zip lines and sea turtles..

hello all!
whoa this little blog has been neglected for sometime...but, with good reason.

we moved back home to tn just a little over a week ago and things have been pretty crazy around here as we settle back into the house. mainly because of the mice invasion we had. we live in the country, so mice do come to visit once in a while (tis life, i suppose) but being that the surrounding areas to our home were devastated by a tornado and the little critter's homes were turned up...i suppose they figured the next best place to call home would be our home.. ICK! no thankyou! sorry, guys...you are not allowed. i can respect you in nature, your natural home, but you are not welcomed in our home. harsh, i know.

so, after much cleaning (thanks to my sister and bro-in-law for coming over and helping me a great deal) the place is clean, and now i am slowly unpacking the gulf shores things...i am also using this time to purge the house of unnecessary items. it is such a freeing feeling to brings lots of bags to the donation center. the bags keep going right out my door, into the 4runner, and to the donation center...i imagine that will be happening for awhile. i have a strong dislike for too much "stuff" right now. it must go for my sanity. clutter free is nice.

meanwhile...i am also working on lots of shoots which took place right before the move. just finished up a precious maternity shoot, and will post some from that shoot just as soon as i can. i have one more shoot to finish up (amy's) and then another to start and finish (lisa's). :-)

river will also be officially starting homeschooling this month.....so, things are quite busy around here to say the least.

let's see....so much has taken place since my last post that i am going to try to quickly get you up to date on the happenings....

firstly, one exciting event which took place is when we were invited after my friend amy's family shoot to go grab some ice cream with them (okay, though ice cream is pretty awesome it was what happened after ice cream that was super exciting...) we were invited to go to the beach and possibly see some baby sea turtles hatch and make their way to the ocean. and guess what?? they actually hatched while we were there and we got to see them make the journey to the ocean. oh, what an amazing thing to witness! pretty much a chance of a lifetime, it was! unfortunately, we did not do flash photography, obviously,  as the lights could have disoriented the turtles as they went to the ocean. we did use the tripod and got some...you can't really see the turtles, but you can see some stars, light from the pier, sand, and the ditch that was dug for the turtle trek, and of course...our littles gazing upon the little turtles in transit. ;-)

river and lily are sitting in the right of the photo...they are watching the little turtle trek to the sea, and trying very hard not to touch the turtles. they did a great job just watching. 

some  interesting effects going on in these photos.

did you know sea turtles lay their eggs in the same location of where they were born? yes, really? and did you know that people go out here week's, months, years trying to see such an event, and some never see it? i consider us pretty blessed to have been able to be a part of this!

just so you know...baby sea turtles are out-of-this-world -adorable!!!

the whole experience spoke to me of God's plan and design.

thank you, clint and amy for the invite! that was completely amazing! i am thrilled that lily and river got to experience such an event and that rocky and i did, too. ;-)

in other family news:
no, i'm not pregnant...though, i wouldn't mind it really. bring on the baby, is how feel most of the time. ;-)
anywho...the kids went zip lining for the very first time.
my dear friend, amy invited us over to her mom's house for the adventure. both lily and river LOVED it.
someday we would love to put a zip line somewhere on our land, well...that and a pool...and we might as well throw in some hardwood flooring into the mix, as well, since i'm at it. ;-)

apparently, lily loves 4 wheelers

noah showing us how it is done!

the set-up...

lily and amy still working that 4wheeler.

river getting hooked in...

i saw a smidge of fear in his eyes right before going off the edge...that soon passed.

getting all harnessed up..

daddy squeezed in a little hug before she zipped away. ;-)

facing it, with no fear..

from the "launchpad" you can see me clapping...proud mama!

she loved it!

taylor

we are going to miss the gulf shores/orange beach area, but most importantly, the friends we made while there. there is no doubt that we will return for visits. truly, a great bunch of people there. we will miss you all! but, you can't get rid of us...we WILL be back to visit! hey, and will probably be looking for a pad to crash at. lol. (hint hint).

so...more photos to come from gulf shores.. i am way behind on my photos in general. don't even ask about how my project365 is doing. i assure you i have been snapping my photo a day, but they need edited and put up on flickr. i will get it done.
more gulf shores photos to come just as soon as i can get them up.

have a wonderful day!

and if you are awaiting photos from me...thank you so much for your patience. this move back has been crazy. normally i give a 1-2 week turn-a-round window for photo editing and such...this move threw things off schedule to say the least. but,  rest assured you will see them soon...i sleep very little. ;-) burning the midnight oil i guess you could say. 

recent happenings..

first off...wow! it's been a while since my last post..just so busy. i am going to do my best to get you all caught up on our happenings since my last post.

well...the weekend before last we headed back to tn for father's day weekend. it was mainly a work trip, but we squeezed in some fun while we were there.

saturday we headed to hiwassee river for canoeing and tubing. we encountered thunderstorms while on the river complete with hail...we were very blessed to be able to make it off the river quickly before being pelted. Praise GOD!

here are some glimpses from the trip to tn...(which, unfortunately...does not include photos from the river adventure as that was a very wet trip and well...water and my camera do not mix).

a snooze on the way to tn.

one of tina's new kittens getting his bath. ;-)

gary and debi's (my in-laws) first tomato of the season. isn't it a beauty?

first cucumber of the season...and it is so cute!

the above photo is of my sister-in-law tina working on one of her beautiful ceramic creations. you can check out more of her work on her etsy shop, Xarine Creations. she is super talented!!

time at the duck pond

making father's day cards..

then this past week included another VBS for river...he had lots of fun learning about ways we can take care of God's creation through recycling, preventing pollution, leaning more about the animals God created and how our actions can put them in danger, etc.

here is a snapshot from VBS...

