Our little Bulldog

These were taken by a photographer on Opening Day at Hannah's first game of the season. It's funny how much her stance has changed (and gotten better) even in the last 3 weeks. And if you look at one of the following, you'll see why she had trouble making contact with the ball! 

What a beautiful athlete!

It's official...

...Abby is registered for cheerleading for the fall. Does this surprise anyone?

A full weekend

This has been a packed, and FUN, weekend. It started Friday when Hannah had 2 back to back scrimmages for a fundraiser softball tournament. Which they won both games!

Saturday morning, we had to be at the library at 7:00 am to drop Hannah off at her coach's truck for the Opening Day Parade. I had to actually wake the kids up to get going that morning. Of all days for them to decide to sleep past 6:15! 

Then we had the best time slot for our opening game... 9:00...first game after the parade. We won! And Hannah did awesome! She has really improved since last season. I'm so proud of how hard she works and how much she actually listens to the coach (or me or Chris) and puts the comments into action. What a hard worker! She had some great hits, got on base every time, played once in the outfield, once at 3rd, but most of the time at 1st base. She is enjoying softball so much! Plus she looks SO CUTE in her uniform!

Then we spent all afternoon outside. It was a gorgeous day! It's hard to believe it snowed at the start of the week! I prepared my vegetable garden "plot" and it is now ready for some plants to get their roots in that soil. I had to mix in 3 bags of compost with that Georgia red clay. Doing this was actually step 3 of the process so far. It took 2 times of (hand) tilling that horribly hard stuff into a workable substance. I still need to get some 2x6s to complete my edging, but that will happen (hopefully) this week. But it looks so pretty, if I do say so myself! 

Then I got to play on our little riding lawn mower. The back yard looks great with a fresh haircut. And that sweet little red number makes the time to mow "the back 40" cut in half (at least)!!!

Then today, after church we went hiking at Sweetwater State Park, which is a part of the Georgia State Park System. We did (what I'm guessing to be) about 3 miles. We went with some people that Chris works with. They were so kind - I mean, what other description could you say about people who voluntarily come with the Glynn Gaggle on a hike?!

We  began on a path that brought us by a river.

I told the kids to find treasures along the way. The 1st thing we found was a tree with all these knob bumbs all over it. The kids thought it was so cool!

We came upon the New Manchester Manufacturing Company. It's an old mill that produced thread, yarn, and cloth in the mid 1800s. The Federal forces captured it and took the workers under arrest. Then they set fire to the entire building by pouring fuel on all 5 floors. The workers were taken to prison in KY and after they swore allegiance to the US, they were set free (most never returned here). Anyway, it was a pretty structure on the water.

The next part was some huge rocks that we had to climb over. Adam kept saying how much fun he was having!

I'm standing on the rocks we climbed to take this picture of them at the bottom.

The following are some random shots of the rest of the hike...

This is our sweet friend, Trish. She is the one who babysat for us while we went to see Robert Earl Keen. The kids LOVE her!!!!
A rest break...
the hike is over and heading back to the car...
We are so proud of the kids. We're not surprised that Hannah was strong the whole way. Abby was head of the pack the whole time and never complained about being out there. Paige was a real trooper and divided her time with everyone. Adam and Jenna both walked almost the entire way. After about 2.5 miles, they began snagging rides on people's shoulders! But they all enjoyed being out there in God's world seeing His handiwork of nature. Chris and I are so pleased with how much and how well they hiked. But they are all pooped and are sleeping soundly tonight!

We can't wait until our next hike!

More Snow Pictures

first thing this morning...

got the kids out before the snow started to melt

Hannah's starting a snowman. Got too cold so they came in. We'll see if he gets finished later.

Schools were cancelled today. It's funny because before today, the kids didn't know that it was ever a possibility to stay home because of weather.

Snowy Fun!

Today we had some snow. I'm not talking a "look hard so you don't miss it" kind of snow. I'm talking "look how HUGE those snowflakes are!" and "is this what a blizzard looks like?" It started out as rain this morning on the way to church. On our way to get some lunch after church, the rain changed a little and had some sleet in it. Then we're in line at the drive through (we finally found a BBQ place that sells decent beef brisket!) and the snowflakes started falling. They were ginormous! But they weren't sticking. By the time we got home, it was snowing harder and it was beginning to stick. It was gorgeous! A blanket of white settled all over. After we ate, we made our first run outside to play. Needless to say, we quickly figured out our clothing is not optimal for a snow outing, but we made do. We came back in and dried off, played the Wii, and just chilled. We went back out 1 more time. Borrowed a sled and had a blast at our neighbor's house. Poor little Jenna Bug was the first to be 'done'. Her little body just doesn't have enough meat on her to keep her warm for long. So we headed in before I was really ready. Not sure what will happen tomorrow - there is a chance of ice during the night, so we'll see if we have a Snow Day. But today was awesome and we had a great time!!!