The ropes course

John and Morgan did the Sky Hike. Morgan loved it. He did the whole course. It starts off 12ft off the ground. The next level is 24ft. And the final level is 40ft off the ground. They were sweaty when they got finished.

Here they are at the very top.

Morgan talked me into doing it with him. I loved it.

We could not talk Jack into doing the big course, but he loved the Camp Highland Outpost. It was a smaller version of the of the Sky Hike. At the end was a zip line. Jack LOVED the zip line. He must have done it 20 times. Jaden was very angry that he was not allowed on the Camp Highland Outpost because he had on open toed shoes. So he played in the creek and had a blast.

First day in the park.

John and the boys ready to go in.

We got to the park and got our map and made our plan. First up -Journey to The Center of the Earth-4D. It was amazing. There was water splashing in your face, dinosaurs breathing down your neck and man eating plants grabbing your legs. Morgan and Jack loved it but Jaden hid his face. He did not cry though.

Next was supposed to be the train but they were leaving the station and we had 20 min til the next one so we went to the "Campfire Space Camp". Morgan and Jack were chosen to go up on stage. The picture above is Morgan in his bubble so he could breathe. I hate I did not get a picture of him rolling his eyes.

Jack got to help work the "clown puppet". It was very creepy looking, but he was very proud to be on stage. We could hear the train pulling into the station. I thought I would have to rip them off stage and run to the train but the show came to an end right on time.

Jaden on the train.

Every time we heard the train whistle Jaden's face would light up and he would say "Was dat, Mommy?" "Dat twain" and even if I said "Yes Jaden it is the train." He would just repeatedly say "Twain Mommy? Twain."

Morgan and Jack being tolerant of the train.

I told Morgan and Jack that Jaden does a lot of stuff that they want to do. So they should do some things that he wants to do. They were very good about it.

This is a train that was given to the park. It carried supplies during the Revolutionary War.

Setting up camp...

This weekend we took the boys to Stone Mountain Park in Atlanta, GA. Our original plan was to drive to SC and have my brother show us how to set up the pop-up. We get to my brother's house to find out that it does not have a tag and the bearings need to be greased. So with no place to sleep and nothing to sleep on... we call Dad. He and Lucretia were great enough to let us borrow their tents and blow up matresses. Way to save the day. Then we spent the night with Mom she loaned us a kids blow up matress and of course sent us off with some food. On the way into town John's parents fed us supper. Lasagna and pizza .... what a great birthday meal. And being our parents too, we could not leave them out of the loaning game. So we borrowed a GPS from them. We left Sally at home in all the confusion of packing. So we get there and this is the beautiful view from our campsite. We did not get any pics of our tents or the rest of our site. When we got there we took these pics and started setting up our borrowed tents. It was unbearably hot and we were rushing around so we could make it to the park. Our camping package included 4-two day passes to Stone Mountain park, 1-free bundle of wood, and 4-free icees and 2-nights camping. I thought it was an awesome deal. John noticed on our online confirmation it said that check-in is at 2pm, but if you are not there by 2 your site may be given away. ???? OK... When you reserve online they ask for your first 3 choices of campsite. We did not get any of the 3 we requested but, the one we got was awesome. We were on the water and fed ducks and fish. A nice family moved in next door to us. Tanner was a boy scout and informed John on proper fire starting and the fact that he and his family had their tents up before we did.

John and I slept in one tent and for the first time ever the boys slept in a separate tent. The first night I woke up to Jaden's "Mommy, Mommy". I woke up and looked over at John and he was laying on the ground. Our blow up mattress was two twins that zipped together. During the night his deflated. He said about 15 min after he lie down. So I get out of the tent to get Jaden before he wakes the rest of the campground. Uhhh he is not in his tent...he is sitting in the pine straw brushing of his feet. "Hep me Mommy!" To say the least I was pretty freaked that he got out of the tent by himself. The next night I put him at the back of the tent and Morgan and Jack at the front. So he would have to crawl over them to get out.

Camping Prep

We are planning a trip to Stone Mountain, GA. My brother Matt and his wife Heather are letting us borrow their pop-up camper. This will be our first camping trip with a pop-up. Normaly we just grab our tents and sleeping bags. I have been looking for old sheets and towels that we can take. In doing that I ended up cleaning out the linen closet. I found a ton of sheets and towels. We will see how this trip goes. If it goes well we may get a pop up of our own. Smores...

Morgan found a new recipe for smores. You spread chocolate frosting on a marshmallow and then roll it in graham cracker crumbs. We used teddy grahams to make ours. Can you see the finished smore on top of the frosting? The boys love them and they are less messy than regular smores.

Thank you gifts.

Morgan's class made this birdhouse for me as a thank you. At the begining of the school year I went on Fridays to help with reading and math. Toward the end of the year I went on Wednesday and Friday for EOG prep. I really enjoyed working w/ the kids. They were so sweet.

The flowers and butterflies are made with the children's fingerprints. The yellow ones are Mrs. Childer's fingerprints. I can't wait for John to hang it on the tree for me.

Jack's class along with Mrs. Deal and Mrs. Sexton made me this thank you book. It is so cute. Each child drew a picture and wrote a thank you note. Some drew me sitting in the blue rocking chair reading. Others drew rainbows and books. Jack wrote "Thank q mom for reding to us." I went to Jack's class on Fridays and read. I had a wonderful time helping in their classes this year. I hope I will be able to do it again next year.

End of Year Party.... Backwards Day.

Today was Morgan's End of Year Party. They signed t-shirts and yearbooks, played ball and ate lunch. Morgan's class made me a beautiful birdhouse, as a thank you gift. They used their fingerprints to paint flowers. I did not get any pictures of it, but I will when John hangs it for me.

Morgan has made a new friend this year. We hope to see alot of Nash this summer. I hope he will be in Morgan's class next year. He is really looking forward to Hawks Nest. It was so hot outside so I asked if he wanted me to sign him out early. To which he quickly replied "uhhh yeah". As we were leaving we saw Jack's class on the playground.

And today was backwards day for Jack. Can you tell his shirt and shorts are on backwards? His friend Olivia also is dressed backwards. They did everything in reverse. Jack even put his backpack on his tummy and walked backwards to class. It was soo cute.

I could not get him to understand that I wanted a picture of his back. So his friends turned him around and held him in place so I could get this picture. It was so funny because all the kids understood what I was talking about and tried to help him.

Can I get a do-over!!

I should have listened when my friend T said "Do Not go to IHOP." It smelled like pee in there. The boys did not like the new lemonade drinks they picked out. Morgan wanted a choc chip pancake, but obviously not the one I ordered. The family behind us told each other to shut up, called each other pigs. The mother never said a word only the older brother (maybe 14) corrected the kids. It was crazy. I had to ask my kids 5 times to quit staring at them. Then I made the mistake of taking the kids to Target. I hope DSS did not have hidden cameras watching me. I wanted to check out sandals and summer shoes for them. Jack aggrivated Jaden until he screamed the entire time. Morgan was devestated that I did not buy him anything. I don't know where that has come from all of a sudden. I think our Bible verse for the summer might be "Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. " 1Tim 6:6-8. I think our whole family could stand to meditate on that. Ok tomorrow will be a better day!