Shooting Campout

Over Memorial Day weekend, both boys had campouts planned.  Isaac's group was hoping to have a fishing campout and Nathan's a shooting campout.  Justin had planned on going with Nathan but then learned Isaac's group might need help.  Because of some late planning, Isaac's leader was unable to find a campground near a lake so they cancelled the camping part of the weekend.  Instead, they got up Saturday morning and met at the church at 6 am for breakfast.  Then, they drove about 20 minutes away and went to a lake to fish.  They had a little Jon boat and took turns on that.  Justin went and ate breakfast with them and helped take them to the lake and then went over to Waleska where the older boys were and spent the day shooting with them.  Everyone had a great time, even though the fish were not biting that day.  I didn't get any pictures from Isaac but Nathan's leader took some.  Hannah and I spent the day sleeping in and then shopping for a new swim suit and a couple things for girls' camp and EFY coming up.

They retired a couple flags that morning.  I had no idea this is how they did that.  Pretty cool.

Last day of school!

This last month has really flown by and I cannot believe the end of the school year is already here.  The kids had finals this week which means they were all done at different times of the day based on what finals they had.  Nathan was done every day at 10 am, Hannah was done at 11:45 am Monday through Wednesday and did not have school Thursday and Isaac went to school until 3:30 pm except Thursday just until noon.  This means I did not get much done.  Nathan and Josh planned a "date" for the afternoon.  If you ask Josh, it was a date.  If you ask Nathan, it was just hanging out.  They had four free passes to the Atlanta Zoo so they spent the afternoon there.  Then, they went to Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles restaurant for dinner.  Nathan said it was really good but expensive (good thing mom and dad were helping fund some of the date).  Then, they went to the Braves game.  The Braves are doing awful this year so they were able to get tickets for good seats for only $6.  Nathan text me a couple pictures while he was out.  I love this part of technology.  Then, Hannah saw his date Chandler post a picture on Instagram so I had Hannah text that to me.  So fun to have pictures.

 Hannah, Isaac and I met Justin at his work and went out to eat at Salt Factory for dinner and then to Dairy Queen for dessert to celebrate the last day of school with them.  We missed Nathan but I'm glad he had a fun time.

It arrived!

Isaac was so excited!  His fishing pole was waiting for him when he got home from school.  It came in three parts, the pole, the reel and the fishing line.

 When I asked him to let me take a picture with him and his pole, he said this is the only thing anyone looking at the picture would care about.  I love that he has something that he gets excited for.  If only we had a lake for him to walk to every day.  That is what he keeps saying.

Precamp and Stake Dance

Last weekend was busy.  Friday night was suppose to be our girlscamp precamp campout.  Unfortunately, it was pouring outside.  We went to plan B and just had the girls come to the church bringing their gear.  We needed to make sure they could set up their own tent and that the girls would fit into the tents we had given them assignments to.  We will only have two hours to get our entire campsite set up this year.  The girls did great.  We had some kinks to work out so I am glad we got to do it.  We made it an "amazing race" night.  The girls were put into teams based on who was in their tents with them.  Each team had a color.  They had several events and we timed each team.  We timed them setting up their tents and taking town their tents as well as three different games/obstacle courses.  They also went outside and worked with Brother Drake who was under a canopy showing them some different ways to make fire.  At the end, we awarded the winning team to get a treat first, smores rice crispy treats.  The night went really well and I was actually happy to go home and sleep in my own bed.

 Hannah, Izzy and Lauren have been working for several months on their Choice and Accountability 10-hour project.  They asked the stake leaders if they could help put on a stake dance.  They had to come up with a theme and make decorations and shop for and prepare the refreshments.  They did a great job!  I took a load of kids that had volunteered to help them set up to the stake center.  Lauren's mom had all the decorations and food and more kids.  It took a couple hours to get the decorations hung and a bunch of fruit kabobs made.  They also had skittles, gold fish, and water bottles.  Charlyce then took the girls to the dance later that night and Hannah rode home with Nathan and Josh.

Setting up the picture booth....water and jelly fish.

The girls made two of each of these out of huge cardboard and spray paint.  They put them by both doors.

 Nathan and Josh had been busy at home trying out their culinary skills.  Not sure where the idea came from but Nathan asked me to buy him crescent rolls, cheese, pepperoni and chocolate chip cookie dough.  Apparently, they made a pizza pretzel which turned out good and then attempted waffle maker chocolate chip cookes.  This is what the directions said to do and how they would turn out:

This is reality:

I laughed so hard.  It is what you call a Pinterest Fail for sure.  (pinterest is a craft/food sight where poeple put recipies and ideas on) Nathan called it taco meat.  It was really tasty but a mess to clean up!  The boys attempted and did a pretty good job but they had to get ready for the dance.  The next batch of waffles might have some burnt chocolate on them.

