This summer's big family trip was to Erie, PA, for camping with family, family and more family! But first, we made a pit stop on our way to Erie through Cincinnati. Some of you may be thinking that would be way out of the way. That's what we thought but look at a map...Cincinnati, Ohio is due north of Atlanta. I was shocked, too, and I like to think I'm pretty good with geography :) Anyway, we were thrilled with this route because this meant we could visit the
Creation Museum. I had heard about it but thought, we can't drive all that way just for the museum and when will we ever be going that way? But yipee, our summer trip had us driving right by it. We started homeschooling the week before the trip and spent the time reviewing the days of Creation, reading Chapter 1 in Genesis, practicing writing our numbers and letters, etc...
It was a great way to prepare for our trip. Hooray for flexibility in homeschooling to teach what's relevant for my kids! And the museum did not disappoint.
Adam was in awe over the moving dinosaurs. See Beth in the background...she's with her new best friend. They met about five minutes before this picture was taken and were inseparable all day. She's the daughter of a friend of Andrew's from camp (thank you facebook) who met us there and got us in at an incredible rate thanks to some annual passes, thank you, Tammy!
We were also blessed to stay with another friend of Andrew's from high school. Thank you, Jen, for housing us! Those are her two sons at the bounce house outside the museum.
These are actual bones from a woolly mammoth.
Doesn't it look like this fish is swimming out of Jill's mouth? Ok, enough with the photos...back to the museum...It was well done, intriguing, thought provoking, challenging, encouraging, informative...I could go on and on. They have a Zonkey in their petting zoo!
I did have 3 children who were probably too young for a lot of it but Jason could go back again and again. The planetarium show was especially captivating. Did you know, we live in God's great big universe? It's huge :) Ok, next up...camping!
PS I know there are many opinions about creation. We choose to ignore them all and follow God...
Ok, she turned 1 last weekend but I need to upload those photos and meanwhile, I had already uploaded these photos and never posted them...oops! So here she is, not quite a year :)
Adam is her best friend. He makes her laugh, me makes her cry, she smiles when he enters the room :)
This month brought new adventures including a trip to Erie and camping in a tent! She was a great camper. I was truly impressed with her flexibility. It was a lot of driving and a lot of activity and she did it all with little complaint (ok, she is always happy as long as mommy holds her and I held her a lot that trip but still, she was good!)
She's eating everything now including no-no's like peanut butter and popcorn. She's the youngest of four, what else can I say? Here she tackles an apple, one of her favorite snacks...
And I love the blanket on the grass. She will stay put because she hates crawling in grass :) That's about the only place she stays put! Here you can see one of her favorite places to be - the dishwasher! She climbs in and unloads the dishes onto the floor any chance she can get. Any chance she'll help unload when she's old enough to put them in the cupboards?
Coming soon....1st birthday party!
Many things come very easy to Jason so when something doesn't, he is easily frustrated and gives up. This was true for riding a bike. It started on the tricycle that he couldn't pedal. And then there was the cheap bike we bought him with training wheels that bent under his weight and tires that never stayed inflated. So Jason moved on. He worked instead on riding his razor, and he was good. So while all his friends and cousins learned one by one to ride a bike, he's been content to ride along side on his razor. Last spring Andrew and I decided he has to learn. He has to learn to persevere, and riding a bike is just something everyone should know how to do, so we bought him a nice bike...no training wheels. He tried it out for about 2 minutes and decided it was going to be too hard. The bike sat in our garage until today. Andrew rode it out of the garage and suggested Jason try again. Jason said fine, got on, and rode the bike down the street! Just like that, he can ride a bike. We never did the running behind him again and again, nothing. He just up and did it. I guess there are some things that are easier to learn the older you get? Or is bike riding just natural and if we let it, it'll happen? All I know is my 6 year old can finally ride a bike!
Now we can move on and teach Beth who has been more than ready for months. (I predict pictures of her riding as soon as we take the time to remove the training wheels but we couldn't let her beat her big brother!)
After a boring July (really, I'm adjusting to Georgia but summer here will NEVER compare to California where it was non-stop fun!) we were blessed with a busy August that started with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa McCambridge (my parents). They took us to the Coca-Cola museum, 
and then we showed them our favorite - the Georgia Aquarium. 
We also had some quality time just hanging out, trying our new grill, and visiting local spots like Marietta Square. 
The trip was over too quick but we're hoping to see them again before the New Year! 
Adam didn't like these puppets. 
They're love kisses that behave like puppies and kiss the Coke bottles in a movie we watched. I would definitely recommend not taking a child under 5 to the Coca-Cola museum as Adam was miserable the entire time, especially during the 4-D movie with the shaking seats. The experience ruined him for days, oops!
