Through My Eyes

The Story of Esther

2012-01-19T23:04:00.001-05:00

I know I haven't been blogging much, but that's because I've been super busy with this:

I know what you're thinking: "Rachel? In a ballet? What???" But it's true! February of 2011 I started taking ballet at a local studio. Most of my friends take ballet there too. It is run by a Christian family and every year they put on a big production. This year it's The Story of Esther! The entire show is choreographed by our head teacher, Miss Lori Ann. She's an amazing woman! I love their family. Tomorrow is opening night! Then there are two shows on Saturday and one more on Sunday. Please pray for everyone in this ballet and for everyone who comes to see it! This is a great ministry to the community.

Joel’s Baptism

2012-01-04T23:46:00.002-05:00

On New Year’s Day, Joel was baptized! We got this video but the camera focused on this lady’s hair. :/ But hopefully you can still see and hear what’s going on!

It Needs A Name!

2011-12-21T15:30:00.001-05:00

Thanks for your help in picking the picture! This one was one of my favorites from the beginning. Now it needs a name! I have a couple ideas, but I'd love to hear yours!

Choices...

2011-12-20T23:27:00.004-05:00

I'm going to submit one of these photos of the beautiful Glenna in a photography contest a woman at my co-op is having. But I can't decide which one is best! What do you think? :)

Photoshoot

2011-11-28T13:44:00.001-05:00

Glenna and her family drove up here to spend Thanksgiving with us, and while they were here we did a photoshoot with my fancy film camera! I love how the pictures turned out. Check them out!

I absolutely love this girl. :)

Life.

2011-10-30T16:52:00.005-04:00

You’ve probably noticed, but I haven’t been posting much lately. I’ve been so busy with life that blogging got pushed to the bottom of my priority list! Here’s what’s been going on lately…

We built a raised bed garden because the soil in our backyard has very little nutrients in it from being hayed so many times. We found out the hard way that this means it is almost impossible to grow anything back there! But this little garden has been doing great!

We took a trip to Max Patch!

It is absolutely gorgeous there!

I love my family (:

We also hiked to the top of Viking Mountain, where we could look down on the whole city.

We went to a corn maze with our church! Here’s Kacey, Megan, and I in the maze- we got hopelessly lost.

The volleyball season is over :( But we won our tournament yesterday!

My team had a volleyball banquet. Here I am with our amazing coach! :)

Emily, me, Kacey

We matched!

Christy, Bekah, and me

Kate and me

Amanda and me

Carson, our amazing setter! (:

I’m going to put a little video together of some footage my mom took at our last game. Unfortunately, she stopped filming right before I did a great spike! But you will still be able to see me and my team in action :)

The Dominican Republic: Day 2

2011-09-15T10:10:00.000-04:00

The next morning, the missionaries, Kathy and Joe, took us to their church. This one was in English.

There’s the church. It started raining while we were there, so the ride home in the truck was very wet!

After church and lunch, we drove to their health center to sort all of the supplies everyone brought. The kids at our church’s VBS brought in tons of supplies for us to take. We brought so many suitcases!

When we got back to the hotel, we met as a team and planned out what songs we were going to sing at the villages we were going to visit during the week. We even put together a puppet show of the Zacchaeus story!

One of the songs we did was the Psalm 3:5-6 song I learned in VBS years ago. Thanks, Mrs. W! :)

After dinner, I went on a walk on the beach with Annie, one of the girls on the team. She’s the one in the yellow shirt in the photo. We got to know each other and had a few laughs. Then Joel, Annie, her sister Katie, Nin, and I sat by the pool and talked some more. I am so glad that there were girls my age on the trip! We became fast friends.

The Dominican Republic: Day 1

2011-09-13T10:01:00.000-04:00

The post you’ve all been waiting for! Well, maybe you were happy with the video, but here’s the details anyway.

On the bus! Look at us in our matching T-shirts. Spiffy.

We met the rest of our team in the airport, and then hopped on the plane!

It was so cool flying over the beautiful country of the Dominican Republic.

We were picked up in this truck and enjoyed a bumpy ride to our hotel!

We had not expected to have such nice accommodations! It was great to be able to have a vacation here too when we weren’t working.

The beach was beautiful, and we had a ton of fun swimming and snorkeling in the ocean.

Our team was great! There were a total of 13 of us. Here’s mom with Nin and Kim. Nin is from Florida, and Kim is from Canada.

When we all arrived at the hotel, we had a meeting with the missionaries we were there to help, and we found out what to expect for the week. We took a swim in the ocean and then just hung out. It was a nice relaxing day to help us get settled in.

New Jersey

2011-09-11T21:44:00.001-04:00

Please read the above title in a Jersey accent. It makes it sooo much cooler.

Anyhoo, one of the many trips we made this past summer was up to New Jersey to visit the family of one of Dad’s coworkers. They’re a great family and a lot of fun! They’ve got five boys, so it does get kind of stinky, but it’s fun! (; We stayed a whole week, and on one of the days we went to Ocean City and hung out at the beach with four of their five boys.

Dad didn’t come because he had to work, but he would have hated the crowd. He’s more of a mountain guy anyway.

For lunch, we got one of these huge pizzas!

If you eat the entire thing in record time, you win 25o free pizzas! The current record is 11 minutes!

No thank you. I’ll leave that to the pros. …Are their professional pizza eaters?

We found a space on the crowded beach, and set up our umbrella as quickly as we could, because the sand was so hot!

The water was extremely cold, so Joel buried himself in sand. A logical solution.

Yes, I know my sunglasses are crooked. But isn’t that a great picture? :)

Here’s the whole group, minus mom. (From left to right) In the back: Me, Josh, David; Middle: Silas, Joel, Isaac; and Stephen’s in the front.

After we finished on the beach, we got some saltwater taffy from the boardwalk, and free samples of fudge!

Mom also got to visit a friend from college while we were in New Jersey!

Mr. and Mrs. A took us on a very uphill hike to a rock looking over the Delaware River. The kind of rock that freaks moms out. It had a great view though!

Look! Everyone survived!

There’s our lovely hosts, Mr. and Mrs. A!

More freaking-out-Mom stuff…

Of course we couldn’t leave without shooting their guns…

My first time! I wasn’t too bad at it, if I do say so myself…

Dad was good at it too! He shot a clay pigeon in the air, and ended with that.

We had a great time in New Jersey with the A’s! Hopefully we can see them again soon; maybe here in TN!

Volleyball!

2011-08-24T21:41:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is our first game! I'm so excited! We took team pictures this morning. Varsity has the crazy neon socks! Can you find me up there?

I'm still working on those Dominican Republic posts! They're coming!

The Dominican Republic

2011-08-18T19:33:00.002-04:00

I put a video together of the missions trip we took last week. Over the next few weeks I’ll do individual posts with pictures about what we did there, but if you just want a summary, here it is. :)

(If you'd like to view it in a bigger window, click on the video once it starts playing and it will take you to the Youtube page for it.)

Josh VS. The Fish

2011-08-12T03:31:00.000-04:00

Josh worked on this fish for about 45 minutes! It’s the biggest he’s ever caught: 33 inches long!

Construction Again on Happy Hill!

2011-08-10T06:12:00.000-04:00

Grandma and Grandpa L started building their house! Hopefully they will be down here by Christmas. Their house in IN is for sale, and had a showing today! Please pray that they are able to sell their house fairly quickly.

I can’t wait to have both sets of grandparents living so close!

Lake Watauga

2011-08-08T05:55:00.000-04:00

The last night our family was here, we all piled in our cars and drove to Lake Watauga! My Uncle Rick and Aunt Jeri have friends who own a small home on the lake. They have a beautiful deck attached to it. We’ve been there once before, and it was so fun to hang out there again!

The kids had fun fishing with nets and poles. Josh especially loved it-not just because he already loves fishing! More on that later.

It was also my parent’s anniversary! Aren’t they a cute couple? :)

The owner of the house took us out on his boat, and we got to go water skiing!

There’s mom! She’s great at water skiing, even though she hadn’t done it in a long time. She used to live with Uncle Rick and Aunt Jeri, and they went water skiing all the time during the summer!