 Isaac had merit badge day at the church from 8-12 and then went to Arrowhead Lake with the Spiedels and a group of the Deacons until about 5:30.  One of his friends is moving away and they wanted a day on the lake.  In his words, it was "the best day ever".  Apparently, it had poured on them when they were doing the running part of the Personal Fitness merit badge and they were all soaked.  Since he had his swim suit with him for the lake, it was no big deal.  

After I returned from taking Hannah to Charlyce's for a ride to the dance and Justin picked up Isaac, Justin and I went out to dinner.  Isaac was too tired and wasn't hungry.  We tried a new BBQ place about two minutes from our neighborhood called Butt's and Barley.  It was pretty good.  We then lazied on the couch and watched a movie while we waited for the kids to get home.  Being parents of teenagers is exhausting sometimes but fun as well.

Fishing!

Isaac has discovered his love for fishing.  Every weekend he is asking to go.  Some of his friends have gone to the lake in Harmony on the Lakes which is in a neighborhood a couple times and then they talked their leaders into doing the fishing merit badge on Wednesday nights.  They went to a pond belonging to the Owen's family in our ward and had a great time.  Isaac caught the biggest fish!  Brother Hurdle was sending parents pictures as the boys caught fish and I was nervous that Isaac wouldn't catch one and he would be so bummed.  Then, I got this picture!  The guy didn't even know there were fish like that in the pond.  Isaac just ordered his own fishing pole using his own money and cannot wait to test it out! I love how the picture makes it look like the fish is hanging on Isaac's mustache.

First Prom!

About a week ago, Nathan called me into his room and told me that his friends said he should ask Haley to the prom since she had not been asked and everyone else from church was going.  This is "Mormon Prom".  The church puts it on so the kids have an alternative to going to the school where standards are not likely to be seen a lot that night. Nathan had decided he did not want to go so I thought we would not be having to think about it this year.  I thnk Haley is such a cute girl and is so sweet and funny.  I said YES!  He finally got the courage up to ask her.  Cydnee helped make a plan.  They would have a movie night and he would ask her there.  Cydnee helped put together a poster and a plan.  Haley's favorite candy are Laffy Taffy and Sour candy.  I thought it turned out cute.  Unfortutely, Haley did not come to the movie night!  The following monday, he was going to ask her at seminary and she didn't come that morning.  Thankfully, third time was a charm and she was there the following day and said yes.  

We had to get Nathan a new suit and tie and order a corsage.  Since I was leaving town for Charleston, we had pretty much one day to do it all.  He looked so handsom and she looked beautiful.  She sent him a picture of her dress.  It was gold and white so we got a gold tie and ordered black and gold ribbon on the corsage.  When she showed up for pictures before prom, her dress was gold and navy.  I guess she didn't like the way the white looked (it was shorter) so her very talented mom took the bottom of the dress off and made it into a long dress.  They had pictures first at the Cherokee City Hall in Canton.  From there, they went to dinner at Kani House which is a hibachi grill place that was able to seat all 20 of them together and then to the dance.  It was in Buford, Georgia about 40 minutes away.  Everyone seemed to have a great time!  Such a good, big group of kids.

Thanks to Paula for helping with the boutonnier.

Haley's parents are in the background.

The whole gang.  They are only missing one Laurel.  Greyson and his date who is not in our ward, Alex and Isabella, Chandler and her date that is not in our ward, Kylee and her date that is not in our ward, Josh and Cydnee, Daniel Tye and Savannah, Daniel Watson and Caitlin, Rylan and Molly, Nathan and Haley and Roman and Kate.  So cool they all wanted to go together in one big group.

Cydnee sent me this picture from prom.  So cute.

Mother's Day....a little late

With my friends coming on Mother's Day and me leaving town for the week, Justin didn't want to get me flowers and then not be able to enjoy looking at them so I got them when I got back home.  He king of forgot that he was going to have them for me so I got them the next day.  They were beautiful!  I don't know why I told him years ago that I didn't care to get flowers.  I sure do love having fresh flowers on my table!  These were really pretty.

The kids did get me gifts on Mother's Day.  I got a gift card from Hannah, candy from Isaac and a pearl bracelet from Nathan.

