youth trip

A few weeks ago I went on a youth trip to Kings Fest. We took almost 30 youth to Kings Dominion in VA. We spent 3 days at the park and the afternoons and nights were filled with concerts. We heard Casting Crowns, Skillet, Barlow Girl, Family Force 5, The Newsboys, Kutless, Toby Mac...and many more. It was a lot of fun but exhausting. I was surprised I was able to keep up.

To be continued....

I just got back from a youth trip and I am getting ready for our vacation to MS and LA. I will post some if I can when we are gone. I should have lots of pics to share.

The 4th

We went down to Folly Beach that morning and visited our friends the Tuckers who were staying at a condo on the beach. I had never really been to Folly before b/c we always went to the other beaches here. I actually liked it a lot. We stayed until a little after 1 and as we were heading back out the traffic was backed up for miles going in. There is only one main way onto the beach. That night we went over to the Nicklas's house for fireworks and food. There were several families there and we had a really good time. The kids threw two tubs full of water balloons with the guys.

We got our Fence

So.. When we bought our house we knew that we wanted to fence in the backyard. It is a very large yard and we wanted to be able to let our dog play without running around our neighborhood and we wanted to keep out the kids from our yard. We scheduled the fence about a month ago (busy time of year).. so this week a crew came out and in 2 1/2 days they were able to put it up. I was really impressed with the quality of the work. I don't like the color but I have been assured that it will darker in the next couple of weeks so it will probably look a little more like I expected but I can't tell you how great it is to have this fence up. I love it.

Cool Chest

I got this really neat chest at an antique store and I love it. It is so different and really old. Not sure how old but the inside is covered in Chinese writing. I was probably recently painted on but I liked the design on the front b/c it fits nicely in my living room.

DC Day 3: Monuments and Memorials

Our future home

DC day 3: Rolling Thunder

We watched thousands of bikes roll through DC on Memorial Day. There was a lot of people but it didn't seem crowded. It was pretty amazing. The bikes rode through DC for hours so you always heard a constant roar in the background.

DC Day 2

This is the Think Tank.
I was really excited about this b/c it is all about cognitive research. You can check our the link above. Unfortunately nothing was going on when we visited.

We visited the DC zoo, which was a free zoo. We spent almost 5 hours there. We did a lot of walking. Did anyone ever know that DC is not flat. There are many hills that make it quite a workout when you are walking all day.

DC Day 1

Museum of Natural History ( Reminds me of the movie Night at the Museum)

Just a gift Josh picked up for me..It looks a lot like the hope diamond doesn't it

A look down Pennsylvania Ave (if you look hard you the the capital)

Waiting for the Metro (we walked everywhere...)

Just a really cool looking building.

On our first day in DC we had the opportunity to visit the Museum of Natural History. Afterwards we went in to the bottom of this Smithsonian museum with our friends for a Friday night get together that has been meeting for 50 years. The Smithsonian scientists get together each Friday night in the basement of the museum (which is where their offices are). I have to admit it was pretty cool to see manuscripts and items that are not on display but are used for research purposes.

Baseball clothing

I am not one to really put cloths on my dog but my sister sent Ranger a baseball bandanna.

Josh on the News

Josh was interviewed yesterday regarding the gas prices. You can check out the story and all his great wisdom about gas prices with the following link.

News

Amazing Faith

A friend of mine introduced me to this family's blog several weeks ago. He is a member of Selah and they have 3 children. The blog is the story of their fourth child and her story. If you go to the blog scroll down and you can read the letter she wrote her daughter. The slideshow was also wonderful. I hope this website brings you as much hope and encouragement as it has me.

Bring the Rain

Tired and Dirty

Updated pics of Ranger

Here are some recent photos of Ranger. He is settling down a bit so it makes it much easier. He is really a easy going and funny puppy.

I found CRAWFISH!!!!

Okay, so living in SC you have some great choices in seafood, Shrimp, oysters, fish....but no crawfish. We have lived here three years and every year at this time I crave a good batch of crawfish. Well each year they hold a Cajun Festival down in James Island (which is about 45 minutes from where we live) and they have it all. They have crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya, and music. So this year we met up with Meagan and Jeff and went to the festival. I had a good time and ate my fill of crawfish. Josh entered the crawfish eating contest. How many crawfish can you peel and eat in 30 seconds. He did good, he ate 14 crawfish. The guy that beat him in his heat ate 15. Now the guy that won overall ate 27. The people that make the crawfish every year are originally from Covington, LA so they actually do know how to boil it.

Flowertown Festival

Last Weekend was our annual Flowertown Festival in Summerville. They shut down the downtown area for 3 days and they have crafts, food and fun. I found a place that had really cute belts. They had so many designs to choose from it was hard to narrow it down. It was called Waistin Away and I looked on their website and they only had just a few of their belts online.

Flowertown 10K

Last weekend Josh ran in our local 10K. Here are some of his pics.
"GO"

Keeping pace with everyone

Pulling away

Okay not really

Meeting up at the end.

Bad Storms

We had some bad storms pass through last week. We lost electricity and was under a tornado watch. After spending half an hour in the bathroom listening to the radio we ventured out to the living room. Luckily is wasn't that bad at our house but just 10 minutes down the road there were about 15 trees down on the interstate. Well while we were handing out in the living room Ranger and I had layed down to rest. So this is the picture of us.

Ranger .... a little bigger

Well Ranger has now had his second round of shots and he is a growing boy. The vet was impressed with how he was doing and he is getting much better with the house training and biting. (YEAH!!!)
Aunt Marsha sent Ranger a great gift. He know has a blanket to sleep on and one of the best inventions in the world, a chew bone. He will sit there and chew on this thing and I can actually get things done around the house.