mountain weekend

For five of the past seven years we have gone to the mountains in October with friends.  It started with an awesome trip with Matt and Leslie when she was pregnant (I believe) with Isabella and has continued with all different combinations of folks.  This year just the Moons and us were able to go and we stayed at a friend's gorgeous mountain lake home in North Carolina.

Anytime you stay in a house with five kids there are bound to be some interesting moments and this trip was no different but it was a G.R.E.A.T and funny time with three crazy big boys who definitely let their boyhood run wild, one little baby boy, one smiley little girl and two awesome friends.

A lot of time and I mean A.L.O.T of time on day one was spent throwing rocks in the lake.  I mean there's a pile of rocks, water and boys sooooo obviously this is the only thing that could happen.  It reminded me of that quote from Parent Trap when they're on the camping trip and Vickey says "Oh only part of the fun.  What's next going down and throwing rocks in the lake?"  Why yes Vickey yes it is!  

I spent the majority of the time making sure Connor didn't completely submerge himself in the water and making sure Logan didn't fall off the dock.  Bless his heart he can't wait to be able to hang with the big boys.

Logan was ecstatic to have so much time being able to "play" with Evie.  His favorite things to do are to touch her, grab her, lay on her, pat  her and throw things at her head.  It would be highly inappropriate if they were 15.  She is a precious trooper and a half and actually finds it amusing.  She's either super patient or has a weird sense of humor ;)

Friday night we roasted marshmallows by the fire.  It was somewhat terrifying because it was pitch black and there was an 8 foot drop off onto sharp rocks.  However eventually the boys figured out how to just stay still and roast away.  They were practicing scary faces with their flashlights.  Connor didn't want to do a scary face.  He wanted to do blood hands by putting his hand in front of the beam and making it look red.  After eating a couple marshmallows they decided it was cooler to throw them into the fire whole and we all watched them puff up and ooze and turn into charcoal.  It was pretty cool.

After all the kiddos were in bed the big boys had fun getting a boston butt ready to go on the smoker.  As you can imagine there were lots of butt jokes.  We introduced Steph and Justin to Settlers of Catan and enjoyed some adult beverages and stayed up waaaaaayyyyyyy too late for us old people ;)

Saturday morning was spent eating yummy pancakes, playing games, doing puzzles, jumping from the couch to the ottoman, playing hide and seek, and with all the guys (minus Logi Bear) taking a boat ride.

 After lunch we headed to Whiteside Mountain which I literally have been calling Monkey Face since we went with Zach's family two summers ago because that's what his brother kept calling it so I assumed it was the actual name.  Yep I'm an idiot.  Anyway we wanted to try hiking even though we knew there was a good chance it was going to be awful.  Overall I'd say it went pretty well.  Micah thought we were all too slow so he was ahead almost the whole time.  Silas and Connor took turns being slow and not so pumped about walking while holding hands with their parents who were just trying to keep them moving.  Evie slept in her Ergo.  Logan did great on the way up as long as he couldn't see me and great on the way down as long as I kept shoving puffs in his mouth.  As far as the boys know we reached the very top and the parents were excited to have a look out part way up so that we could say "Awesome guys we made it to the top!"

After a stop for live bait and ice cream, not mixed together, we headed back so they boys could fish before dinner.  Micah was all about casting and started doing pretty well with some practice.

Before we left on Sunday Zach took Steph and I out on the boat with the boys.  It was windy and chilly but beautiful with all the trees.  Logan loved his first boat ride!

After attempting to get a picture of the boys all together and a family picture we had to pack up and head out.

 At dinner last night we asked Micah and Connor what their favorite parts were...

Micah- hiking, riding on the boat, throwing rocks and fishing

Connor- riding on the boat, playing finger football, hiking and seeing the goats (to be posted later)

swing spinning

Micah has discovered the art of swing spinning.  You know the thing when you lay on your belly and wind yourself up and then let go.  This last time he figured out if he tucks himself into a ball he'll go even faster.  He was pretty proud!

Then I just took pictures of my boys being themselves because I love them and that's just what a mama does.

the gospel

Occasionally I share thoughts on here but it's not a normal thing because I'm more comfortable with this being a forum for our day to day cuteness and craziness to share with those we miss so much and for my thoughts and spirituality to be sorted through during prayer, my journal and conversations.  

