Fun?! Perhaps

Hello again! 

I have finally uploaded some of my pics from the past few weeks.

Let me tell ya...I had tons to go through.

So let me just jump right into it.

First up is our family fun day of fishing and swimming!

See my family plus 1. My brother Lee moved here from Idaho. He is staying with us until he can save up some money to get a place of his own.

My son Eddie is posing for a pic.

At the Paint Creek Dam/Spillway, you can do a bit of rock climbing. 

Here you can barely see Hope on top of a really high cliff.

All four of the kiddos made it up. Hope is pointing out a good fishing spot she spotted from her vantage point.

Here they all are striking a pose, climbing down from the rocks.

We got everything set up and guess what....

Hubby caught the first fish.

After several hours and a few more fish were caught and thrown back we decided to go swimming.

My kiddos are water monsters! They love swimming.

Here is another shot of them.

I did get in the water but didn't dunk under. That water was pretty dirty from all the rain we have been having. Once I cooled off a bit I decided to sit on the shore with my feet in the sand.

This whole family of geese swam across the entire creek.

We spent a few hours swimming then came home, showered and ate some dinner.

Unfortunately all of my kiddos ended up with a sore throat complete with blisters, blisters in their mouths and low grade fevers after we swam. So I have made an executive decision that we will not swim there anymore.

I think from now on I will take them to Rocky Fork Lake. It is better taken care of than Paint Creek.

Now we fast forward a bit.

Remember everyone talking about the super moon. Well this is how it looked from my house.

I wasn't too impressed.

I did get this pic of my youngest son Sj. Isn't he cute?

And this pic of Faith posing. Can you believe she is only 12? 

I can't.

Fast forward again.....

We are now at Rocky Fork Lake.

It is a beautiful area down there! 

Here are my kiddos plus one of their friends looking at the dam.

This shot taken from the dam you can see my brother sitting in the foreground fishing. My hubby is in the background standing and fishing. The fish were really biting that day! We caught several. Of course, we threw them all back.

I love this picture! I love how the clouds and sky are reflecting in the water! I love the serenity of this picture.

This shot was also taken from the dam.

Fast forwarding to Saturday.

I have been in serious need of hubby and me time. I mean serious need.

The last time we had a real date was way back in 2009 when we went out to see Fast and the Furious 4!

YES! It has been that long because we cannot find a babysitter for our kiddos.

Well, my brother Lee watched the kiddos for Ed and I. We decided we wanted to go to the creek and sit and talk and just enjoy each others company.

As we were walking to the creek, I spotted this caterpillar on the leaf of this Mulberry tree.

I snapped a pic of this beautiful old tree. I love the way the branches grew.

Our town's walking/bike path roams by the creek. It is so beautifully canopied by trees.

On one of the trails that goes right to the water I saw this beautiful blue dragonfly.

The pebbles/rocks by the creek were still wet because it had been raining on and off that day. 

There were so many shades of gray, brown, mauve, purples, greens, and reds in those rocks.

I was quite surprised to see that the creek wasn't swollen!

We have had several inches of rain lately but even though the creek was higher than normal, it wasn't swollen like I thought it would be.

This part is under the train trellis. It had started to sprinkle again so we took cover under the trellis and some trees.. The sound of the water going over the rocks was really soothing. It made a great place to sit and just enjoy what each other had to say.

Here we are. Me and my wonderful hubby. I just love him to pieces.

My final picture...This isn't a cliff or anything but just a rock that is about shin high.

I thought it would be great to take the pic from a bug's level. That's one big mountain to climb.

Well there ya go..You are all caught up.

As you can tell, our family does a lot of "Free" things.

We are a single income family and I do save money on food and such BUT we still can't go on long vacations or go to the big amusement parks as much as we'd like but I think these types of family outings really bring all of us closer together. 

We do still have some fun and adventure ahead.

July 18th - 21st we will be enjoying our church camp out!

I am super anxious but also excited. It will be our first time camping...ever!

It will be the first time we sleep in our new tent.

It will be the longest I have spent away from home since I've battled anxiety and panic attacks.

I'm excited that my hubby and I will be teaching Bible lessons to the youth at the camp. 

It is going to be a fantastic weekend of getting to know our fellow church members better, fellowship, Bible study...I will make sure to have BOTH of my cameras charged and ready to go.

We also will be going school shopping either the last payday of this month or our first payday in August.

School resumes August 15th. Just a little over a month away. Boy this summer has flown by.

AND we still want to do one big thing with the kids. We are leaning more towards Coney Island than 

any place else...so I really hope things work out to where we can take the kiddos before school starts or During the week school shuts down for the Highland County Fair.

I guess we will see.

Well that is all for now my friends.

Until we meet again.

Be Blessed,

Erin