Bungee Jumping Kidlets

Normally we let the kids ride the ginormous carousel at North Point Mall on the rare occasions we venture inside this packed building of slow walkers. But this night, the kids had behaved really well when we went shopping for wedding shoes and clothes. So we took them back to the bungee jumping station to get tethered up.

Here they are getting hooked up to the seat harness and the bungee cords.

This isn't a very clear picture, but I love the feeling that I get seeing this smile of wonderment on Chloe's face.
Look closely, Owen is smiling, too. :)
So high!

This is a good shot for giving you an idea of how large this contraption is with four trampolines at the bottom and these long arms extending up into the 2nd story of the mall.

Back on the ground and totally exhilerated.

Think they had much fun?

Running Boy

The kids wanted to race home after coming back from the nature trail. Chloe never had a chance...she didn't realize until too late that Owensk had already taken off running.


He is so fast!

Sneak

The kids were little fish at White Water this weekend. More pics coming soon :)

Going Green(er)

We turned a little bit greener this week. Our house, because we will be using 30% less natural gas to heat our water and Todd because he's thinking "Green schmeen, I can think of other things I would have rather spent our money on than this!" We bought two solar panels to use as an energy source for heating our water.

Here is our old water heater after they cut out the piddly little wall that partially hid it in our garage.

Here is the new, triple insulated hot water heater that we works in conjunction with the solar panels.

Here are the guys hoisting the second panel over the roof line.

I wish I had been outside five minutes earlier to see how they got it up there without smashing our windows. I know ropes were involved. But still. These guys are pros.

Mounted on the backside of the house, facing South. They are about two and a half to three feet wide and probably close to six feet tall.

My DH worries the panels will fall through the roof and crush us in bed. He likes to worry.

I am excited that our gas bills will be lower, our water hotter, we'll be green and using fewer of our earth's resources and will also get a nice rebate check back from the government for going solar.

Todd seems to be a little excited over giving me grief about spending more money. In the long run, it will save us alot of money. But for now, I'll do what I'm good at and try to be green while doing it :)

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Sunday morning plans got all re-arranged. Originally we had planned on going to White Water with Martin & Luke, but the weather forecast showed rain. So we scratched those plans not wanting to get kicked out with little play time. Then we talked about feeding ducks and geese at Neese Park before taking the kids to JJ Biello Park to play. But then it started to rain, so we decided to go to Barnes & Noble instead.



We are all dressed and umbrellas in hand as we walk out to the car. As the car doors unlock, the kids take off running for the cul-de-sac. Umbrellas held high over their heads. Then Preston comes out and joins them in running in circles and we know our plans for the book store have changed.

It didn't take long before the umbrellas were ditched to run unencumbered and become completely drenched.





Chloe was using an old plastic, Easter egg to collect water and then pour into her bucket.

She was very patient, this one. Slowly and methodically collecting tablespoons of water in each egg half to pour into the bucket. Slowly. Patiently. Completely focused.

She also thought it was good to drink, after collecting from the street gutters and the downspouts on our house.

Owen had spiked up his hair, but the continuous rain just pelted all of it back down flat on his head.

So much fun to be a kid and run in the rain.

They got a good 45 minutes running and playing in the rain before we heard thunder. Then it was time to go inside & have lunch.

Sunday Morning Walk on the Nature Trail

Owen woke up at 7am on Sunday and crawled into bed with us. He wanted me to go downstairs with him, so I asked if he wanted to take a walk on the nature trail. Owen thought for a moment and then agreed. He jumped out of our bed to go get dressed and was ready much faster than I was ready to go. We wrote a note for Daddy and Chloe about where we were going before we took off down the street.

He helped me find mushrooms to photograph (who knew there were soooo many different kinds of mushrooms? and from one yard to the next?). As soon as we got to the bottom of the steps, he stopped to look at this little pool of water that had collected in a tire rut. Owen asked me to take a picture of the water and him, so I did....


Then came the balancing act on the logs as he crossed over another muddy spot. He wrapped his sweatshirt around his waist before leaving home, just in case he got cold. Good lookin out, O-Dawg! And he brought along a plastic bag to help carry back all the treasures he expected to find on the trail.


So many pretty wildflowers grow along the path!

O thought this tall tree dangling back over the trail (top/center) was really cool and wanted me to get his picture under it.

He found some good, solid sticks to bring back, as well as a couple of rocks and a baby pine cone that are all inside the bag.

At the top of the stairs, I was ahead of him and almost to the street when he called me back yelling, "MOMMY! YOU JUST WALKED THROUGH A MUSHROOM FARM!!!" I walked back and there were dozens of these fragile, little grey mushrooms not more than three inches tall.

They reminded me of miniature umbrellas, or maybe jellyfish.




After we moved on from the mushrooms, we found a roly poly. It took awhile for the little guy to unroll and then he crawled all over Owen's hand and arm. Owen brought the roly poly home to show Chloe and had the expectation they would be life-long pals, just O and his roly poly.

There were tears in the afternoon when he found the roly poly rolled up in a ball and no longer alive. Poor boy was so sad.

Lunch in Warm Springs and a Visit to FDR's pool

We ate lunch at the Paradise Grill in downtown Warm Springs before we walked around and into some of the little shops. I remember I thought the shops were nice as a child, but now they seem to be filled with junk. Perhaps we were just on the wrong side of the street.


This stained glass window was hanging outside the Paradise Grill and Owen asked me to take a picture of it. He thought it was pretty cool.

A view of the side of the street with shops where we did not walk (kids were tired and we still had to stop at FDR's pool).

The side of the street we stuck to. Love the old buildings.

A cool little walkway between buildings. An adult could easily climb up between these two buildings with feet and hands on each building. It was very narrow. The kids liked running back and forth on the stepping stones while Todd was getting the car cooled down.

Here is the middle of the three pools. This was the only one that had a chair and table in the middle where people could sit or lay down in the warm spring water to relax. Chloe is walking down the rampway that was used for people in wheel chairs to get into the water.

This is where the water comes up from the warm springs. Over Labor Day weekend, they will stop the drains from draining to fill the pools with the warm spring water. They are opening up the pools to the public to swim in over the weekend, which I think is pretty cool.

The water comes up out of the ground at just over 80 degrees warm.


Here is the old ringer used to ring the water out of swim suits and towels. Owen had a blast cranking it to make it spin.