Apple River Canyon State Park

My family and I love to go to different parks to walk on trails. A lot of times we will leave at a moments notice with no planning involved. Last Saturday was a perfect day to take one of these trips. We gathered up water bottles, snacks, and fishing gear and headed out. As we were backing out of the driveway, we decided to go to Apple River Canyon State Park. It had been a while since our last visit, and I remembered that the kids had fun climbing on the rock formations.

This big rock was fun to climb!

Steve and Drake on the cliff.

Walking the trail! It began with a climb up these stairs.

This was a fun-pic. Drake's idea. ;-)

This is a look out area with a great view.

Drake took this picture of us. Ava wanted to take our picture too, but I told her I wanted to keep moving and she could take it at another spot. She was upset about that. Here Ava is storming away from us. She was trying to get away as fast as she could. Little did she know, that bright blue shirt and pink hat could be spotted anywhere. ;-) Thankfully, she got over it quickly.

Mossy-Earthy-Rocky

Steve and Drake fished, but they didn't catch anything.

Fishing: It's not a Total Waste of Time

Last year my dad gave us some of his fishing poles and lures because Steve wanted to try and fish with Drake. I think our first fishing experience was back on June 28, 2008. It was a cool, windy day. I wasn't so sure Steve knew anything about fishing. He took forever to get the fishing poles ready for us all to use. Once they were ready to go, some of the excitement had died, but we tried it out anyway to see if we could catch something.

We tried and tried to catch a fish but didn't have any luck. It was quite disappointing. Fishing takes a lot of patience, something I will admit many times that I lack.

Here Steve has his hat, but it wasn't long and it blew right off of his head and into the lake.

It was a good thing we had a fishing pole, so we could retrieve it. I knew that thing would come in handy for something!

Fast forward to October 18, 2008. We took a road trip to the Mississippi Palisades State Park. Once again, Steve was having a little trouble rigging up the fishing pole. Drake thought it would be funny if I took a picture of him falling asleep while waiting. It is funny. If fishing doesn't teach us patience, waiting for the pole to be ready will. Ahh...my poor husband. We didn't catch any fish that time either.

This year Steve and Drake have gone fishing a few times and still didn't catch anything, but something incredible happened over this past weekend! Drake actually caught two fish!



Here he is on April 25.

He caught another on April 26.

Now that Steve has the fishing poles ready to go, there is no longer any wait time: just throw on a worm and go. Yay! I'm happy that they found something to do together that they both enjoy. I think that as boys get older, they really need that bond with their dads. They need that time to hang out and talk about things. Whether it's catching fish (or not), playing ball, or riding bikes, it's the act of spending time with each other that matters most.

Time can't be returned once it has past.

Family Game Night

Family fun night is something my kids always enjoy. We try to do something together each week: play a board game, watch a movie, play video games, go on hikes, ride bikes etc. In the winter months we usually play video games and watch movies; however, I have a tendency to want more interaction than that. Sitting in a room with my family while staring at the TV, does not qualify as good-quality family time in my opinion. Last Thursday, we decided it was time to change things up and opted to play a board game. The game of choice was Herd Your Horses: a game that can be played three different ways and provides various facts about each kind of horse on the back of the cards.

The game was fun, but Ava got bored about half-way through. The cards were more interesting to her than the game. Drake ended up winning, Steve came in second, and well, who does that leave in last? :-( What is most important was that we were all able to spend time together being silly and having fun.

Another fun game that we bought recently is Bananagrams. It's kind of like scrabble but without the board. It's a great learning game too!

And the Award Goes To...

Mr. D! He got second place in archery! I am so proud of him! He did so well, and I'm happy that he has found something he loves to do. The session is over for the summer, but he hopes to earn some money for a bow of his own.

New Niece

On March 23, 2009 our new niece was born!

She is so sweet!

She weighed in at 8lbs. 1 oz. and was 20 inches long. She is so beautiful!

~Here is the happy couple~

A day after she was born the kids and I visited and got to hold the baby. Both of the kids love to hold her. It was funny because later when we got home, Drake told me how he didn't know if he wanted to hold her at first, but then once he tried it, he noticed how cute she was and didn't want to give her back.

Cousin Sage is happy to have a new sister!

We just got back from another visit today!

In the Eyes of Children

re·spect

It’s a simple word that we have often heard thrown around: in songs, movies, and on TV.

Definition:

esteem: a feeling or attitude of admiration and deference toward somebody or something; to hold in high regard

state of being admired: the state of being admired deferentially

thoughtfulness: to show consideration or thoughtfulness

characteristic: an individual characteristic or point

We all have a desire to be respected, but do we always show that same respect to others? I am extremely guilty of this offence, especially with my husband; mercifully this morning it was brought to my attention once again. I was going about my day, preparing for school and finishing up the dishes. Drake was in another room reading his Bible passage for the day. All of a sudden, he came up to me and said, “Mom read this.” Hmm…you’ll never guess what the verse said! It was Ephesians 5:33 – “However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” His finger was on the “wife must respect her husband” part. I was a little stunned: my son has just thrown a verse from the Bible in my face! What was I going to do? Okay, I thought to myself, thanks God for bringing that to my attention and using my son to show me. I swallowed some pride, smiled, and thought about how I should respond. Then I asked him why he was showing me that, did he think that I didn’t respect his father? His reply with a smile was, “Well, yeah, not really.” Okay, uncomfortable moment! My sin is just bursting out all over the room, and my boy is calling me out on it! Praise God! I know He was trying to get at me today. It was a clear reminder for me to clean up my act. It’s amazing how children can convict us and teach us so much! They are not passively standing by. They see how we treat others, and they know right from wrong. I’m not perfect, and I think it’s good that my kids know that I have many faults and sin daily, and that I need God.