Fair 2011

Monday, we headed off to the fair here in Raleigh!  The Fair is a BIG occurrence  in these parts. Every year there are thousands of people who travel far and wide to attend.  The Fair is also a highlight to my kids year!  They look forward to it, anticipate which rides they will ride, and wonder if they will be tall enough! lol  They talk about the Fair year round, and the stories get bigger and better with each tell.  Yes, it has definitely became a family tradition, and I hope it will always be.  This year, to save Mom’s and Dad’s pocket book, the kids saved their money for rides and any treats they wanted.  (I think it made them appreciate the value of money more, maybe not!) Caleb was loaded, he had saved his birthday money! The first thing he decided to do was get into the gravity ball.  (Hey, this is science, right?!)

His face says it all!  His hands were tied down, his feet were in bands, and he had the support that came over him buckled between his legs.

He looks a little in disbelief!  “What have I gotten myself into?”

Poor kid went round and round!

Titus thought he was a little crazy!

Just barely tall enough!

This one was fun, but oh so loud!

Tabs got to ride the bumble bees!

She was pretty stoic the entire ride!

Hang gliding is always fun.

Tabs was tall enough for some of the rides.

Bop and Tabs road the balloons.

She had a blast!

Jo and I waiting on the littles riding the dinosaurs!

I think this was at the bmx show.  Lots of fun with some crazy stunts!

Poor Tabs, she passed out at some point!  Her little legs could take no more.

Leah and Jo decided to ride the free fall.

They had to wait a really long time for the ride to fill up.  I’m wondering if they were wishing they could change their minds.

Titus thought they were crazy…

Tabs was like “are you for real!”

They went up…

up…

up…

up to the top, and then stopped!

We were wondering if they were ever coming down.

Then with a whoosh, they were down!

Bop,

Seth,

and Leah all decided to ride the mechanical bull.

Oh my, It has been a while since I laughed that hard!

They were quite the entertainment!

Leah was determined she wasn’t coming off!  She was on there so long, the guy didn’t want want to give her a second turn!

By the time Leah finally fell off the second time, quite a crowd had gathered!

Tidy had his share of “fair” food.

Some he liked, some he did not!  lol

This was the first time I actually got to see the water wall on.

By the end of the day, everyone was worn out and ready to watch the final pig race.

We only had to wait an hour for it to start.

We were getting a little restless…

Titus walked on some really hard rocks…

And the pig races began!

Caleb got to be the cheer leader for our  section!  He was just a little happy!

We had a great day, and are already looking forward to next year!

WW

the rest of the story

Umstead

We ventured out into the great outdoors today.  Bryan being gone, nobody wanted to stay home so off we went.Jonathan has declared we shouldn’t go hiking again until both of the babies are big enough to walk!  This being said because he spent a lot of time trying to get the stroller out of mess after mess!  At one point, we took the babies out and carried the stroller up the hill, then went back and carried the babies up the hill!  All said and done, it was a great day, and I have a feeling, two little beans will sleep good tonight! 

Titus was in love with the place! 

It had just enough dirt!

Tabs busted her lip when we first got there, but it didn’t last long!

Trying to hide!

Titus was soooo sleepy, but he didn’t go to sleep till we were almost ready to leave!

Unfortunally,  the beans were not in the mood for pictures, and the lighting was horrible, so this is the best I got.

We saw some very unusual mushrooms.

Leah and Caleb came back with a cup full.

Leah decided to climb a tree!

I’m sure we were quite a sight, off roadin’ with a twin stroller!

They played in the creek!

And we kept getting further and further from the van!

But they were having soooo much fun!

Busy, busy, busy

Wow, it’s been a while.  Things around here have been hectic to say the least!  We just returned from Ohio, we were at a Missions Candidate School.  No, we aren’t going into missions, well, as far as we know. (We will do as the Lord leads!)  We went with a couple from church who will someday be going to Taiwan as missionaries.  It was a great week, the classes were excellent.  I wish we had heard some of the stuff covered before we ever set out on deputation.  We were able to see the Shull, missionaries to Greenland, and meet a lot of new missionary families.  The Shull kids and ours got along marvelously!  Caleb found a new girlfriend!  I think this makes him around four!  Not that we encourage this, but he does seem to stay out of trouble when playing with girls!  While there, we found a neat park I think the Lord placed there just for the missionary kids that come through the school!  They had all kind of rides combined with putt putt.  The rides were 60 cents a piece and putt putt was a dollar a person.  Where on earth would you find those kinds of deals???  It’s not always easy to be able to let your kids do something fun like this.  Especially when you have a large family!  Here are some pics of the great event.  Notice the expressions on their faces.  Pure delight!

 

Yikes, it looks like Caleb is going to come out of there!

Needless to say, these kids had a blast! 

Even the little one had a blast!

But, it didn’t last, she fell asleep on the Merry go round!

Family Fun

Friday, was our last day of school.  Yeah!  I can’t tell you just how excited we all are to be finished . Friday night, we were able to spend some quality time together, and here is what we did!

Has anyone ever heard of disc golf or Frisbee golf?

Jonathan loved the woods!

Caleb got plenty of exercise!

 

You can tell by Seth’s expression just how much he loves to have his picture taken!

Sometimes the Frisbees had a mind of their own!

Poor Leah wasn’t allowed to play.  Her shoulder hasn’t healed up completely.  Thus, she is still on tea time activities.

Although, she would much have rather been climbing.

Tabs got to be wheeled around in what we call her ATV.

She enjoyed the pretty scenery!

Any idea how hard it is to get EVERYONE to look at the camera?

They finished right before dark, poor Tabs didn’t make it back awake.

She fell asleep right before we headed back to the van.  The beans said this was definitely something they would want to do again!