josh, the scout

Scout Camp. Josh was able to go and had so much fun, well, until he found out that we were going to the pool without him. Two other Mom's in our ward and I went in together to buy the official scout photo cd of our boys @ camp. I am so glad that we went in together. There were close to 6-7 pictures of Josh on it out of 100 or more. I'm just glad that we didn't pay full price...even if it was only $7. It took awhile to get the cd, but it looked like scout day camp was a blast.

I didn't realize that they had activites like archery and BB gun shooting. Those are right up Josh's alley. He earned his arrow, drawn on his scout shirt, for hitting the target in archery. Josh will be the scout that you want with you in the wilderness or at camp. We are thrilled that he loves this stuff!

trek, trek, trek

Lat weekend we had a trek reunion and dance for the youth in our stake. There we were given a disc of photos and the video made of our adventures. Since I forgot my memory card (who does that BTW?!) I only got 10 shots or so, I was thrilled to get the disc of over 1000 photos. I have tried several times to upload more of the ones of our company and our family, but alas, it isn't working out too well. Watching the video reminded me of how I felt while we were there. It was so hot and draining, but in nearly all the photos, people were smiling and happy. Even in our stinkiness, the youth were flirting with each other and making jokes. What good spirits. So without further adieu...enjoy the few pic.s that would be uploaded.

The food was worth standing in line for. The folks who prepared the food did the most excellent job. The first night we cooked our own family meals using dutch oven. Enchiladas. To be honest, I was unsure of how I would digest them, so I opted for a PB &J sandwich. The only bathrooms were the port-a-potties @ base camp and the woods. Now, I am not a port-a-potty fan as it is, but I was happy to use them instead of the woods. Plus, we were so dehydrated from the first day that when we got to camp, all we really wanted was water and fruit. Clyde said that the food was really good.
This photo was from day one. It had been raining for over a week, and hard rains @ that and the ground showed it. The ground was nice and muddy. I was so glad for my Keen boots. They were so priceless for the trek adventure. I am a big Keen fan as it is and they worked miracle of miracles on the trek. Clyde was usually was either in the back or front and I the opposite. This time I was in front trying to determine which side was the least muddy.

Here is our family banner by the end of the trip. I love LOVE this photo. This may be my favorite from the whole experience.

doe a deer

Day 3 of the trek was such a relief. It was so hot and miserable that we were all ready for the trek to be over. We still worked and walked our rears and legs off. No letting up on us, even on day 3. Below are some photos from the 3rd day taken by the Stake leadership.
This is so why I love NC! I fell in love with NC all over again. Look at it's beauty!

Here was our family maneuvering that heavy handcart around the terrain of NC.

I could see the van!!

This was our final rest area. We, all 4 companies were to meet here, and being the first company we had to wait for the remaining 3 to catch up, so that we could all walk together to the finale. This was taken before the baby deer charged one of my trek daughters and myself. That's right a baby deer..."that'll bring us back to doe!"

back to school, back to school

This morning ran smoothly, thanks to Wardling nerves and alarm clocks. They were all ready to flash their pearly whites for their annual first day of school photo.

All except for Jacob. He was too nervous...

And our little Penny was just ready to make a silly face.

Out of order photo...but this was the line this afternoon to pick the boys up from their first day of school...that's right folks, in the street and bumper to bumper to the school.

Libby has been practicing her new locker combinations. After several tries, she has it down. Learning which way to turn them...clockwise, counter clockwise, go around once, or twice and when to keep turning can be tricky. Thankfully she has it down!

Another successful first day of school for J and J. I asked Jacob how his day went and he said, "Well, they didn't teach me how to read today." {with a deep sigh} How cute is he...he actually thought that after today he'd be reading. When I told him that it was a process that he would be learning, he said, "It's just my first day, don't go spreading (meaning spoiling) the surprise!"

Erin and Libby had successful days too! Libby was nervous, but seems to have met a few friends to be. Erin met up with her old pals and enjoyed her new schedule with her old routine of the long drive and rhythm of the school. Clyde did go peek in n them too. I love that they go to Clyde's school. It gives me such comfort! 1 day down, 179 to go...

And finally...we will be going private very, very soon. please leave your email address in a comment or email me cward17@triad.rr.com , if you would like to be extended an invite to continue checking up on all us Wardlings. :)

load 'em up

Off to school in yellow. The girls were late to school on the first day, so that we could all take Josh and Jacob to school.
This pic is out of order, but here is our little jedi in his kindergarten class. There were kids crying hysterically in his classroom. I think that it made Jacob feel better that there were kids who were more afraid than he was. He was very brave and showed much courage today.

