Canobie Lake

What a gift....we won 29....yes, 29 tickets to Canobie Lake!  We gave tickets to several adoptive families to enjoy....what a blessing!

Our entire family enjoyed them recently on a Saturday....now here is the scoop!  The older kiddos who like the wild rides always travel with their big sisters who also like the wild rides....I do not have any pictures of them which is unfortunate.  Darrell and I split up into big kids and smaller ones to make the most of the great rides at Canobie.  Around 2 when the rains came...we slipped out and grabbed dinner together...what a blessing to have everyone together!  From there, Michaela, Jess and Conner went on their merry way but the rest of our troops gladly headed back to the park until closing time.

Dad is always our driving teacher for our young drivers....here he is practicing his scarey look with Becca!  Think he nailed it.

Here is Becca on her trusty steed.

Captain Devon in his boat.

Kiara and Eli on the Sky ride...a good thing.  Last year, Kiara did all of these rides by herself...she was too big for the smaller rides and didn't like the crazy ones yet.  She was so happy to have a buddy this year....

It was fun to see glimpses of the Winslow family and some of the big kids got to ride some rides together with their big kids...the rain really cleared the park out!  

Our family got noticed a few times and we were able to share our story with a few folks.  One woman asked me about what is was that she noticed but couldn't put her finger on that was different and kept us going....that was one of the easiest answers she asked....we pointed her to Jesus!

Such a wonderful family day!  A good blessing....

Jessy and Conner

May 28th...Jessy and Conner got married.

It was good to have our whole family together!  Here is our clan with my folks.

It was hot for those boys in long sleeves.p...in the 90's....but everyone looked great!

Jess was beautiful...here she is with her Oma Lowman.

We pray the Lord blesses them as they start their new life together.  Love you guys!

Time

Time has flown by SO fast to discover it is July and I haven't updated in what seems like forever ....

The good news is we are all doing well and we have lots of big things to share with you...

So hold onto your seat....I am hoping to do that here in the next few days!

Here we go!

And Then There Was Ben....

This guy....

Just have to say as his mom...he is pretty amazing.  He has such a big heart.  He has jumped in with both feet into this family and does his best at just about everything.

He is amazingly neat in his room despite living with a room full of happy flingers!  Wins every bed making contest we've had.  Even puts everything back where it belongs after using it...what is up with that?

Willing to try it all that we have presented him with so far.

Looks out for me and is my protector....out on hikes if he thinks I might need help...he comes racing back to hold my hand down the steep rocky hillside.

He is super excited this week is Mother's Day....

And he is our newest Alert Cadet....he has worked so hard on that!  Memorizing scripture in a language he is still learning....A-MAZ-ING!

Does it all with a smile on his face too!

Love this boy!

Father-Daughter Retreat

Darrell headed to Camp Maranatha this past weekend with our youngest girlies.

They were SO excited to share some special time with just dad.  They were even more excited to hear they were having a candle light dinner together....oh, so, excited!

Kiara dressed up for dinner in the lodge.

The dads served their daughters.

Rebecca dressed for dinner.

They had the afternoon together and went to the local fish hatchery.

Kiara with a sweet baby bunny.

They had group games, made fairy gardens and had devotions.7

The girls also played games in the game room ....Rebecca  (our girlie ) met Rebekah ....same last name spelled slightly different.  Cool, huh?

They had a sweet time with dad and came home very tired and happy!

Goals and Spring

I tried to think of something to sum up this post....

It has been quiet here on my blog as we have been about the business of spring....packing away winter and all that goes with it....

Spring activities bursting onto the scene....Ben, Eli and Devon learned to ride bikes in about 3 days after pulling them out for the season.  They have banged up elbows and knees to show it too!

Still plugging away at our school work....celebrating as we finish books for the year!

The daily business that makes up our lives and keeps us hopping each day!  We've been working hard at preparing our garden for the summer and were immensely blessed by several loads of wood chips to help our new Back to Eden Gardening.

The kids have had their first horseback riding lessons for the season....our newest ducks and chickens are getting big!

And...

Last summer as one of our summer goals we planned to hike the NH Firetower Challenge.  We didn't do any fire towers during the summer but started in the fall.  We restarted when Ben and Eli came home and are very happy to report we finally got all of our kiddos to do at least 5 towers and finished our last one this past Saturday.  Despite the notorious black fly season....

we managed to hike to the summit and then went to celebrate at Kimbell farm for ice cream and their beautiful petting zoo.  The kids loved the sand pile....what kid doesn't?

Earlier in the day we had a family dinner thanks to the gift cards we were given at Christmas....it was good to be together.  We are treasuring  these times!

It is Spring!

Spring arrived here a few weeks ago but we were given a winter gift this past weekend...

Isn't it beautiful?

It was a bit of magical fairy land right outside our door....

Hoping it was our last winter gift for the season....our flowers are poking their heads up out of our already raked beds....can't wait for their showy display!