Meeting Caden - Then the Creation Museum

I was so excited to get to meet our newest little nephew... Caden!  This is Josh and Joy's baby!  Oooohhh...  he's wonderfully sweet!

Here's me and my brother with his new little son...

This was such a whirlwind trip!  On the way to Nashville to meet Caden, we stopped in Memphis to visit one of John's client's sales.  It was the first time we have actually been able to watch another sale (other than our own) use his software.  The ladies there were so sweet and we enjoyed shopping another sale!

After meeting Caden, we drove on to Florence, KY (near Cincinnati).  What we thought was a 3-hour drive was actually a 5-hour drive.  It turned into a late night, but it was worth it.  We loved the Creation Museum!!  (And the hotel deal we got there was fantastic...  ahhhh, we chuckled at our little "princes" living in the luxury of our hotel - but it was actually cheap!)

Here are some highlights from the Creation Musuem...

First we saw examples of the animal "kinds".

This picture really shows the personalities of all the boys!

Will thought the camel would eat his hat!

We saw two planetarium shows and another show in the special effects theater.  Those were great!

We also toured through the Walk Thru History which was really neat.  Here are the boys in the Garden of Eden...  it was amazing how it really showed what a wonderful place that was and what we lost when sin entered the world.  It was so neat to see Bible history come alive and then see the big picture of how and why we need a savior. 

The drive home was long...  thankfully the boys are all very good travellers!  But, we think we've figured out just about how far we'd ever want to drive in one day. :)  I can't believe we did all of this trip in just four days.  We had to rest from our vacation when we got home!

NLR Family Camp 2010 pics

Family Camp was a blast!  And we did so much stuff while we were there that I have a LOT of pictures to share!

Carnival Night - horse rides, face painting, trike riding, and lots more...

New Life Ranch breakfast was scheduled just too early for us...  so this is NLR breakfast "Wasson Style". :) 

Boating on Flint Creek...

Josiah and Shepard got to do the SCREAMER - they both loved it!

Will especially loved this water slide that the staff made for the younger kids...

Shepard loved playing in the sand...

Trying archery!

Carpet Ball was definitely one of Josiah's favorite activities at NLR!

I love this photo...  pretty cool action shot, huh? :)

The Wasson Boys with our summer staff counselors - who were absolutely, fantastically WONDERFUL!  Will dubbed them "Uncle John" and "Mr. Brave".  These guys served us so well all week.  We were so grateful that they had been assigned to our family.

First Day of School 2010

Wow...  I am so far behind.  My computer has still not been replaced, but I was able to get to my pictures, so I'm going to try to post a few each day to get caught up.  I'm starting with the school pictures, so it's a little out of order - I'll try do NLR Family Camp next.

We started back to school in July...  Josiah wasn't so sure that was a great idea, but Shepard loved it!  Now we are completely back into the routine of it and it is going well.  Josiah's favorite part of school is when we do the My Father's World curriculum together and Shepard's favorite is "seatwork". 

First day pictures:  (Josiah wasn't feeling well this day - it's hard to start back to school when you are sick!)

Our sweet friends loaned us this school desk for Shepard.  (Thank you!)  He was one very happy boy to finally have his OWN school desk!  We brought it home late one evening and he just couldn't wait to sit in it!  He is so grateful for that desk -see that big smile?! - and it's such a cute desk, too, isn't it?!

Here are some pictures from a few of our school projects that we've been working on.  I really love this multi-level school curriculum and how the boys can all work together. 

Learning how to make a flat map of a round object - they are drawing the continents on their oranges.  Will enjoyed eating this project. :)

Book Basket Time!

Making the earthworm niche.  John asked to join us for this one - I was so glad because I really did NOT want to touch those worms!  We loved learning how God created everything with purpose - even the earthworm.

Shepard's learning to read!

Shepard read his very first words today!  I wish you could have seen the excitement...  he was exuberant!  Watching his humongous smile was all the reward this teacher/ mom could ever want...  but he gives more.  He gives hugs and high fives and little whoops of joy, too.  Yeah, kindergarten!  (Handwriting... oh boy...  this is gonna take some patience! :) )  But, Shepard's delight was definitely one of the highlights of a very busy day.

Snapping Beans

Our sweet friends brought us a big box of garden fresh green beans the other day.  Yeah!  We've been pretty busy and I hadn't had a chance to even snap them yet...  John knew I was planning to do it tonight, but just running short of time again.  So he announced that after dinner everyone was going to snap beans.  The weather turned cool after an evening rain, so he set up chairs for everyone on the back patio and got the buckets and bowls and he taught the boys how to snap beans while I finished cleaning up dinner.  Then I joined them on the patio and it was really so much fun to work together as a family!  There was just this tremendous feeling of teamwork and knowing we would reap the benefit of our labor together for dinner one evening soon.  I am so grateful for my sweet hubby and my precious boys and the way they help me.  I loved spending those memorable moments together.  It reminded me a lot of snapping beans with my grandma on the porch at her farm...  there is so much to treasure in the simple things of life.

I'm getting anxious to get my new computer so that I can upload some photos...  hopefully soon.

NLR Family Camp - pics and blog on hold

My computer is malfunctioning!  (No worries...  John is getting me a new one!  Yeah!)  But, until then...  I can't get my pictures uploaded...  so, my pictures from Family Camp at New Life Ranch will have to wait.  I'm anxious to post, though...  we had a GREEEEAAAAAT time at camp.  We crammed a LOT of activities into a couple of days.  And we came home refreshed and encouraged and with a whole lot of great family memories!!  More coming soon...

Shooting Fire Bombs... uh, fireworks

A family of boys...  they want to SHOOT fireworks (or fire bombs as Will calls them).  So, ok, I'll give up the big fireworks shows - actually, I don't mind because I like watching the boys - all FOUR of them - have so much fun.  But, honestly, John got enough fireworks to give us a pretty nice little show anyway!

So, here's the boys and my mom down at the creek at my parents' house playing with our daytime explosions.  I think they especially loved hearing them explode under water.

Shepard is our resident pyro-technician...  he wants to try it all!

Will would rather play with the stuff that "drives" and he eventually went inside to watch a movie.  The big booms were a little too much for him...  kinda "sceeeary" he says.

Fire powder!!

Wow!  (I missed the shot of Shepard shooting his Roman Candle.)  Brave fellas!

Sparkler fun!

This was one of our favorite shots from the evening! 

Grandpa got in on the action, too!