Thursday the girls had off because of Teacher Inservice, so as kind of a fun thing to do and because the kids have done so well in school this year, we took them to Ruby Falls with our friends.
We've already visited there, and I'm sure we will again, but just walking through that cave is just too cool!
Seein all the awesome formations in there is just cool!
Here we are overlookin' Chattanooga from Lookout Mtn.
Thursday was Doreen's last day of school for this semester. All the girls decided they wanted to get together for lunch after their last class and just relax and chat and enjoy a good meal - then split for the summer.
Everyone met at a nearby Cracker barrel and had quite the time talking about what had happened over the semester, what people are going to do over the summer and what to expect next year. The really nice thing is that one of the girls works at a Cracker barrel partime, so she was able to use her employee discount and get every one's meal just a bit cheaper. Nice!!!
I had gotten home from a trip at 4am and Joelle and Natalie were off school for Teacher In service, so we got invited along. What a cool day! As we were checking out an 'older' fella who sat at a table near us and checked out right before we did, said to me, "Must be nice hanging out with all the pretty ladies." I told him, it had it's privileges! :)
This post is more suited to Veterans Day, or Memorial Day or even the 4th of July, but I'm going to do it today.
I started looking at this close up shot she took for me, and I saw arrows pointing to two names I recognize. One is my grandfather, Gerald Sabes (1st column 10 down) and the other my great uncle, Maurice Weeks. (2nd column 2 down) That is too cool!
So I went over to our wall downstairs and looked at this frame my grandfather made for me before he passed away. He made it with his actual metals and patches from his uniform. I'm thankful he made this for me.
Last year, my aunt Jane sent me the flag that covered my grandfathers casket at his funeral. Then not too long ago she sent me a piece of his parachute she had. I hung it in the same shadowbox with the flag with one of the pair of paratrooper wings he gave me. (The hat is my father's, but this is a good place to 'display' it!)
A while back, I made a deal with my great uncle Russell. I swapped him a little .38 revolver for this German Luger pistol he brought back from WWII. So I got a couple of pics of him, bought some actual patches from his Division and Unit and made this little wall hanging.
Then just a couple of weeks ago, I finished this frame of my dad's time in the military.
Then we decided to stain/seal our deck. It's been a project 'to do' for quite some time. Well, we had temps in the high 70's today, no rain in site for the next 3 to 4 days, so we got to it. While I was running around, Doreen folded all our laundry and cleaned the deck thoroughly. 
My oldest daughter turned 7 years old today. Wow! I cannot believe it. She's 7. It has gone so fast, yet at times it seems like she's been with us forever.
She wasn't sure what kind of birthday party she wanted to have this year. Then she decided on a skating party! The first two times we went to the rollerskating rink, she was having a tough time. But since she got a set of inline skate and a bit of practice at home - she tore it up today!
Natalie, with her friend Jaleena, did fantastically as well!
We asked Joelle what kind of cake she wanted and she said, "Soccer ball." So that's what she got. This was made of 24 cupcakes and beautifically decorated. The actual cupcakes were red-velvet, yummy!
After skating a couple hours they gave us a room and a slice of pizza for each kid and a drink. We ate the cake and then Joelle got to open her presents.
Then we went out to skate more and she did pretty good at the limbo, but fell the next 'lower' round. 
Yesterday our Sabbath School had our program outdoors. We have some friends that own 125+ beautiful acres 30 minutes North of where we live. They have a pavilion and bathrooms and a kitchenette that was perfect for the setting. We had SS, I invited a good friend up to speak for the service and then a HUGE potluck meal.
Here's my Joelle bein a little farmer with a bit of straw in our mouth.
Here's Natalie doin' the same thing.
Here's a shot of Doreen and I!
JUST finish watching the Colorado Avalanche win their game and win round one in the NHL playoffs, eliminating the Wild!
Found this DVD set on ebay for a song. So, I grabbed it!
Oh my word, does my thumb hurt this evening!!!
