Hike to King's Chair

Davis and I completed this hike in December, and I have been wanting to bring the family since then.  And now that we were in a quarantine and missed our planned trip to the USS Alabama, we decided instead to hike 1.8 miles up double oak mountain to "King's Chair".  I took up the caboose position to make sure we did not go to fast for anyone, and our fearless leader up the hill was Ruby.  We did not think anything about this until a snake crawled within inches of her foot slithering across the path right in front of her.  Sam saw it, and Ruby did pretty good, she stopped walking, screamed "snake", then slowly took a few steps back.  We did not get a picture of that one, but it was pretty large.  At the top on King's Chair, we took a few pictures (haha, you should have felt Ruby's hands as she got close to the edge for the pictures...they were soaking wet), then headed back to a shaded spot along the ridge where we had our bible study and rest.  I also found out that 6 bottles of water was not enough for 6 people hiking almost 4 miles...especially when bottle #6 was Magan's frozen bottle she uses to rub on her aching foot.  Davis and I tried the "foot water" and it was fine, but I am thinking again that we should have had more non foot water.  After the bible study, we tossed the frisbee around a little, rested a little (Magan and Belle played a travel game she had brought up in her backpack...and I wish I could have captured the giggles from that little Belle as mom rolled a 1 and 2 every time), then made our way back down.  Ruby has become really attached to big brother Sam, and reminds me often that he will leave for college soon.  She is right, it will be here before you know it, and it's why I try to help them recognize how great each day is, especially right now isolated together.  We are making new memories every day, and this one was another nice one that I am glad we captured.  Oh, and Sam found another snake (pictured below) on out trip back down the mountain.  

Quarantine Home Improvements

Stuck at home and the "to-do" lists start getting finally knocked off.  So far, we have laid out pinestraw, painted 3 rooms and a hallway, painted the garage doors, laid out 1/2 pallet of sod, cut down 4 trees, and multiple rearrangements.  The kids have done great, and been helping alot.  Just a few pictures below...

The COVID-19 Quarantine Begins (March ATH)

So what went on last month during the first few weeks of quarantine...facebook went crazy with people trying to capture the funniest things.  Ruby and Belle play barbies almost every day at random places throughout the yard...The tent was used for a campout, and a barbie play house...Ruby played doctor trying to get some additional health care worker tax incentives...Ruby and Belle followed Mo Williams drawing instruction...Davis does crazy stuff everywhere he goes...walks around the neighborhood...oreo is the new baby doll...The soupy soup shop was open for business again...zoom meetings with school friends, church friends, and scouting friends...Social distance hugs with Linley...and Sam fixed my ladder with his 3D printer.  We are blessed with a job I can do from home, and each day has just been another fun surprise at different things we can do together.  There was an amazing game of spades, where Magan basically had a mental breakdown when Sam played a nil hand incorrectly as a partner.  There have been several learning games of Hearts.  Scrabble came out, and we all realized that it is very difficult to build if every word is only 3 letters.  And just a few random stories below:

The ladder story was pretty good, and worthy of more than the small statement above.  Sam noticed that my ladder was wobbling.  To me, that is not something I worry about, to him it was something that could be fixed.  So he took a piece that had not broken off the leg, measured it, and designed in his cad program a replacement to be printed.  And it worked...perfectly.  So again, I thanked Sam thinking that was pretty cool, I should be good now.  Then he looked at the other legs and said, "Well, these are worn too, I'll print 3 more, and it will be perfectly level".  And he did, and it now is...and I am very excited to see what that guy will do with the skills he has been blessed with.  

Belle stubbed her finger for the first time today..."Mom it's swelling, I can't see lines in my finger...IT LOOKS LIKE A HOTDOG".

Ruby was playing the game of "LIFE" with me during our game time, and started the game with a boy driver.  I told her she is a girl, she should have a pink person.  She explained to me that boys are the drivers.  A feminist just like her mama.  :)