Header # 5 won hands down. Thanks for all the votes. The children had a lot of fun tallying them up as they came in!
~cheryl

So here are the headers in the running. It was really hard, but I narrowed it down to six. I will tally all the votes on Monday and have the new header posted by Tuesday. Thanks for all the compliments and encouraging words from the pictures that I posted this morning! It was fun to read all the comments!
~cheryl

Header #1

Header #2

Header #3

Header #4

Header#5

Header #6

I have been wanting to shoot some pictures of the children in these clothes. I bought them all for graduation weekend, but just have never gotten around to doing it. On Tuesday evening, we went to see the orchestra play. The children are all starting violin/cello lessons this fall and so we thought it best for them to see first hand what an orchestra is. And they get free season passes to the orchestra, so we went. I briefly thought as I was dressing the children, “What am I doing… I must be crazy…6 children to the orchestra at 7:30??? This is almost bedtime where we usually have meltdowns, large amounts of energy that must be exerted before climbing into bed, and then little ones that are beyond exhausted from a day of playing so hard!!!!” But we were all almost dressed and their was much excitement. So off to orchestra we went. The children were wonderful. It was the Glenn Miller Band playing and they were very entertaining. From red suit jackets to hats they waved and tossed, the children were captivated. The bass player even spun his bass around a few times which impressed Ben. (who is learning cello this year and hoping to move on to the bass when he grows a little bigger)
I had planned on having everyone fed and dressed with a half hour to spare for some pictures, but ended up running like a mad woman around and not having a minuet to spare. So this afternoon I had them all get dressed in thier clothes from the night before and we spent the afternoon shooting some really fun pics. I found this suitcase at the Salvation Army, and the children loved having it to play with during the pictures. I need to choose one of these for my new header picture, and will do a contest to see which is the favorite. Another Xanga friend does this and I thought it was super fun and a great idea!
~cheryl

A few weeks ago, we took the children hiking. It was a great day. We started out by Eric calling the children to “Attention”. His Army days never leave us. He has trained the children to all come running from all directions when “FRONT AND CENTER” is yelled. And they do. They all “Fall In” with hands at sides and eyes on Eric. Sometimes it’s hard for me to not laugh at this site. They are usually pretty clumsy at the “fall in”part as they all try to line up according to age. He will do this at any random time. To give out chores, announce an activity or pass out some treat he has for them.
This time, it was to give instructions as to how they should behave on our hike. Things to look out for like poison oak and big bears. (no worries, we make enough noise to keep all bears at a safe distance!) A reminder to always stay within our site. Stuff like that. So instructions given, he barked orders for them to march single file down the trail. That lasted all of about 5 seconds and then they all took off. So much to do. Gather the biggest stick, pick up a leaf, put a rock in a pocket. (probably all things that are suppose to be left in the forest under some environmental law, but all seem to end up in my washing machine.) We hiked about an hour along a very nice, well maintained trail. Stopped and played at a huge fallen log and a waterfall and then hiked back out. It was fun to get to explore this new part of country that we now call home.

The biggest “stick” of the day

The lovely waterfall we played by

~My Men~

~A good sign Fall is just around the corner~

~Cheryl

~Here are the pics from our time at the coast this last weekend~

~the light house~

~playing in the tide pools~

~treasure diving~

~a little girl who has had too much adventure for one day~

~notice the light is on in the light house. It flashes for 3 seconds every 15 seconds~

~cheryl

So with our all our camping gear packed, we headed off to the Redwood National Forest Thursday afternoon. We camped that night and the next morning we loaded everybody up and headed deep into the forest to do some exploring. We had a great day walking trails through the woods. The children loved climbing and exploring these magnificence trees. There are amazing to look at. And to think that some of these tress were around when Jesus was born is pretty amazing!
After we were wore out from our Redwoods Exploration, we headed back to camp for “Hobo Stew”. This is a favorite camp meal of our children. You take carrots, onions, potatoes and sausage and wrap it in foil. Then it is baked on hot coals in your campfire.
Tummies full of Hobo Stew, we headed to the beach for low tide. Now keep in mind we are in northern California. So “beach” really means lots and lots of rocks. Not a safe place to swim. But the children were not to disappointed. A storm was blowing in off the ocean and it was very cold and foggy. We toured the Light house. Very interesting! Then we headed back to camp again for some grilled cheese sandwiches.
The weather was not looking so promising, but the camp “lady in charge” assured us there was no rain to worry about. Here is where we should have gone with our gut feelings. But I think we were hoping she was right since we still had 3 more nights of camping to do.
We awoke Saturday morning to the sound of raindrops on our tents. Only a few, so we made breakfast and started cleaning up. I guess God was thinking we needed some help washing those dishes, because he sent the rains down. It began to pour. It didn’t take but a few minutes for Eric and I to realize that by the evening, the children’s tents (not very waterproof) would be soaking wet. So, we loaded up children, tore down tents, and pretty much just shoved everything in the back of the van. We were completely drenched by the time we were done. The children were all sad that we were leaving early, and Eric and I were not in the best of moods from being cold and wet.
So note to self, when the forecast calls for rain, and you are planning a camping trip with 6 little children, believe what they say and stay home and camp out in the basement!
~Cheryl

Gabe is taking after Josh and loves to have a stick in his hand

The children balancing on a downed Redwood

We saw lots of these banana slugs in the Redwoods

Rippled grain in a fallen Redwood

A dead Redwood

The children climbing on a tree stump

The boys working with Josh on walking

Gabe learning how to count the rings from Eric

Gabe 11 months

This great guy I love!

Joshua inside a redwood

I’ll post pictures of the ocean in the next day or so. ~Cheryl