Fourteen years has come!!!

Ok, mother of the year award right here...the poor boys turned fourteen and what did they get? Nothing! At least from mom and dad but one sweet little girl was on the ball and that was Sage! She excitedly arrived home from school on Friday afternoon (the day before the boys' birthday) and could hardly wait to secretly show me the book she had found at the book fair for the boys that she had bought them for their birthday! It was the sweetest thing especially since we had never even talked about it beforehand and even my friend who was working the book fair sent me a text later to say how excited Sage was to show her the book she was buying for the boys' birthday! It's moments like this that make me think once in a while we must be doing something right to have such wonderful kids but then I remind myself, it's not us, it's the sweet spirit she came to this earth with. How lucky we are!!!

Thankfully the boys weren't the least bit concerned with not getting their gifts on their birthday. They knew they had been ordered and so we just patiently waited. Ty had seen a drone he liked at a gun show Jack had taken the boys to back in January. (Who knew there was so much other stuff besides guns sold at gun shows?!?). And Connor had decided that he actually really liked rolling around on Ty's hoverboard and would like one of his own. So here they are enjoying their gifts after they had finally arrived, a week after their birthday! I have to say Ty's drone takes some pretty amazing video footage. He's been able to get it up really high in the sky and capture the house and yard...not to mention landing it in a couple trees...



Without question though the highlight of their birthday had to be attending their first church dance! It's so crazy to think they are old enough now to go to dances. It's clear they are into the whole girl thing but dances?!? It was so cute to see how much fun they had when they came home that night. We had to laugh though when Ty was talking about dancing with some of my sweet young women I use to work with who are now EIGHTEEN! Gotta give them credit for making the boys feel comfortable at their first dance!!!

Heart Ball!

This was our third year supporting the Heart Ball! The food is never great but the company is! This year they had Alton Brown from the Food Network assisting in motivating the crowd to open up their hearts (wallets) and it worked! How grateful we are to support such a great organization that's doing their best to find cures and support families who find themselves on such a sad journey. May we never have to walk down that path...

Middle School Swim...check!

This year marked the completion of Middle School swim team! Two successful years under the belt... Who would have thought a few years back this would have been the sport they are drawn to most?!? This year Ty was elected as Team Captain and loved being responsible for getting the team all pumped up for meets and practices. His coaches told me what a joy it was to have both him and Connor on the team and what great examples they were to the other swimmers. At the end of the season Ty was also awarded the Comet Award which was exciting for him as it's only given to two swimmers a year and he was one. As eighth graders this school year they also were invited to participate with the high school water polo team during practices. They didn't compete in meets obviously as they aren't high schoolers but they went to all the practices which will help better prepare them for the High School team! I have to say as a mom, I am so grateful they have found a sport that for the most part is quite safe, keeps them in good physical shape and teaches them life lessons. Aside from Ty dislocating his knee during a practice that kept him out of the water for a couple weeks, we were injury free! Will look forward to one last summer swim season and then off to high school...

Connor, Steven and Tyler!



Ty was excited and nervous to give his speech as team captain at the awards ceremony. He did great!

Red River Gorge Family Backpacking/Camping Trip!

Somehow I neglected to write up this post about our first ever family camping/backpacking trip that took place last October! I don't know how such a big event could have been forgotten but it was. And I mean big because I literally hadn't slept in a sleeping bag since our first year of marriage. So I'm back to write about it! Jack and his friend/colleague Nicola had been talking at work for quite some time about going camping down in Kentucky. Jack had told Nicola all about his adventure last summer with Connor at Red River Gorge and the two had decided how fun it would be for the families to do it together. Well, to be honest it wasn't something I was looking forward to doing but I felt pretty confident that Nicola's wife who I love wouldn't really be up for it either so I wasn't too worried, not to mention they had no camping gear whatsoever, as they are based here in America for just a few years. But between our husbands banding together to tell each of us that the other's spouse had already agreed and Nicola hitting REI and purchasing everything in one night we were committed and before long Maria and I found ourselves with a pack on our back and no sign of a Four Seasons... Ale and Marco and their son, who are friends of the Brandolese's also joined us and we all had a great time!

So here is how the trip unfolded! After stopping at the Park Visitors Center and talking with a park ranger about various hikes and level of difficulty we decided on doing a small hike first to Rock Bridge Arch and although the scenery isn't what we see in the west, it was a nice hike with a decent waterfall.




After doing that hike and eating the lunches we had packed we drove towards the Clifty Wilderness area where Jack and Connor had hiked to before but located the Swift Camp Creek Trail which would supposedly take us to great camping sites where we could fish and sleep alongside a river but were closer than the sites that Jack and Connor had hiked to. After about a two hour hike we ended up finding a nice spot on the river where the kids could fish and their was enough space for all of us! It had rained earlier that week so we struggled to get a fire going but once we did, it was a good one! It was a clear night so it was nice to look out and see the stars. Ty decided he'd give the hammock a try and aside from being a little freaked out over noises he heard in the middle of the night, he enjoyed it! I have to say I felt much more comfortable knowing we were a large group than had it been just our family camping out in the woods!!!



The next morning after slowly arising, preparing breakfast and tearing down our camp, we headed back out on our journey to the car so we could drive to another section of the park and do a couple more small hikes. The first one was the Sky Bridge Trail where you hike over and under a natural rock bridge formation. Again this is no Arches National Park but for this part of the country it is a place people love to come and spend their days hiking around.



After that hike I insisted we see one last arch before heading back on the road to come home. I had read that the Natural Bridge State Park which lies just outside Red River Gorge was a must see. Since you can both hike or take a chair lift to get to it and yes, we took the lift...lol, it seemed the perfect way to end our 36 hour camping trip! And indeed it was. Once at the Natural Bridge you can hike around to this other area and have a great view looking across at the arch. It was quite nice.







So there you have it! I survived and my sleeping bag Jack bought me over twenty years ago finally got used...by me!