Even though our anniversary is in March, we spent our 18 year anniversary on a trip to the Smoky Mountains.  We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast and had a great time together, while the Mimi and Pops looked after the children…well, not all of the children.  How could you not want to take me along??

Yes, just as in the past 2 years, l’il Chloe found a way to tag along with her parents.  After all, I just sleep all the time anyway.  I won’t be any trouble.

All in all, it was a very good time.  The bed and breakfast was nice, and located on a remote mountain just outside of the National Park.  We spent some time in Dillon and in the Park, and saw some pretty sights.

May marked a good Mother’s Day family celebration.  In the past we’ve done some scavenger hunts for Donna, but this year was a little more low key.  But there’s not much better than a mother surrounded by her loving children.

She was also pleased a few days earlier to have her fine little violin players do a good job at their recital.

Based on the pictures we have saved for April, it looks like our focus was definitely on our pretty little girls.  Abigail celebrated her 8th birthday by getting her ears pierced.  This was our first experience in that realm, as it’s questionable as to whether Elizabeth will ever go down that route!  The girls did a craft together based on their initials and a cake from Whole Foods (gluten free), one of the few grandchildren cakes not made by the master cake making Grandfather.   

Next, Donna took the family to Laurens for some time with their great-grandmother and the celebration of Easter, while Darol stayed behind to preach at a church in Locust. Gram has always been a godly influence on all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  All of our children were also caught in a rare picture where they were dressed up, and not even a trace of orange on them!

After the time in a dress at church, Elizabeth was able to get more comfortable in her “archer clothes” in Gram’s back yard.

Finally, April finished with a trip to the beach at Springmaid.  This is a beach near Myrtle Beach to which Donna used to go every summer as a child.  25-30 years later, her father took them back to the beach for a fishing outing.  This had most of our children excited, given their recent passion for fishing.  There were a few shark catches, and everyone enjoyed it, despite the high amount of rain that dampened everyone on the pier.

The crew is already discussing a return trip this year…

This year we really started to notice some creativity in Abigail.  She enjoys time sitting around creating things, and is doing well with her violin playing.  She really has an ear for music.  Darol bought a groupon for Abigail and Donna to use at Dish It Out, and Abigail obviously enjoyed it.

We love the pictures when we capture the girls together at one time.  In this case, it was for some nice weather on the deck.

For Levi, this marked a significant first.  Fortunately, of all the sports that the children are playing, there is the hope that he will actually stick with the right one and not succumb to all the basketball pressure!  He enjoyed his first year at MARA playing baseball, and got to where he had a pretty good swing in his first year.

Quotables:

Levi, walking onto the field at his 2nd practice:  “WHERE IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO GO?”

In the middle of February, we went to New Orleans.  It was the first time back there for Darol in 13 years.  We had not been back since Jonathan was a baby, and so all the other children were seeing Darol’s hometown for the first time ever.  We stopped by a store to get some groceries, and all the children decided to try out some disguises.

  The next night we were able to view our first parade, very close to the Wilson’s house in Metairie.  The children were focused on gathering as much “treasure” thrown from the floats as possible. 

In addition to viewing the parades, New Orleans is probably most famous for all the various food options.  You can go for the famous crawfish (mud bugs), or the deep fried donuts (beignets from Café Du Monde).

We also wandered through the French Quarter on Saturday morning looking for any sort of treasures to bring home from the market.

After going through the Market, we headed back to our van to drive back and get ready for the afternoon and evening parades.  Unfortunately, our departure from the parking lot was …impossible…the lot was empty when we arrived early on Saturday morning, and Darol made the mistake of parking the multi-passenger van in a spot that was later completely enclosed by other cars.  After 4 hours of sitting in the parking lot, including being hoaxed by a local who claimed to own the lot, multiple people attempting to back the van out themselves, we finally found an attendant who tracked down a car owner in order to move the car.  We were so glad to get out of there, given the potential that we could have been stuck there for 2 days!  As of one year later, we still have one king cake left in our outside freezer, waiting for the right time to break it out and relive the experience.

