Petroglyphs, Easter Duds & Egg Dying!

We were lucky to have Thane's sister (Honey) and her kids come and visit us. They stayed with us while her girls danced in a competition. During one of their breaks between dancing and award ceremonies. We decided to go to Little Black Mountain and show them the Native American Petroglyphs. We had a blast hiking and posing for pictures.

                                        Amara and Sabria                                Tiernan and Monica

Here are just a few of the many rocks with these awesome drawings on them.

Just hangin' out and goofin' off!  Sinjin, Sabria, Amara, Xander, Tiernan and Monica.  Tait and Tony are off hiking alone.

Here the kids are on the Sunday before Easter in their new Easter outfits.  Okay, the girls had new clothes, the boy's didn't, sorry boy's there are just not many options when your dad likes you to wear a white shirt to Church :)

My Girls, aren't they sweet?

My Boy's, Handsome as ever!!!

Now, time to dye the eggs!!!  We started out with a blank canvas!

Here are our "paints".

Artist Sinjin hard at work, he loved doing it all by himself.  He ended up with all his eggs looking the same cause he had to dip every egg in each cup :)

Tiernan made an egg to match her favorite shirt!

Amara the little artist.  She had fun coloring the eggs with the clear crayon before dipping them.

Tait, intense egg dying going on here... shhhhhhhh!

Our finished masterpieces!

I love Easter, and taking pictures of eggs :D

Giddyup Horsie!

Our good friends co-own the cutest little white pony named Comet!  My kids (especially Amara) have been dying to see her!  Amara and Tiernan talk about horses all the time, and every time it's a holiday, Amara asks for a horse.  So our friends let us tag along to one of their daughters riding lessons and watch.  Little did we know that they were going to be able to ride her...

Here are the kids hangin' out on the gate.  Don't they look right at home? I definitely have some rancher blood in me because my mom and most of her ancestors lived on ranches.  I love the atmosphere of livin' off the land, hard work, team work, and taking care of what you have.  I'd be perfectly content listening to a fiddle or guitar and singing the night away like my mom did when she was a child, sharing a one room cottage with her family and grandparents.  What great memories she has and I am so blessed to know about her and her family.  Amara's middle name is Violet, the name of my mothers mother.  My mom say's Amara is just like her in every way.  Maybe that's why she loves horses and animals so much.  Violet's mother also loved animals so much that it is very rare to find a picture that she doesn't have a dog, sheep, horse or rooster with her.

Amara is in heaven!


There she goes!  Have fun Amara!


Tiernan's turn!


Could you just die at how cute Sinjin is in this over sized helmet?


What a cute cowboy!

Thanks Rountrees!  We love you!

Ready, Set, GO!

It was time for the annual Pine Wood Derby on March 17, 2010.  This was Tait's very last time to make a Pine Wood Derby car because he will be turning 11 soon, wait, did I just say my son would be 11!!  Where did the time go?  Anyway, he made a new car, but when we got there to test it against his old truck from last year, he found out his truck was faster!  Here are a few snapshots of the evening...

Dad helping super glue the weights to Tait's new car.  It's pretty spiffy huh?  Tait sanded it, painted it and dad helped put the wheels and weights on.  Thank goodness for super glue. (and duck tape, right)  We would actually have to take our kids into the doctor to get stitches with out it ;D  Yes you heard me, Thane super glues our kids cuts!

Here is a photo finish race, Tait's trusty old truck is in the lead!

Ok, any of you that know Tait, you will be LOL at this picture.  He gets so excited about things like this.  I know the picture is kind of freaky, but it just captures his personality so well.  He had just placed his car on the track and was running up to the finish line and he had to do his signature "Jump 'n Clap" :D

Amara, Daddy and Mommy watching the races on the front row.

A Ride to Remember!

The office that Thane works for owns a Limo, so Thane promised the kids that we would borrow it one day and go for a ride! The first time we went to borrow it, it had been taken by someone else, so they were really disappointed! But this time, it worked out! We went out with our friends, the McAffee's (who's dad also works with Thane) to to Pirate Island Pizza. The kids were so excited, they were having so much fun rockin' out to music in the back. My friend Britin and I sat back there with them and just enjoyed the ride. Thane was the chauffeur and Aaron was his co pilot, since it's just like taxiing an airplane on a runway with that thing!

Here is the "Kraken".  The hugest pizza you'll ever see!  The slices were as big as my kids heads!


After dinner and playing in the arcade, we headed over to Baskin Robins for some yummy ice cream. Of course we had to drive around the city to be able to pull into the parking lot LOL! We had a blast! Thanks McAffee's!