One of my favorite places on earth!!
(Click on photos to enlarge for a much better view!)
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Scenic Sunday - #18
One of my favorite places on earth!!
(Click on photos to enlarge for a much better view!)
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Photo Hunt #157 - Stripes
At first I wasn't sure what to put down for stripes, but then I saw these photos from our trip to Disney and thought they were perfect, especially the last one!!
Zachary, Hannah and Tigger...
Hannah and Piglet....
these two are SO much alike it's not funny!!
You can't live in American and hear the word 'stripes' without thinking of our flag! I took this photo outside the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum down in Georgia. I still get chills when I see it and think of all the men who have served, especially those who have given their lives, for our freedom.
Thursday, October 07, 2010
"Elementary my dear Watson... elementary"
We planned a day trip to go visit Gillette Castle, and despite the rainy weather, we had a great time! Actually the dreary weather was quite appropriate while visiting this 'creepy' castle. It's not the type of building you'd think of when you think 'castle'...it was built to look a little run down and rough along the edges. It's not a romantic place either, it's kinda eerie, yet the rain just made it more fitting.
This castle was built by William Gillette, the stage actor or portrayed Sherlock Holmes. He lived here back in the early 1900's with his 15-20 cats and as you can tell, he was quite an eccentric gentleman!
Here are Zachary (in brown jacket) and Hannah (in purple jacket), standing beside the castle sign with some of the other kids in our homeschool group.
Very cool gate near the entrance. The stone work was absolutely amazing, both inside and out!
View of the castle from the ground...sorry about the rainy white spots...the rain was kind of misty so it got my lens wet.
The back section of the castle where the greenhouse is.
Inside the front door...pretty impressive 'foyer' huh?
Very cool glass window....I imagine on a bright sunny day this looks even more beautiful!!
This is where you end up after walking into the castle from the foyer...
The 'living room'...
The beautiful fireplace...
Our family posing beside the main stairway...
Gillette's library
Gillette's office...where there were multiple doors (of multiple sizes). The place was FILLED with so many unique things. I've been here before and every time I go, I see new things...it's more like a 'fun house' than a castle. ha ha
The kiddos in the greenhouse...complete with pond where Gillette used to keep two 'pet' frogs...
Upstairs hallway. Even the light fixtures were pretty cool! The halls were narrow and quite dangerous, so I guess it's good that Gillette had no children. Can you imagine your kids running in the halls here? They get knocked out cold by the stones protruding from the walls!
One of the three (yes, only three) bedrooms...complete with full bath though, which in those days was quite rare!
Another bedroom. (All the dressers were built in and had very unique features...strange handles, cubbies etc.)
Some of the items Gillette used while on stage....carpet bag, binoculars, his violin and a pair of veryweird looking 'girly' slippers. ha ha
Yup, that's me heading down the back stairway from the 3rd floor.
View of the back stairs from the bottom floor
Back outside, it was still raining, but I managed to capture some decent photos. My husband took this one of me holding our very cool umbrella. Gotta love the colors!!
Hopefully we will get back up there someday just to walk around the gardens. The whole area is a 21 acre state park, so it's worth another trip.
Today it's back to school and our daily activities as usual....figure skating for Hannah, violin lessons for Zachary and cleaning up the house for me. It was such a nice break from all that yesterday, even if it did rain.
Til next time...
This castle was built by William Gillette, the stage actor or portrayed Sherlock Holmes. He lived here back in the early 1900's with his 15-20 cats and as you can tell, he was quite an eccentric gentleman!
Here are Zachary (in brown jacket) and Hannah (in purple jacket), standing beside the castle sign with some of the other kids in our homeschool group.
Very cool gate near the entrance. The stone work was absolutely amazing, both inside and out!
View of the castle from the ground...sorry about the rainy white spots...the rain was kind of misty so it got my lens wet.
The back section of the castle where the greenhouse is.
Inside the front door...pretty impressive 'foyer' huh?
Very cool glass window....I imagine on a bright sunny day this looks even more beautiful!!
This is where you end up after walking into the castle from the foyer...
The 'living room'...
The beautiful fireplace...
Our family posing beside the main stairway...
Gillette's library
Gillette's office...where there were multiple doors (of multiple sizes). The place was FILLED with so many unique things. I've been here before and every time I go, I see new things...it's more like a 'fun house' than a castle. ha ha
The kiddos in the greenhouse...complete with pond where Gillette used to keep two 'pet' frogs...
Upstairs hallway. Even the light fixtures were pretty cool! The halls were narrow and quite dangerous, so I guess it's good that Gillette had no children. Can you imagine your kids running in the halls here? They get knocked out cold by the stones protruding from the walls!
One of the three (yes, only three) bedrooms...complete with full bath though, which in those days was quite rare!
Another bedroom. (All the dressers were built in and had very unique features...strange handles, cubbies etc.)
Some of the items Gillette used while on stage....carpet bag, binoculars, his violin and a pair of very
Yup, that's me heading down the back stairway from the 3rd floor.
View of the back stairs from the bottom floor
Back outside, it was still raining, but I managed to capture some decent photos. My husband took this one of me holding our very cool umbrella. Gotta love the colors!!