January had the usual snow outing for the family.  Here is a fast sled down the hill.  

Followed by a cold Abigail needing to come in to warm up…

Chloe was even ready to get into the action with big brother Jonathan at the helm

Finally, Chloe needed to have a snowman snack after all the exercise.

January 2014 kicked off with an impressive commitment from the children to really eat much healthier.  One of the main events in that month was a cooking class for the girls by Coach Conrad, the children’s cross country coach. He put together a healthy meal of a pasta chicken dish, along with some shrimp.  The evening finished with a smoothie competition between Conrad’s smoothie maker (a Kitchen-Aid) and our Vita-Mix.  I think we would claim the victory on that one.  But Conrad would get the more significant victory in contributing to a longer lasting desire in the family to improve eating habits (Darol is probably the one in last place on this), though the rest of the family is really well on board. The children did some extra workouts with him at various times at his studio.  The main thing they emphasized was around jumping, hip strength and balance.

It was a good start to the year on the health side!

As most children like to do, we had our share of dress up opportunities.  My favorite was the visit we had from this salesmen. A 2’6″ Grouch Marx can try to sell you lots of different things. 

The next dresser upper was our L’il Punkin. Sunglasses tend to last all of about 3 days in our family before they get broken in one way or another.

Then there was the dress up at the end of the year for Levi’s 5 year old birthday party when a bunch of Indians showed up.

Finally, there were the Clemson boys and their Anderson friends.

Starting off a New Year’s Resolution to be more proactive in blogging.  It’s almost the end of January, and I’m finally getting after it.  The first several posts will be reflections on 2013.

Edition 1 is on February, 2013 – a month of parties.

Elizabeth’s party was a bowling party, and Benjamin’s was a basketball party.  Needless to say, Granddaddy came through with his usual amazing, artistic cakes.

Abigail’s was a roller skate in April.

Whenever someone suggests that he go into a cake making business, there is the sober realization that the 20 or so hours he puts into the cakes would probably only net him about $4-5/ hour.   But the children sure love to have them, and it shows his great patience and love for them!

The next big party was Donna’s 40th.  It was a 70s theme, and the outfits were a big hit.

There were plenty of fun and games at the party, such as a trivia contest and best dressed awards.  The fun and games continued the next morning, when we awoke to such a lovely display in our front yard, one which I hadn’t seen since my teen years.

What would the year be without some more of Granddaddy’s famous cakes.  Here was Levi’s Teepee party cake.

Finally, the last birthday picture would be from Chloe in her own birthday suit.

As I write this, I’m already missing the days of our chunky li’l Punkin.

The children really got involved in a lot of sports this year.  The biggest one would be Cross Country.  Jonathan ran for the Junior High and Varsity teams for Arborbrook.  Elizabeth also competed for the Junior High girls team, and that was encouraging since she went to the first practice with no real intention of running.  Benjamin even had the opportunity as a 4th grader to compete for the team, and was able to finish the in the 4 for the team in their meets. 

One of the best parts of the CC season was the blessing of having the children run under the coaching of Coach Conrad, who has become a family friend.  He is an excellent fitness coach, who previously ran in the Olympics for Jamaica.

Other sports taught us useful lessons.  For instance, several hundred dollars invested in equipment taught us that Lacrosse will likely not be a sport of the future for Benjamin.

While it might not be considered a “sport” by some, our crew definitely does.  They spent countless hours fishing the neighborhood pond for bass and crappie.  The story of the big bass pulling Jonathan’s loose pole across the entire pond still brings laughter to all of us.

Finally, another sport that didn’t rank in the Timbers favorites, though they really proved to be pretty good at it was swimming.  Many hours at the various pools were spent, including some here by Chloe in Granddaddy’s lap.

Sports will likely continue to be a big part of 2014 as well!