Built around 1750, Fort Dobbs was the only fort built to protect the North Carolina colony from Indian attack during the period of the French and Indian War. Today, all that is left is a grassy field but you can imagine what the fort must have looked like.  The local, historical preservationist have recently received a grant to rebuild the fort, but, until then, events such as todays will be held to give us a reminder of what life was like in the middle to late 1700s.

Look at the size of that gun!!  We were standing about 30 feet away when it was fired and the very ground shook!

All over the grounds demonstrations were building held.  This one focused on the military firearms used to defend the fort.

A surveyor's table

Men like George Washington and Daniel Boone were needed to map out this new land that England was colonizing.

When this land was chosen to be the site of a British fort, the militia was told to make temporary cabins to live in while the fort was being built.  Here is a cabin that the local historians have built similiar to the ones built over 250 years ago. 

Everywhere you looked there were tents with people dressed in period costume displaying some aspect of life from the 1700s.  This man was entertaining us with his dulcimer.

It was expensive to purchase cloth from the local general store.  Most colonialists made their own cloth (homespun) from wool that they had sheered, cleaned, carded, and spun. 

This gentleman had a whole cart full of period instruments...harp, violin, and flute to name a few.  His music could be heard all over the site as we wondered around.

You can't have a recreation of a French and Indian fort without Indians.  We learned about the different food that the local Indians ate.  He is holding up sassafras roots which was used to help make sassafras tea. We noticed that the Indians had a lot of facial jewelry (hanging under the nose as well as from the ears). It is believed that the Indians believed that these pieces of shiny jewelry protected them from evil spirits.  The facial paint was also used as a means to protect them from evil spirits.

A lot of detail and thought was put into the dress of the living historians. 

This man was telling us about how books were made during this time. 

The children and I saw this lady walking around camp carrying her buckets of produce.  When we stopped her and asked if we could take a picture of her, we noticed the collar around her neck.  She explained that she was an indentured servant and was selling produce for her master.  She then let the children and me feel how heavy her burden was first by just holding it but when we put it on our backs the load was very manageable.

This blacksmith has a portable forge.  He was making bayonets when we stopped to visit with him.

Historians were everywhere explaining the events of the day.

When we arrived at the fort, Indians were attacking.  They killed one colonialist, scalped him,and then tied up another and carted him off into the woods.

We had so much fun.  I love living history.  I was worried that the children would not like today's field trip but they were engaged the minute we arrived and never got bored.  I am so grateful for these historians that bring our history to life.

It is finally Bryce's Birthday!!!

I know he never thought this day would get here.  For months he has been counting down the days and when Brian's birthday came Bryce could hardly wait for his to arrive.

Now it is here. 

He began the day, by opening his first present (Bionicle) with dad before Todd went off to school.

We then went to co-op and Bryce would have to wait till all of our co-op classes were over.  Fortunatlyfor him, his co-op class was going on a field trip to meet Johnny Appleseed at Windy Hill Farms, in South Carolina.  He and two other boys went with the teacher and rode on a hay ride, picked apples and got to listen to Johnny Appleseed in person.  He had so much fun and it made the day go by a lot faster.  He then had to endure Shakespeare practice before his party could begin.  Finally, at 5pm Bryce and his buddies were able to celebrate with pizza pockets, cake, ice cream and presents.  Can you guess what he got???  Yep.....Bionicles.

Here are a few pics from the day.

Striking a pose with the birthday boy.

Bryce took foorrreevvveerrr to make his wish.  I don't know what he wished for but I hope it comes true for as long as it took him to make it.

Finally, he blew his candles out in one blow.

The boys had fun putting together all the bionicles and playing outside with them.

Happy Birthday Bryce!!!

We love you.

For those of you that have been following along, you can breathe a sigh of relief with me in that we now have gas.

Yesterday, afternoon my husband called to tell me that he had heard that the town 15 miles down the road had gas.  This was good news because this is also where we get our groceries.  So...off we went.  I was nervous at first as we passed station after station that was empty (at least five of them.)  However, the Raceway Gas Station was up and running with no lines to wait in.  We were so excited.  They didn't even limit the amount we needed. 

By the end of the day, we had a full tank of gas, cupboards full of food, and full hearts.  Thank you God.

Isn't it amazing how something can weigh you down until it affects every aspect of your day.

You would think that I could separate our gas crisis from our normal school day, but I found that all day yesterday it continued to weigh on me.  I couldn't help but to think of all the things that I need to do but feel that I can't.