There's also one more reason that my mind struggles with every time something pops in my head to share (even if it's not on our blog) and it's the fear of what someone might think after that idea is out.  I'm always afraid I'll get one of four responses... 

1) "the seminarian" - Oh Sarah, your thoughts are very off base with sound doctrine and theology.  If you'd just think or say it this way it would be right.

2)  "the seventh level christian" - Wow seriously you're just getting that?  How long have you been a christian again?

3)  "the sympathetic head tilt" -  Awww isn't that cute she's trying to share something spiritual.

4)  "ignorer"- ok yeah that was great now if you could just go back to showing a picture of Logi Bear I'll read it.

Just like my mother preempting every present on Christmas morning ;), I say this to say that I wanted to share something in our women's group book last week.  While the story and knowledge of Christ's life, death and resurrection are the reason I can breathe on a daily basis, the words "the gospel" have never held much weight with me.  In my experience they either come with such a boring definition that it's hard to understand the beauty of it all or they are very often just words people seem to throw into conversation to make them sound more intelligent or christiany.  Kind of like sitting in a faculty meeting with teachers or administrators throwing in every acronym in the education world or paradigm shift into every sentence.  

I know when I hear those two words my worldly world should crumble and my heart should sing at the depth of what they mean but it just doesn't or didn't.  There was a paragraph I read last week that explained it in a beautiful way, to me, and I wanted to share it with you.

The gospel is good news for us, yes, but the goodness of this good news is not primarily us or even our new identity.  It is good news about him:  his mercy, his faithfulness, his holiness and atoning sacrifice.  It's a report about his great condescension as he traded his glorious identity for our shameful one.  It's about his flawless character and infinite compassion.  Even though he has become our life, the emphasis belongs on him, not on our identity, our sin, our standing, our successes, or even our joys.  As wonderful as the gift of an entirely new, clean identity is, we won't spend eternity rejoicing in it.  We'll spend eternity rejoicing in him.  We'll sing, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!"  This resounding chorus will fill our mouths as it fills all heaven:  To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" (Rev. 5:12-13)

                                                                   ~  Because He Loves Me  pg. 61
                                                         Elyse M. Fitzpatrtick

scavenger hunt

For his 5th birthday Micah was gifted a scavenger hunt from Nehnie.  His birthday was 7 months ago and the excuse I have for not having done it earlier is that my brain has just now started working at almost full capacity ;)  Anyway, last Wednesday during fall break while Zach was working from home we just decided to do it!  In no particular order (because the list is in the boys room and I'm too lazy to go and get it so I can put the actual number of the activity next to the picture) here is our fun afternoon.

The rules were to dress in a costume and get a picture of yourself doing different activities.  This ended up posing a problem because even though I explained it Micah didn't realize he was going to have to go places and see people dressed up.  He is not a fan of being the center of attention and after taking the first few pictures with him almost in tears because someone might see him we detoured back to our house to let him change clothes before the rest of it.  Connor of course thought it was amazing to be dressed up and stared at.  He is so like his daddy ;)

Our activities

Pointing at a helicopter

Saluting a flag

Standing next to a train

rolling down a hill

swinging on monkey bars

planking somewhere cool

With an animal that's not daisy.  There were ducks behind him but they swam away quickly.

Eating an ice cream cone

Sitting on someone's porch swing.
 Micah had a little trouble getting up on it with his ice cream in his hand :)

Showing Nehnie all the pictures!

I loved the idea so much I made one for my niece for her 6th birthday!  This will definitely be a traditional gift!!

first campout

Zach along with his parents (nana and poppy) took Micah and Connor on their first camping trip.  Part of me was sad to miss it but another part was super excited about having one kid and a quieter day and evening ;)  Zach and I were not sure how the evening would go for them.  We do not have the bravest bananas in the bunch when it comes to darkness so the whole sleeping outside without the nightlight and comforts of home made us both a little nervous but he went into it knowing there was a chance he'd be packing it all in at midnight and driving back to his parents house.  However they LOVED it!

First they drove to the campsite and put up the tent or made camp or whatever you call that process.  There was a walnut tree next to them.  The walnuts are apparently inside these apple like things which was kind of crazy.  I wish they would have brought one home for me to see.  Anyway the little campers had fun throwing them in the river for a while.