Dad was pretty good at it too, but he did entertain us with some big falls. ;)

I even tried it! It was my very first time, so it took a few tries for me to get up, but once I did I stayed up for about five minutes! It was super fun.

When we got back from water skiing we just had fun hanging out and making s’mores.

There’s Ashton, one of my many second cousins. :)

There’s there whole family! Mom’s cousin, Chip, his wife Ginny, and their two kids, Luke and Ashton.

Ashton’s so sweet. :)

Uncle Rick, Aunt Jeri, Grandma F, and Grandpa F. Uncle Rick and Grandpa are brothers. They are so funny together!

I loved having all this family here! It was a blast. Hopefully we can visit them in Texas soon!

Missions

2011-08-06T06:16:00.000-04:00

Today we leave on our missions trip to the Dominican Republic! We will be gone one week and will spend our time down there volunteering in schools and churches and spending time with the people down there. Please pray for our whole family while we are there. Pray that we will have good attitudes, that we will all stay healthy, and that we will be able to make an impact on the people for Christ.

I won’t have internet while we there, so I’ve scheduled a few posts, including this one, to post while we’re gone. When we return, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of pictures to post!

Adios!

Waterfalls with Family: Part 2!

2011-08-04T17:51:00.001-04:00

When the rest of my mom’s family got here, we had to show them some Tennessee beauty too! We took them to Blue Hole, a group of waterfalls that we have been to before and we love!

There are three different connected waterfalls at this spot, but this one is my favorite!

You can go behind the waterfall into this little cave.

Another waterfall is below this one. There’s a pool to swim in, if you’re brave enough to face the freezing water!

This was taken from the bottom pool. There’s Matt, Jodi, and Sophia!

Here’s the bottom waterfall! That’s Ashton on the right.

Emma loved climbing over all the rocks. :)

There’s Josh, of course wearing his hat!

Mollie wasn’t too sure about that cold water…

All of the kids loved their taste of Tennessee! And I loved being back at a waterfall I love. :)

Up next: Lake Watauga!

Waterfalls with Family!

2011-07-28T19:21:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago two of my mom’s cousins and her aunt and uncle came to visit! Her cousins brought their beautiful families with them. While The Boys and I only have 3 first cousins, we have plenty of 2nd and once-removed cousins! :)

(Left to right: Me, Joel, Josh, Other Josh, Emma, Jacob, and Mollie and Sophia are in front.)

They’re all from Texas, and the kids had never seen mountains or waterfalls! We, of course, fixed that very quickly by taking them on a nature hike to a small waterfall nearby. Only the H family came with us on this hike. The F family came later in the week.

There was plenty of space for the kids to play! This place is not very popular, so we had it all to ourselves.

The Boys found all sorts of little creatures!

Emma loves to have her picture taken! :)

We hardly ever saw Josh without a hat on.

Sophia was almost always making this face, but we got her to smile a few times. :)

Mollie and Sophia are pretty close in age and had fun playing together, although they are very different! Mollie is a firstborn, and Sophia is the fourth child in her family!

Sophie’s classic face again!

There’s mom’s cousin Jodi with her husband Matt. Jodi’s pregnant with their fifth kid!

Joshie and Sophia :)

There’s their beautiful family! Matt and Jodi are in the back, and in the front there’s Sophia, Jacob, Josh, and Emma. (Left to right)

And hey! There we are!

We loved having my mom’s family here because we hardly ever get to see them! On my next post I’ll show you pictures of the other waterfall we went to. Uncle Rick, Aunt Jeri, and the F family came with us on that one too.

Twenty

2011-07-25T18:10:00.000-04:00

...is far too many. Twenty days since my last post. I do apologize for my lack of blogging! I'm working on it! One would think that with it being summer and all, I'd have plenty of time to blog...and okay, I do. So a few posts about our family visit and our trip to New Jersey are coming your way very soon!

The Dreaded Question (Brain Dead at Midnight)

2011-07-05T10:15:00.001-04:00

It was 11:30 PM on my last day of school. I was so ready to be done, but I had one more assignment. I had to write a story about someone being pressured to do something they didn’t want to do. Absolutely brain dead, what did I do? I called my bestie of course. She also happens to be a great writer, so that helped. Together we came up with this:

The Dreaded Question

Rachel L. and Glenna W.

How many times have you heard your mother say, “Would you jump off a bridge if all your friends were doing it?” I’m sure you always hated when she said that because it poked a big hole in the middle of your boat of excuses. I always replied, “Sure I would! I like to live life on the edge.” Then I would get grounded for talking back to my mom. But I always insist, as many girls do I’m sure, that I would take a leap of faith with my friends if it would help me get that new shirt, or necklace, or adorable-must-have-can’t-live-without-or-I’d-be-uncool-phone. Well, let me tell you, that confidence will waver when you are standing at the top of a bridge staring at the cold water that looks way too far down.

Let me back up. It all began at school on what started as an ordinary Wednesday. My friends and I were all sitting around the lunch table chewing on our boring slices of greasy pizza. Wednesdays are the most boring day of the week. It is a proven scientific fact that nothing exciting ever happens on a Wednesday. If the circus was scheduled to come on a Wednesday, it would break down one mile from town and not be able to make it until Thursday. I know that because it happened once. But anyway, my friends and I decided that we were going to defy the rules of science and create some excitement. We planned to meet that afternoon at the river. That may not seem too thrilling, but we had to admit, it was pretty good for a Wednesday.

Just a few hours later I was swimming in the exciting river with my exciting friends. Soon we had to get out though because it was freezing. Did I mention it was November? It was. Rather than sit in the grass and stare at each other, we decided to do what eventually happens at every event that involves teenagers: A game of truth or dare. It started out with the usual stuff-who do you like, eat a bug, stuff like that. But apparently that wasn’t enough for Kelsey. When it was her turn, she dared the hottest guy in our group (who also happens to be my crush so I won’t say his name) to—get this—jump off the bridge into the river! Hottie Pottotie, as we’ll call him, is a big show off, so he stood up and began walking up to the bridge. I didn’t think he would do it, but when he got to the top and stood on the edge, I began wondering if we would be needing to write an obituary. (How do you even write an obituary?) Actually, the bridge isn’t that high, but I bet it still looked scary up there. But Hottie Pottotie waved down at us and then bravely stepped into thin air.

Hottie Pottotie was the only one in our group who wasn’t screaming as he dropped into the river with a big splash. We held our breaths as we waited for his head to bob to the surface. Just as I began to worry that we would have to write that obituary after all, he popped up, smiling mischievously. “Ok, now that I’ve done it and survived, I dare you ALL to jump off!” Hottie Pottotie laughed. Kelsey, of course, jumped up. She would do anything to impress Hottie Pottotie. Not about to be out done by Kelsey, I sprang up and started running to the bridge. With some convincing, we eventually got the whole group to come up to the bridge.

Right up until the point when looked down, I was sure that I would be the first to jump. Before I looked down, I knew that I would fall into Hottie Pattotie’s arms and we would swim to shore and fall in love and get married. Yes, my plans were big. But all my confidence vanished when I looked down. I really shouldn’t have looked down. Slowly, I backed away from the edge, struck with a sudden case of vertigo. To my intense chagrin, Kelsey jumped right off without hesitating. “Wheeeeeee!” she yelled, although I’m sure she was scared to death. I racked my brain for an excuse, for something I could tell Hottie Pattotie so that he wouldn’t think I was a wimp. Suddenly, I heard a familiar chime. I glanced to my right, and there he was, my hero. The ice cream man! (I don’t know why he was still selling ice cream in November, but I was glad to see him!) As the rest of my friends reluctantly jumped into the water, I ran over to the truck and pulled two dollars out of my pocket. “Two fudge pops please!” When he handed them to me, I ran down to my friends, who were shivering as they crawled out of the water. Hottie Pottotie turned to me and asked, “Hey, why didn’t you jump? It was fun!”

“Oh! Well, I was going to, but then I saw the ice cream truck, and an ice cream truck is pretty rare in November, so I had to take advantage of it, of course, and he was going to drive away, so I only had one chance, and I had two dollars in my pocket that I had to use, and anyway here’s a fudge pop.”

