It's been a year

It's been an amazing year with lots of adventures, but I won't get into all that now. I will try to update with some highlights of the past year later. I now have a good computer again so hopefully I will be able to update more often. Just wanted to let everyone know that we did not fall off the face of the earth.

Labor Day Hiking

I forgot the hiking pictures. These are the type of trails that Jason and I have been running on weekends too. Lots of obstacles. But the kids walked 4 miles and did great. The first mile is all up hill and climbs about 650 feet.

Labor Day Weekend

It was a packed weekend! We stayed local and explored! We went to a civil war battle re-enactment (I didn't get pictures of that though), the zoo, hiking and explored the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. A great family weekend. I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures from  the weekend with no regard order. if you want to know specifics on a picture just ask and I'll give details.

first day of school

Alabama...The kids are back in school here and it is Adam's first day of kindergarten and yes I made my kids ride the bus the first day of school. We make it a clean break here at our home. No walking them in, or even dropping them off with one last goodbye at the door, no sirree. Here at the Guffey house we do things the old fashioned way. Or at least the way that is less driving for mom's big white van. They were pretty excited to ride the bus though and after her first day when we asked Lydia what she thought of riding the bus her response was "it's Awesome!!!!!" complete with a little happy dance.

Jonas' Origami

                                        

   This is Jonas posting. I have a new love for paper folding. I think I got it from my mom. She folds diapers, which are made from paper! Anyway, what you are about to see, is not only awesome, but my collection.

(Left to right) Heron, frog, ninja star, butterfly (It may not be pretty, but it flutters)

Artifact

Yoda

Japanese goldfish

(Left to right) Stingray, piranha, cormorant on a rock, Kabuto

Darth Vader

R2-D2

Summer in Virginia

So most of you know, but I'm posting it officially, we moved to Virginia last month. Cole even moved with us to work for the summer although he's planning to head back to South Carolina to finish school in a few weeks.  We've had a great  time here so far. We're only a short walk from the beach so we are there quite frequently. We've also taken advantage of the myriad of historical sites and  have done a lot of exploring. We moved here right at the start of berry picking season and managed to go blueberry and blackberry picking at a local farm and come home with 20-30 lbs of each. We've since been enjoying lots of smoothies and berry-based desserts. My deep freeze  is happy to be of service!

We also had Jason's sister  Suzanna and her kids come visit us for a week and had a wonderful time! after loading my van with 12 kids ages 11 and under to go various places last week I have a whole new respect for bus drivers. I was amazed at the noise levels of just normal talking. Thank goodness for in vehicle DVD players. Another reason to love technology.

I know I don't include pictures enough, but here are a few from our adventures so far. They are only sort of in order. And I realized that Jason takes most of the pictures these days so he's not in any of them. Sorry sweetie!

Lydia celebrated her 6th birthday right after we moved here. Her candles are in the shape of an L on her cake. She thought that was the coolest!  Happy birthday my 6 year old!!!!!

 

 This is the kids and I with some artillery at the Virginia War Museum on July 4th.

 The kids with a tank. The boys wanted to know if we could get one. I said our van would have to do for  now.

 We walked down to the beach one evening. I think Jason was holding Maggie otherwise she would have been all the way in the water and Adam is walking out of the picture.

 Fourth of July we also went to Yorktown where the final victory of the revolutionary war was won. Jonas and  Adrianna got to participate in an artillery exhibition to learn how to load and fire a cannon. of course they didn't actually fire it, but it was pretty cool to run through all the steps.

 Jonas also got to go to cub scout day camp and on the last day they invited families to come for the skits and lunch. Jo had just finished a  colossal water fight hence the lack of proper uniform.

 And of course two days ago we celebrated Odie Podie's birthday!! Happy birthday My new 9 year old!

 And here's Cole after a long day working for Dome.

So far that's our summer.

school, new bikes, fences

Well school is going well. Tomorrow is the end of third quarter. I can't wait till this year is done. Don't get me wrong, I love having my kids home all day and being able to teach them, but there is so much I just don't seem to have time for because school takes up such a huge part of our day. Nothing major but things that need to be done around the house that we just run out of time to do. But we're working through it.
The older kids all got new bicycles this spring so they've been riding around the neighborhood every chance they get. Emily is especially taken with biking. I think we have another cyclist on our hands. Jason is very happy about that. Jonas is still wanting to run more than bike. Although he loves his bike he's working up to running his first 10k this summer. Adrianna and Preston are both... well, they like anything that lets them be active and get out of the house. Plus if I'm letting them bike or run that means they are not doing school so they are happy. Lydia is still running with the older kids, but we're still looking for a bike for her.
Adam and Maggie want to run with the older kids but are now under house arrest by me until the fence gets done ( it's being put up as I type) because they managed to get out of the house and tried to follow Jonas and Preston and got picked up down the street by a police officer who lives here in the neighborhood and was on her way to work. That happened the day the materials for the fence were delivered, isn't that always the way.
Yes, the adventures never end here at the Guffey's.