Camp, Baseball, Swimming, Diving

Neither Leanne nor I are very good about taking pictures or videos so we end up with a lot of memories without the evidence (I guess that may be a good thing). Anyway the kids were involved with a lot of things that we don't have any pictures from. For example . . .

Kyle played baseball. This was his first year in the Majors and it took a big adjustment for him. He went from playing 3 years in infield positions (catcher, 1st base, pitching) to playing outfield and sitting out part of the game (ouch!). We kept encouraging him and letting him know that it was only because he was the youngest on the team and next year will be different. None-the-less he still had a blast and a good season. He had a couple good catches in the outfield and it took a bit but his batting by mid-season was doing really well also. No home-runs this year though. That was another bummer for Kyle.

Jessica was on a summer swim team. She had a lot of fun with that and her times were certainly improving. She placed well in many events and some of the relays she was in took first. Individually I think she placed 2nd a couple of times.

Kyle took Diving lessons this summer. Of course he loved it. He's pretty good at back-diving now.

Both the kids also went to camp this summer. Kyle was at the regular (dorms) camp while I led the Jr. High Wilderness camp. Jessica (since she is now in Jr. High) was at camp with Leanne and I. Camp is always great! We had 33 Jr. High students roughing it in the wilderness without electricity or water. It was an awesome week and I really believe that the students had the opportunity to grow in their faith. It was really cool having Jessica with us this year to.

4H & The County Fair

Once again Jessica was in 4H this summer. This year she chose to do "Dog Obedience" and "Cake Decorating."

This was the 2nd year for her and Jack. During her showing she got a bit of a surprise. The judge told her to take Jack off leash and do the routine. She had never practiced with Jack off leash and had never been told by her "coach" that she would have to. Jack did pretty good (although he did attempt to go through the fence at one point). The strange thing is no one else in her showing had to take the dog off the leash. Oh well she still did great!

This year they also had a costume contest for
the dogs. Jack was dressed as a Hershey bar.
Jessica wore a Hershey Jersey. When it
came time to judge everyone was declared a winner!

Her cake decorating came courtesy of her Grandma. Grandma Purdy has been decorating cakes for years so she agreed to teach Jessica. She ended up getting "Reserve Grand Champion" and therefore would have a cake to enter into the State Fair.

Her cake was a beach theme.

Kyle didn't enter 4H but he still participated in the pig wrestling at the county fair.

Myrtle Beach

I know ... it's about time! Well better late than never I guess. I'm finally posting about our Myrtle Beach trip. This summer our vacation was spent with my parents and my brother's family. We all shared a condo at Myrtle Beach. Without a doubt it was a wonderful vacation that we thoroughly enjoyed.

Here are a few pictures.

The 3 bedroom Condo

The Beach. We had a wonderful view from our
condo. We even watched dolphins swim up shore
2 of the mornings we were there.

The condo also had three swimming pools,
2 hot tubs (which I spend a good deal of time in)
and 2 lazy rivers.

I think Jessica's favorite thing on the beach
was getting creative with the sand.

Kyle was all about fighting the waves.

My Dad and Keith buried Jessica while Kyle
and I were swimming. Then they placed a
bucket on her head. When we came back
I told Kyle to pick up the bucket. He jumped
when he lifted the bucket and their was his
sister's head.

Jessica and Kyle had a blast with
their cousin Alex. They love him tons!

We went on a "dolphin watch" Basically
we followed a fishing boat and watched for
dolphins feeding behind it. We saw several.

Mom and Dad

Leanne and Dawn

Alex, Kyle, Keith and Me.

We called Jessica "Hollywood" as she
kicked back with her shades on the
corner of the boat.

We went Jet-Skiing one day. Keith drove with
Jessica riding. I drove with Leanne and Kyle
riding. It was a blast! I did flip it once when
I cut behind Keith to jump a wave. I came
down broadsided into another and we all
went over. Keith finally figured out that
we were not behind him any longer and he
came back to find us. We were just getting
back on. Fun stuff (maybe not for Leanne)

We also went parasailing. That was kinda cool!
Leanne really liked it.

I got a little queasy when I was waiting on the
boat for our turn. So it wasn't the most thrilling
experience for me. But I'm still glad I did it.

I just don't handle bouncing around on the
waves without any air movement.

We stopped past a place called "Alligator Adventure."
Mom insisted you did not have to pay just to walk
around and look. We did pass through a turnstile,
but no one was there. After thinking about it later we
are pretty sure that somehow we were supposed to pay
and we didn't. We may have inadvertently "snuck in."

I've never seen so many alligators in one place!

Family picture

Everyone

It was a big drive. But we had a wonderful trip.


I'll post more about the summer in the
next few days.

From Jessica: PB+J Newz

Me and one of my friends were really really really
bored one day and decided to make a news show
here is the very first PB+J Newz show. See if you
can guess what PB+J stands for. I'll tell you at
the end of this post.



This is the second official PB+J Newz show



Thank goodness you can delete on digital cameras.





