Camping

Our family has decided to do something fun every year on the anniversary of William's death. This year we decided to go camping in the Arbuckle Mountains. We had so much fun! 

The kids really enjoyed roasting marshmallows around the campfire!

There was an armadillo that kept coming to our camp during the night and waking several people up.  He kept jumping up and hitting his head on the luggage tray for the van and scaring himself!  Despite that we were all packed up and ready to go at a decent time because we wanted to do a little exploring around the site before we headed to our next destination.

I could not get warm! I enjoyed sitting by the fire resting my eyes. :)

Andrew wanted to climb a tree so bad!

Our next stop was unplanned, but we all had a fun time at Little Niagara.

With all the crossing of the falls, we did have just a few slips here and there.  So we hung some pants out the window so they could dry before we got to Turner Falls! 😂

We were laughing about how funny we must look to other people, a great, big van with 5 pair of pants flapping out the window.  Mommy said she's sure it must happen to other people but Abby said that even though it's happened to us on numerous occasions, she's NEVER seen any other car driving down the road with pants hanging out the window!  Hmmmm...

When you're so close who can resist a fried pie?!

We spent the rest of our day at Turner Falls. The first thing the boys wanted to do was hike up to see the "castle" ruins.

The falls are so beautiful and the sound of the rushing water is calming.  It's interesting that last year we picked a place that is usually busy, but we were the ONLY people in the park.  Every time we've been to Turner Falls it's been really busy, but today we only saw people occasionally.  It was nice to have the place almost entirely to ourselves.

I don't know what he was doing at this time... 😳

We spent the rest of the day hiking around the falls and looking for the caves that were nearby.

Daddy found this cave but it was too steep for everyone to make it up.  You can barely see him standing there!

We did find a cave! It was a little difficult to get to and it took a lot of team work, but we all made it (even Bandit & Maya)!

We found a fun playground for the kids to play on after we got back down.

We had to walk through this freezing water to get back to the car! I was so happy that I didn't slip!

Andrew - poor guy skinned his nose last week...

Titus

Adelina

Knox

Calvin

Wallace

Selah

Elly

Sherrod

Sydnee

Abby

Me

Our wonderful parents

Thank you all for the thoughts, prayers, and sweet messages that you've sent today. It's incredibly hard to believe that it's been two years since William flew home. We continue to miss him greatly, but we are grateful for your continued love and support.

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." Eph 6:10

posted by Sarah