A trip to Carowinds

Our summer ended with a bang...riding roller coasters and having fun at Carowinds!

As you can see, we straddled the border of the Carolinas (and insanity) that day:




As night fell, we had local country faire for dinner:

Ready to fence...

Not picket fence...foil fence!

Josiah got new gear for fencing. He's hoping to compete in tournaments this year so we bought him the necessary equipment. It will be nice to have his own equipment instead of using the smelly (!) uniforms and masks that kids share at the fencing academy. Here he is modeling his new stuff:

UNCC Botanical Gardens Greenhouse

Our care group couples went to the UNCC Botanical Gardens Greenhouse over the weekend for special time together. Here are some pictures of the beautiful growing things that we saw:










John was our guide, telling us about every species of orchid, palm, herb or fern. Apparently they no longer have a Botany degree at UNCC, but due to some donations, they keep up this greenhouse.

Rebekah's 14th Birthday

For Rebekah's birthday, we went to Chick-fil-A for breakfast (her request), and had a fun day together. She received an mp3 player as a gift, and spent much of the day loading songs on and listening to the music. We had ice cream cake and watched National Treasure 2 as a family.

Hannah graduates from High School

What a great day -- all the grandparents were there to see it too!

She's got her diploma now. Dad is very proud!


Hannah gave a short speech as the valedictorian of Hidden Treasure Academy. She spoke kindly of her family.


After the ceremony, the dads prayed for their children.


Hannah's two friends, Brittni and Catie were there to share her event -- they were giggly and goofy as usual, but made the day more special for Hannah.

Fun with Joshua and Hannah

Hannah and Joshua were being silly today. Thought we'd share their imaginative video with you.

A little more t-ball

I thought I was having trouble uploading the pictures and video last night, but this morning everything seemed to be fine. Here are some more video/pictures from the game last night:




In this video, Joshua is finishing his run of the bases. He did a great job following the action of the game, and knew when to run to the next base!

Getting ready for the game to begin. The teams meet for prayer (this is the YMCA, afterall).


As Joshua takes his position in the field, Coach George explains what he should be doing out there. Joshua paid good attention, but not too many balls broke through the infielders during that inning. An inning in t-ball consists of all players getting a turn at bat. No score is kept, but every player runs all bases until each team member has batted.

The batting line-up on the bench. It's hard to wait your turn to bat. Coach George has everyone go in order of their number on their back so that it's fair.