Bear Adventures

My new assignment at church is working with the 9 year old boys as a Bear Den Leader.  Most of these boys haven't had much in the way of scouting, so I'm kind of starting from scratch.  I quickly realized they needed an outdoor activity if I wanted them to pass a lot of things off, so we decided to have an activity at the Arboretum right before school started.  They went on a mile walk around the trails and had to identify signs of wildlife.  They also had to examine plants with magnifying glasses, and took turns observing with binoculars.  They loved it!

 My kiddos came along for the ride.  They're good sports, and enjoyed themselves as well.

 After a snack break they set up a tent.  They did a great job and completed two merit badges!  I think we're going to have a lot of fun this fall together.

Family Time

My children ate up their time with family.  When you ask them their favorite part of any reunion it's always the people they love the most.  The location is secondary.  I absolutely loved watching the friendship of BB and KK blossom on this trip.  Even their nicknames go together.  They were "buddies" in the caves, and BB would put his arm around KK.  They were the cutest! 

Anna and Little Lady picked up right where they left off at the last reunion.  They loved the "old" phone.

Little Guy got his first lessons in pool from his Uncle Steve. 

We attended a small church branch out in the country on Sunday.  The primary had one little boy, so we added quite the surprise for him having 6 new friends.  We went for a walk with Grandma and Aunt Liz later that afternoon.

 We also visited the animals down the lane.  They had a large assortment of animals, including emus.

KK wasn't a huge fan of the roaming dog and cat, so Grandma and Aunt Liz held her for a good portion of the walk. 

 Aunt Liz made a new friend while viewing the peacocks.

 Everything was green and beautiful.  It was hard to say good bye.  BB asked me to take a picture of him frowning, because he loved his bedroom, and he didn't want to say good bye to his cousins. 

 We hit a thunderstorm in Indiana, but besides that the trip home was uneventful.

It was the last hoorah before school starts tomorrow.

Mammoth Caves

We were staying out in the country, because our true destination was Mammoth Caves on the Kentucky side of the border.  It was a really cool experience.  We went on two tours of opposite sides of the caves.  The first tour is self-guided and it gives you a feel for the huge, underground caverns.

It was a fabulous 55 degrees down below.

 

Little Lady wasn't a fan of the heat above ground, but she loved being buddies with her cousin Anna.  Little Guy wasn't a fan of his short legs.  He wanted to be carried by the end of it. 

 After our picnic lunch we took a bus over to our second tour.  It's called the Frozen Niagara Tour because of huge stalactites that look like the falls at Niagara.  This tour is great for seeing stalactites and stalagmites.

 Little Man wasn't a fan of the Fishing Spider that was by the entryway.  It's the size of my hand and very furry.  It collects air bubbles on its legs, so it can dive for fish.  It reminded me of the movie Arachnophobia.   Little Man is reliving the size of the spider.

 When we asked the kiddos to tell us what they liked, Little Man said, "Everything except for the fishing spider."  BB and Little Lady said, "Everything except for the cave crickets" (they chirp but look like daddy long legs), and Little Guy said his favorite part was the cave crickets! 

Heading East

This weekend we headed East to our Thompson Family Reunion.  Joel's family lives along the East Coast, so we met in the middle just north of Nashville.  The first excitement of the day was coming across Emma, Missouri!  Little Lady said shes rules this town, but Joel was kind enough to point out that the only thing in view was a cemetery.

We took a slight detour on our drive to see two new temples.
Temple #59 for us: St. Louis Temple - it's gorgeous!

 Little Guy was pretty excited to get his own temple schedule.
Temple #60: Louisville, Kentucky

We stayed in a really cool country home.  It used to be a running farm.  They harvested sorghum back in the day.

 We got the true flavor of rural Tennessee. 

Swapping Quilts

I started this quilt with one person in mind and then I found out my husband's best friend just welcomed a fifth baby to their family.  I told him perhaps there should be a bit more communication if he didn't even know his friend's wife was pregnant.  Joel didn't seem to be too concerned about it.  He's not much of a phone talker and his friend lives on the East coast.  Meanwhile, that means I'm now down a quilt, but luckily they had a boy.  I quickly finished the quilt today and will hopefully get it in the mail this afternoon.  That means I only have a week until my other friend has her baby. I'm onto the planning phase for that one.

My daughter is helping me with holding the quilt on our dilapidated fence.  I'm just grateful it's still standing!

I used a walking foot to stitch in the ditch for the quilting.  Time for a run to the post office!

Picture Problems

I pulled out the sewing machine for the first time since moving.  My friend is having a baby boy in a week.  Those 9 months sneak up on you when you're not the who's pregnant.  I saw a free tutorial on a JoAnn's email and liked it.  It's called Spin Me Quilt.  Here's the quilt top:

For the first time ever I don't have a fence to use for quilt pictures.  It's only waist high and falling over.  I know, I know - first world problems, but seriously it's a bit of a conundrum for me.  I tried the banister in our house and that doesn't work.  Plus, I think my son would love for me to find another solution.   While I think of another solution, I need to hurry up and finish this quilt before she has her baby.