Hammock with friends

First day of outdoor dining. Weather is beautiful!

Wednesday night is cookie night. I make them for John to take to work on Thursdays.

David is a blockhead:

More hair art by Rebekah. The girls watch YouTube videos to learn how to do these hairstyles. It must be possible to learn anything by watching YouTube. I think this is called a ladder braid.

Well, ever since I fixed the cracked screen on Rebekah's iPod using YouTube videos for instruction, that taste of success has made me feel like I could attempt to fix my 50mm prime lens. I loved that lens, but Elijah yanked my camera to the floor one day and it hasn't been able to focus since. Well, today I had some time, so I actually did it:

And, believe it or not, it worked. A couple pictures:

It's not quite working like a brand new lens. It's a little unreliable. But it is working and I am so happy. I missed it!

Cute (minus the addicting little tech device):

Spring!!! I liked the blue of the sky in the background.

Again, this one was a little blurry because of the low-light conditions, but too cute not to include. (Nice photo bomb, Sam!)

My car and car phone:

Playing with and learning about lighting photographs. This is just the girls' desk light aimed toward Christina. She liked this pose the best:

Tina has always loved to have her grandma make play-do and now she makes it herself for the kids she babysits. And she enjoys sitting and playing with them. They were making monsters/aliens:

We had thought about hiking Table Rock, but that is a pretty tough hike especially with no baby carrier other than our arms. We wanted the day to be fun and not too excruciating, so we decided on two smaller hikes instead. I think it was the right choice for today.

Lower Whitewater Falls:

Sam found a heart-shaped rock:

Bad photographer moment.  David is cut out of this one.  I was looking at the splash.  They were throwing in big rocks:

We found a little gazebo at this overlook to eat lunch and take a rest before the next hike:

This is Oconee Station Falls which John and I hiked to on Saturday.  This is more kid-friendly since you can walk right into the water at the base of the falls.  Amazingly, this did NOT end in somebody falling in.  They must be growing up.

We surprised the kids by reserving the cabin an extra night. We came back to Clemson and picked them up for a fun family getaway.

Playing squish the watermelon on the playground:

Sunset on the dock:

Little engineer (this was a little blurry, but too cute not to include):

More playground time:

Cooked out hot dogs and then s'mores over the fire. A few board games while watching the olympics. Awesome evening and looking forward to hiking tomorrow.

John and I had a chance to get away for the weekend (Thanks, Mom and Dad, for staying with the kids). We enjoyed hiking a little bit in the beautiful weather. This is Oconee Station Falls:

Melting, melting, melting.... Good-bye snow.

More fun in the snow:

Elijah had more fun inside:

SNOW DAY!!!!! They closed Bosch, so John was home with us. Unfortunately, I came down with a cold and felt pretty lousy, so I didn't venture outside much. Which was fine, since Elijah preferred that anyway. All these pictures were taken with John's phone. One of the local sledding hot spots, Kite Hill. Notice the Kayak and the carboard. We've seen people with kiddie pools and plastic storage boxes and once a friend even saw somebody with a port-a-potty door. It's quite entertaining watching southerners play in the snow (and I count myself among them).

They had to abandon Kite Hill after only a half dozen or so runs because the roads were getting covered again fast (they had just been plowed when they left home). Also, the sleet/snow mixture was a little bit painful up on the hill with the wind blowing it in their faces. So, they came home and immediately took off for a walk through the woods behind our house.

It comes out by the railroad tracks which they follow and get to our church building:

This may be a new snow day activity.... dancing in the middle of the virtually deserted 4 lane highway:

It is supposed to continue snowing overnight, so everyone is looking forward to more snow fun tomorrow.