Courtney turns 11!

My little girl has only one more year of elementary school, one more year of Primary. How is she growing up so quickly? She's turning into a beautiful, kind, loving girl. I feel very blessed every day to see what a great person she is, to be taught and loved by her, to share in her learning and growing. I always pray that others will see her the way I do and see what a wonderful daughter of God she is.

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Here are some pictures from our family party for her.

She has a new love of Babel cheese, because she loves to play with the wax afterwards. (Although she will tell you its only because she likes the cheese.) Since Mom is too frugal to actually buy some, so Travis got it for her as a present. Now she can go a few days without mooching the neighbor's cheese.

Mom and Dad finally broke down and bought her the Harry Potter movies. She's only read the books about a dozen times each.

Showing off her loot.

Her pokeball cake.

This is what I found in the kitchen while letting her cake cool. I also found a 3 year old with chocolate cake covering his face. He thought it was hilarious. I didn't.

Camping at Hanging Rock

We had a great camping trip last weekend. We stayed 2 nights in Hanging Rock State Park. After getting lost on the way, (and me complaining for the millionth time about not have a GPS,) we finally made it and set up camp. We roasted hot dogs that first night and then went on a short hike down to the lake. We ended the first day with s'mores. It was a beautiful area and perfect fall weather. We had a heater in the camper, although we couldn't get it to work. Thankfully I had packed tons of blankets so we stayed pretty warm at night.

Our first big hike the next day was to Hanging Rock, a beautiful area that looks out over the Piedmont Valley. It was only a 1 mile hike, so we thought it would be no problem. Well, we didn't know it was uphill most of the way, pretty steep for some of it. But the kids did awesome and made it without complaining. We had a lunch up on the rocks, played a little, then hiked down, ready for a nap (at least Bruce and I were.) Travis made it almost the whole way. About 1/4 mile from the parking lot he decided he just couldn't go any farther, so Bruce carried him the rest of the way.




Later that day and the next day we hiked some shorter, easier trails that led to waterfalls. The kids loved climbing all the rocks and exploring the area. We love this park and can't wait to camp there again.









I love these photos.
Courtney wanted me to take her picture on this rock.

Then, Dylan decided he wanted to copy Courtney and climbed up so I could take his picture.

Then, Travis couldn't be left out, so he climbed up and copied Dylan's pose with a hand on his hip. It was so funny and cute.