Family A Journey to Forever!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Month of the Military Child / Princess and the Pea

Yesterday was such a fun day. It was filled with lots of fun activities. The month of April we celebrate "The Month of the Military Child". There has been lots of activities for the children. They have had fun things at the Children's Youth Center. Well, yesterday was a big carnival just for the Military children. Everything was free, all the rides, food, lots of prizes. My kids had a blast hanging out with their friends and playing. Kayden took my cell phone and ran off with his friend Isaiah. I had to hunt him down just to get a picture. Luckily my friend Sylwia got a couple too.

Another fun event that happened today was the performance of "The Princess and the Pea "by the Missoula Children's Theater. This is the second time the kids have had the opportunity to perform in the play. We had the best week. We had tryouts on Monday and practice every single night from 4:30pm-9:00pm. I, of course, was extremely involved with the practices I even got to help in the background. I loved every minute! One of my favorite performances was the Thursday night rehearsal where we had a contest as to who could perform the most dramatic. It was hilarious. I was crying because I was laughing so hard. It was so funny! Kayden was a citizen of Glacierdom and Brookyn was a Dust Bunny. Hopefully,Next year Chandler will be able to participate. Man I love this Missoula Children's Theater.

Chandler, Andrew, Abby, and Brooklyn waiting to ride the pony's

Kayden and Isaiah playing Gladiator!

Kayden and Isaiah on a bungee run. They are hooked to a bungee cord and they have to run as fast as they can to put the bean bag on the side of their lane, after that you shoot back. I laughed so hard watching them attempt this event over and over again.

Chandler went down head first. Little did we know that was off limits. You can only go down on your bum. Well, if you look to see how much fun he is having. Hello! Who comes up with these rules anyway?

Brooklyn and Abby having a blast on the slide.

So much fun to hang out with your friends.

Brooklyn and Chandler on the swings for the 4th or 5th time.

Samuel, Ben, Sydney, Kayden,Isaiah,and Michel, Brooklyn and Kayla are missing because they were at the bathroom with all the dust bunnies.

Best of Friends Ben, Kayden and Isaiah

Here is Brooklyn and Kayden hanging out right before the play started.

Brooklyn got to hold the "Lucky Leprechaun" Because she was so good.

Here we are waiting for the show to start.

Our cute little Brooklyn "Dust Bunny"

Kayden a citizen of Glacerdom "Big Blizzard Bringer"

The Cast of "The Princess and the Pea."

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Easter 09

Here we are at the horse stables for our 2nd annual Easter egg hunt. This year we did our hunt with the Fat Frumpy Five and their families. So much fun. 16 kids 16 dozen eggs. A super fun BBQ at Stephanie's house. I sure love my family away from home.

Sylwia, Ashley, Stephanie, Tina and Brandi (with Amelia)

Our Group

Bastianclan Easter 2009

The Pyne's Karlee, Stephanie, Erik, Jordon, Lizzy

The Hardman's Isaiah, Gracie,Sylwia, Josh, Nephi, and Samuel

The Muller's Michael, Kayla, Ashley and Sydney. (We are missing Steven)

The Douglass's Ben, Liam, Wil, Amelia, and Brandi

Last minute rules. Ready Set Go....

Chandler, Kayden and Brooklyn with their treasures.

Kayden and Isaiah look Kayden found an egg.

Brooklyn found an egg.

Chandler found an egg.

Playing outside at the Pyne's house. We really didn't see the kids all night.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Okefenokee Swamp park (North side)

It's spring break here in Augusta GA. It's been a long time since we had a family adventure. We decided it was time to go and enjoy some time together as a family. Kayden did a report on the Okefenokee Swamp at school, ever since he has wanted to see the swamp.We have never been to a swamp so we thought it was timeto take an adventure to the Swamp. After a couple days of planning and finding out all the different entrances into the Swamp we decided we would see two different areas of the swamp. The North and East sides. We planned our hotel and our two night three day trip. Our first adventure was at the Okefenokee Swamp Park. This is a private area so it had a lot of fun things to do. As we got out of our car we saw an American Alligator. I was amazed we didn't even have to wait to see the Alligartor it was right in front of our car. We sat there and watched this alligator for about 10 minutes. Then we followed it for a little while. Circled around the marsh on the outside of the park to see if we could find anything else. We went on a 60 minute boat ride into the swamp. It was so amazing. Of course it rained within the first 5 minutes of us being in the boat. But after a little rain the sky cleared up and we enjoyed the rest of our boat ride into the mysterious swamp. Cute kids ready for an adventure.

Here we are ready for our boat ride.

The next thing we did was a 60 minute train ride on the out skirts of the Swamp. We saw many different wildlife on this train ride. We even saw a black snake hanging out on top of a tree super cool...

We went into one of the old settlements. The kids had so much fun playing and feeding goats and seeing chickens, roosters, turkeys etc...

Inside one of the Pioneer homes. It still amazes me they had a family of 15 living in one of these little homes.

Can you find the alligator?

More beautiful plants.

More alligators...

Here we are at the Nature Show, We got to touch and hold snakes, and alligators. Each one of the kids had a baby alligator on their heads. So cool.... The snakes were Kayden's favorite part.

Chandler loved the snakes too! He also loved the baby Alligator

Kayden didn't even need any help. He is doing what he loves!

My family with a stuffed Alligator. I don't think we would be standing this close if it was alive. Check out all those teeth.

This alligator was hanging out right where you get on your boat. Crazy thing get out of our way. LOL But I loved the close up. We were so close on a couple you could touch them.

Thanks to Kayden for a great idea. We loved the Okefenokee Swamp and had a great time as a family.

Okefenokee Swamp (East side)

We spent the rest of the day at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Folkston GA. This park was so beautiful. It's amazing seeing wildlife in their natural habitat. The only stinky part was we didn't see as many birds, or animals here as we did at the private section. We were able to do a really fun hike. We hiked up to the observation deck. Wow it was so beautiful. You could see for miles and miles. We all had a lot of fun with our binoculars. Pictures from the observation tower

if we were not walking on the board walk this is what we would be walking in. YUCKY!

Here are the kids being silly as they walk to the observation deck. I love Chandlers face. Super cute. (can this boy ever just smile at the camera?)

Look how beautiful! Awee we were surrounded by God's Beauty for two days..

Our side view as we walked to the observation deck.

The kids enjoying nature at it's best.

We were able to visit the Okefenokee Museum. We watched a movie all about the swamp and we even got to play and do some hands on experiments.

The Swamp is known for it's "Black Water". Can you believe you could drink the water? yep it is safe. Although I don't think I could drink it. It looks so nasty. You could actually live in the swamp, many early settlers did. The swamp has medicine plants, they have plants that create soap. How cool is that? You just rub the leaves together and it creates soap. It was amazing.

Here we are getting ready for our second 90 min boat ride into the swamp.

The Family at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

Here is an alligator coming towards us. I was amazed how they let us look ant take lots and lots of pictures. I was a little nervous, I was like any minute this alligator is going to jump out of the water and start chasing us. Thank Heaven they didn't. They really are very fascinating.