'the little zoo that could' brought in animals to help the kids learn more about them. here is one of the monkeys.

while river was at VBS, lily and i got to enjoy some time together..here, she is clearly getting tired of all the picture taking..oh, but i can't help myself. i mean..look at those gorgeous eyes!

also this week we had friends come to visit us from tn....our buddies, kent and his son daniel.
here are some photos from the activities which took place while they were here...

meet daniel.  ('beast')...a new term i learned from him. i will forever remind him i know this word. haha! he thinks it sounds funny when i say it because i'm not a kid. oh, that makes it even more fun to say around him.

oh my! i love this man!!

making pancakes...river supervising. ;-)

i also finished my homeschooling list (which includes the subjects as well as a materials list). you can find the subjects/curriculum list under the 'homeschool' page. i will be frequently adjusting this list (especially once we actually get started...so, you might want to check back often.

and then saturday fires broke out in gulf shores...what a terrible mess. when we were at the beach we saw this....

afterwards we drove around and snapped a couple more photos of the fire...
here is a news bit on the fire in case you didn't hear about it. gulf shores fire news story.
my friend amy reminded me that the trees being burned are the ones that had just started to fill in from being hit from hurricane ivan. how sad!





well, how's that for a catch-up post? ooh...remind me to keep up with my at-least-twice-a-week-posts so, i can keep the posts a bit lighter. ;-)

i hope you all are doing great and have a fantastic week!

love,
kelly

books, friends, & fountains..

on tuesday, amy,  had the idea to head to books-a-million for some book exploration (both of our kids loveeeeee books)...

amy reading to the kidlets

next...we headed to the fountains, which are located right outside b.a.m. (talk about convenient location). ;-)

laura joined us at the fountains...she has two of her four kids in this picture (she's preggie with her 4th). ;-)

the gang in all in their colorful fountain-playing attire

little miss, 'c'...the youngest of amy's three precious kids.

lily trying to stop the flow..

lily realizing the water is pretty chilly..

my other friend, amy, (wow, amy is a lovely, yet popular name here) just recently did a post on her blog of her adorable daughter, MM, at these very same fountains (just on a different day)...see it here.
seriously...MM is precious!

i really am loving my new friends in gulf shores and will miss them dearly when we leave later this summer. i know the kids will miss their friends, too.

but, for now....we will continue to enjoy every moment...as each is a blessing from God.
even when we do leave, i am certain we will keep in touch. plus, when rocky gets his pilot's license (and an airplane)...we will be making weekend trips back here, i am sure. ;-)

The Seagull Surprise

Hello all! At this point I have not sent this blog to anyone, in fact other than Rocky..no one knows it exists. I am currently just having fun with it. Getting it all set up to my liking (so, in other words..I will change it around for awhile to come). Anywho, this was funny story and I had to share it (even if with just to myself for now). I should get a link out for this soon to all the family and will eventual share it with friends. Anywhoo.....

So...on to the seagull story. While Rocky was finishing up work at the airport one night last week..the kids and I decided to head to the Gulf Shores Beach to welcome in a pretty sunset. When we got there we saw a cute little elderly couple who had a bag of food for the birds..the seagulls have apparently seen this couple because as soon as the couple got out of their vehicle they were surrounded by lots (that's putting it mildly) of seagulls. When the couple started to share the bread...the seagulls became very happy.

Little Man helped feed them and he loved it!!

Little Lady was a bit concerned about all the seagulls flying around her head. ;-) It was a bit overwhelming.

Well, after all the excitement was through and the seagulls had flown close to shore with full bellies, Little Man wanted to see if he could catch a seagull (he sure does set some interesting goals for himself). So, we headed closer to the water and Little Man chased seagulls.

Little Lady meanwhile...not the least bit interested in chasing seagulls, put the sand tools to some use and kept herself busy "making cakes" out of sand and was quite happy with that.

So...here is the funny part. Well, after we had played, dug around in the sand, chased birds until we couldn't chase them any longer, and get a bit chilly I noticed something in Little Man's hair (sorry no picture). I asked Little Man what was in his hair, at which point he put his hand on his head. It was seagull droppings! He was NOT happy at this point. All he could talk about was a shower. We washed his hands off as best we could in the water, but Little Man was so grossed out. Me calling him a 'poopy head' (I know, not a "good mommy" thing to do, but soooo funny) did not make matters any better for the little man. 

The whole way home, Little Man kept saying..."Mom, it's starting to itch under the poop." But he was not about to scratch it. Hahaha, poor kid!

He was thrilled after his shower!