that when it came time to head back in, somehow it got smushed and it broke! :( Brian was so sad. I hope he can find another tomorrow! In the afternoon Grandpa and Grandma took us over to the "Nothing over a dollar" store and the kids got to pick out some fun treasures!!! After that we went to the little park that they have on the condo property and the kids had a fun time playing and climbing. Barth and I left about 5 and went out on a date and had a yummy dinner out. After dinner, we went and walked the peer where we sat and watched the sun set. It was peaceful and relaxing and we very much enjoyed our night together! :) All in all, another good day. Tomorrow is our last full day here. Then we are off bright and early Saturday morning to head back home so that the children can finish up school work on Monday which is part of fall break for us!! Then it will be back to chilly fall weather and our regular old routine!!!

Sting Rays

Sorry, no pictures today. I was too busy worrying this morning to take pictures. We got to the beach just after 9:30 this morning. Mom and Dad had gone ahead of us; they wanted to check email before heading to the beach and we took a few minutes longer than usual to get down to the beach since we decided to sunscreen up the kiddos before heading down to play. Anyway, we got to the beach and Barth headed out to the water with the kiddos while I sat out our beach blanket and got things situated. Mom has gone for a walk down the beach, and Dad headed out to the water with Barth. I took just a minute to sit and watch everyone before standing up to get in the water with everyone else. Barth called to me just then. He was walking, not even ankle deep, in the water on the edge of the sand bar just feet off shore that the kids like to play in. He wanted me to come see something. The next thing I know, he is coming toward me fast with his foot bleeding like crazy!!! He informed me that he had just stepped on a sting ray!!! There are no lifeguard stands on the beach, just hotels. I tell Barth to stay put and I will go find help. He tells me that I am being ridiculous and that he will go back to the condo. I get Dad to go with him. I tell the kids that they can dig on the sand bar and play in the water between the bar and the beach, but that I didn't want them in the water this morning. Barth called me from the room to tell me that his foot has stopped bleeding. I told him the things that I had read online about stings and try to convince him to go see a doctor. He was having none of that!! He did promise to soak it though (which is what it said to do online). I told him that I had brought Adolph's meat tenderizer and that he should put some on it. When I was packing for the trip, I had the feeling that I needed to pack the tenderizer. I thought that perhaps I was being prompted to bring it for a jellyfish sting or something. Part of me thought that I was just overly worried about things like that, but I packed it anyway. I am so thankful that I followed that prompting. That is what it was, no doubt!! I now know that I needed to bring it for Barth. About a half hour after everything had happened, mom got back. Barth kept me updated on how he was doing. Another 20 to 30 minutes after that, Dad came back. He said the wound was really quite small. Barth called to say that he put the meat tenderizer on the sting and then put his sock and shoe on to keep it in place. We went back to the room around 11:30!!! Boy was it an eventful morning!!!!!! This evening, all the blue that was around the wound is gone and you can barely tell it is there!!!! I am so thankful. We had already planned the afternoon to go explore some of the quaint little beach towns in the afternoon, so we were safe from that sting ray for the rest of the day!!! Looking up information about stings let us know that they are actually quite rare since rays are not aggressive. They usually just sting if they are scared or stepped on. Barth and I were just so thankful that if it had to happen to a member of the family, it was much better that it happened to him as opposed to one of the children. Since they are so much smaller, the venom would have been much more potent in their little bodies!! I am thankful today for promptings and good endings. The Lord watched over us today. And for that I am very, very thankful!!!

Manta Rays

Today was another fun day at the beach! In the morning we all went out and built sand castles. The water was so pretty today. Aaron found the very first sand dollar on our trip! He was so excited about that! Evan spent most of his morning on the kick board, swimming in the crystal clear water. After nap time, we hopped in the car and drove down the road to a state park that was about 10 minutes away. While I didn't think that the water was as nice as where we are staying, we did discover several manta rays swimming. I saw them first. I could actually see their dark shapes swimming because the water is just so clear. They were not far from us, but I wasn't sure what they were so I called to Barth and had the kids get to the beach. The rays kept swimming back and forth with the waves, up and down the beach. We got back in the water and watched them for a long time. It was really quite neat. They didn't bother us or come too close. They were really quite interesting to watch though. Barth got a skim board that we all tried our hand at. I wiped out 3 times. It was really quite funny!!! :) While we were at the state park, Weston found a sand dollar. Brian built himself a "spa" to relax in and Amber pulled Evan all around on the boogie board! It was a relaxing day but the kids were all beat tonight after all that fun in the sun!!