A "Boomin" Birthday with TOBY

Wow, where to start?! This weekend was a blast! We left after school Friday afternoon for our campsite. We stayed at Bull Run State Park and Campground. It is a huge park! I'm not sure how many acres it encompasses. It includes a water park, mini golf, multiples of gathering areas with pavillions and more we didn't see. As soon as we unhooked on Friday, we went to dinner at Chili's for Rich's birthday dinnner. We had a late night with traffic and rain. We were pretty beat!

Saturday, Sept 15th: Happy Birthday Rich and Mom!!!

We started the morning with gifts and cards and cake too! I made Rich one of my Grandma's Cofee Cakes and we consider it breakfast, lunch, dinner, anytime cake!! It was better than the first one I ever made, but still not as good as Grandma's! However, she has been making them since I can remember. Her coffee cakes are out of this world. It's all made by hand from scratch. You dip the dough in butter, sugar and cinnamon before baking. Perhaps, I need to try making one every month until I get it right.

Kaitlin made this cool card. It is Toby in concert on the front, the inside says Have a Boomin Birthday Dad!

Rich proudly displaying the tickets for Toby Mac.

We packed food and drinks and headed over to the Awakening Fest. It ended up being about 1.5 -2 miles from the camper and we could hear sound checks before we left. There was a huge line waiting at the gates to get in. Fortunately, it moved quickly and we entered within a few minutes. We staked out our seats; we sat in front of the sound booth, which turned out to be pretty good seats. There was so much to keep kids entertained throughout the day. There was pony rides, a petting zoo, a grafitti wall, various moon bounces, face painting, etc.

The beginning bands were pretty loud and nearly head banging quality. Needless to say, they weren't our favorites. The bands included: Ashes Remain, Mainstay, This Beautiful Republic, Need to Breathe, December Radio, Barlow Girl and Toby Mac.

Barlow Girl was very cool. They are sisters and were so neat to watch. They were called by God to entertain for Him. They each spoke during the concert and were very encouraging to young teenage girls. They have a song entitled "No More Dating". They actually do not date. The Lord has called all of them to not date during this phase of their lives. Pretty impressive! At one point during the Barlow Girl segment, R said, "we need a Bic to wave around" . Right after that, Barlow Girl asked everyone to wave their cell phones around. We burst out laughing! Did I say that R turned 3.... (my key jammed!!!) today? What a great laugh!

Finally, it was time for Toby. Wow, is he ever an entertainer!!! A and I headed down to the front to jam. R and K hung out at the chairs due to the thick dust flying around down front. The dust was aggravating his asthma. I've never been in the front section at a concert, and there I was, a thirtysomething mom with her 12 year old son, jammin and having a blast!! A was so excited, he was screaming and singing until he couldn't talk! I couldn't get over all the parents I saw, standing and dancing and singing along. Many were older than I. Toby is an phenomonal entertainer and his singers are superb, especially the female! He sang all of the favorites, Feelin so Fly is my personal favorite. He stopped the concert at one point to teach the crowd to say 'dor' instead of 'door' in his "Love Is In the House" song. That was amusing. I don't have words to describe how awesome his concert was, so here are a few photos.

Caught Red handed!

Alec waving his

"bic"

We waited in line for autographs, but were about 20 people behind where he stopped. We wanted to get R's card signed, but I got a handshake instead.

It's A Girl!!!!!!!!

I am going to be an aunt for the first time!! (I do have several adopted nieces..hi girlies!!) My brother and sister-in-law (Micah & Megan) just found out they are expecting a girl. They are so excited! They've had her name chosen for several years, it will be Hannah Grace. My brother said I could not buy anything with ruffles or lace. Hello!!! It is a girl, what else can she wear??? My mom asked if she could keep some of those types of outfits at her house for the baby to wear when she comes over. I wonder what else MiMi will be hiding....

We are praising the Lord for a healthy baby thus far. All of the measurements look great and Megan is doing very well.

Birthday Celebrations

We celebrated my birthday a little early with the Shindigs on Labor Day. Their oldest daughter has a September birthday as well as R & I. We feasted on Mexican, one of our favorites when we are all together. We marianted some chicken to grill and it was outstanding! We had nachos, beans and our own version of Mexican Rice, plus dessert!! We were so stuffed! We played a few rounds of cards. G & I continued our winning streak and beat the guys, again. I t's getting to be too easy to win!! (just kidding guys!). On Friday, we went to dinner and spent some time doing a little shopping on my birthday. It was a nice evening with the family and talking with parents on the phone.

For R's birthday next week, we will be sitting at the Awakening Music Festival jammin' to Toby Mac. Everyone is so excited! We have been looking forward to this for two months. We will post photos of that next weekend.

Here are some pictures from Friday:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

The year was 197? (well, that doesn't really matter), and the Vietnam War was starting to wind down; the "Tonight Show" moved to Burbank, CA; U.S. airlines started inspecting passengers and bags; a VW Beetle costs less than $2,000; gas was $0.36/gal; the Cowboys won the Super Bowl; and then there was Watergate. It was an interesting year.

But the best thing to happen that year Joe and Shelia brought home their beautiful daughter, Melody, from the hospital.

Once she got to high school, she met this GREAT GUY and the rest is history.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEL!!!

I LOVE YOU
Rich

GREAT WEEKEND

We have had a GREAT weekend. Saturday morning, Mel and I went for a jog together and really enjoyed the cool morning. Later in the day, the kids and I were invited to join the Shindigs on the boat for the afternoon. (Scott, from the Zoo, was invited, but turned it down) Not wanting to hurt J's feelings, I told him we would go. The water temp was 78 degrees with NO JELLIES!! Couldn't have been a better weather day. Kaitlin wanted to ride the tube with me, so we hopped on.















Everyone got to take a turn, then J wanted to try out his new skis (now that he had someone to drive the boat for him). He gave me some pointers on how to pull someone on skis, then off we went. I think he enjoyed himself. He then asked if I wanted to give it a try. I have NEVER been on skis before, so I was anxious to give it a try. We got on the water for more pointers, then I gave it a try. I'm happy to say that I was able to get up on the first try, but wasn't up very long. That was enough for me to get a pretty good feel of how the whole thing worked, so I tried some more. I HAD A BLAST. Alec was taking pictures from the boat and got a couple of good ones.







FIRST TIME UP!!

TAKING NOSE DIVE!!

After a couple of hours, we were all getting tired and hungry, so off we go back to the dock pulling Kaitlin and Ash. J was going easy on then until MY daughter ran her mouth and said that he couldn't throw them off. WELL!!! What were we supposed to do now, but throw them off. Kaitlin didn't think he would do it, but now she knows not to question (I don't think she will learn though. Too hard headed). (Alec and I rode the tube together, but didn't get any pictures) THANKS J. We had a good time.

We heard a GREAT sermon on Sunday morning, then Kaitlin went to the pool while Alec and I went Geocaching for a little while. We were 3 for 4 (I hate the microcaches) and learned that there is a cemetary in San Soucci Plaza.

I Survived Pre-K

I am glad this week is over!! When school started last week, I was there on the first day. I wasn't just walking K to her new class, I was subbing on the first day of school. I must have been out of my mind and I continued to do it for four more days! Four year olds are very cute and I do enjoy that classroom. I have realized that I usually enjoy that classroom because the teacher has worked very hard on routines, listening and obedience with those children. Hmm...I was the teacher and that became my job. It was hard and I barely stopped to breathe! Fortunately, I had a Para in the room with me. We laughed, sighed and nearly cried. I'm sure in a couple of weeks, the kids will know the routines and be better listeners and I'm sure I will go back.