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.

Flush!

Came home from the office a few days ago and this is what was sitting on my front step! A toilet with a purple seat and purple tank lid. The sign on it says, "Let's Flush Cancer Down the Toilet." The instructions taped to the seat lid told us that for a $10 donation to Relay for Life the toilet would be removed. For $20 we could choose to send the toilet to someone else. For $30 we could send it to someone else and guarantee that it never comes back to us.

By the way we did "lift the lid," just to see ... and neatly place within the bowl was a bouquet of purple flowers.

Creation Museum

Well since it's raining and I have the time I thought I would update the blog. This past spring break we took the kids (and the Sheppard kids) over to Lawrenceburg, Indiana. We stayed with Leanne's Aunt Becky and Uncle Bill and we visited the Creation Museum just outside Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Creation Museum is a museum which promotes the belief that life is more than mere random chance and supports that belief with archeological evidence and intellectual reasoning. It's quite amazing to hear creationism thoughts such as purposeful creation, a young earth, dinosaurs and man coexisting, etc ...

We were told that a tourist package had been created that included tickets to the Creation Museum as well as the Cincinnati Zoo. When the zoo got wind of this they demanded that they be excluded from the package. They did not want any association with the Creation Museum because of the contradictory teachings the museum supports. Wow! I wonder who is more "close-minded?" It's interesting to me that if you are an "animal lover" and support nature wholeheartedly .... why would you be threatened by creationism? What makes an "animal" more special? Would it be that they just happened into existence and are nothing more than a random combination of DNA ... or would it be that God uniquely created them with care, intentionally, and with a purpose? So goes for you and I.

Anyway here are a few pictures.

Just Add Water

Jessica just finished her first year on the swim team. Leanne and I were both extremely proud of her for trying something new. She seemed to enjoy it although she was a bit overwhelmed being so busy with practice and swim meets.

She competed with some of the relay races. Individually she competed in the 50 meter freestyle, the 100 meter freestyle, and the 100 meter breast stroke. She improved with every meet and actually took second place once for one of the freestyle events.

The team t-shirt said "Instant Athlete" on the front ... then the back said ... "Just add water." I'll try to post a picture of it later.

Next up ... She starts volleyball after spring break.

L8R

From JessiKate: Kate's Beat The Winter Blahs Party

Kate talking = abc Jessica Talking = abc
O.k. People! SO Kate is over at my house and we didn't have ANYTHING else to do, so she asked her Dad if she could update the blog. Yeah What she said. SO Kate had a Party a few weeks ago and invited how many people Kate? I had 7 friends(not counting myself) and two adults(my mom, Amy, and Leanne). Mom and Amy Drove ALL eight kids to and from Indianapolis. Talk about full house!HA HA HA! Any way when we FINALLY got there we were ALL ready for a potty break! And off we went to the Not young but Old Spaghetti Factory! Very good food! And we hardly had to wait at all! But Emilee Farly thought we did! She kept getting our hopes up every time we saw someone with a food dish walk by. Thanks a lot Emilee! Yeah And when you are STARVING Doesn't help to have some one keep saying " Our Food is Here" "Our food Is here" Then We went back to the hotel for some water fun! When we were done we had a big surprise we got to decorate AWESOME flip- flops! It was sooooo Much fun!

Here are the three water slides at Caribean Cove!

After a GREAT breakfast at the hotel buffet we took a pic on the stairs

Here is me and Kate on this floaty snake thing-a -ma -bobbers


I'm going to let Jess explain this one. Thanks! Okay so there was this statue and .....well... it needed clothing. Sooo........


This One is for you Kate. O.K. so they brought Ketchup for our breakfast (I don't Know what for) and it had the best label ever! GO COLTS!!!!!!!! Ya' hear that Keith!

Well Now we have to go babysit Two Amazing kids. See ya'll soon!!!