Charleston, South Carolina

I have been so spoiled.  Last weekend Stacy and Andrea and this last whole week Kellie and Tracy!  Sunday was Mother's Day.  I had a nice but busy day with church and getting things ready for company.  We finally had Justin's birthday dinner.  He asked for Greek food so I made chicken and lemon rice and bought Taziki sauce.  He made a greek salad to go with it.  That evening, I headed into Atlanta to pick up Kellie and Tracy from the airport.  They got in about 9:30.  So good to see them!  Monday morning Tracy and I went for a 3-mile run in the neighborhood and then we grabbed Kellie and walked down to the shoals and back.  We then got showered and ready and started our drive to Charleston, SC.  It is a 5-hour drive but we had some traffic and took a wrong turn somewhere so it took us a little longer.  We checked into our hotel room.  The hotel was in the historic district and just about a block away from lots of restaurants and little shops.  It was also right across the street from the trolly stop and visitor's center.  The trolly is free there so we parked the car and either walked or used the trolly to get around.  The room had two queen beds and a little sitting area so it was perfect for our week.

We rested a bit and then walked down the street to find a place to eat.  King Street is a main street that seems to go forever and has tons of shopping and food.  We ended up at Monza which was a pizza and salad place on King street.  All the shops and restaurants are in old cool buildings.  Monza was more trendy (fancy) pizza, no just pepperoni..ha...but it was good.  I forgot to take a picture but I found this online.  We sat on their cute patio.  It was dark and the lights were lit up.  Very relaxing place to eat.  

 After dinner we walked around a bit and I was reminded how bad I am at reading maps.  We thought we were walking towards the water but when we asked someone, we were heading away from the water.  It was dark and we didn't feel comfortable walking too far so we headed back to the room.

Tuesday was our city tour day.  I couldn't sleep passed 7:30 so I sat on the couch and read a book with a little bit of light coming through the window until Kellie and Tracy woke up about 8:30.  It was nice to have time to just sit and read.  We ate breakfast at the hotel and then we walked over to the visitor center and made plans for our day and bought tickets for a carriage ride tour.  We started our sight seeing at the Aiken-Rhett House.  It was built in 1820.  The house is preserved meaning everything in it is original to the house.  The family did renovate and reconfigure some of the house in 1833.  I would love to be able to sit above and watch the daily life that went on there.  

This was the entrance to the home that was added in 1833.

The building to the left was the carriage/stable house and the building to the right was the kitchen/laundry house.  The slave quarters were above on the top floors.

They had huge windows that would open all the way up to let in the breeze and cool down the house, at least try to.  It had to be so hot in the summer there.

 The warming house 

 The slaves entry.

Fireplace in slave quarters.  Nearly every room had a fireplace. 

Hallway in the slave quarters. 

 The stable.

 The stalls

Carriages 

 The woodwork was just amazing.

They gave everyone a headset to use while touring the house.  It told you where to go and the purpose of each room as well as describing things about what you were seeing.  

Bathtub and foot bath.

The art gallery was the last addition to the house.  That wing was added in 1857.

 It was a cool tour and beautiful house.  Next, we took the trolly down to Market street to the city market.  It is a market literally right in the middle of the street.  It goes for about three-four block.  

 The market starts right in that tunnel under a confederate museum.  This is where you could find souveniers of all kinds.

We decided to go on our carriage tour.  The sun had gone behinds clouds and a breeze came up and it was perfect for the rest of the day just like that.

There are several carriage tour companies in the area.  We used the Old South Carriage CO.  This was our carriage.  Luke (the horse) and Liz (the guide).  Liz was so cute.  She had grown up in Charleston, went to college and graduated with a degree in history and anthropology I believe and now lives downtown and loves being a tour guide.

 It was fun to hear about Charleston and see some of the sites that we probably would not have seen walking around.

 This is an old prison that is said to be very haunted.  It was open from 1802 to 1939. They do ghost tours there but you could not pay me to go on one!

 Such beautiful houses and churches.

 These houses are what they call Charleston single houses.  They have two doors.  A door to the outside porch and one to the house.  If the door to the porch was open, it meant they were recieving guests.  If it was closed, it meant do not come.  Liz said a lot of time that meant they were outside on the porch trying to cool down in their underwear.  The heat and humidity would be so bad, especially in the women's dresses that weighed probably 30 pounds!

It was crazy how many houses were tilted, some extremely, from a big earthquake but apparently They are not structually dangerous enough to tear down and fix.

Liz said that it is a nightmare to actually own a historic house in Charleston.  It is hard to do any renovation.  Everything has to be kept a certain way.  Apparently, the wood that the houses were built with is really good at keeping bugs out of the wood but it also does not let paint stick to it very easily.  She said you basically have to paint the entire outside every two years and as soon as you get done painting it, you start the paperwork to get approval for painting it again two years later.  They have certain companies that if you do get approved for renovation or fixing anything that you have to use.  When houses are completely restored to the time, they get a special award and it is marked with a metal plate on the house like below in the picture.  The houses have beautiful wrought iron work.  This harp design was one that the very wealthy used.

