The Craft Show

For the last four years I have gone to the Lakota Craft Show in the fall. I always find unique crafts or gift items.  This year the boys wanted to go along.  In the past I have bought them hand made toys.  Lindsey and her kids came also.

We started off with "the talk".  "Do Not Touch Anything", "Look with your EYES." Over all the kids did great.  After we walked through the first room the boys saw a group of teenage boys walking with wooden guns in their hands.  The boys got supper excited.  And of course the hunt was on for the booth that sold them.  We had gotten separated from Lindsey and the kids when we found them.  The boys were so excited.  A couple of older ladies saw their excitement and asked me if I thought the ping pong ball would hurt if they were shot at someone.  I told her, "I honestly don't know".  She looked at the boys and said, "Shoot me!".  They giggled and then shot the lady in the thigh.  She said you could feel it but that it didn't hurt.  We were sold.  I pulled out some cash and bought two.  Then we just had to find Laney and Samantha and get them to each buy one too.  Then they could have ping pong wars.

I was able to find the booth where I had purchased a Halloween decoration last year.  The lady that made all of the decorations said Halloween is her favorite holiday.  We told her that we like spooky decorations.  She mentioned mummies and I told her that if she made a mummy we would be first in line to buy it.  Logan loves mummies.  I hope next year we can add to our collection of Halloween decorations.

Now that we are home the boys can't wait to get over to grandma's house to play with the kids.  I hope no one shoots their eye out.

Reuben's new job

Midway through August, Reuben started working for AKSteel.  He is a Application Engineer at the Research and  Technical Center.  He works with automotive manufacture suppliers to supply steel for pre-production prototypes.  He is learning all about steel and how it's made.He is excited for some of the perks that come with this new job.  He will be getting a phone and a company car.  There is some travel with this new position.  He has been to Butler, Pennsylvania to see the worlds largest electric arc furnace melt steel.  He has been to Michigan and Indiana too.

I'm Back...

Reuben has been giving me a little bit of a guilt trip for not keeping up with the blog.  So... I'm trying to get back in the swing of things.  The actual blog software or whatever it's called is different from two years ago.  I'm going to have to figure out how to upload pictures and videos again. And I have a new phone and camera to figure out.

A lot has happened in two years.  But most of the big changes has happened in the last 6 or so months.

• We sold our house in August of 2013. (5576 Whitetail Circle)
• bought a new house and moved in over Labor Day weekend, 2013
• Evan turned 10.
• Logan turned 8 and got baptized on his birthday, February 8, 2014.
• We got a dog.  He is a two year old boxer named Beau.

Some other things that have changed are that I switched back to teaching Reading Center and Reuben is now in sales at 3DVision. 

I hope to start adding posts to "catch up" on everything I've missed. 

Spring Break Mini-Vaca

Hocking Hills

Mom, the boys, and I went to Hocking Hills for a mini-vacation over spring break. We left Monday morning and arrived in the city of Logan at lunch time. The first park we hiked was Old Man's Cave. The boys were excited to begin their hike. They wanted to run everywhere we went. We told the boys to slow down and enjoy looking at the amazing sites.
Old Man's Cave




The "Bathtub" in Old Man's Cave


Hocking Hills National Park


Logan and Evan found a centipede in Cedar Falls


Conkle's Hollow
Walking through Conkle's Hollow you could see huge bolders and large sheets of rock that have fallen from the cliffs onto the valley floor.









Rock House was amazing. We climbed down countless rock steps. Then climbed up into the "rock house".

We had a wonderful trip. I would totally do this again. They boys just loved all the hiking and being adventurous. They wished we would have taken them on some of the more difficult trails. The upper trail in Conkle's hollow go up 250 feet with no railings. I was not willing to risk bring my boys home in body bags. We told them they can come back and do the challenging trails when they are 21.

In two days we hiked Old Man's Cave, Cedar Falls, Ash Cave, Rock House, and Conkle's Hollow. we also went to the Rocky store where I bought a pair of boots. It would be vacation if I didn't buy a pair of shoes.

Birthday Boys!

Evan's baptism

Newport Aquarium 2012