What a summer!!!

Well here we are, back again it's the start of fall and we have not posted on our blog for many many months now. I know, I know you cant wait to hear what we've been up to. So lets get started.

We have done so many fun things this summer, whether it was as a family, the kids doing homeschool activities or Bryce and I without the kids.

Bryce has had fun joining a RAW food group in Ashville. She has even been able to get me out to a few of there rawlucks. I can eat or drink some of the food, but i'll leave the raw food thing to her. She was so excited a few months ago she was invited to meet and hear from a well known raw food expert, Angela Stokes . This girl had lost over a 140 lbs from going raw. Thats pretty cool.

(Bryce w/ Angela Stokes at raw food group)

We have done a lot with family in the area (Paul's boat, swimming, bbq's, fireworks, family reunions) and just plain hanging out. It's so great that the kids get to spend time around family they wouldn't know if we still lived in Utah.

(The Cousins)

We took the kids to a Folk Festival at Carl Sandburgs Home and Farm. For those that do not know the name Carl Sandburg, he was a famous poet, singer and author. He wrote books about President Lincoln. We didn't know who he was until we moved here so don't feel bad if you don't know him either. His home is now a national landmark. Park rangers run his land now. While we were there we sat and watched folk bands play and the kids were chosen to come up onto the stage to dance with the cloggers. We went over to the farm and seen the animals and the beautiful old historical barns on the property.

(Kids at Carl Sandburg's Farm)

Isabelle had a blast at Girl Scout camp!! She chose another horse camp and got to ride everyday! This was her 4th yr at camp and she met lots of fun friends and can't wait to go again next yr!

(Isabelle Girls Scouts hourse camp)

(Steve and kids checking out Isabelle's Girl Scout camp)

On Fathers day weekend Bahnson, Joyce & kiddos took us on a long crazy hike, but we lived to enjoy the fun cliff jumping at the end!

(Hiking in Pisgah Forest)

Isabelle and Conner entered a Lego building contest this summer and both came out in the top 3 in their grades age groups. Isabelle was the only girl in the surrounding counties to dare enter this mostly boy dominated fun. She didn't mind, she's always up for the challange. I don't know where she gets that attitude from (oh maybe from her mom) just thinking out loud. The following news paper article was in the Asheville paper.

Lego builders tap their imaginations

by Mike McWilliams, MMCWILLIAMS@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM

published August 26, 2007 12:29 am

HENDERSONVILLE — For Noah McWhirter, building Lego figures just comes naturally. “I just build things with my wild imagination,” the 10-year-old Vance Elementary School fourth-grader said. “I don’t even think about them. I just make them.” McWhirter was one of 24 children who brought their Legos to the sixth-annual Lego Blast competition at Historic Johnson Farm in Hendersonville. The entrants had two hours to build their own Lego figure based on the popular movie, “Transformers.” Several children built robotlike figures complete with wheels for feet and guns for arms. “We enjoy the creativity,” farm coordinator Ingrid McNair said. “They’re very clever.”Most of the events at Historic Johnson Farm are geared toward young girls, McNair said. Although some girls do attend, McNair said the Lego Blast is mostly a guy thing. In fact, the only girl who competed in this year’s Lego Blast was Isabelle Sloan, a homeschooled fifth-grader from Etowah. Sloan spelled “Transform” with Legos and made a pair of small Lego men.“It just sort of came to me,” she said. Sitting next to Sloan was her 8-year-old brother, Conner. Sloan said there was a little sibling rivalry going into the Lego Blast, and she hoped to best her brother.“Because he drives me nuts all the time,” she said. The Lego Blast is open to children ages 8 to 12, in second through sixth grade. There were no second- graders this year. Judges selected first through third place winners at each grade level.

(Isabelle and Conner at Lego Blast 07')

The kids have really loved their 4-H group! We've studied farm animals, gardening & food preservation, fishing and now chemestry.

(Lincoln Fishing the Davidson River in Pisgah Forest)

(Conner fishing)

(Kids at 4H.... fun with chemestry!)

