Mining

My MIL took some photos while we were mining and sent them to me today. They turned out pretty cute :)

Abby, me, Liv, and Emelyn...

identifying and trading their gemstones.

Livy and Eme
Abby and I

Daniel and our nephew, Cole

Isn't this the neatest photo???

Music

We may have a little musician on our hands also. He likes to stop and dance to the music whenever it's on. He also loves to practice on the guitar and watch out when he gets some drum sticks in his hands! No, really, watch out! He likes to drum on anything ... sisters included! :)

Playing guitar with Daddy and Mr. Ryan

He didn't like playing this way - it's not the way Daddy does it!

Couldn't resist a cute 4th of July photo

Squinting in the sun!

Garr has recently started playing music again - he is playing bass on our church worship team. They are amazing. We have an acoustic guitar, drums, bass, saxophone, and a lead guitar. They have this jazz/rock/pop sound. It's really great! They have played outside the church a couple times now, most recently at the 4th of July festivities in town. I took a few pics to share. Unfortunately their time slot was late in the day and a lot of people had left. Many of our church people came to support them which was so nice! Not only is it a great group of guys to play music with, they are also very supportive of each other - faith/work/hangout wise. And the wives and kids like to hang out too, which makes it even better!

The little groupies :)

Garr

The band, Garr, Ryan, Ryan, Jim, Jim

hmmmm... we need another Garr :)

nevermind, I'm sure many would agree,

one Garr is enough :)

Our trip to VA Beach

We spent a fun few days with Garr's mom and Buddy! Linda (Garr's mom) took the kids mining ... yes, mining. It was cool! They got a bucket of sand and then "mined" it in the river. You could choose fossils or gemstones. The girls chose gemstones and they were so excited to see what gems and arrowheads were in their buckets. We all sifted through the sand left by others and found some shark teeth and fossils too :) They had so much fun. After they mined their gemstones, they laid them out on the table and compared them to a chart so they could figure out what kind of stones they had. The lady working there was so kind and informative. She helped us figure out some of the tricky ones :) They are looking forward to doing it again next time we go. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so no photos of that :) (I made up for it at the gardens though, lol...)

The next day, we visited the Botanical Gardens there. What a great place! We had so much fun... riding the tram (Daniel's favorite!), visiting the Butterfly Gardens and Butterfly house, and playing at the Enchanted Forest Children's exhibit. Unfortunately, before we could go anywhere else, a major storm hit! There was lightning and thunder right over our heads!! And then it downpoured! There was no place to go for shelter and no trams nearby. We walked, for what seemed like forever, in the pouring rain and the lightning! It was kind of scary. Garr carried Daniel and when Liv got upset, Buddy carried her. By the time we found our way out to the truck, we were all soaked to the skin. It was an adventure, though, and Daniel hasn't stopped talking about the "Boom!" and the "water" and "Daddy run!" It's rather cute :)

I was able to get a ton of great photos before the storm and am thanking God that my camera didn't get ruined in the rain. It was totally dry when I took it out of the diaper bag at the car. I couldn't believe it because the bag was so wet I could wring out the straps. We will definitely make another trip to the Gardens next time...as long as we check the weather first :)

Garr and Daniel waiting by the fountain for the tram -

Daniel was SO excited!

Riding the tram

Liv, Mom, and Buddy on the tram
Abby

beautiful view in the distance,

but this photo made me laugh when I saw it.

Can you tell why?

views from the tram

In the Butterfly Garden,

Liv, Eme, Daniel, and Abby

The Girls with Ama and Mr. Buddy

finding our way through the maze

a gladiola that Abby wanted a photo of
In the Butterfly house,

there were all kinds of caterpillars, eggs,

flowers, and butterflies.

It was beautiful.

This butterfly was wounded

and the man volunteering there said

he was going to take it to the "butterfly hospital."

A view from inside the butterfly house.

Garr, Liv, and I -

Abby took this photo.

Garr, Ab, and I -

Liv took this one. :)

Mom and Buddy

Laughing together

Another great photo-op for the 4 kids :)

I'm telling you these are Christmas card material!

Ama and Abby

Mom thought I would never stop taking photos

I'm guessing, by the look on her face :)

There were all these little tables and chairs

cut from stumps of wood.

They had games like checkers, tic-tac-toe, and more.

Here the kids are pretending the wood circles are cookies :)

Daniel takes a bite :)

A "train"

The 3 little pigs house of straw

The house of brick

"Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?"

Danny and I

I love this boy SO much!

After the storm, wet and bedraggled!