“My favorite! Thanks!” Hottie Pattotie took the fudge pop from me and gave me a smile that made me melt into the grass. Kelsey’s glare of jealously also may have added to my happiness.

So the moral of my story is this: Next time your mom asks that dreaded question, tell her that you would walk up to the edge but then be saved by an ice cream truck and then would buy a fudge pop for your crush. And, if you’re lucky, you’ll fall in love and get married.

2-Year-Old Syndrome

2011-07-04T14:33:00.000-04:00

She's got it bad.

Zzzz…

2011-06-17T23:32:00.001-04:00

That’s what I’ll be doing for a loooong time tomorrow. I just got back from my second week at camp! The first week I was a camper, and the second week I was a helper. I had a really great time and it was the best way to start my summer. (:

Here’s a few pictures from camp:

Cousins

2011-06-04T19:28:00.001-04:00

I love this kid (:

Double Take

2011-05-16T00:06:00.000-04:00

What would you do for $20?

This is what Joel did:

He says he’s going to blow it all on fireworks.

Why Rachels Shouldn't Play Baseball

2011-05-15T00:05:00.002-04:00

Today Josh and I went to my friend Nate's birthday party. We played baseball. It did not end well.

My friend Margs and I were the team captains. My first choice was Josh because he is a beast at baseball. (7 years of little league will do that for you.) We batted first, and I actually got a hit. I proceeded to run to first base, and then continue running to what I though was second base...but was really just part of a catcher's uniform that was lying out in the field. The REAL second base was occupied by another player from our team, who was wondering what the heck I was doing.

Once I realized all of this, I turned around to head back to first, but Nate had the ball and tagged me out. That was the third out. So that was kind of embarrassing... :P

Then Josh put me on 1st base for some reason. He announced, "If you throw the ball to Rachel, make sure it hits the ground first." I definitely agreed. Josh pitched to whomever was at bat, grabbed the ball they hit, and threw the ball to me. It was exactly what he should have done. But he definitely didn't let the ball hit the ground first, and it went right past me. The good news was, I got the ball quickly and threw it to second, getting the person out.

All this was nothing compared to what happened next. My friend Christy was up at bat. She's not good at baseball either, so when she finally hit the ball it didn't go very far. Josh grabbed it and started chasing her with it to be fun instead of throwing it to me. Soon he realized that he wouldn't be able to catch her, so he unexpectedly stopped about ten feet away from me and through the ball to me.

It was a great throw. Or, it would have been if he had been standing farther away...or if he was throwing to someone else. But he was throwing it to me. From ten feet away. Unexpectedly.

Nailed me right in the nose.

And that, my friends, is why Rachels should not play baseball.

This Girl...

2011-05-06T13:52:00.002-04:00

...scored a 102% on her final Chemistry quiz to bump up her final grade to an A! (94%)

Happy dance!

Ain't you never learned any grammer??

2011-04-26T22:05:00.004-04:00

My biggest pet peeve. Ever.

(While the picture is a little weird, it gets the point across :P)

Once Upon A Time…

2011-04-26T10:41:00.000-04:00

…a little girl named Rachel borrowed a fancy camera from a professional photographer in her church (who she’s kinda an intern of, which she thinks is pretty cool), and this is what she did with it…

Haircut

2011-04-24T22:26:00.000-04:00

I got my hairs cut! I love it. I'll probably just have this for the summer and grow it out longer during the fall/winter.

Before...

After!

(It's easy to see which picture was taken with the high-tech camera I borrowed, and which one was taken with my little digital one!)

Josh Turns…14!

2011-04-23T18:06:00.001-04:00

April 7th was Josh’s birthday! In the morning we had a surprise brunch for him and some of his friends came over. As is tradition in our family, we made chocolate chip pancakes!

That night, we had a family dinner of Josh’s choice. Of course, he picked Dad’s (sorta) famous hamburgers!

After dinner, we had an ice cream cake for him.

“Step away from the cake, Dad.”

Typical.

We had to bring in a strong man to cut that cake.

While we ate, Josh opened his presents.

Money is always fun to get!

Ah yes, the bookworm. He’s already read these books at least twice, but he’ll read them until all the pages fall out!

Happy birthday, Josh! I love ya. ;)

The Formal-Prom Thingy

2011-04-11T18:15:00.001-04:00

So on Saturday night I went to my homeschool co-op's Spring Formal. It was pretty much a prom. Here's some pictures from my super fun night (:

Me and Bekah

Becca, Me, Jordan, Sarah, Candace

Me, Christy, Candace, Jordan, Bekah

Me and Molly

I had an amazing time! It lasted from 6-12 in the morning, but I didn't want to leave. I'm definitely going again next year (:

One Day Without Shoes

2011-04-05T12:13:00.001-04:00

Go without shoes today to raise awareness for kids who have to do that everyday.

http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/

Formal

2011-03-28T22:44:00.001-04:00

My co-op is having a formal next month, and I’m going. It’s kind of like prom. This is my dress and shoes.

I’m excited! Now I just have to practice walking in those heels…

It's Spring!

2011-03-21T16:09:00.000-04:00

The weather is beautiful, my Better Homes and Gardens magazine has arrived, and I'm inspired to start planning my flower garden! Any suggestions on which flowers I should plant?

Auntie

2011-03-15T22:40:00.005-04:00

You’ve probably heard of my great-grand-aunt, or “Auntie,” as we like to call her. People are always amazed when we tell them about her. After all, she is 104.

It’s always fun to go see Auntie. The drive to her nursing home from my grandparents’ house in Indiana is about an hour and fifteen minutes long. We always pass the llamas and the striped cows.

Sometimes we’re worried that Auntie won’t recognize us, but she always does. It usually takes her a minute, but she knows who we are. Well, most of the time—once, she recognized all of us except for me, and she said, “Well, you must be engaged to one of these boys.” She’s so funny. Don’t worry, she remembered me eventually.

We’d get up really close and yell in her ear to ask her questions; usually the same ones from the last time. She won’t remember. ;) Once we asked her all about her life when she was young. She told us about her experiences in both of the World Wars—she was born in 1907, so she remembers both! It’s really cool to hear it from someone who was actually there, not just read it in a textbook.

Last night at 9:31 Auntie went to see Jesus. Although we’ll miss her, we’re so happy that she’s finally there.
She’s been ready for a long time! She’s no longer in pain; she gets to see her family again. We’ll miss her, but she’s finally home.

Here's the link to her obituary, if you're interested.

Auntie's Obituary

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

2011-03-10T11:57:00.000-05:00

Today is my wonderful Mommy's birthday! I love her so much and I don't know what I would do without her. She does so much for our family. Love you, Mom! Feel better soon!

Mollie’s 2nd Birthday!

2011-03-07T17:05:00.001-05:00

(Some of the photos in this post were taken with my film camera, which is why they may look a little funny. Apparently, the film was old.)

December 27th was Mollie’s second birthday! I can’t believe she is already two years old. I’m so glad that we live close to her and get to watch her grow up. (:

And of course, she had a princess birthday party. She’s such a girly girl.

There were princess stickers…

There were even crowns! :)

Birthday cake!

Mollie hasn’t learned how to blow out candles yet, so her daddy helped her.

Aren’t they an adorable little family??

“Wansome? Wansome cake?”

After we ate, Mollie opened her presents.

When Mollie was playing with those blocks later, Dad made it very clear that he wanted all 160 blocks back in that bag when they left. Thankfully, Mollie’s a very good helper, and only one was left. :)

She also got a tutu!

So cute!

I think this stroller was Mollie’s favorite present. She pushed it around for at least ten minutes, squealing and laughing!

Isn’t she just adorable? I love her so much!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

2011-02-28T23:27:00.001-05:00

So the game is tied at 33 points. And whose little brother scored the winning basket against an undefeated team in a playoff game??? Oh yeah—mine!!! (:

(I posted this on facebook too ‘cause I’m just so dang proud of him!)

News….And A Strange Joel Quote

2011-02-20T21:49:00.001-05:00

"If you lick that knife, your dignity will become a concrete noun and escape the prison of your body through the blood gushing from your tongue." --Joel

I do not understand that boy...but our conversations make for good Facebook statuses.

