Feed the birds!

THis was taken when we were at Zilker Park in Austin. Mom bought a bag of bird food and clearly the birds are used to being feed, although maybe not used to be picked up like Dane does! Watch him closely!

Appalachian Trail 50 mile hike

My biggest request besides come home safely was get a picture of the 4 of them! It's a rare thing for a Dad to get to take all his sons on a trip like this! Isn't Matts flower B.E.A.utiful?!

Aj's pack is as big as he is! 

I can't tell the days apart in the pictures because all 4 of them wore the same shirt the entire week!!

even in the middle of a 50 miler AJ has the energy to climb and hang! Thats my gymnast!

So the consensus is, it was exhausting. Kirk suggests it was harder then Philmont because they did in 5 days what Philmont did in 10. The nice thing about this trail is you are under the canopy most of the time so they really didn't get any sun tan. The bad thing is you are under the canopy the whole time so you don't really get to see the cool mountains you are passing and climbing. The 3 12year olds needed to sleep in a shelter they made to earn some badge and the night they had to do that was when they were camping in a bear sanctuary. Apparently there were a lot of bears, if any walked through the camp  everyone was to tired to wake up for thank goodness! they had a rough day where Matt dropped a knife his girlfriend gave him and he got so flustered he turned back and wouldn't even drop his pack. So Kirk and Connor dropped theirs and went back to find him. They walked a extra 4 miles that day on top of their 7. Connor got back to the camp laid down and passed out for the whole night! The last night it rained really hard and their final camp sight flooded so they had the drivers who drove up that night drive them to another spot. The final say they ran the Ocoee river in rafts and loved it. It is a cool river where the Olympics were held back sometime. It was by far everyones favorite part so it was a good move to have that be the final day! AJ says that was the best 10 miles! Matt and Connor spent a good portion of the river ride in the river since they couldn't stop pushing each other. their guide commented that she had never seen anyone swim through some of those rapids. Needless to say their bums hurt the next day from smacking into rocks, since you are supposed to float with your feet up so they don't get stuck. Overall they had a great time. I am just so relieved they are home safely!

Getting ready for the hike

My life this week has been getting the 4 boys ready for the 50  mile hike through the Appalachian trial next week. Kirk is the Varsity scout leader which means we had to plan and buy all the food for 12 people for 6 days! It was very labor intensive. And silly me kept trying to keep it cheap, by buying a large thing of trail mix and bagging ti myself as opposed to buying it in little bags, which I will do next time. We were down a few backpacks, a few light weight sleeping bags.... Aj didn't have hiking boots... you know how it goes. But it occurred to me last night what a cool opportunity this is for Kirk to get to go on a week long trek with all 3 of his boys. It won't happen like this again. I reminded my older, ungrateful sons, that they may not appreciate this now, but in years to come they will think back on the time their dad took a week off from work to hike with them. Someday Kirk won't be here with them anymore and they will remember this time I hope with fondness and know that Kirk and I forgive them for the awful attitude and complete ungratefulness they showed through the process of getting ready. (not AJ he's a doll, well and Connor had his moments of helpful) If you squint you can see little Matt in the picture behind him, awww! I wish I could be there just to take pictures, but at the same time after hefting one of their packs... I'll just see them when they get back!

Girls just wanna have fun

Elle has been hanging out with a few neighbor girls and having a good time sprinkled with typical girl fights! I saw these anklets on super clearance at the mall for $1 each and picked up a few for her to give to friends.

My apologies

Dear Dad, as I sit on the front porch waiting for the next teenage son to get home from his 1am sneak out, I am thinking back to when you had to sit in the front yard waiting for me. it's a bit easier now days as all I had to do was text him to get his butt back home and he responds, boy you're good. And I think duh! I was raised by the best! So thanks Dad and again I'm really sorry!! Love, Bonnie Of course having Kirk flash our new 880 lumien light down the street and see the kids freeze like deer was really funny!!! Parenting would really suck without a sense of humor!!