BTW this is what PB+J stands for: My last name is Purdy (P). My friend's last name is Becher (B) and we are both named Jessica (J).

From Jessica: My 6th Grade Class Trip

I had been waiting for this all year! We had our 6th grade class trip on Fri. the 24. Our teachers had been planning this and talking about this and warning us about this and getting us excited about this since...like... FOREVER! It was the best field trip ever! We had to be at school at 5:00 AM or we would miss the bus. The bus wasn't just a normal school bus it was a charter bus! It had a bathroom in it AND a DVD player and it was A LOT more comfortable than a school bus. which was great because we were on that bus for4 hours! which seems a lot longer when kids are screaming all around you. since we were on the bus from 5:00 - 9:00 we got to see the sunrise! Any way when we finally got to our first stop (the Slugger Museum) it felt like we had been on the bus FOREVER! and to make matters worse we had to wait on the bus for about 10 extra minutes because we got there early! Anyway when we FINALLY got in we watched a movie, then they took us out to the museum part of the tour we all just fan around and explored that part. then we split into 3 groups and went through the factory part no pics aloud :( then we got back on the turner bus and headed off to the Ohio river to go on a cruise. We ate lunch and since we were in Kentucky we had REAL Kentucky fried chicken yum-yum. After that we went up to the sky deck (I think that's what it's called) and hung out. Pretty soon the DJ started playing songs like Cotton Eye Joe, Macarania , Electric slide, Cupid shuffle, etc. that we all knew and we started dancing to them! It was quite a sight . If someone didn't know the dance to one of the songs every one else pushed them around untill they got it. It was hillarious!!! After that was all over we docked and got back on the charter bus and rode all of the way to Marango caves. We saw a lot of cool stilagtites and stilagmites. and about 5-7 creepy gross discusting and creepy bats. Can you tell I DO NOT like bats?! At all! Any way after that was over. We went to this thing-of-ma-bobbers that was supposed to be like you were crawling through a cave. The contraption was tiny and the sign on the outside said if you were closterphobic you shouldn't go through it. Well I'm slightly closterphobic and get totaally creeped out if something touches me and I don't know what it is you didn't have to go through it but Mom told me I'd regret it forever if I didn't go through (translation: you have to do it) so I was all like Oh-my-gosh-i-am-gonna-hyoervenilate-and-then-die! Well as you can tell I didn't die but that is something I would NEVER do again! After the caves most kids got back on the bus and went home but some kids rode with their parents. I rode with Mom and we went to Susie and Les's house to see Cassie at Prom but I'll Post about that l8er

Here is the sunrise I took it out of the bus window

This is a pic of the bus from the inside
That is Josie with her Long black hair

we FINALLY got to the Slugger Museum It felt like we were driving
FOREVER this is a pic of all of us in front of "the big bat"

here is me with a few of my friends from left to right :Jessica B. Me, Lindsey,
Nicole we have gloves on because the bats we are holding are some famous
people's bats don't ask me who I'm no baseball fan!

here we all are on board the Belle of Louisville
(by the way no one got sea-sick)

This is the view we had from the boat

yum this was our REAL Kentucky fried chicken

Me and Mother

The cave was dark this was the best picture I took

This is a video of the bus

Watch the pitcher

The Guys Camping

Leanne took off Friday and went on Jessica's big 6th grade field trip. The students rode a chartered bus and went to Louisville to see the Slugger Museum, then they had lunch on a river boat, and finished the day touring Marengo Caves. Leanne and Jessica left straight after the trip and headed to Leanne's sisters to spend the night and Saturday with them (and get to see Cassie before prom)!

So, Kyle and Jack and I loaded up for a quick fishing and camping trip. We went to Hanging Rock, which is a Christian camp that a good friend of mine works at. It has a nice pond and some really good trails.

Cruising up 63!

Unloading


The tent is up!

Looking at our campsite from across the pond.

Ummm ... this was the only fish caught.
And I caught it on my first cast.

Fishing came to an end when Matt & Kara
showed up on their four-wheelers.

One minute Kyle was "posing" on the four-wheeler
and the next he had convinced Matt to let him
take it for a spin! Needless to say, Kyle was thrilled.


Hiking Trails

Jack was our "trail-scout."
He kept ahead of us on the trail except
for the occasional chasing of a squirrel.

See the little white dot? That's Jack.
He would run up ahead and then
he would come back to see where we were.
Then he would run ahead again.

When we left our campsite we heard a tree fall.
When we got back the fallen tree
was pretty close to our campsite.

Matt & Kara joined us for dinner.
Hot dogs, Brats, & Chips.

Later we had S'mores and Matt taught
us how to cook a "biscuit on a stick."

Kyle made his own that was filled with
chocolate syrup, whipped cream,
a Hershey bar, and a marshmallow.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset!
Then Matt, Kyle and I played Frisbee
(with a "light-up" Frisbee)

In the morning, we packed up and then
enjoyed a quick breakfast of chocolate
mini-donuts on the tailgate of the truck
before we headed home.