(Lincoln showing his boy skills at 4H)

(Winston working on some kind of experiment at 4H)

We have picked blueberries twice this year up in The Pisgah Forest above our home. We managed to pick both times without seeing any Black Bears. The bears are sighted quite abit around this area. The blueberries here are half the size of the ones that we use to pick when we lived in Washington St., but who's complaining about free blueberries? Not us. We have had lots of blueberry pancakes, muffins and smoothies and Bryce's awsome pie!! Nothing like fresh....

(Isabelle and Winston eating, I mean picking blueberries at Pisgah)

We had a year pass for the local gardens. It's one of Sunday strolls we like to do with the kids. The plants and flowers are landscaped beautifully. It's a great place for photo shoots, people, plants and insects.

(Steve and Winston at Arboretum)

(Our ever growing older, Isabelle at Arboretum)

(Conner at Arboretum)

Lincoln waited so long for this day. Congrats Lincoln!!!

(Lincoln lost his first tooth)

We took the kids on a fun fieldtrip to the Lazy 5 Ranch near Charlotte. It was great fun for the whole family! We fed lots of animals as we rode on a horse drawn wagon. The animals all roam free (well kinda free) within the huge park. It's pretty cool to pet a zebra!

(Kids feeding Bison....YIKES look at that tongue!!)

(Isabelle feeding and petting a Zibra)

(Lincoln feeding Giraffes)

We worked as a family for the kids homeschool 4H group doing tin punching pictures with the public for a whole Saturday at the famous Biltmore Estates in Asheville. Biltmore Estates is the largest single family dwelling in the U.S. You can look it up on the internet if you want to see more. The kids had lots of fun.

(Winston the tractor lover)

(Let the games begin!!! Old fashion fun at the Biltmore.)

(Bryce looking good at the Biltmore)

The kids put this together with their 4H group. They won first place. They also entered a 4H homeschool booth display at the Western North Carolina State Fair and won first place as well. Nothing but pure domination!

(Kids w/ their homeschool 4H group at Farm City Days!)

Bryce brought this great outfit home from a Homeschool costume exchange. I geuss it matches my beautiful eyes. Happy pre-Halloween...

(Isn't my hubby HOT...even if he is a bit hairy!!! Training the kids to follow in his footsteps!)

The kids are learning and memorizing the elements chart. They love classes like this one where they were able to make goo and other chemical reaction activities.

(Isabelle and Conner doing an chemestry lab experiment with 4H at The University of North Carolina Asheville)

Conner and Winston wanted their hair cut this last month. Here they are. Rock on!!!

(Conner's new look PUNK ROCK!!!)

(Winston's old look)

(Winston's new look)

The kids are really having a great time with the Asheville co-op, learning alot and having FUN!

(Winston at homeschool co-op)

(Lincoln at homeschool co-op)

Steve's work sent him to NASCAR and lucky me went too on an extra ticket! We learned a ton about the sport and had a great time (kid free thanks to friends and NANCY!!)! We had fantastic seats and got a tour of the garages. They wined & dined us with all kinds of freebies and dinner and drinks! We were both shocked by how huge a NASCAR event is. I never expected to see so many people! It was by far way bigger then any NBA game or football or any event we've ever attended!! And we both were a bit bummed we didnt see more mullets...LOL!

(Nascar driver of car 17 Matt Kenseth)

ilevel is the company that sent us to the race and Matt Kenseth is their driver. Too bad he got taken out in a crash!

(Steve behind the scenes at Nascar)

(Nascar at Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina)

(Dale Earnhart Jr.'s car is the #8 orange car)

(Getting ready to start your engines)

(Close up of all those RVers you see during Nascar)

(Help the M&M's are on fire!!!!!!)

Well thank you all that stuck with us through this crazy full summer. We are looking forward to going to Utah for a few weeks during Christmas and New Years. We can't wait. We have a billion more photo's we could show, but the down loading process takes so long. We love and miss all our family and friends afar. We hope you and your families are healthy and doing well. Well we're off to more adventures....