My Campers

Ranae had tennis camp this week.

And Sarah had jump rope camp.

At the end of the week both girls won an award.

Ranae won "Camper of the Week".

And Sarah won "Most Spirit".

Way to go girls!

Old Rabbit - New Pet

We have an old rabbit named Hopper

that has lived on our farm for 8 years.

We are not quite sure how old he is

because he came to us full grown.

In any case, he's old, by rabbit standards.

Well, for all these years he has been Matthew's rabbit.

Matthew has showed him in the fair when he was younger

and looked after him.

However,

.....somewhere along the way.....

 Matthew sort of "lost interest".

Coincidentally, Sarah has been asking for her own pet.

She has been pleading for her own animal to feed and love.

Bingo!

Here's another advantage to having a big family.

Sarah and I then asked Matthew if he would be interested in

letting Sarah be the new owner of Hopper.

He promptly agreed. 

(I'm not sure he even had to think about it.)

And Voila!

Matthew's happy.

Sarah's happy.

Hopper's still happy.

And I didn't have to buy another animal for this farm!

We are still holding at 26. 

In case you were counting.

Because, believe me, I do. 

Every day.

Growing Up and Moving On

Angel's two kids are growing up.

Cocoa looks a lot like her mother.....

when she doesn't have an itchy spot.

And Calhoun is as cute as can be.

Ester's kids are growing up too.

Charisma is a little nervous of cameras.....

or strangers, or the wind blowing hard, or a leaf falling......

but if you cuddle her and pet her,

she will close her eyes and relax with pleasure.

And Cookie

~ our sweet Cookie ~

has moved on to another farm.

{*sniff *sniff.....wail!}

She has an awesome new owner that is also a 4-Her

and loves her dearly.

And we hope to see her at next year's fair.

My Car Turned Over!

Some would say this really isn't a big deal.

 But this was a big deal for me.

I've never owned a car that turned over before.

It was an event I was determined to witness.

And I wanted my children to see it too.

For months I've been counting the miles,

trying to determine when it would happen,

making sure everyone was around to see it.

And so finally we all piled into the family car.

Our 2004 Suburban.

And traveled just down the road to the post office.

Digital readouts aren't as fun to watch as mechanical odometers.

But I whooped and hollered anyway.

And the kids were all there.

And after I stopped celebrating I heard a small voice behind me say,

"But mommy, the car didn't really turn over."

After some careful interrogation I determined that

Sarah, our 6 year old, really thought the car was going to turn over.

Literally turn over.

Physically turn over.

Like a roller coaster.

I asked her if she was scaired waiting for it to happen.

And she said, "No, I was ready!"

Well.

O.K.

I can see how that wasn't as much fun as she imagined.

Zip-Line Time

What does basketball have to do with zip-lining?

Not much.

Except while we were waiting our turn...

they had a hoop, they had a ball,

and we let neither go to waste.

Then it came time to suit up and practice.

And without further ado, they marched back to the launching tower.

{L-R Uncle David, Ranae, Aunt T, Alex, Brian, Kevin, Matthew and Mimi}

The instructors are in blue. 

After a short safety check.....

it was zipping time.

Their first stop was a platform in an old cypress tree.

Very Robin Hood.

But the fun part, I'm told, was getting to the next platform.

Sarah and I stayed on the ground.

You have to be 10 to zip, so we'll be doing this another time.

We found a little swimming pool.....

and cooled off a bit.

Before long everyone returned

with plenty of stories to tell.

Cypress Valley Canopy Tours.

We came.

We played ball.

We zipped.

No one fell.

I'm loving it.

3 Million Bats

This is the Old Tunnel Wildlife Management Area

in the Hill Country of Texas.

Home to over 3 million bats.

We listened to a Ranger expound on the wonderful gifts of bats.

And waited to see them escape from their cave.

Sarah was happy to learn that bats don't eat lightning bugs.

Us Florida people always suspect they are seeing

Tinker Bell and her friends flying around

instead of a lightning bug.

And as the sky dimmed we watched a river of bats

fly out of that tunnel and soar to the skies

to commence to eat every mosquito in sight.

The exodus lasts over an hour

but they only let you watch for about 1/2 hour.

I regret not having enough camera skills

to get a picture of the spectacle.

It was phenomenal.

The Cave

There is a cave near the summit of Enchanted Rock.

And this is the entrance.

It takes about 20 minutes before you come out on the other side.

The only way I know that is because the boys traveled it.

We went down and took a look around and decided against it.

The boys said it was pitch black.

They had two cell phones between them to cast light on their direction.

{Thank goodness for good cell phone coverage.}

There were times they had to crawl through small openings,

and times they had to drop through small openings.

They followed white arrows marked on rocks.

And declined to follow red arrows marked "Dead".

I was just glad they came out on the other side.

At one point Alex said that the wall of the cave near the exit

.....was moving.

It was covered in spiders.

Aunt T and Ranae were sorry they missed that.

.....not.

Then we came down the Enchanted Rock.

Which is much easier than going up.

And we all came down in one piece.

A most excellent hike, if you ask me.

Enchanted Rock

In the Texas Hill Country there is an Enchanted Rock.

It is a state park and beautiful to see.

But we didn't come just to look at it.

We wanted to climb it.

I was so happy that my mom was able to make the climb with us.

I love her so.

We chose the Summit Trail which climbs 425 feet.

From this view it might look daunting.

But it took us only about a half hour to reach the top.

Climbing was fun.

In typical fashion, the boys wandered off the trail.

So their climb was much longer.

But they still stayed ahead of me.

Many boulders looked like they might be ready to roll downhill.

I was just hoping we didn't meet any rattlesnakes.

Along the way were wildflowers blooming between the rocks.

I just love wildflowers that bloom between the rocks.

As we climbed higher the view was outstanding.

You could see for miles.

We talked about how your perspective is so different from up high.

And we talked about how different God's perspective is.

How He sees so much more than we do.

At the top.

{My little brother did it in 22 minutes.}

And my daughters Sarah and Ranae were not far behind him.

Our family at the summit.

Standing L-R:  Aunt T, Mimi, Uncle David and Matthew

Sitting L-R:  Ranae, Alex, Sarah, Me and Kevin 

{Brian took the picture}

And this is what we were sitting on.

The surveyor's summit mark -

 declaring this spot the highest on Enchanted Rock.

Now all we have to do is climb down.

Without falling:)

~ ~ ~

..... to be continued .....