This weekend is my oldest daughter's 7th birthday. Wow, is she that old already? My lands, where has the time gone. Anyway, for her cake this year, she was wanting a cherry cheese cake. That's kind of hard to do and expensive for 13 kids plus about 10 adults. So we decided to have a little pre-birthday, birthday party for her with a cherry cheese cake.
See those roller blades on my feet? Picked them up at the local Thrift Store for $.27. That's right, 27 cents! Can you believe it? They are a pretty good set too. A bit snug, but better that than loose!
Natalie's striking a Monkieing around on rollerblades pose! I think?! :) It's cute anyway!
So I had to strike a rollerblader pose. (Of course to anyone who knows anything about rollerbladin and rollerskating realizes that I'm not getting off to a fast start in rollerblades with that pose, however if I had a set of rollerskates on, I'm off in a sec! Too funny!)
Well, if you don't know what this is all about, you can read my previous post and a post from my father-in-law that will explain it. Sure enjoyed having the help as we put Joelle's new tube in and put her bike back together. She was extremely excited. Now she's rip-roarin' ready for another ride! :)
Just got back from a trip to Indiana. We had 5 stops basically running in a circle around Indianapolis. The trip went well and we got done quickly, working through the night.
Just found out the Broncos schedule for this coming season. Coolness!
Today was a gloriously beautiful day! We had plans to get together with our friends Scot & Pati A and Ross, Cindy, Jacquelin and Paul H, go for a picnic and a bike ride on the Chattanooga Riverwalk.
Here's Doreen and Joelle zoomin down the Chattanooga River parkway.
Of course we HAD to stop to find a couple of geocaches on the way. Two of them were Micro size containers, and when I say micro, I mean micro! Almost didn't find one!
Just another shot I got from the back of the group as we rode today. It was Sunny, about 70, kinda breezy but very, VERY nice!!! (SOOOOO very sorry Monkey Family. Believe me, we feel for ya!!!!!!!)
Doreen's standing at the front of a paddle boat on the river that runs through Savannah, GA. This was also the same weekend, while we were waiting for our next load, we took an awesome trolly tour through downtown Savannah.
Once while getting the bent tie-rod one our truck fixed, along with two new steer tires and an alignment up in Mass, we went to the NBA Basketball Hall of Fame. Coolness!
While waiting to load in Las Vegas, NV - we took in some sights. Up at the top of the Stratosphere, (Kind of like the Space Needle in Seattle, WA) we rode the roller coaster called the High Roller. Very tame. (FYI - just found out that coaster is no longer there. They removed it and replaced it with two other wild looking rides. Interesting!)
THEN, we went on the Big Shot. It shot us straight up 160 feet (from the top of tower) at 45 mph (over 4 Gs) until we were 1,081 feet above the Strip. THAT was a ride to remember!!!
Here I am standing in the middle of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, SC where the Civil War began. It was awesome because you could still see rusted artillery embeded in the walls. Living History!!!
On some trip somewhere, Doreen gave me a bit of a break, driving on her 'learners permit' so I could take a bit of a nap! She did great handlin' that big old beast!!!
Here we needed a jump. We'd spent the weekend with Doreen's Grandma M in Wildwood, GA and when we got back out to the truck to head to our next destination, the truck was completely dead. (Turns out we figured out later we had to replace 3 of the 4 batteries. Oh well!) This guy pulled us forward, I popped the clutch while the truck was in 4th gear and we were good to go - as soon as he put us down and unhooked the truck and disconnected his airline! :)
It's time. So we bought some mulch, 3 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers and 1 green pepper. Here Joelle is 'turning' the soil trying to get it ready.
Natalie's doing her version of busting up some of the dirt clods and smoothing out the top for planting.
Joelle's putting our first tomato plant of the year in!
Natalie is a HUGE cucumber fan and was excited to put one of the plants in and get it ready to start growing!
Last year we had a big project of cleaning out some junk at the back of our property and putting in a flowerbed that we wanted to put in Creeping Flocks. 
