Today show, "Let the kids Play"

This video clip was shared at the Live and Learn discussion list.

I think it's definitely worth watching. I don't agree with not letting the kids have certain things, but over all... Let the kids PLAY!

It's raining

which is good. If you are at all familiar with Lake Lanier, you know it's at a very low level. We live very close to the lake, so we see how low it is every day. Tropical storm Fay was a good thing for the lake and for anyone trying to grow things down here.

But on the flip side, we're getting a little stir crazy. We haven't been able to do much outside since Sunday, which was a bit of a damp outing too, but it was still fun.

Nic, Abbi, Alex, Ella and Gillen enjoying the river. Ella can find music to dance to everywhere!

Here's most of the group as we waited for the rain to subside a bit.


A picture taking red head..
who dat? hee hee




















So we've been having fun inside. Much Soul Caliber 4 has been played as well as Rock Band. I love this picture. Look at Alec with Jesse. They really hit it off, love of the gaming world was shared between these two guys.


If you're wondering what's on Gillen's head (boy in light blue shirt) it's a head crab.. you can google Half-life 2 if you really want to know more about that. ;)

We've also watched a few movies and played Apples to Apples (love that game!)

I keep thinking.. "got to get out and see something, got to get out and see something" for our visitor's (Nic) sake. But everyone is quite happy. Yesterday afternoon we did get a few hours of reprieve from the rain and they ran down to the pool and swam a bit. Nothing like swimming in a pool that is level with the deck. They had fun.

So we'll see if it clears up today and contemplate some other activities. I'd love to check out Atlanta's Six Flags but they won't be open if it keeps raining like it has been. We could go into Atlanta and check out the museums but that doesn't sound like it's on the top of the boys' lists.

If anything... we always have Saddi.

Happiness is...

these two!



I couldn't resist sharing this picture, and they said "Sure!" to the blog post.

They're so happy to see each other. It's been a year of talking over AIM and skype and now a visit! Yay!

We're having some exciting times right now.

Abbi's boyfriend, Nic, is coming to visit today. He's from Maryland and we met him and his family at the Live and Learn conference a few years ago. He's going to visit for the next week or so and then go to Live and Learn with us.

We also have the Kream family coming next week. We can't wait to see them, but I hope the mushroom is long gone ;)

And, tomorrow we're going to go over to Poole's Mill Park with the Stonebrakers, Haworths and Rains. We haven't seen Madeline and her family yet since moving down here, so we're super psyched for that!

Here are some bright happy pictures of kids settling into their rooms.

First Kyra and her room. We finished it up last week. The color was 'apple green' but we decided it was dang close to 'Shrek green', which is so OK with Kyra.



Here's the "before".

And "after"

The view from her bed

And Alec in his room. Here he is with his new computer. It's quite the set up, pretty awesome.

We're probably going to start on Abbi's room after the conference. She's going to go with some really pretty purples. We'll post pictures when we're done.

I'll also soon have a recording of the song that she's playing on the piano right now. She continues to amaze us with her playing.

Some of Alec's recent discoveries

Alec may be pulling out his cello from the closet.






He finds the coolest music. Nothing like symphonic metal, something I had never heard of until he shared it with us. That's what Nightwish is considered.

Here's another little bit that he shared with me. I'm not much of a metal head, but I did play violin for about 10 years so when he digs up these things it really pulls on my heart strings.



Yeah, Metallica with The San Francisco Symphony. Crazy.. but cool.

Cooler breezes

We're getting a wonderful reprieve from hot weather. It's not humid and down right beautiful. It's 68 right now! (Ok, so it's only 8:41 a.m., but still!) I'm a morning person so I get to enjoy it while it lasts. And today it's only supposed to get to 82.

So yes, we're surviving the heat, if you're all wondering.

The last few weeks have basically been like winters up north, just the other extreme, we just stay in or go to places that have air conditioning. We do have the neighborhood pool but we kind of had to avoid the hot times too because of the sun. I think we've all gotten rid of some of our northern whiteness ;) (except maybe Tim's feet! )

Some things we've been doing, besides unpacking and settling:

New video game playing! There's a new Soul Caliber and that's been really fun. Also.. we got Wii fit. Which I've decided I like the old fashioned yoga over Wii fit yoga, but Wii fit it still fun. Kyra has enjoyed Guitar Hero for her DS, you put little keys right on your DS as the strings, very cool.