Next they headed to Amicalola State Park to hike and see the falls.  Zach got some awesome video of Connor talking about hitting any sharks they saw with his walking stick.  I swear that boy is a N.U.T!

Back at camp they "fished" for a little bit which I heard was maybe 10 minutes.  Of course there was only about 6 inches of water in the river and no fish so it wouldn't have been fun for me either :)

According to Micah since they didn't catch any fish they just ate hotdogs.  These two love building fires which they get honestly from their daddy and my daddy.  The next hours were spent building the fire, poking the fire, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows on the fire and staring at the fire while Nana and Poppy told them two stories, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rumpelstiltskin.

Bedtime went great since they were both so exhausted and when I asked them the next morning if they liked sleeping in the tent I got an OH yeeeeaaaaahhhh from Micah.  The adults didn't fare so well at night though.  It started raining at some point and the ground was really hard and apparently the walnuts would fall out of the trees randomly and two of them hit right on Zach's part of the tent and subsequently hit him in the head.  Good times ;)

I am thrilled that they loved it.  While camping is not my favorite thing I will be making an exception quite regularly in our future to hang out with my little campers.  Can't wait for Logi Bear to join the trip!

fall break

 Micah was on fall break all last week so I wanted to try to do something special each day that is more difficult to do on school days.

On Monday we drove to the ATL and had lunch with Zach at work.  I originally thought we'd go out somewhere.  Mainly because I was afraid the boys might be too loud or messy or crazy at their cafeteria and I didn't want him to be embarrassed in front of his work peeps.  Thankfully they were there normal crazy selves and not embarrassingly crazy! Micah and Connor had a lot of fun eating with Zach and Micah spent a lot of the time comparing his lunch at school to the one at COX.  He decided that Zach had more food to pick from and a prettier room.  

On Tuesday I had one of those I'm such a great mom that I'm going to take my awesome kids to the park and ride bikes and have so much fun but it blows up in your face mornings.  I was in an irritable mood so I wanted to get us all out in the pretty weather so we took our bikes to the park.  It started great on the first lap around and while they were playing on the playground.  It was the the second lap we decided to go on when Connor kept getting frustrated that he wasn't riding very fast and then Micah was trying to show me how great he could ride that he got so far ahead I couldn't see him but I couldn't run and find him because then Connor would be sitting there so I just got impatient with both of them.  In the meantime Logan was sick of being in his seat and trying to crawl our of the stroller and when we finally caught up with Micah I had to get on to him for going ahead which made him upset and then Connor was still upset about being slow and then got more upset when he wanted a snack and I hadn't brought any.  We left, went home and regrouped with naps and a movie.  Both things fix most problems!

Zach took Micah and Connor to a Braves game that night so they could see Chipper play one more time.  Our friend Brandon went with them and they had a blast as usual.  It was a perfect come from behind walk off home run in the ninth kind of win which Micah and Connor didn't see because they were running the kiddie bases but the big boys were excited.  M & C did get free Braves hats though.  Connor wanted to pretend to hit the ball before he ran but the worker told him to go and then he started crying and wouldn't run again until the man came over with hats for him and Micah.  Pitiful ;)

On Wednesday we went to the zoo and had a great time!  The weather was gorgeous, the kids behaved really well, we saw lots of animals not napping which is always good and just had fun talking about everything we saw.  The best parts were seeing all the giraffes in a line eating, listening to the lion roar and seeing the Tiger super close up.  None of us knew he was right under the window and when Micah walked up first and looked down it took him by surprise so he jumped back real quick and tripped over Logan's stroller which Micah and Connor found very funny!

On Thursday we built a tent in their room.  I used the  bungee cords from the car and it was a tent making miracle.  Best. Tent. Ever!  Then Steph, Silas and Evie came over so we could make the food for Family Promise that night.  We spent the evening eating dinner and talking with the families our church was hosting through Family Promise.

On Friday Zach and the boys left after lunch to go camping in North Georgia with Zach's parents or Nana and Poppy and then tailgating at the Georgia/Tennessee game to see Joel.  Which will be a separate post all on it's own.

It was a great week with all three of my little fellas :)