It was way hard to leave our little man. One might think that it gets easier, because we are used to having children go to school. It is quite the opposite for us. It has gotten harder with each one going to school. I felt myself tearing up this morning. I had to shake it off, while we walked away.

We are walking our boys into school for their first day.

This was old routine for our Josh. No emotion. He is hitting the age where it is embarrassing to hug Mom or Dad. He hugged us briefly and then waved his "get the crap outta here, before you embarrass me any further" wave with his adorable smile. Oh how we love our babies!!

lighthouse trip

I have posted several photos from our trip, but never really blogged about it. We loved taking the Wardlings to the NC coast. We left bright and early on a Thursday, with Penny as our navigator. GPS, schmi-PS... we have a Penny! We mapped out our route and went old school, with a map. We took side roads, the Route 66, if you will, to get there and loved the trip. We hit the Wright Bro.'s museum in Kitty Hawk. We went on a very hot day and so the walk to the monument was out of the question. The Wardlings were dropping out with heat. We stood @ the bottom of the hill for our photo op. After the Wright Bro's airplanes, we were then off to see the light houses. We started with Bodie. We could go 12 steps into the lighthouse. The Wardlings were thrilled to go inside! As we were pulling into the driveway to Bodie, there were 2 deer in the street that took their time crossing over to get in the brush. That was cool! We ate at a Five Guys burger place that day for lunch and wow...good burgers, but expensive. Word to the wise, if you order fries...get one: the portion size is huge. Then we were off to Hatteras after stopping a bit to run on the beach. Hatteras was awesome. We looked in the gift shop, got some touristy info on the history and bought tickets to go inside the light house. Originally we thought that Jacob would be too small, because there are height restrictions, but after Clyde bought the older 3 Wardlings tickets, he measured Jacob and he was tall enough. Sweet and that made Jacob's day...Penny on the other hand was less than thrilled. She and I waited on the porch of the white house while the rest of the family climbed the 257 steps up to the viewing deck. It was windy and scary @ the top they said, when they got back down.

After Hatteras, we were off to find the next light house...Ocracoke. We had to take a ferry to get to the Ocracoke Island. That was loads of fun. It was a short ferry ride, a mere 40 minutes, but fun enough to get the children out of the car and walking. Once on the Ocracoke Island it took us a bit to find the light house. It was quite literally off the road, on some hidden dirt drive. We couldn't go into Ocracoke Lighthouse, but I think it was my favorite. I loved Ocracoke Island. It had that Stars Hollow feel to it. Small town. Everyone on bikes. No chain, brand name shops or hotel/motels. Very picturesque. Then we were off to catch the last ferry off the island and that is where our perfectly timed, spur of the moment, fly by the seat of our pants plans ended. Apparently the ferry system wasn't running all of it's scheduled ferry runs and, AND, AND you HAVE TO HAVE A RESERVATION. Did not know that. By this time it was 7pm and so we had 3 choices. 1- make a reservation for the following day 2- find a motel/hotel on Ocracoke Island in 30 minutes, because c- we had to catch the last of the evening ferries to get back on Hatteras Island to find a hotel/motel, without a reservation and on a budget for 7 people. We were tired and cranky @ this point. We chose a combo, making a reservation for the ferry, the following day @ 2pm. We gave ourselves 30 minutes to find a place, and they were all booked or too pricey, so we rushed back to get on the ferry to Hatteras, @ 8pm. It was a 40 minute ferry ride, then we stopped @ several places, that recommended places, that recommended places, until we found the great place we stayed in. Clyde got a key to look at the room, we agreed and the kids, who were dressed in their swimsuits were out of the car and in the pool. We hadn't even officially checked in yet. They had to get out of the car.

Yadda yadda, next day...we swam again in the pool, checked out, took a ferry to take a ferry to get off of Ocracoke Island. Then we drove for hours to get to Myrtle Beach to Grammy and Papa's house. We drove past the USS Battleship in Wilmington and generally fell in LOVE with NC. We had driven for nearly 2 days and hadn't left our home state. The terrain was beautiful! We saw swamps, beaches, oceans, crops, drove over bridges, saw the greenery and fell in love with our state.

What a fun way to spend the last few weeks of summer vacation. We got to hang out for several days in Myrtle Beach and even when the weather let us down, we still had a fun time laughing about it...like the day we headed to the ocean, got there after packing all the garb that one must take to the beach and as soon as we found a spot, the sky fell and the rain dropped on us. The next day we made it back to the ocean, played for 2 hours and then the rain fell again. Oh and the sand. We got sand in places that one should NEVER get sand. I love playing the the ocean, but this time it was creepy because things kept hitting our legs and we couldn't see what they were. Some things were the seaweed and other things we didn't know what they were. I got the willies several times. (I just cringed typing about it!) It was a busy coupla few days but well worth it! I highly recommend the coast of NC as a vacation spot!!

last days of summer

The last week of summer vacation has been spent by the pool. After our daily chores were done, or nearly done, we would go to the pool for a few hours. Some of the time @ the pool was spent jumping off of the diving board...

I have always enjoyed watching the Wardlings play in the pool. I love that they are all old enough to play rougher with in the pool too. I love to fling them around, flip them, throw them, dunk them...generally rough house play in the pool. Some of the time @ the pool was spent in time out too. It seems that my children were absolutely sick of seeing one another. So, they would taunt and tease, kick and splash, dunk and drag each other under the water...a far difference from simple roughhousing in the pool. I think they were happier than I was to go back to school, just to get away from each other. :)

clyde's big day

Clyde's birthday was nearly a month ago...actually exactly a month ago tomorrow. It was on a Sunday this year and after our ward pool party. He had been laying some HUGE hints that he wanted some new New Balance shoes. So, we took care of that. I told the Wardlings that we ordered them and then hid them when UPS delivered them. They were excited to be in on our secret. Everytime Clyde mentioned the shoes or showed them, at least 3.5 of them would turn look at me and giggle. They tried so hard to keep our secret.

The Wardlings exploded with laughter when Clyde opened his present and told him that we had them for several weeks. What was cute, was that All the Wardlings took credit for the shoes, claiming that they had all pitched in money from their money jars to buy Daddy his shoes. :)

I love this photo. It shows off our Penny and how big her Daddy's feet are!

Happy Birthday to our Clyde!!

baby proofing the brown house

summer is coming to a close and i am so excited this week to have the wardlings back in school. a few weeks ago i was really enjoying having them all home, but as of this week, school cannot start early enough. they have just seen way to much of each other. we are bickering @ home, @ the pool, @ the supermarket etc. our latest dilema was last night when libby couldn't go to her activity day girl pool party, due to an H1N1 (swine flu) incident. she is still mad @ me today. when we broke the news to her, tears instantly flowed. we were consoling, apologetic, and tender with her for the rest of the night. we couldn't put our family @ risk nor the 80+ students that clyde would come in contact with. this morning, libby goes on and on about not being able to go and i couldn't take it anymore. i totally flipped. the girls have been @ each others throats in an attempt to be their own person. they all have to share one room and so it gets cramped over the summer. we painted and organized their room and are going to begin work in the boys' room soon. it needs some tlc for sure. school + wardlings = a happy ashley!

jacob is nervous about starting kindergarten. some days he is way psyched and others he would probably attempt climbing back into the womb, so that he wouldn't be able to go. we meet teachers this week. erin is excited to show libby around her new school. josh will be able to keep an eye on his little brother @ school too. we have our new school year supplies, new backpacks, paper all readyh to go. jacob actually spent close to an hour this morning sharpening our pencils for the pencil jar. we have had problems in the past with finding pencils, or sharpened pencils, or crap just the sharpener. so this year we bought an electric pencil sharpener and are swiping a tip from josh's kindergartner teacher. she had 2 cups, one full of sharpened pencils and one to put the dull pencils in. once you have used the pencil lead until it is dull, then you put it, the dull pencil, in the other cup...then once a week or two, they all get sharpened. the cycle starts over again. i think it will be a big success here.

Penny will be the only wardling at home. it felt like an eternity away, just a few years ago thinking of the future when this day would come and here it is. she will not be totally alone though. we will be watching a wee one from church everyday. i think that penny will love her role as a 'big sister' since she isn't one. the little fella is only 7 months old, so it'll be fun to have a baby in the house. and hokey crap do i need to baby proof the brown house...outlet covers, baby gates, saftey locks for the cabinets etc. whew-

i have loads upon loads of photos to post as well...that will most likely get done next week. i have been busy making all sorts of alterations for folks this week and last as well. in the last week, i have altered 2 suit jackets, 2 dresses, 2 skirts, 5 suit pants, and finished up the crib dust ruffle i promised to make, since february. i'd love to have this as a total side job on a regular basis. i am so proud for being able to do such things.

alright...off to the pool on one of our last days of summer vacation. hopefully today will not end up with all the wardlings in some kind of time out for one thing or another, as it was yesterday. go figure.

i'm squishing you

this is one of my favorite pics for this week. any guesses on which light house this is? clue- it is the tallest lighthouse in north america and it is still working.