I am glad we went on the tour.  It was nice to just sit and hear a little history.  After the tour, we took the tour guide's suggestion of where to eat lunch and walked down a couple blocks to Low Country Bistro and had mini chicken and waffles to share and a sandwhich.  It was all really good.

We then walked down the the Nathanial Russel House.  Unlike the Aiken-Rhett house, it is restored instead of preserved.  Some of the pieces belonged to the house but most things have just been restored to the correct furniture, paint and design of the time.  We had a walking tour led by a guide and it was amazing to hear all that goes into restoring the house and how they investigate things to make sure everything is exactly correct as to how it was.  It was beautiful as well.

Apparently, you could tell the really wealthy by paint on doors.  These doors are not mohogony but are painted to look like mohogony.  The wealthy would have them painted to look like it.  So funny to me.  You would think actually having the mohogony would be better.  The intricate detail on the doors was crazy.  They would soak and bend the wood.  In this house, the rooms were rectangle and oval and they would match on each floor.

Of course, the pictures don't do the detail work justice.

 

Every little pice on this "molding" was hand carved and painted.

 

After touring the house, we walked over to Waterfront Park for our first view of the ocean.  There were cute little houses and some coblestone roads.  You definitely have to watch where you are walking in Charleston.  There are not too many flat roads.

This is rainbow row.  It is the largest cluster of Georgian row houses in the US.  There are 13 Georgian houses in a row painted in pastel colors.  At one time, these houses were waterfront but that land has been built in.  They have all been restored.  There are many insteresting stories about why they were painted pastel.

Waterfront Park.

It felt so good to put our feet in!  The water was nice and cool.  There were signs saying it was okay to get in the water as far as the second row so we were not being rebals or anything.  Ha.

 We were just about walked out so we caught the trolly back to our hotel.  Kellie has some painful hip issues going on and we wanted her to be able to walk some more tomorrow!  We did stop at Walgreens and get snacks and sunscreen for tomorrow before going to our hotel.  After relaxing for a while, we walked down to King's Street and ate at Juanita Greenburg's Nacho Royale and had some really good tacos.  Chips and salsa was a bust but the tacos made up for it.

Wednesday was beach day!  I again woke up earlier and read from my book.  We then ate breakfast at the hotel and drove about 15 minutes to Sullivan Island Beach.  There are many beaches in the area but we had heard this one was quiet and there was a restaurant in Edgar Allen Poe's old house that we wanted to go to that was just a couple blocks from the beach.  Apparently, Poe lived there while serving in the military at 18 years of age.  It was a perfect day and the beach was nice.  The water was warm compared to the Pacific Ocean.  I just love laying on the beach listening to the waves.  This was our little piece of heaven for the day.

 I finished my book.  Should have brought another one!  Tracy saw a star fish and picked it up.  Apparently, it was just about finished eating a crab.  You could see the crabs little leg falling off and it's shell was stuck to the star fish.  I had no idea the ate crabs!

 We all had a burger and fries at Poe's Tavern and it was good.

We drove back to the hotel and then took the Trolly back down to Market Street so Tracy could pick out some souveniers for her kids.  I didn't see anything I really wanted to get for mine.  We also had to go to the Peninsula Grill to get a highly recommended piece of their coconut cake to take back to the hotel with us.  Kellie doesn't like coconut that much so Tracy and I split the cake in half.  It was delicious!

We were all worn out.  I think we were sitting in bed by 7:30 and didn't move again.  We talked until about 10:30 and went to sleep.

Thursday came so fast.  We again slept in a little and took our time getting ready to leave the hotel enjoying not having to be anywhere for one more morning.  We had walked past a little breakfast shop a couple times during the week and decided to skip the hotel breakfast and eat there before leaving Charleston.  The place was called Callie's Little Hot Biscuits.  It is tiny inside only having room for about 5-6 people on a long bar on one side.  I think the bisuits at Sugar Pike Junction are better but they were good, especially their cinnamon one.

We started driving home and then remembered we were going to stop and see a plantation on the way.  Only problem was we remembered about 45 minutes too late.  There is definitely more to see in Charleston!  I am excited to go back and see some plantations, a different beach and the forts there, Fort Sumpter and Fort Moultry.  We got back to Vail about 6;30 pm.  Kellie and Tracy got things ready for flying out and then we went and had some garlic bread knots and salad at a little pizza place that just opened up close to our house.  They were good so I'll have to take the family and try the pizza!

Friday morning we left the house about 6:45 am to head to the airport.  No traffic so we got there in good time.  I guess security lines were crazy so it was good we got there when we did.  I sure love these two ladies.  It was so good to spend this time with them!