Hunting Boys

M and C have really gotten into hunting lately!  C got a BB gun a couple months ago and you can find the two of them out in the backyard, capping the geese on a regular basis!  They have now cleared some land enough to get a four wheeler through, built a deer stand, placed the corn and deer camera and bought a bow(it's bow season right now in our area, apparently!).  They are so excited about the 10-point buck they've seen on the camera that is out there!

Clearing the land!

Shooting the geese in the backyard:)

Learning to use the bow!

Deer stand ready!

Little hunter dude ready!

This is very common - gotta have a Dab in there!

My Birthday

Well, it happened!  I turned 37!  I mean, when I was a teenager, that was the age that my friends and I dubbed as "officially old"!  And, I blinked!

My day was a good one!  I started the day with a perfect-weather-walk.  C had a soccer game this morning and then him and M went hunting for the rest of the day.  Gigi was in town so she came to his game with us, came back to the house where she showered me with gifts and entertained S, and then it was off to Nutcracker rehearsal and I was lucky enough to get to go to the grocery store too:)

It was somewhat anticlimactic, but that is A-OK by me!!

September Randoms

M and I had a date night and dropped the kids off for a
Parents' Night Out at Greenville Gymnastics.  We came back
to the car to find this guy all strapped in and ready to chaperone us!
LOL!!!

S finally got a new helmet:) 

So did C!

We took C out of his booster... can you tell he was thrilled!?!?

He had a playdate with Maxwell after school and they had a
good time with new Lego kits!

Hurricane Irma came through our area as a very strong
tropical storm and the kids were out of school for a couple of
days - things started getting crazy!!:)

Entertaining himself during dance classes

On Mondays, we have piano and then a break before soccer!
The kids and I have gotten in the habit of going out to dinner, their
choice, on those nights!

Hurricane Irma blew some of our trees crooked, so M and C set to fixing them
with bamboo!

We had a date night!  Dinner at Stone Soup and some time
at Tryon Equestrian Center!

Darn!  Don't know why this is sideways!  But it was
popcorn day at the bank - score!

She looks kinda scary here;)

Soccer!!

I remembered to bring my nice camera to C's soccer game today!  Woohoo!!  He played great, and was aggressive as always!  I LOVE watching him play - especially when he really "turns it on"!

Davidson River Camping Trip

Over the summer, while we were visiting in Atlanta, we all decided that we were going to go camping at our childhood camping destination, Davidson River.  We booked our sites and have been looking forward to it since.

On Friday, M and I picked the kids up from school and headed up to Brevard, NC.  Gigi had been there the night before and was gracious enough to have our tent set up for us, so that we could relax a bit more when we arrived.  We got to the campground about 4pm.  The kids were wild with excitement!  We took them down to the river and to the infamous, freezing, swimming hole.  Oh the fun we had!  We came back and ate dinner.  Later, after fighting much traffic, Grandpa arrived and we sat around the fire(well, everyone sat except C, he was poking in the fire every chance he got!) and when S went inside the pop-up and C about fell asleep in his chair, we decided to call it a night and go to our tent!  Sleep was not stellar, but we survived!;)

Saturday came early and we were back at it cooking breakfast and playing in the fire.  After breakfast, Grandpa and I took the kids for a long walk along the river!  We got back and decided to go to the fish hatchery which was really well done!  Afterward, M and I wanted to show everyone where we use to camp along the side of a forest road on the other side of the river.  We drove along the gravel path until we finally spotted our site(it has been probably 12 years since we were there so it was kind of hard to find!).  The kids played in that stream and climbed those trees for an hour while the adults tried to recuperate from lack of sleep:)  Then we stopped by Looking Glass Falls to check out the HUGE falls before returning to the campground!  We cooked dinner and Uncle Bobby and Aunt Jennifer arrived just in time to eat with us, roast s'mores and of course brought the best things for the kids to play with - the hammocks were a hit!  It got dark, we all got tired, and got better sleep than the night before, thank goodness!

Sunday morning we cooked another big breakfast, Uncle Bobby and Aunt Jennifer again brought out the cool toys - inflatable couches this time, and then it was time to pack up camp and head home!  

It was too cold to tube down the river this time of year, but we vowed to return over the summer to let the kids enjoy one of my favorite memories of Davidson River next year!:)

Friday:

Sitting still didn't last long at all!

Her first feel of the super-cold water!

Loving it!

This was pretty much what C did anytime we were around the fire!

Saturday:

If you look really carefully, you'll see the albino squirrel that we saw on our
walk Saturday morning!  So cool!!

C was pretending he was a cute little squirrel sitting
on the tree stump while we were at the fish hatchery!

There were vultures EVERYWHERE at the hatchery - this is a turkey vulture!

Twins!!

Everyone loving the roadside camping spot where
M and I use to camp!

Looking Glass Falls

All cleaned up and ready for dinner and s'mores!  Grandpa
and M thought it would be an awesome idea to teach the kids
to whittle sticks!

Cooking our chicken dinner:)

There is no telling how many weeds this kid whacked down
with his stick! Machete style!

They FINALLY made it!

This was a favorite activity for the kids!

Sunday: