Family Day at WallerMill Park

Wallermill Park

We were blessed with an unexpected family day as John's work called him Saturday morning and said they had no work for him...so we loaded up the kids and made a day out of it. We headed to this park about 5 minutes from our house. It is the most beautiful park i have ever seen in my life! When you visit...we will sure show you it! We had lots of fun...it is filled with lots of green trees and surrounded by the lake. We got to take a walk on the bridge and boat dock and they had ducks. The funny thing is that these ducks aren't afraid at all...they waddle right up to you and follow you as you go...you aren't allowed to feed them but I suppose they are hopeful that maybe you'll have something and drop it along the way. They have a really cool park int he middle of the forest and picnic areas set up with tables and bar b ques. John and the boys decided to rent a paddle boat and they took off along the lake. They had a blast, but quickly learned that paddling is lots of work! Gabriel loved it...he talked about the boat for ever...the hard part was for them to keep him in the boat as he wanted to "Jump In" the water! While the boys were out paddling...Dest and I decided to take a nature walk through the hiking trails..it was really fun and just peaceful...we kept hoping someone would walk by so we get them to stop and take a picture of us together..but who are we kidding! SO you'll see just Destinee on the trail..we saw squirrels and baby frogs and along the trail their would be little coves that had benches that you could sit on and it overlooked the lake...it was so pretty! We can't wait to go back we still had lots of the park to still explore!

You just gotta LAUGH!

Why does this feel like we have been in similar situations before???
You know I have learned that in the journey of motherhood and in ministry at church that you sometimes just have to laugh and other times you just have to laugh and grab the camera! I was in the midst of a really loving and encouraging email to the servants at our church asking for prayer for the upcoming VBS and giving info reguarding that...and all the kids were doign their chores and watching tv...or so I thought!!!
All the sudden I hear Destinee and Junior in this OH NO! kinda voice slowly say Gaaabrieel! Dooon't mooove! I quickly got out of my chair, exited the office turned the corner to the kitchen..looked at Juniors What do we do now face and looked to my left and this photo is what I saw!!!! Had to turn around and laugh and grab the camera!!! (By the way did you notice the size of my pantry??I love it!)
For us the brownies baked would have been best...but for Gabe the texture and the getting into was even better! Here is the funny giggle God part...what would VBS be on that I will be leading???? The fruits of the Spirit...you know..love, joy, kindness, patience, self control...do I need to go on!!!

Destinee and Junior showed amazing fruit of the Spirit! They showered me with kindness and helped mopped up the mess...thanx TEAM!!!

Pictures from College Creek

College Creek

We got up early this morning and headed out to College Creek. It is only about 15 minutes away. It is suppose to be over 100 degrees today so we went real early so we could enjoy it before the heat really set in.
It was funny we were the only ones at the creek..so we got to really enjoy it together.Isn't God good!
Last time it was crabs that they found and this time they actually caught s fish with their hands... there were lots of fish this morning I think cause the water level was so low that we could really see them good.So they chased them for a good hour and their diligent really paid off!
The fish is saying "Don't you want to come and visit Virginia?" :)

I was telling the kids that it is really cool cause we spent a lot of time at the beach in California but we spent hours on the freeway...and nothing very exciting every happened but the sand castles we attempted to make...here we hit the creek up the street and we are always looking forward to the "great Adventure" and the "Big Catch" of the day!

4th of July

Fourth of July was lots of fun...

John and I took the kids to College Creek for a few hours in the late morning/early afternoon. The weather was hot but it was so nice to sit in the sun and relax! The creek is only about 10 minute maybe 15 minutes from our house...how nice is that!!!

John and the boys had so much fun catching crabs. At first I was like this is way freaky let's get out of here! But it ended up being a really cool experience. We saw crabs, and this thing that looked like jumping shrimp or something and we even saw a fish. The current is very evident so we really couldn't go out and swim but you could get in far enough to cool off and have fun!!

I just know the kids will talk about this for a very long time!

After the creek we came home and rested a bit and then we had the Hallman's and the Bilderback family over for an "All American Bar-B-Que" We grilled up some ribs and hot dog and hamburgers and had some home made salsa and rice (I suppose we'll always be Mexican huh?) pasta salad, corn on the cob, watermelon and cantaloupe. YUMMY :) We had lots of fun hanging out and we played 20 questions, and checkers and had some fun with silly string!

About 7 p.m. we loaded up and headed out to Colonial Williamsburg to see the Fife and Drummers and to watch the firework show...It is so amazing how people are DIE HARD Patriotic here... hundreds of us stood out int he pouring rain for 2 hours to experience the festivities of 4th of July! The Fife and drummers played a bit despite the thunder and rain, only no costumes as they would ruin. Then they put on the best Firework show I have ever seen...We were way too close and it was loud, but it was lots of fun...We got home and we were pooped and soaking wet! But I suppose it will be a memory like the 4th we had 2 years ago at John's parents house where all my family and his join together swam, ate lots and had the funniest firework show story I think ever...sometimes you just don't deal with the crowds and you pull over on the side of the road and enjoy them..that was funny! We pray and hope you all had a fun 4th as well!

4th Of July

college creek 4th of July, 2008

4th of July, 2008

baseball game

Baseball Game

We were given tickets by our church to the Pilots baseball game. So we met John at work and headed out to the Ole Ball Park!!! The kids really enjoyed it...Gabriel was so funny he would cheer and he would say "Look at the ball!" and he would say "Charge!" It thought it was the best thing ever! Junior had a great night he caught a ball from the game and he also raced the mascot and won...He got one of their players to sign his ball after the game. It was a family fun night for sure!!!

Click the link here and it will being you to all the picture from the game...sorry the pictures are a bit blurry but it is hard to catch moving objects!!!

http://flash.picturetrail.com/pflicks/3/spflick.swf"