Grey's cowboy persona

He can't stand it: every time he sees the camera or phone, he stops everything to come watch himself. He LOVES to watch himself on video.

Dancing at IHop

Windy Gap

The weekend before Halloween, we all headed up the mountains to Windy Gap, near Blowing Rock, NC. Ken was playing with his old band members for a weekend retreat and we tagged along with them.

The camp is beautiful and has a very charming, rustic setting. Here is the cabin we stayed in:

And here was one of our views during the day:

Here was another view as we walked up the road towards the meeting hall and dining room:

Right by that large draping tree is a large pond with a huge slide going down the mountain into it; and a large blob (huge pillow-like bouncy thing that you can jump onto, scoot to the edge and then have someone else jump behind you and fly you into the air before landing in the water. The weekend we were there was freezing and it even snowed a little bit however there were still high school students doing the blob, swimming in the pools, and going down the slide. Crazy!

Windy Gap is a Younglife campsite and their goal is to make it a fun place for high school students to go. They feed them three meals a day and include activities in addition to worship time during the day. In addition to the lake and pool, they have a volleyball court, basketball court, snack-shop with games, horseback riding, a zipline, and probably something else that I just missed.

The kids and I had quite a bit of time without Ken while he was setting up and practicing, so we took a walk around the place. We went to see the horses and stood at the gates waving:

And oohed and ahhed over the huge leaves we found on our walk.

This isn't exactly a good picture, but I thought it was funny. Grey looks so serious here. He was just running up to me when I tried to jog ahead a few paces to take their picture. I guess he thought I was trying to run away and he was concentrating hard to keep up!

We saw this old bridge that the kids loved. Scared me silly thinking they were going to fall off though!

Grey did try to kill himself… although not by going over the side of the bridge.

Next we saw an old wagon and the kids wanted to hop up and "ride" it.

What? Were they actually having fun together?? I don't remember this phenomenon!

Grey was pretty obsessed with the lake and little rivers that ran along the property. I'm pretty sure he would have jumped right on in along with the high schoolers.

Ken's old band-mate, Scott brought his wife, Michelle and their two little girls. Skylar was so excited about seeing Abby and it didn't take her too long to warm up. They were bff's after about an hour.

Grey ran back to that same old bridge on our last walk back from the dining hall, and took his "bappa" with him and sat right on down, feet hanging over the edge. I ran beneath the bridge on the side of the river just in case… and also happened to have my camera with me! Score! Except that he was up and running just a second after I shot this one picture.

The kids had a ball and Skylar loved the mountains. She wants to go back and walk to the top of one. I told her her daddy would love to take her. ;)

What? A blog post with no pictures??

Yes, yes. A blog post with no pictures. My display screen on my computer has died and is currently in the hands of the Apple Geeks. After Ken killed my laptop this summer, that leaves me without a computer to post pictures. I am currently using Ken's work computer and he is hovering over me like I'm going to break it.

But, I thought I'd write a post anyway since its been almost two weeks!

Tonight, Skylar was asking to see my baby belly (as she calls it) and pulls up my shirt so she can kiss my belly and rub all over it. Its very cute, unless she does it in public, which has happened. Tonight she kept pushing lightly on my belly saying she was gonna push this baby out! She is evidently really excited to see the baby and wants to meet him/her. Now that I'm huge its definitely become more real to her! As I walked out of her room for bedtime, she told me she wanted to watch when I pushed the baby out... I'd given this a little thought, but hadn't made up my mind yet. I kind of figured she would stay here at home with us and if she wasn't freaked out then she could watch the birth. Maybe she'll do better than I think! I think it would be a great experience for her to be a part of and see first hand.

NC State Fair!

On Sunday we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to take the kids to the State Fair in Raleigh as it was the last day it was in town. In case you haven't known before now… I'm not much of a planner and I love it when Ken goes along with one of my harebrained plans!

We went to Church and then headed down the road, luckily Grey slept most of the way and Skylar let him sleep! Well, truthfully, she tried to wake him up, but wasn't aloud to talk above a whisper and he was out cold!

Neither one of them knew what to expect and (although you can't tell from this photo) were excited when they saw all the people and rides. Here is their, "I'm ready to get on those rides" faces.

The petting zoo was the first thing we came to on the way to Kiddieland and we went through to see all of the goats, cows, camels, zebra and turtles. Grey was yelling out, "moo" which comes out more as an "ooo" the whole time, but was a little timid to get down with all the other people in there at first. We bought a bag of carrots and fed the animals, and he was a little mad he couldn't eat the carrots too. Eventually he got the hang of it! Skylar was in heaven!

And who/what is this guy? Cow? Bull? He reminded me of a bad 80's haircut.

After that we headed into kiddieland. Skylar was afraid of the larger/faster rides and wanted to check out the scene before deciding what to ride. She started on this 1-mile-per-hour train and I think she might have been a little disappointed.

Then she thought she could handle the jumping worm thing by herself. It was quite a bit faster and she said she loved it.

Grey finally got to ride one too, the teacups.

As you can see, he loved it! He got a little sideways there, but that happens to the best of us in the teacups.

Skylar ended with the carousel. She has a very serious face when she is about to start a ride… not a very good time to get a picture!

Grey wanted to ride the roller coasters. He was pretty adamant about it too… one day little dude. When you're about five feet taller.

Skylar got to play one game and she chose the duck game. For two dollars, you get to pick up a duck. And then pick a ball out of the two dollar bin. Dumbest game ever.

After she got her ball she said, "Is that it?"

Grey wanted to get a duck too, but he's still little enough that it didn't bother him too much. He was much happier with the cotton candy anyway!

Holiday photos

For the three of you who read this who are not family members… I like to give presents containing photos for Christmas and birthdays. Perhaps its getting old this year? Who knows!

But, this afternoon, we went to a nearby park and took our family Christmas photo and I have strong plans on sending out a Christmas card this year. I usually have plans that fall through, but this year I am determined to get those cards out!

Here are some outtakes from the day. And don't worry, they did not wear their little hats for the "photo".

There was a man fishing near where we were on the bridge, and the kids loved watching him throw his hook in. We felt bad after the photo and left him in peace!

We walked down the trail a little ways until we found another bridge and lots of ducks! The kids started running and quacking away, obnoxiously...

I tried to take some shots on the bridge, but they both kept sticking their heads in the bars and that don't make a purty picture.

Here's what they looked like from the other side:

I did really love the light here though, if I had brought anything to help balance out the backlighting. I love the flare though!

They kept running up and down the bridge as the ducks were swimming around.

First haircuts

Skylar has been asking to get her haircut for months now and I kept telling her we would get it cut for her birthday… hoping she would forget. :(

Well, she didn't forget.

So, we made a trip to the salon today and decided it was time to get Grey's mullet cut while we were there. Skylar kept telling me she wanted it short and so I was showing her pictures of other girls' haircuts and she kept saying she didn't like those. I asked her what she wanted and she said, "I want it short, like Grey's." Absolutely not.

We compromised with an in-between stage…

She did great sitting still and holding her head down and to the side for the lady. If only she would do the same for me when I'm trying to brush it.

Grey was equally enthralled with getting his haircut and sat in the chair like a pro. He did keep looking back at the lady when she would cut the sides, but overall, he did great!

They were both very serious about this business!

The juice and teddy grahams helped...

No more baby curls!

After bath tonight, I brushed his hair back and this is what it did. All on its own!