Alec has been enjoying his new computer. We gave each one of our kids some money from the Bemidji house sale and he decided to buy a new computer. It is an amazing computer. Very fast and with a huge screen. I kept asking him, "are you sure you want a screen that bit?" and he kept reassuring me. *g* He's very happy with it. He's also trying out a new game with the new computer, Crysis. It's a very demanding game so his other computer wouldn't have even been able to play it. World of Warcraft is still in his life about 4 evenings a week. He gets together with his guild and brings down a boss or 2. The big screen is amazing with that game too.. he was telling me how with his old computer he couldn't see that far ahead of himself and now he can see far and wide.

Some Abbi activities: reading, playing and writing on the computer, bracelet making. She read the lastest in the Twilight series and really liked it. I'm going to start it now so we can talk about it. She isn't too happy about it coming out in movie form. The movies don't ever live up to how she sees the book. She still plays a bit on WoW and writes some on her cat forums. The bracelets she's been making are really cool. They're weaved ones from embroidery thread. She picks up those things so quick!

Kyra has been in heaven with all the swimming we've been doing and spending time with friends. She's so happy to be able to be playing with friends. :) She was a constant grin while we were in Florida. And the swimming... she loves it. She had me showing her all of the different strokes the last couple of times we've been down at the pool. Then she's off to try them out, back and forth, lap after lap. I think watching the Olympics has also inspired her a bit too. After swimming the other night, we came home and checked out Youtube videos of synchronized swimming. She thought that was REALLY cool. We were happy to see that there will be synchronized swimming coming up in the Olympics too.

Tim is being challenged learning all about the heart and also helping us with the fine tuning of computers, TVs and game systems. He had his first ride with yesterday, with his boss and he had a really good day. His manager is originally from MN, so they have lots to talk about :)

So there ya go, a glimpse of what we've been up to and now it's time to get off the computer because it's hair coloring time and we're also going to start painting Kyra's room. There will be pink, blue and green in the coloring and painting, can you guess which is going on her hair and which on her walls??

Northern Florida

We had a great time this weekend. Before we left, I was questioning even going. I was feeling so tired and overwhelmed with the move and didn't want to go anywhere. Well... I am so glad I went.

How wonderful is it to hang out with such amazing friends? Let me show you.

Here's Kyra and Duncan rocking in the screened porch.


We spent a lot of time in that room.

We talked glasses and everyone tried mine on, (OK, I wanted to see everyone in them!)


Gail and Broc looked pretty darn good! Go Broc!


And Kelly and Ben too!




Brenna just shines, as always.













And there's my sweet heart!
















On Saturday we tubed on the Ichnetucknee River, the water was a bit cold since it was a little overcast and rainy but it felt so refreshing! The surroundings were so beautiful. The trees and the greenery were so wonderful, so tropical looking to us.

I love looking at the moss hanging off the trees. It just mesmerizes me.




I don't have any pictures while we were on the river because I swam a lot, but Gail had her camera and maybe she'll post some.

Here we are getting our tubes. They strap them right onto the vehicles!


And after, relaxing and eating a bit.


And now a warning to people who don't like spiders...


I had to take a picture of this guy. These banana spiders were everywhere and this guy was outside of our cabins. B I G spider....



Now a more pleasant sight...

There was a spot along the Suwanee River where they had a rope to swing out into it. I've never seen anything like it before, maybe on film *G* but never in real life.

Here's Brenna the Brave


And check out Ben!


Do you see the brownish orangish color on the edge? That isn't my camera doing weird things. That's actually tannic acid in the water. It looks like tea but it's from the decaying vegetation in and along the river.

The moms posing.

And Cameron looking on.

It was great seeing everyone and so much fun seeing new things.

It's an amazing life!

Enjoying the Tropics :)

Toto, I don't think we're in MN anymore...

Kyra swimming in Tifton, GA

We were used to pools along the way... on trips. Just not outdoor pools.. with tropical flowers and palm trees.

Warm and humid, but niiiiice :)