Happy 14 Months, Allie Grace!

June 13, 2018

So this girl is already 2 months past her 1st birthday and mommy still says she is,growing up too fast!

We are also seeing alot more independent standing these days and know those first steps will be coming shortly and followed quickly by running everywhere!

We are also hearing mama, dada, ra ra (Rachel), Bek Bek (Bekah), bird, bye bye and lots of squeals for all those other words she hasn't learned to say yet!
Happy 14 Months, Allie! We love you!

Library Time

 Recently, we made a trip to our local library branch to get the big girls their first NC library cards.

Rachel and Bekah loved being old enough to each have their own library card. They can't argue about whose card it is either because they both got write their own names of their cards.

 Bethany is not old enough to get her own library card yet, but I got one to check out books for her and Allie.  She was thrilled for her big sisters, nonetheless!

 Bethany and Allie loved the puzzles and dolls in the children's library play area. We did learn that Allie is not quite quiet enough for the library for very long yet...

This girl had a hard time deciding which books to choose to check out first because there were so many she liked!

 Bekah loved reading to herself from all the new books!

They even got an ice cream treat at Sweet Frog with Mimi and Pop after the library! It was a fun day!

Smokies Spring Trip

 Earlier this spring, we had a change in our photography schedule one weekend that allowed us to get to the Great Smoky Mountains for just a couple of days to do a little photography in the mountains.

 Our first day there, we spent some time on the creek in the GSMNP.

Allie thought it was loads of fun to sit with me and see her sisters play at the edge of the creek!

After we spent some time exploring around the creek, we headed up to one of the overlooks in the middle of the park to wait for the sunset light.

 After a full day, the girls were ready to read some books in their bunks before heading to bed.

 We did head to Gatlinburg for part of a morning. Here are the girls outside of Ober Gatlinburg in their bobsled replicas.

 We did ride the tram as a treat. It was a beautiful day.

 Usually when we have ridden the tram before we just head to the playground at the top of the mountain for some play time. But we found out this time that the playground was closed during our visit. As we were walking back to the tram, a woman stopped me and gave me 4 tickets, 1 for each girl, since her group was getting ready to leave and hadn't used all their tickets. What a sweet surprise for our girls! They each got to pick one ride to enjoy. The big two rode the water raft ride and had fun with it!

 Allie Grace got to ride the carousel for her first time and Bethany is always up for a good carousel!

 Our last day there, we spent the morning doing photography in Cades Cove.

Such precious promises in this Psalm! It's one of my favorites.

 We are got to see this beautiful black bear, who was guarding her cubs up in the tree right beside her. So we definitely did not go too close to her since she had babies very close by.

 We made a stop by one more creek as we were driving out of the park. Allie got to stick her toes in the creek for the very first time!

Love these big girls! They are just growing up too fast!

The girls are taking turns learning photography from their Daddy. Bekah was helping take a shot here.

We enjoyed one more mountain sunset before we headed back east. It was a very productive photography trip with several new images to share and some great family memories made!

Journey to Jamestown 2018

Early in May, we had to be in the area for a photography event, so we took the girls on a history field trip to the Jamestown Settlement. This area is just down river from the historic original landing and historic fort site and has all kinds of replicas of the Jamestown Settlement, including replicas of the fort and ships that brought the settlers.

The big girls all got their arms stamped with Jamestown Settlement so we could enter the park. They thought this was so fun.

The first area we entered was the re-enactment of the Native American village. They loved taking turns trying to ground up the corn by hand. We also learned about the type of homes they would have used.

This little lady likes being carried by her Daddy!

We looked around the replica of the fort and the chapel in the fort.

By far and wide, their very favorites were the replicas of the ships, the Susan Constant, the Discovery and the Godspeed. They wanted to go on every single ship and we did.

Rachel would read us the information about each ship before we headed on the ship.

This is the view from the Susan Constant, the largest ship, looking toward the Discovery and the Godspeed.

They even has a section of the ship where they could try out the wooden utensils and bowls like they may have used during that time.

They even got to try out what it would have been like to steer the ship using the ship's rudder.

We had a great field trip and day learning all about Jamestown Settlement and the history of the settlement and that time in history. It was fun living history for a day!

Fort Sumter Field Trip

 During our travel to Charleston back in April, we did a history field trip with the girls to Fort Sumter. Brent had been here when he was growing up, but it was the first time the girls and I had ever been to Fort Sumter.

 It was a very windy and beautiful day for a ferry ride!

When we arrived at the fort, we had about an hour to explore before we had to head back to the boat for the return trip.

 The fort and museum both were very interesting to see. One of the neatest things I think we saw was the flag that actually flew on Fort Sumter back in the 1800s.

We spent most of our time while we were at the fort learning with the girls, who quickly filled out all their learning activities and earned another Junior Ranger badge to add to their collection. Here they are with Ranger Lauren, who gave them their Junior Ranger pins.

We made it back to the ferry in time and headed back to the mainland. We all enjoyed our ferry trip and learning a little more about the history that surrounds Fort Sumter.