--------------------------

In other news, my grandpa finally got the German shepherd he’s been wanting for years! His name is Buddy (not sure if they’ll keep that name), and he’s nine months old. He’s already trained and he’s super sweet. We went over and met him tonight. He was acting really nervous because he wasn’t used to his new home and all these new people, but my grandpa seemed so happy. (: We’re coming to Florida this Thursday for the weekend (yay!), so Hobbes will get to stay at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and get to know Buddy.

One more thing: tonight I dropped my film off at Walmart, so soon I’ll be able to see all of the pictures I took with my fancy shmancy camera! I’ll post some of them here. (:

Have a great week, everybody!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2011-02-16T15:03:00.001-05:00

I love you, even if you are a little weird.

Christmas!

2011-02-15T23:43:00.001-05:00

We had so much fun during Christmas! Everyone in our family came this year. We had both sets of grandparents, both sets of aunts and uncles, and all of our cousins! (Well, all three of them… :P) All of the F’s stayed at Grandma and Grandpa F’s house, and all of the L’s and S’s stayed at our house.

On Christmas morning, the L kids and the S kids opened our stockings. There’s Josh and Luke.

Left to right: Joel, Ashley, Josh, Rachel, Luke

Ashley loves anything that has to do with princesses! Here she is with her princess snow globe. (:

Down at the F house, Mollie opened her stocking, too.

Then we all went down to the F house for breakfast.

Uncle Mike makes the best french toast!

We hung out there for a while, and then everyone came back to our house to open presents!

Hooray for a cousin picture where everyone is looking at the camera!

Oh, Mollie… :P

Awww!

One tradition in our family is to always read the Christmas story before we open presents. This year, we read about the first coming of Jesus, and then his second coming in Revelation.

Then it was time to open presents! We take turns, going youngest to oldest. Mollie starts, of course!

That’s…interesting…

Mollie loves to help out, so her mob and broom were one of her favorite presents. (:

Later, of course, we had a delicious dinner. It was so nice to have our big kitchen and island to use this year instead of our tiny one at the rental!

The Boys, Ashley, and I all got puzzles as one of our gifts. So the next few days, there was always someone working on one.

Finished!

We had a great Christmas with our whole family. I hope you and your family had as much fun as we did celebrating the birth of our Lord! (:

ACT

2011-02-11T22:08:00.002-05:00

I'm taking the ACT tomorrow morning. I'd appreciate it if you'd take a minute to pray for me! (mostly that I don't stress out too much; I'm just doing it to get an idea of what it's like.)

-Rachel :)

Ballet

2011-01-22T23:18:00.001-05:00

I'm starting ballet this week! I have wanted to dance for a long time, and I found this place in town that a lot of my friends from co-op go to. I'm really excited (: I'm starting in an adult beginner so that I won't be with a bunch of 5 year olds, but hopefully I can move up to my friends' class quickly.

Window Seat: Phase 1

2011-01-21T13:32:00.001-05:00

My Grandma and Grandpa bought me the curtain rod and hold backs for Christmas, and my daddy put it up the other night for me! Ain’t it purty? (:

For Mr. S

2011-01-12T18:59:00.001-05:00

Today is Mr. S’s birthday, and he asked us to show him pictures of the snow he missed. It was so sad because it snowed a lot before he and his family came, and then it was in the 50’s and 60’s while they were here, and it hasn’t stopped snowing since they left.

Well, happy birthday Mr. S! We wish you were here to see the snow yourself!

Mine.

2011-01-11T00:53:00.001-05:00

I love hand-me-downs. I get a lot of them too, being small and all. But this might just be my favorite hand-me-down yet…

My Aunt Jenny gave me her old SLR camera!

I’m so excited! It’s not digital, so it’s also helping me learn patience. :P But I love it!

I’m excited to see how the pictures turn out. Hopefully I can get them on a photo cd or something so I can put them on the computer. If I can, I’ll be sure post them here!

(photos by Jessie)

2010’s Goin Out With A BANG!

2010-12-31T18:16:00.001-05:00

Know why? The S’s are here! We went to Jonesborough today, which is the oldest city in Tennessee. It’s also a fantastic place for a photo shoot, which is exactly what we did!

Happy New Year, everyone!

My Pet Bunny

2010-12-28T10:17:00.000-05:00

I was looking through old photos and videos and I found this:

Yeah, he’s weird…

Happy Birthday Mollie!

2010-12-27T22:18:00.001-05:00

Today is Mollie’s 2nd birthday! We took lots of pictures, and I’ll post them soon. (:

It’s a White Christmas!

2010-12-25T17:19:00.001-05:00

And look what we saw this morning!

Eight deer in our backyard! They were beautiful!

Merry Christmas, friends! I hope you had as much fun as we did!

Guess Who’s 12?

2010-12-22T22:54:00.001-05:00

Not him. No, that can’t possibly be right.

Well, it is. Today is Joel’s 12th birthday! Here’s some picture from his big day. (:

In the morning he opened his present from Mom and Dad. (“Get off my present, you dumb dog!”)

What is ittttt???

GASP! It’s the skateboarding grind rail you’ve been talking about for weeks!

He was so excited and went down to the garage right away to put it together and test it out! It’s already looking very well used.

In the afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa took Joel and me to Subway and to see The Voyage of The Dawn Treader. We had the whole theatre to ourselves. (:

Tonight we went over to the B’s to have a birthday party for both Joel and Charlie. Charlie’s 14th birthday was a week ago, but he was sick so we couldn’t have a party then.

The B’s gave him fireworks! He’s our little pyromaniac.

Left to right: David, Josh, Joel, Charlie

Lighting the candles. Joel laughed at how Mr. B and Charlie just pulled lighters right out of their pockets like it was no big deal. At the B house, the males keep a pocket knife and a lighter in their pockets.

You don’t want to mess with them.

Kacey and I decorated the cake. (: Speaking of Kacey, check out her awesome new bangs!

Our whole F family was there, and the B’s grandparents were there. Doesn’t Mollie look adorable in her bow?

“Why yes Father, I would like some more ice cream!”

Happy birthday, kid.

Scratch That

2010-12-18T14:01:00.001-05:00

We here at the L house like to keep you on your toes. We change our plans all the time. You never know what might happen.

You never know when my dad might just fall in love with these two little fuzz balls.

You never know when he might decide to keep them both instead of getting just one and the momma.

They are awfully cute though!

So there’s our two newest members of the family; Callie and Sally! (:

Meet Callie

2010-12-10T15:15:00.001-05:00

So, it turns out that we are not getting the kitten I showed you a while ago. When we went to go get her, Mrs. B suggested that, since we can’t get Sweet Pea (the momma) until she gets spayed in a few weeks, we should take two kittens. She said we could see which one got along better with Hobbes and which one my dad liked more. And they could keep each other company. :)

Well, my dad likes this one!:

He likes her because she runs right up to you when she sees you, and she’s content to just lay on you and purr. She’s such a sweetie!

We’ve decided to name her Callie. I know, so much for the name poll. But she didn’t really look like a Maggie to me as much as the other one did.

Callie is sort of the girl version of Calvin. So now we have Callie (Calvin) and Hobbes! (: If you haven’t read that comic strip before, you should definitely check it out. We have all the books and they are torn up because we read them so much. :)

Aw! I just love her! She and her sister have made themselves at home in our garage. Once she gets bigger, we’ll let her and her mommy roam around outside. But for now, she’s happy to run around and explore in our basement! (:

Give That Puppy A Name (:

2010-12-08T23:30:00.001-05:00

Everyone’s getting new pets here at Happy Hill! (: (That’s what Grandpa F named it.) Grandpa F has convinced Grandma to let him get a German shepherd puppy, which will be an INSIDE dog! Here he is:

Isn’t he adorable! Grandma and Grandpa have no idea what to name him, though. So shout out your ideas in the comments! (:

Carving Pumpkins

2010-12-04T22:34:00.003-05:00

My mom got into the fall spirit last month and bought us little pumpkins! (:

Here’s my multi personality pumpkin-- :D

This one got a little deformed. :P

I didn’t get any pictures of Joel’s, but his was pretty cool too!

Now it’s time to bundle up for winter! We’re supposed to get some snow. Brrr!

