King Creek Falls

Lots of activity with Christmas and all. Wanted to share some pictures from Mark's new favorite waterfall, King Creek Falls. This hike to a waterfall is now a tradition every time the Texas cousins come to town. Why? We aren't sure. We started thinking about it and talking about it and every little hike is a disaster. This one was no different. That is the tease line.

The hike started off well. Everyone was ready to go:



AM looked great in her new hat a gloves!



Here is Grandma in THE JACKET THAT I WORE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL!!! Time for another? Maybe a Christmas present next year!



The first part of the hike was fine. The trail was wide and downhill. James brought one of his sticker books and stopped occationally to pass out stickers:



All the Texans:



AC. Doesn't she look happy? It doesn't last.



Here is a picture of Andy showing a waterfall. He took several good pictures on this hike so there will be some more.



The trail cut off from the first section to a more narrow and more difficult section. The boys had a great time.





When we got to the waterfall, Mark had brought rubber boots to carry the kids across a pool to the beach. He stayed dry. Foreshadowing: not everybody did.



Everybody means Brian. Ooops!



Cedar stayed dry. Smart dog!



The meltdowns started on the way back. Who knows what happened to AC?




AM stayed pretty calm during the whole ordeal:



And Andy still was happy!

The Blue Screen of Death

I know I have totally been MIA lately; however, it wasn't totally my fault. My computer crapped out. Turns out those Window updates ARE important. Maybe that is true, but they are also annoying...am I right? So here is a recap of what we have been doing.

Clemson won the ACC championship. Here is a picture of Mark listening to the game on the radio he bought at halftime. Good thing the camera has a flash or else the picture would be dark due to lack of power.



James was in the local Christmas parade with his school class!



Andy was not. Maybe next year.



I homebrewed my own kombucha!



James played the bells in his school's Christmas program. That is totally why I signed him up for this class:



Andy had a great time singing. He really projects:



We visited Santa, but not pictures. Andy wanted :a bike, a bike, and a Mega Brachiasaus. James wanted: a mega TREX, Harry Potter Legos, and a lego game.



Merry Christmas to all!

Thanksgiving weekend

So, it just worked out this way. For Thanksgiving, we got a condo at the beach! It ended up being really fun and we hope to do it again. Since it was november, it isn't like we could spend all day at the beach, so we did fun things in the area, like touring a aircraft carrier!



Look at that big boat! The kids were excited. But tired, they were tired too. They don't sleep well when we travel. Andy liked pretending to fly the planes:



James had to turn every "steering wheel" he came across...and there were a lot!



There were also a lot of very narrow, very steep stairs. Andy loved em, Mark did not.



James liked following the arrows for the different tours:



The flight deck had lots of planes. James and Andy were so overwhelmed, they took a nap under one of them:



And in front of the "new bridge"



We also spend some time at the beach. James loved it, got right in with the other yankees. Ms. Becky would be so proud!



He was really cold afterwards and kind of regretted it. We went over the cost benefit analysis for the fun:cold ratio. It is a life lesson! Andy just cried. He took a nap. He is crankier after he takes a nap. He need to drop that nap!



We had a great time!

Stone Soup

Every year before Thanksgiving, the kid's school reads Stone Soup to all the classes. You know, the story where some guys says he is going to make a soup out of a stone and cons the village into donating all their food for the soup? All the kids bring in some sort of vegetable and throw it in the pot at the correct time. Then a lot of work takes place taking all these vegtables and turning them into soup. From there it turns into a Thanksgiving like celebration and all the kids made hats and centerpieces and prepare a song. The highlight was this past Friday for the Stone Soup Celebration. Here is my little Indian, er, Native American, and Pilgrim. Sometimes they get along, and sometimes not.



Then everyone eats the soup. It is ok. You will definitely need more for lunch if you know what I mean. James liked it.



Andy, not so much.



And then all the kids help read a Thanksgiving story and sing a song:



In a totally unrelated and inapropiate topic, here is James sitting at a bar playing video poker.



Happy Thanksgiving!

The Most Exciting 25 Seconds?

I have blogged before that we sometimes go to Tiger Band practice. I like to go the Friday before home games because they should (emphasize SHOULD) only be running through the show. We went once or twice at the beginning of the season, but haven't been since. Too busy! Well, the last one was this past Friday and we were free and even though it was technical colder than I would have liked, we went. Everyone had a great time. I know this pictures aren't very good. I forgot my camera and had to use my ipod. Hey Mark, I think I am going to need the 4S when you get me the iphone!

This kids would just run whenever the music played, and stopped when it did not:



Like I said, SHOULD be doing just run throughs. James asked, "Why do they keep stopping?"



Eventually there was rolling down the hill. This was not always on purpose:



Sometimes there was conducting:



And then the highlight, when the band practices the pregame, the let the kids play the part of the football players running through. It does bring tears to my eyes. Here is the set up:



(I think some adults might also want to run). And the other end. The band director high fives them. Not a good pictures I know:



See you next season!

We've been published!

This blog is really my baby book. I record things here that I haven't written down anywhere else. There are times I take hours, just looking at pictures, seeing how the boys have grown. Turns out, you could make a book out of your blog. I have look at a few programs, but, well, you see, I got this groupon. A groupon for shutterfly for a photobook. Everything seemed great, so I signed up for it. Turns out, it expired end of October. Surely, I must have know I would still be working my three jobs then. Can't believe I had to force a blog book in there too! At any rate, I kind of threw it together. It was such a pain. I got better and faster as time went on, but still what a pain. After 3 evenings and one lunch break, I got through the first 6 months of my blog. I got it ordered and swore I would not do that again. Next time I would use one of those professional blog services that would do it for me. Well, this week, wouldn't you know, Shutterfly sent me an email saying they thing they overcharged me (like $4). To compensate, they have given me a $25 dollar credit. Yes, it is a good thing, but now I have to go through this whole process again. Grrr..... At any rate, here is Volume I

Soccer 2011

The kids played soccer this year! It was actually Andy who was interested, and James just went along with it. I also went a long with it because thought that James and Andy could be on the same team in the 3-4s division. Since James did not turn 5, until after Sept 5th, he was still technically 4, right? Imagine my surprise when I was told that since James was actually 5, he had to play with the 5 year olds. That is so weird! Turned out to be a good thing. James had a great team! What an experience for him! He team was awesome, his coaches were awesome, and he had a great time. There there is Andy:



Andy is 3. They really shouldn't let them play until they are least 4. I knew that going in, but I guess I didn't listen. I spent most of the season trying to keep Andy on the field. Here is a picture of the warm up. Now, it might appear that since the coaches both appear to be texting during practice, that they were always texting. That is simply not so. You could also say that since they were wearing shoes, that they were always wearing shoes. (also not necessarily true)



More warming up:



Now, the game. And Andy really wasn't all bad. Keep in mind that midway through the season, I started working full time so he was at school all day every day. It was a transition time. He played sometimes:



Oh, and sometimes he didn't:



James LOVED playing:





He hated being taken out:



Andy loved the post game snack:



Sometimes the loved each other:



We were trying to get a picture of their numbers here. James was "eight is great" and Andy was "five is alive" We wanted to have them in the other order, as in 85, as in ocho cinco for Ms Becky. Just didn't happen!