Fall Pictures...

Connor - 11 months

Mindy - 4

Aiden - 6

Molly - 7

Anna - 8

Luke - 10

Eli - 11

Emily - 13

Elizabeth - 15

Jack - 17

Kaitlyn - 19

Mama's Two Week Visit...

Dad's mother, known by her grandchildren as "Mama", was here for a lovely 2 week visit. We hadn't seen her in months and she had never even met the youngest of the crew, Connor. The children were ever ready to show her their many "talents" and she, being a sweet grandmother that she is, had plenty of praise in store.

We were very thankful we could spend some time with her, and when Dad and Mom were getting ready to take her to the airport today, Mindy said, "I wish Mama could LIVE with us!"

The Things You Can Do With a Trampoline!! :o)

 

It's Trampoline Time!!

Our family has never owned a trampoline before, so you can imagine the excitement that reigned when we purchased a good used one this week. The kids were in a big rush to get it set up as pictured above. A.J. - "Are you guys putting that on upside down?"




Luke demonstrating his abilities on the trampoline. In his own words, "It works awesome!!"

 

Just a picture of Jack and me...

Camping Trip (A boy's dream vacation!)




Luke (our monkey boy :o) climbing on one of the shelves of rock we found near our campsite at Kankakee State Park.



My first attempt at "real" archery turned out to be a lot of fun!!



The photographer of most of these pics posing with his pride and joy for this deer hunting season.





You can't have a camping trip without hot chocolate!! :o)




A few boys who woke up too early Friday morning. (3:00 to be exact!!)




An invention of Matthew Arnold's at work. The "super swing" was much enjoyed by all the boys who didn't mind being swirled around and around and up and down!! (Watch out for the ceiling!!)



One of the contests for the older guys was the challenge of climbing a slick 16 foot rope to the ceiling of the horse barn. And the winners were.....drum roll please.....Matthew Arnold, John Ferry and myself!!



One of the biggest highlights of the camping trip was the horseback riding, supervised by Alexandra Arnold on Buddy (left) Joe Ferry is riding Firebird in this pic.



Adrianna Arnold was one of the few people there who actually knew how to handle a horse!!



And here is my favorite pal,...Patriot. He was a bit lazy at first, but by the end of the riding session, he was really moving pretty fast!!




After all the activities of the camping trip: Horseback riding, laser tag, moto-cross, campfire building, football, frisbee, wrestling, rope climbing, hiking, exploring, archery, skeet shooting, four wheeling, rock skipping, trampoline, super swing and general messing around......I was TIRED OUT!!! As was pretty much everybody else.

But hey, how can you have a real camping trip without getting plain "tuckered out" ?

Overall, it was awesome, and not only did we have a great time enjoying the view of God's creations, but He held back the rain for us that was predicted by all the weather stations for the whole weekend!!