Our New Houseeee! (:

2010-11-24T16:07:00.002-05:00

Please note that it’s still in the process of being decorated. ;)

I don’t know why the panoramas can’t be clicked on to enlarge them. So put on your glasses and squint.

Great room

The Boys’ room (Sorry about the choppiness, part of the room would be missing if I cropped it out)

My bedroom

Our bathroom

Laundry room

Master bedroom

Master bath

So pretty (:

Master shower (That sounds funny :P)

Toilet room :P

Basement (sorry about the weird lighting)

TV part of the basement

Guest room

Guest bathroom

And finally, our beautiful view! And there’s Grandma and Grandpa’s house in the corner. Theirs will be done in a few weeks!

Well, there it is! Now come see it in person (:

*Don’t forget to enter a name for our kitty down there!*

Give that KITTEN a Name!

2010-11-23T12:00:00.000-05:00

You might be surprised to learn that we are getting a kitten! Yep, our friends, the B's, are trying to find homes for their kittens because their cat had seven! We are taking a kitten and the mama. (: The mama's name is Sweet Pea, but we need a name for the kitten! Here she is:

Isn't she adorable? If you've got an idea for a name for her, yell it out in the comments! You can post as many as you want, since the only prize is us using the name. (:

Bekah! :)

2010-11-22T10:23:00.000-05:00

The other W’s came to visit us for a day after they left their property a few weeks ago! Here’s some of the fun pictures Bekah and I took (:

We went to see our house, and had fun taking pictures on our land!

We were taking care of the B’s kitties at the time, and Allie and Bekah loved them. (:

They’re soooo cute!

When we got back to the house, we decided to do more fun pictures.

Bahaha. :D

We fought with ourselves.

I love you Bekah!

The Boys are all ready for winter.

2010-11-20T10:14:00.000-05:00

Work those snow pants.

The W’s Come to TN—Again! :)

2010-11-19T10:08:00.000-05:00

Just a few weeks after I visited them, the W’s came to visit us! We took them to Laurel Falls. :) (And Glenna and I didn’t get attacked by dogs this time!)

We stopped at a little store on the way to get sodas (in glass bottles :]) and chocolate-covered pretzels. (:

The trail was beautiful.

Beautiful fall colors!

Love her (:

There’s that cool bridge again!

Us on the bridge (:

Family picture at “Eyepoke Rock,” as Mrs. W calls it. Right before the picture was taken, my mom accidentally poked my dad in the eye. :P

The trail is nice and even until the last bit, because most of the trail is actually above the waterfall. So the last part is a steep downward hike over a bunch of rough rocks! It kills your thighs.

But then you get to the bottom and see this! There wasn’t very much water there when we went, but it was still pretty. (:

Matchy matchy. :P

Dramatic hair photo ;)

Glenna and I walked downstream to take some pictures.

We’re silly (:

As we were climbing toward another rock where we had wanted to take pictures, I came across this thing:

(I’ve edited the picture so you can see it better) I started screaming! The thing was over a foot long!

Gahh!! Needless to say, we screamed, took our pictures, and ran away. We went back to the waterfall and took some W family photos.

Mrs. W would like me to say that she is not really that big, it’s just her shirt. :P

Aww (: Thanks for coming, W’s!

Mr. Wilbur

2010-11-18T09:27:00.000-05:00

Oh, sometimes that Mr. Wilbur really gets on my nerves! Why, just the other day, he—what’s that? You haven’t met Mr. Wilbur? Well, consider yourself lucky! Mr. Wilbur is a beaver. And not a normal beaver; not a beaver who just goes about his business, making a dam for his family like a good little beaver. No, Mr. Wilbur is a nosy sort of beaver. He always has to know who’s doing what and why. As I was saying, just the other day he walked in my front door, without even knocking, and snuck up behind me in the kitchen.

“Well, hello there, Miss Patty! My good rabbit friend! Aren’t you looking fine today!” I nearly jumped out of my skin! My pan of biscuits, which I had just pulled out of the oven, clamored to the floor.

“Mr. Wilbur! Why, you nearly scared me to death! I didn’t hear you knock.”

“Oh, I didn’t,” he said casually. “But enough of this trivial talk. I’ve got more important things on my mind. Now, Miss Patty, while I was sipping my tea by the window this morning, as I always do, I happened to notice you dash out of the house, so quickly that you forgot your bonnet.”

“Well, yes, I did run out this morning to the market,” I answered as I scooped up the biscuits from the floor. “We were fresh out of jam, and you know how my boy Arthur loves to have jam on his bread in the morning!”

“Jam? Was it Old Man Miller’s jam? Oh dear. Have you heard what he— but I don’t want to worry you. Say, what kind of jam did you buy?” Mr. Wilbur inquired.

“I bought a jar of boysenberry,” I said, motioning to the purple jar on the counter. “It’s Arthur’s favorite, and I’m rather fond of it myself,” I answered.

“Boysenberry, huh? Well, I’ll be darned if that isn’t my favorite flavor as well! Say, mighty I try a smidgen?” he asked. I don’t know why he bothered asking, though, because he immediately snatched a roll off of the pan and grabbed the jar of jam. “Say, do you have a spoon?” he asked. I handed one to him, glad that he wasn’t just using his fingers to scoop it out.

Mr. Wilbur spread the jam on his biscuit and took a large bite. “Boy, Miss Patty, these biscuits taste a little funny! Did you do something different to them?”

“Why, I dropped them on the floor! Didn’t you see when you came in?” I asked. He was beginning to annoy me.

“The floor? How clumsy of you! Really, Miss Patty, you should be more careful. Well, I’ve got to run,” he said, shoving the last of the biscuit in his mouth. “Toodle-oo!”

So now you can understand why I’m not too fond of Mr. Wilbur. And I must say, I was a bit glad that the biscuit he ate had fallen on the floor.

My Trip to Florida :)

2010-11-17T10:04:00.003-05:00

(I apologize for the length of this post!)

In September, I flew all by myself down to Florida for the weekend! Mrs. W and Glenna were at the airport to meet me, and Bekah surprised me by coming too! I was so happy to be with some of my best friends again!

And of course, we had an awesome sleepover that night. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.


I don’t even know what’s happening here.

The next day, there was a party at Natalie’s house! She arranged it just for meee :)

We played Apples to Apples. Have you ever played Apples to Apples with 10 teenage girls? You should try it sometime. It’s a good time.

Then we had lunch and no bakes!
Booyah.

Yay! It’s Bekah! :)

Love that one. :)

Me and my bestie :)

Glenna and Grace cuddled. ;)

Natalie stole the camera.

Suddenly everyone started doing each other’s hair.

We discovered that Acacia is reeeaaaalllyyy good at hair. She knew how to do all sorts of styles!

Fun fun! We couldn’t stay very long though, because Glenna and I had to go get ready for Night of Joy!

On the way home :)

All ready!

When we got to Disney, we were riding the the monorail to the ticket place thingy to get into Magic Kingdom. Glenna texted Emily to find out where she was. Turns out she and The Guys were just ahead of us. Glenna told them where we were. Here’s how the conversation went:

Glenna: We’re right behind you. We’ll be there in about 10 minutes.
Emily: Umm…ok?
Glenna: You know, in case we wanted to, you know, meet up???
Emily: Oh. Well, we’re going on Space Mountain.

So they definitely ditched us. Well, Mrs. W worked at Space Mountain at the time. When we finally got to Space Mountain, she took us through the Fast Pass line, without even having a Fast Pass. We passed Emily and The Guys in the 70 minute line. :D SUKAHS!

Sorry.

Anyway, we rode the roller coaster. It was my first time :) I loved it! But I love pretty much all roller coasters :). Well, we got off, and then Mrs. W started taking us through some back hallways that were cast members only. So we rode the ride again on the other side. It took us all of 15 minutes to ride the ride twice. :)
Then we had to wait in the gift shop for another 20 minutes before Emily and The Guys even got on the ride. :D

Here we are on our two trips:

I looked at the wrong side. Of course.

Yay! Got it right!

Woohoo!

While we were waiting, we played an awesome game of air hockey. I won :) It was close though!

We FINALLY met up with them and went to grab so food. There was a scary rabid singing muppet at the restaurant where we ate.

After we ate, we headed to the Cinderella castle, because that’s where Family Force 5 was playing!

It started to rain! The robot voice lady was so suspenseful. She kept coming over the intercom, saying, “The following performance has been…*suspenseful pause while we all hold our breaths*…temporarily delayed.
But here’s where the story gets sad. After waiting an hour and a half in the rain, and being told repeatedly that FF5 WOULD be playing, the band came out to tell us that they would NOT be playing.

There’s the terrible picture I got of them in their ponchos. Stupid flash.

We were so disappointed! We had been waiting for this for so long!

Well, we decided to head to the People Mover. Which isn’t a very creative name for it, if you ask me. But it’s catchy.

Since we couldn’t see FF5, we instead decided to belt out their music while riding the People Mover. That was pretty darn fun. And we probably really annoyed the people in the cars next to us. :P

There we are, all soaked!

After that, we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and hung out in the gift shop at the end of it.

This picture makes me laugh. :D

Even though we couldn’t see Family Force 5, we still had a blast!

Sunday night, after AWANA, Bekah, Natalie, and Acacia came over, and we played Spoons. And had a dance party.

Glenna finally won one!

Bekah and Acacia started fighting over the spoon. Now THAT was entertaining.



Cookie dough ice cream!! :D

She throws her hands up in the air sometimes…

I had so much fun in Florida! I wish I could have stayed longer. But we’re coming again at the end of November!! Mark your calendars. :)

Birthday! :)

2010-11-16T11:00:00.000-05:00

Here’s some pictures from my birthday back in August. I’m scheduling posts ahead of time for the next few days since we’ll be really busy moving!

We went to Horse Creek with the B’s and our family!

Of course, Josh fished :)

Isn’t it a cool little swimming hole?

There’s my dad and me at the bottom! It was sooooo cold!

Look! He caught one! :)

Mollie loved playing in the water :)

Jonathan did too!

Mollie also liked playing in the dirt.

Aww :)

That’s my little sister, Kacey. We were separated at birth. And she’s not taller than me, just so you know. Which makes me like her even more. :)

There’s this cool log that you can ride on, but it’s really hard to keep it from tipping over!

Dad barbecued chicken :)

Don’t mess with him.

Birthday pie!

<3 her :)

Afterwards, we went to the property to check out our house, and The Boys and I got this ingenious idea…

Wheeee! (:

Our House is Almost Done!

2010-11-14T20:57:00.001-05:00

We’re so excited! We’re moving on Thursday! Today we did a whole lot of packing. Here’s some pictures from back in October. My camera ran out of batteries, so I don’t have more recent ones. The next ones you see will be of us all moved in! :)

Here’s the finished front of the house, except for shutters! The grass has also grown a lot, too.

Our very very dusty laminate floors.

My closet doors—aren’t they cool? That’s what all of the doors look like. They’re white now.

The cute pantry doors :)

Our back deck!

This is the tile in the downstairs guest bathroom and in our bathroom upstairs.

The beautiful red on the kitchen walls!

The Boys’ room, all painted!

Here’s my room, painted! I thought this color was way to bright, though, so it’s a lot lighter now. And my window seat is in!

Our lovely lovely kitchen! I love the cabinets my mom picked out :) They also have crown molding on the top, and the countertops are on.

Check out our cool fireplace and mantle! I love it.

The H’s are coming on Thursday, so they’ll be our first guests! I can’t wait! And I can’t wait to see their cute little James kid too. :)

Poncho

2010-10-31T22:09:00.001-04:00

This is a bird that I found outside a while ago. I heard a bird chirping like crazy, so I looked out my window, and I saw Hobbes was messing with a bird on the ground! I ran outside and picked up the bird, which couldn’t fly, and I put him in a box. I named him Poncho. :) My mom called a wildlife refuge near us, and then she took him to it. Turns out that he had gotten into some sort of poison, but we called a few days later, and he was getting better. :)

He was a woodpecker! Isn’t he pretty? :)

Fall is Here!

2010-10-21T10:06:00.000-04:00

The L’s First Year

2010-10-20T14:19:00.001-04:00

Today is the one year anniversary of us moving to Tennessee. Here’s a video I made recapping it. Enjoy. :)

(Click on it to go to the YouTube page if you want to see it full screen)

Air and Space Museum

2010-10-19T22:04:00.001-04:00

And now for the last installment of our East Coast trip. Sorry it took so long. :)

The National Air and Space Museum!

They had all sorts of airplanes in that place!

Here’s an interesting blurb I found there:

The World’s First Scheduled Airline

The St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line began flying across Tampa Bay on January 1, 1914. It lasted only three months. The flight covered 18 miles and took 23 minutes—11 hours less than traveling between St. Petersburg and Tampa by rail.

The Airboat Line safely transported 1,204 passengers across the bay. But without a continuing subsidy from St. Petersburg or steady income from tourist traffic, it could not survive. The airline closed at the end of March.

There were also a lot of airplanes we could actually look around in.

That’s a lot of buttons and controls! I don’t think I could handle it!

Cute flight attendant outfits :). I wish they still wore those today!

Look at that crazy airplane! One of the big ways airlines competed was by putting crazy designs on the airplanes. :)

Another blurb:

Air Travel and Safety

Airline travel is the safest form of transportation. More people die in auto accidents in three months in the United States than have lost their lives in the entire history of commercial flight. It is far safer to fly than it is to get to the airport.

Because air travel is so safe and accidents so rare, when an incident occurs it is often highly publicized, which heightens the unwarranted perception of danger.

That’s the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia! A blurb about that:

The Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia carried astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins on their historic voyage to the Moon and back on July 16-24, 1969. This mission culminated in the first human steps on another world.

The Apollo 11 spacecraft had three parts: the Command Module, the Service Module, and the Lunar Module Eagle. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descended to the Moon in Eagle, Michael Collins remained alone in Columbia. For 28 hours he served as a communications link and photographed the lunar surface. After reclaiming Armstrong and Aldrin from the ascent stage of the Lunar Module, Columbia was the only part of the spacecraft to return to Earth.

Even Snoopy was in the museum!

Tee hee! Love that one! :D

They had a 3D model of the relative size of the planets, and it was really helpful!

I knew the sun was big, but I didn’t know it was THAT big! Listen to what it said about that yellow arc:

This arc represents a segment of the sun at the same scale as the models of the planets. A model of the Sun at this scale would require a sphere 92 feet in diameter, and would not fit in this exhibit gallery.

Wow!

The Spirit of St. Louis!

That’s the real Wright Flyer! Meaning, that’s the actual airplane built and flown by the Wright brothers in 1903! The fabric covering was replaced in 1983, hence the newer appearance.

There’s the Hubble Space Telescope! (Goobie, that’s the one I took while I was talking to you :) See The Boys at the bottom?)

Here are some pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope:

The Sombrero Galaxy! :D

There’s me in the reflection of the telescope :)

Check that out ^^ Wow.

Well, that concludes my posts about our trip! I hope you have enjoyed it :) We did! :P

Museum of Natural History

2010-10-13T21:08:00.001-04:00

On one of last days of our trip, we went to…

Yup. We suuuure did.

Dum dum, you bring me gum gum?

Moon rock!

A rock rainbow :)

The world’s largest flawless quartz sphere. (crystal ball)

That’s the Hope Diamond! I had never heard of it, but apparently it’s really famous or something. :)

Biiiiig fish. See the little fish in his belly?

Of course, it said that he was millions of years old, and we know that’s not true. But it was kind of fun to wonder if he was fossilized in the Flood…?

Dinosaurs! :)

Rawr.

It’s Rexy! :D

That’s us, screaming at Rexy. :)

Methinks that’s real! It was in a big glass case, after all.

Fishies.

That is a big turtle.

And that is a HUGE sloth!

Yes, a sloth!! I’m kinda glad they’re extinct…

And that is a HUGE armadillo!!

That’s a HUGE mammoth!

And, you guessed it, that’s a huge elk with HUGE antlers!

It’s kind of hard to tell how long this squid is, but it was really long, and it has shrunk because it was in a preservative. It used to be 36 feet long!

30. 6. feet. That’s HUGE! :)

Good advice.

