Brothers- a mini documentary about being a brother

The Best Christmas Ever

We had a great day on Christmas. We just played and played all day. We finally finished opening all the presents after 6 PM.

Merry Christmas

Banjo

I've had some requests for more banjo. These are a little rough, but I wanted to show the kind of stuff I'm working on now.

Sharp Dressed Men

Thanksgiving Holiday

This Thanksgiving Scott was off work for the Holiday and we got to celebrate on the actual day of Thanksgiving. Paul, Tami, Camden and Parker came to our house and we had a great feast.

Now we're enjoying all sorts of turkey left overs.

Spencer got the larger part of the wishbone.

We picked out our Christmas tree this weekend and trimmed it and decorated the house for the season.

This is a picture Clark took of himself. I think he looks like the ghost of Christmas past.

Bethabara

We had a fun time exploring historic Bethabara Park this weekend. This was the original Moravian settlement before they built the city of Salem. Now Winston-Salem is so large that this old settlement is a park and museum inside the city. We did some more letterboxing too. This time we only found one of the three stamps that were hidden out there, but we had a great time exploring.

Twenty-Eighth Birthday

The amazing birthday girl with her fabulous birthday cake

Fall stay-cation

This week Scott had some time off and we decided to stay home and have some fun here. We took the boys to the movies, we went to a couple of halloween parties and did some fun projects at home. We also went on a few short day trips.

We got to check out the Lexington BBQ festival this year. There were wall to wall people in uptown Lexington celebrating BBQ. They had lots going on with live music on four stages, and the kids loved the juggling/ unicycling/ FIRE EATING show. Definitely the best BBQ we tried was from Smokey Joe's.

We had an awesome trip to Stone Mountain. We have some tough boys, they braved cold temperatures with subfreezing wind chill, and climbed the entire trail to the top of Wolf Rock (elev: 2024 ft.) and back (round trip: 3 miles.) It was a spectacular view, and worth the climb!

We went letterboxing around Salem Lake. (This is like a treasure hunt but you're looking for hidden stamps and then you bring your own stamp to leave your mark.) We found three of the four stamps we were looking for. It's actually quite exciting when you find one. Even Spencer liked the search.

Dynamic Duo- Ready for Halloween

Clark and Spencer are very excited about their awesome Halloween costumes

We've all had fun playing with their new costumes.

A visit to the ranch

We got to see, pet, and feed all sorts of different animals at the Lazy 5 Ranch

Chocolate Donut

I wish I could remember the first time I ever had a chocolate frosted donut.

Cherokee

We visited Cherokee, NC during our trip to the Smokeys. The main attraction was the replica Cherokee Indian village. We got a personal tour of the village and demonstration of many of the traditional Cherokee crafts including a blowgun demonstration!

Scott and the boys sitting with the Blue clan. There are seven clans in every Cherokee village- Long Hair, Wolf, Deer, Wild Potato, Paint, Bird and Blue. The Blue clan were the healers of the village.

Spencer got the Chief's seat. Our guide asked him if he was a peace chief or a war chief- of course, our son answered - "WAR"

After we finished at the Indian village we spent some time at the Island Park. This was Jen and Spencer crossing the mighty Oconaluftee River. This was actually a very daring feat for a pregnant lady carrying a kid and a backpack.

More than meets the eye

The boys are really into their tranformers lately. Granddad and Grandma stopped by and added more fuel to the fire with two new transformers. Here are all of Clark's big Autobots. Spencer actually prefers the Decepticons because he loves to fly them around. He can frequently be heard singing "meets the eye... meets the eye..." (That's the only part of the song he knows.)

A case for yurting

A yurt is a traditional Mongolian hut, that has been adapted for use here; resulting in a unique outdoor experience.
We just got back from a trip to the Smokey Mountains and one of the coolest things we did there was stay in a yurt.

Jen in the yurt village. (There were 8 in all, but the place was empty since we visited in the off season.)

Scott outside of yurt #8, Gorge Yurt

This is the roomy interior of our Yurt.

And this was our view!

Another Boy, Hooray!

Jen had an ultrasound last week and we found out that we're expecting another brother. Everyone is very excited. Clark wants to name him Clark, but we're thinking we might be able to come up with something else.

Grape Season

We planted these grapes on our arbor last year and they have really been prolific.

We've eaten as many as we can, and then made some grape jelly, we've frozen bunches and bunches and now we're experimenting with making raisins.

Brothers- 2 years apart

The boys are commonly confused for twins, (5 times this week alone.) Recently, Clark answered when somebody asked if they were twins, "No, but Spencer likes to do what I do."

Independence Day

We celebrated the Fourth of July at home with some sparklers and a water-balloon reenactment of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Caution! 2 Year Old on the Premises

The boys have gotten into a recent routine of dancing in their room at night before bedtime. We've tried to capture them on video several times, since they are so cute. Tonight, Spencer had a different idea.

VACATION!!

This week Scott got off work and we had a great vacation exploring North Carolina.

After treating Jen to a great Mother's day, the first trip we took was to the NC Zoo.

Spencer really loved looking at the snakes. Sssss!

Then we went to Ingram's Strawberry farm and came home with a haul of berries, with plenty to snack on and enough to make a year's supply of yummy preserves.

Next we took a trip to the North Carolina high country. We did all kinds of amazing things at Grandfather Mountain

Like crossing the world's tallest swinging bridge, spanning two mountain peaks.

Feeding the bears.

And taking an adventure hike in the mountains.

Even the weather was pretty amazing.

Next we spent a day at the Tweetsie railroad.

And we got to ride lots of attractions.

And we finished off the week with a night of real NASCAR racing.

Happy Birthday Clark

Clark is now 4!

Clark had a Transformer theme birthday party this weekend. He got a lot of fun new toys.