Hopefully we will get back up there someday just to walk around the gardens. The whole area is a 21 acre state park, so it's worth another trip.
Today it's back to school and our daily activities as usual....figure skating for Hannah, violin lessons for Zachary and cleaning up the house for me. It was such a nice break from all that yesterday, even if it did rain.
Til next time...
Monday, October 04, 2010
Hail!!!
The weather today was so crazy! This morning when I woke up the sun was shining. By noon, it was starting to rain...downpour, actually. I went out on a few errands with Hannah for a little while and only minutes after we arrived home, the heavens opened up! WOW! The rain started, thunder clapped and then HAIL...and LOTS of it!!!!!
Within 5 minutes, our ground was covered!
Once it was over, the kids went outside to see what was left behind. Here's Zachary with a handful of ice...
See how deep it was??? Totally unbelievable! Hannah thought it was so cool. She loves snow in winter, so this was lots of fun for her.
The weird part about this hail?? They were all different sizes (this is a small one Hannah picked up) and they weren't round. It was as if they melded together on their way down and were all lumpy...pretty amazing.
The rain stopped within 20 minutes and again the sky was beautiful. It didn't last long...the clouds rolled in, but there wasn't much more rain. Just a weird weather day overall. If nothing else, it made for an excitement afternoon!!! Rob and I were just glad that it didn't do much damage. The hail was large enough to cause problems, but it was short-lived, so everything (with the exception of a few of our plants) was fine. Phew!
Hopefully we'll have some 'normal' crisp, clear autumn weather in the days to come. I'm SO ready for it!
Within 5 minutes, our ground was covered!
Once it was over, the kids went outside to see what was left behind. Here's Zachary with a handful of ice...
See how deep it was??? Totally unbelievable! Hannah thought it was so cool. She loves snow in winter, so this was lots of fun for her.
The weird part about this hail?? They were all different sizes (this is a small one Hannah picked up) and they weren't round. It was as if they melded together on their way down and were all lumpy...pretty amazing.
The rain stopped within 20 minutes and again the sky was beautiful. It didn't last long...the clouds rolled in, but there wasn't much more rain. Just a weird weather day overall. If nothing else, it made for an excitement afternoon!!! Rob and I were just glad that it didn't do much damage. The hail was large enough to cause problems, but it was short-lived, so everything (with the exception of a few of our plants) was fine. Phew!
Hopefully we'll have some 'normal' crisp, clear autumn weather in the days to come. I'm SO ready for it!
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Bible Quizzing
Zachary has been on our church's Bible quiz team now for 3 years. Each year, he improves just a little bit, but this year he's doing extremely well! We are SO very proud of him. The teens are studying the book of John this year (last year it was I & II Corinthians, two years ago it was Luke, and the year before that, it was Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon.) It's such a great thing to see your teenage son walk around the house with the Bible in his hand while studying so intently!!
They had their first quiz meet of the year last weekend and they did pretty well. There weren't many teams there, but they still had a LOT of fun! Here are a few photos:
Zachary, getting in some last minute studying before quizzing begins.
Part of our church team...ready to quiz.
Zachary answering one of the questions. During this particular quiz, he got 3 in a row...woo hoo...way to go Zachary!!!
Jumping for yet another question. Keep in mind, these kids are quick! They hear one word (or actually 'part' of one word) and jump to answer the question before most of us adults would even be able to process it! Ahh, youth!
Here is the team enjoying a bit of fun and games before lunch. These are truly a great group of kids!!! I'm so glad Zachary is enjoying quiz team so much this year.
A few more photos....
I look forward to seeing how the team does this year. Even if they don't win first place like they did last year (at Nationals!!!), they are still #1 in my eyes. These teens are treasuring God's Word as they continue to hide it in their hearts. I pray that Zachary will always keep it with him as he grows into the man God intends for him to be. I'm so proud of him already...can't wait to see how much more he grows over the years.
P.S. Thanks to Coach Mark for a few of the photos above. Most are mine, but I have to give credit where credit is due. =)
They had their first quiz meet of the year last weekend and they did pretty well. There weren't many teams there, but they still had a LOT of fun! Here are a few photos:
Zachary, getting in some last minute studying before quizzing begins.
Part of our church team...ready to quiz.
Zachary answering one of the questions. During this particular quiz, he got 3 in a row...woo hoo...way to go Zachary!!!
Jumping for yet another question. Keep in mind, these kids are quick! They hear one word (or actually 'part' of one word) and jump to answer the question before most of us adults would even be able to process it! Ahh, youth!
Here is the team enjoying a bit of fun and games before lunch. These are truly a great group of kids!!! I'm so glad Zachary is enjoying quiz team so much this year.
A few more photos....
I look forward to seeing how the team does this year. Even if they don't win first place like they did last year (at Nationals!!!), they are still #1 in my eyes. These teens are treasuring God's Word as they continue to hide it in their hearts. I pray that Zachary will always keep it with him as he grows into the man God intends for him to be. I'm so proud of him already...can't wait to see how much more he grows over the years.
P.S. Thanks to Coach Mark for a few of the photos above. Most are mine, but I have to give credit where credit is due. =)
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