That, my friends, is the real mouth of a giant great white shark. A GIANT great white shark, which is now extinct, thankfully. And you thought great white sharks were big!

That’s the tooth of today’s great white shark compared to the tooth of the GIANT great white shark! This thing was MASSIVE!

Look how tiny the boys are compared to it! Yeesh! I’d never, ever go swimming in the ocean if this thing was still alive.

Everything in this museum was so interesting, but we were surrounded by things like this:

And this:

This is the 4 inch long animal they say EVERY MAMMAL, including humans, evolved from. Really? How can they believe that?

We knew none of that was true, but it would have been cool to know how old everything really was. We just used this time in the museum to marvel at God’s magnificent creation. :)

Joel. He’s Da Bomb.

2010-10-02T19:46:00.001-04:00

Brick by Boring Brick

2010-10-01T16:00:00.001-04:00

This is what I’ve been working on lately :) Enjoy!

Ford’s Theatre

2010-09-29T13:00:00.000-04:00

My favorite part of D.C., and possibly the entire trip, was Ford’s Theatre. Since we weren’t able to go to The Archives, we went there instead. So I guess that private event was a blessing in disguise. :)

Ford’s Theatre is the theatre in which Abraham Lincoln was shot.

Before the presentation began, we were given 45 minutes in a museum of Lincoln and the events leading up to his death.

This is Thomas “Tad” Lincoln, one of President Lincoln’s children. (picture taken in 1861—Tad, age 8) Read at this hilarious blurb about him from the museum:

Thomas “Tad” Lincoln

His nickname derived from his large head, said to resemble a tadpole. Tad was a lively mischievous child who shared his mother’s temper. He suffered from a speech impediment—the result of a cleft palate—and possible learning disabilities. “Let him run,” said the president, “he has time enough left to learn his letters and get pokey.”

One day Tad hitched a pair of goats to a chair and drove himself through a crowded East Room reception. On another occasion he stood behind his father at a review of Union troops and waved a Confederate flag. When not devouring strawberries intended for a state dinner or training a toy cannon on his father’s Cabinet, Tad often stood at the foot of the staircase leading to the presidential offices and charged a five cent “entrance fee.”

In 1863 Tad made a new friend—a turkey sent to the White House for Christmas dinner. He named the bird Jack and interrupted a Cabinet meeting to demand a presidential pardon—a tradition that is still carried on nearly 150 years later.

I love that kid! So funny :)

They had all sorts of cool stuff in the museum—like this pillow, which, apparently, is one of several pillows used under Lincoln’s head at the Peterson House, where he was taken after he was shot. Look—it even has bloodstains! It’s gross and cool at the same time.

I think that’s his coat that he wore that night—but it was kind of confusing.

Here’s another interesting blurb:

He had that dream just four days before he died! Weird.

That is the actual gun that John Wilkes Booth shot him with. It’s so small!

There’s the stage!

And there’s his booth! It was so cool to see all of this. Did you know that Ford’s Theatre is still used as a theatre today?

Our tickets were good for the Peterson House too, which was just across the street, so we went there afterwards. The Peterson House is where Lincoln was taken after he was shot, and where he died.

This is the room in which Mary Lincoln grieved between visits to her husband’s bedside.

This is the room where Lincoln died, at 7:22 A.M. on April 15, 1865.

Monuments and Memorials

2010-09-28T09:12:00.000-04:00

This post is all about all of the monuments and memorials we saw!

First, we went to the Lincoln Memorial.

Can you see us? :)

There were inscriptions of two of his famous speeches: The Gettysburg Address, and his second inaugural address.

We also saw the Washington Monument.

Have you ever seen this thing? It is GIGANTIC! I couldn’t believe my eyes when we got close to it.

There we are at the bottom of it!

I like this one :)

Another cool thing we saw was the World War II memorial. It was really cool and well done! I think it’s pretty new.

There was a tower for each state.

There were also a bunch of famous quotes about the war.

It really was a beautiful memorial!

We also saw the Vietnam Memorial.

Later, we saw the memorial for Thomas Jefferson.

Another cool memorial was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial.

Puppy :)

It had all sorts of fountains and waterfalls like this.

There was a part for his wife, too.

One of the things I was most excited to see was The Archives.

…but it was closed for a private event! :(

“Study the past.” I’d love to, but the past was closed.

The last place we saw was Theodore Roosevelt Island. Yep, he’s got his own island. :)

Up next: Ford’s Theatre—my favorite part! :)

D.C.

2010-09-27T08:38:00.000-04:00

Here’s an intro to the D.C. part of our trip. These are pretty much just pictures that didn’t fit into any of the categories of the posts about D.C. I have. :)

MAN it was hot!

That’s a WWII memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

On the last day, we were so stinkin tired, so we took a break and had a picnic by the lake.

Joel’s hair looks funny. Heh heh.

Josh fed the ducks. :)

He’s weird.

The Capitol Building!

Alright! That kicks off quite a few posts from our trip to D.C. It’s going to take a few posts because, of course, we always see everything we can! :)

Quick Update

2010-09-26T20:31:00.001-04:00

Some people wanted to see an update on the house, so I’m posting this and then I’ll post about the D.C. part of our trip. :)

Dormers! :)

Front porch

The brick is done!

So is the siding! Doesn’t it look great?

And the insulation! This is my room.

And I have a small built-in bookshelf in my closet :). I got a desk for $5 at a garage sale Friday, and it’s the perfect size to fit under the bookshelf! :)

Two more months!

Da ZOO!

2010-09-16T12:19:00.001-04:00

My dad surprised us by taking us to the zoo in D.C.! :)

We saw tons of animals, but I won’t show you ALL of them because that would take a really long time. But this post will still be really long. :P

Otters! They spent a really long time trying to open that oyster.

Panda! :)

This is a Golden Lion Tamarin.

And this thing, heh, is a Pale-headed Saki. (Glenna—it’s a Saki!! Haha :D)

It was funny lookin’.

That little furball is a Geoffrey’s Marmoset. (IT’S SO FLUFFY!!)

Elephant shrew! Everything in the small mammal house was really funny looking. :D

Meercat!

Exit the small mammal house.

Cuz this ain’t no small mammal. It was a REALLY big komodo dragon.

Joel was pretty excited about this place.

This is a big starfish. They named him Patrick :)

GIANT PACIFIC OCTOPUS! It wasn’t actually that big.

This, on the other hand, was HUGE! I mean, for a lobster.

I know it’s not a good picture, but now you can tell how big it is!

Next, the reptiles!

Check out the colors on this one! It’s a Green Crested Basilisk.

That’s an anaconda, the worlds largest snake! Eeeep!

Chameleon!

Heh heh. Radiated tortoises.

Green tree python…ugh…I am not a fan of snakes.

Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake! Scawy!!

This thin was really funny looking. It’s a Grand Cayman Iguana.

Next, we saw the BIG animals!

RAWR!

Then, my favorite part--

You may not know this, but I LOVE gorillas! :)

This is an orangutan. His name is Kyle. He was very sad-looking.

But he played tug-o-war with Josh! They had set up a big rope so you can play with them!

Heehee! :)

Yay! Gorillas!! (They were eating their…their…well, you know…ewww!)

They were also eating cardboard! I mean, the zoo people give them cardboard to eat! Maybe to distract them from eating their…their…you know…ewww!!

Aww baby!! :)

Next: D.C.!

Hi there.

2010-09-15T15:13:00.001-04:00

I have nine saved posts.

That’s right. Nine.

So don’t think I’ve abandoned my blog.

Don't even THINK about thinking it.

Soon you’ll be hearing about:

The rest of our big trip (it took a lot more posts than I thought!)
The woodpecker I saved
My trip to Florida
My birthday

And more! :)

I Drove Tonight

2010-09-08T20:55:00.000-04:00

Tonight I drove for the first time. After youth group, The Boys, my dad, and I went to the old parking lot of a closed Walmart.

I didn't hit any poles.

I didn't hit any cars.

I didn't hit any people.

I'd call that a success.

P-P-P-Permit!

2010-09-07T21:58:00.001-04:00

Taking Care of the Bull

2010-09-06T11:27:00.001-04:00

(All these pictures are fine, don’t worry! :D)

When my dad was arranging with Mr. A when we were going to come, Mr. A told us about their bull that needed to be castrated. He asked if he should wait until we arrived to do it.

Oh yes, my dad said. We would very much like to be there for that. :D

Well, on Saturday, it was time to do it. there he is. He's just a little guy.

First, Mr. A had to rope him.

Ta da!

Next, Josh and Isaac held him against the fence, while Mr. A roped him up some more.

The purpose of this was to rope him so that when he was let go, if you pulled on the rope, it would make him fall over.

The bull really doesn’t like being roped. As you can see from the following picture, he ended up in a different place than where he was in the video. He had jumped up a LOT more times, and Mr. A had to bolt.

Then, you do the job, and hope you don’t get kicked in the face.

In one week...

2010-09-03T11:36:00.000-04:00

...I will be boarding a plane headed to Florida!

The A’s

2010-08-30T22:49:00.001-04:00

Over the weekend, we stayed at the A’s beautiful home.

Mr. A works with my dad, and he and his family graciously let us stay in their gorgeous home—he built it himself!

The main level is not quite finished—so it’s empty and perfect for Nerf gun wars, which there were plenty of! The A’s have 5 boys!

On Friday, when we arrived, we went tubing on the Delaware River! It was a little scary for me at first, but I we all had so much fun!

Saturday, we went to a local farm where they have bees and make their own honey. There was a big gathering, because it was time to get the honey from the bees. They only do it once a year!

I kept my distance!

Ironically, because it was so hot, the bees hadn’t made any honey this year! :P

Next, we went to an observation tower, where we could get a great view, including where Washington crossed the Delaware.

Isn’t that a cool picture? My mommy got it :)

Unfortunately, there was a $5.00 admission fee per person! So instead of paying to take the elevator, we climbed up. :)

After that, we went to go to the actual spot on the river where Washington crossed. But the bridge was closed.

So this was our exciting day:

We went to see honey, but the bees didn’t make any.

We went to see a great view, but it was too expensive.

We went to see the actual historic site, but the bridge was closed.

Fun fun.

We actually did have a really fun time with the A’s! And something happened later that day that we had all been looking forward to.

See, the A’s have this bull.

And they wanted to turn it into a steer.

And that was the day to do it.

But that’s for the next post. For now, I leave you with pictures of their cat who has a lot of toes.

Valley Forge

2010-08-16T23:28:00.001-04:00

This will end, I tell you! Here’s everywhere we went, and I’ll do one post for each place I haven’t done yet.

Booker T. Washington
Antietam
Hershey, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
Valley Forge
The A’s (Friends [: )
Da Zoo!
Two Days of D.C… that might have to be two posts

So you see, I’m halfway done! Yay! Haha :)

ANYWAY, On Friday, went to Valley Forge. Some background information (taken from the park pamphlet):

“Ask someone to think of Valley Forge and they will nearly always envision an anonymous group of soldiers struggling against winter’s fury and clothed in nothing but rags. Certainly hardship did occur at Valley Forge, but the encampment experience could be characterized as “suffering as usual,” for privation was the Continental soldier’s constant companion. The reason many Americans picture Valley Forge as the pinnacle of misery is that this early and romanticized version of the encampment story became and important parable to teach us about American perseverance. The portrayal of starving troops, however, has kept us from getting to know the people of the Continental Army—who they were, why they joined the army, and what they accomplished at Valley Forge.”

Click here for more info :)

When we arrived at Valley Forge, we watched a short video to give us some background information. Then we went on a walking tour to the site of the cabins the men built. The actual cabins were torn down after the soldiers left, but there were reproductions at the site.

Doesn’t look too comfortable if you ask me.

These men told us about what it was like to be a soldier and told us how the guns worked.

After the tour was over, we went back to the visitor’s center, where there was a long divider with tons of information on it. It was very helpful. Here’s some more info from it:

“Contrary to popular belief, Valley Forge was not the coldest winter encampment during the American War for Independence. However, a lack of provisions and suitable clothing caused the soldiers hardship. In letters to the Continental Congress, General Washington would somewhat exaggerate the suffering of the army in order to spur some action. The Continental Army matured at Valley Forge. Training under Baron von Steuben went far in creating a unified force. The Alliance with France provided much needed supplies and international recognition. The army would have to endure another five years before the war finally ended.” Joel picked Mr. von Steuben’s nose. How rude.

That was a REAL BEAR.

Don’t worry, it’s extinct now!

Some arch monument thingy.

I love this picture. :) ^^ Click on it! We look good :)

Neeeeeext, we went to Washington’s headquarters. That’s me in George Washington’s window!

80% of the house was original! Isn’t it pretty? Up next: The A’s!

Philadelphia

2010-08-12T00:18:00.001-04:00

Well, we’ve finished our vacation and I’m not even halfway done with posts about it! So I’ll be posting a lot the next few days. But you’ll be learning history!

On Thursday we went to Philadelphia! Before we went here, whenever I thought of Philadelphia, I thought of Philly cheesestakes! (however you spell that :) I had no idea there was so much history in this city! (which means there are a LOT of pictures! Bear with me!)

First we went to a house that’s on the site of the house in which Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence!

These are some of his drafts! (originals!)

Next, we went to the Liberty Bell! That’s the real thing, people!

FUN FACT: Did you know that the big crack was a result of people trying to fix a tiny crack? Ironic.

This is Independence Hall, which we went to next. But I kept thinking of National Treasure whenever I looked at it :)

This is the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The only part of this room that is original is the painting. (The building is original.)

FUN FACT: You see those two doors flanking us? Well, only the left one is a real door. I don’t remember who decided this, but everything had to be symmetrical.

THIS is the Assembly Room! You’ve probably seen a painting like the one below before. Well, that’s this room! The Declaration of Independence was signed here and the Constitution was signed here!

There were only a few things in this room that were original, but one of them was Washington’s chair!

FUN FACT: There is a sun engraved in the top of the chair. Ben Franklin said this about it:

“I have often and often, in the course of this session, looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”

That’s Thomas Jefferson’s original cane!

After Independence hall, we went to the United States Mint, but no pictures were allowed inside.

After that, we went to the grave of Benjamin Franklin! I didn’t even know he was buried in Philadelphia!

He and his wife are buried here, along with their son who died at a very young age; I think he was two.

We then went to an apartment that Benjamin Franklin rented out.

FUN FACT: Some fun quotes from Benjamin Franklin:

“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.”

“Speak little, do much.”

This is the site of Ben Franklin’s house.

After all the Ben Franklin stuff, we went to Carpenters’ Hall, where the First Continental Congress met in 1774.

These are original Windsor Chairs from the First Continental Congress! I wonder who sat in them? Click on the picture to enlarge it.

In the gift shop, Joel found this book:

After that, (YES There is still more! You know how my dad is ;) we saw the inkstand that was probably used to sign the Declaration and the Constitution! It’s called the “Syng Inkstand” because it was made by Phillip Syng.

After THAT (I know this goes on forever!) we went to Congress Hall.

The first floor was occupied by the House of Representatives. FUN FACT: (taken from here)The upper floor was occupied appropriately, by the upper house, or the Senate. In 1793, President George Washington was inaugurated here for a second term. Four years later, in a precedent-setting ceremony in the House of Representatives chamber, the reins of power were passed from George Washington to John Adams. At the close of the ceremony, John Adams waited for Washington to lead the exit, as everyone had grown accustomed to, but Washington insisted on leaving the room after the new President. Finally, and perhaps most important of all, the Bill of Rights was ratified while Congress met in these rooms.

So there’s my fact-filled post about Philadelphia! Phew. Up next is Valley Forge!

Hershey, Pennsylvania

2010-08-09T22:31:00.001-04:00

On Wednesday my dad surprised us by taking us to…

Now, don’t freak out. My dad didn’t go crazy. It was free, see?

Look! There’s Mr. Hershey himself!

I love that man.

For the tour, we got to ride in these little cars.

There we are in ours!

The tour took us through the process of making Hershey’s products. This was milk.

There were a lot of singing cows on this tour.

It was a really long process! All to make… Kisses! Of course, there was also a huge--and colorful--gift shop.

Free sample!

Chocolate brings people together.

It’s a wonderful thing.