We need food.  It is the end of the month and the cupboards are bare, literally.  Books that I need for this weeks topics have just arrived at the library.  Bryce's birthday is this Friday and I have one last present to get him.  AWANA tomorrow night.  What do I do? 

As of yesterday morning the stations in town were empty.  Do I take the risk and drive 15 miles down the road to get groceries and hope that the stations there have gas? What if they don't?  Then will I have enough gas to make it to AWANA?  I am a director and teacher.  People are dependent on me to be there.

Before I knew it, I was in a bad mood.  My temper was short.  I was not very tolerant of my children's normal Monday, "don't want to get back in to school" mode.  AAGGHHH!!!

I finally decided after our school work was done to head into town which is only 3 miles away.  We went to the library and borrowed our books. On our way to the grocery store we saw a gas truck.  With high hopes we headed to the grocery store and passed the gas station which was now full of gas and full of cars.  Within that few minutes the roads were all ready blocked.  By the time we got out of the grocery store, chaos reigned.  NO ...I don't think I want to get involved.  I now have a little over a quarter of a tank.  I can still make it to AWANA and will pray that by Thursday I can find gas.  I will even wait in line if have to.  Maybe I will bring my camera and take a picture of this historic time.  

I don't know about anywhere else in the Great States but there is no gas in the southeast.

As I listen to the news, read the papers, and drive around our county, I feel as if we have entered the twilight zone.  Everywhere you go there is no gas at any stations.  Those who receive gas are bombarded with desperate people hoping to fill up.  Lines are formed stretching down the main roads, police are called out to direct traffic or settle disputes, and a feeling of hopelessness fills the air.  For me personally, I am thankful that I have a half tank and the children and I have decided that we don't need to go anywhere, so we are staying at home to conserve our fuel.  We had plans for this weekend but we have called them all off.  Todd was blessed when he went to the station, because he arrived at the same time as the gas truck to fill up the tanks.  Todd was able to fill up and he is set for the next week.  I figure that if things don't get any better, than Todd can have my half tank when he runs out. 

According to the news reports, our area will be receiving a shipment of gas today, but by the way everyone is acting, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a massive run on the stations.  I think we will stay home. 

Our co-op was called off today because some moms were on empty and no one wants to use up what gas they have.  We will spend our day catching up on schoolwork and have a movie/game day at home. 

I don't know about you, but I feel that God is using another method to catch our attention.  Remember 9/11?  Due to that horrific attack on our country, many people turned to God.  Now God is using another tactic to get our attention.  Financially, our country is in a mess - financial institutes are failing right and left, prices for gas, food, etc are continually going up, foreclosures are becoming the norm - We are having to reprioritize our lives.  What do we really need in life?  God  That is all.  It is times of crisis that we learn to fully lean on Him.  It is a shame that we need to be reminded of our need for Him but fortunately for us, God is full of grace and mercy.

May we use these times to share God's Word and His message of salvation.

My crew is always hungry.

  It seems that everytime that I take a moment to get my breath, everyone is begging for a snack. 

Today was no exception.

As I looked through my bare cupboards and frig. I remembered all that zucchini that I grew and froze this summer.  To everyones delight we made Zucchini Pie.  It may sound disgusting but it is very delicious. 

Bryce decided that he wanted to help me.  My little guy, who is not so little anymore, eagerly climbed up on the kitchen chair and did his best to add the ingredients for his favorite pie.  After a crushed egg and spilt milk we finally got all the ingredients put together and Bryce blended them well.  He had so much fun and I made sure that I did not loose my patience at all of his mishaps. 

Here is the recipe if you ever want to try it.

Zucchini Pie

1 cup cooked zucchini (I place a cup in a microwave safe dish with a little water,cover and cook for 2 minutes, then drain.)

1 cup sugar

1 cup evaporated milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 Tbsp Butter

2 Tbsp flour

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.

Pour into an unbaked pie shell.

Sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg

Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then turn oven to 350 and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until done.  It usually takes another 25 minutes instead of 15.

Enjoy

Happy Birthday Brian

Brian celebrated his birthday a day early this year.

His buddies all came over to the house and filled themselves up with pizza and cake. 

After a rousing song of "Happy Birthday"...

Brain blew out the candles....

And opened up his gifts...Bionicles, Bionicles, and more Bionicles.  Can you tell Brian likes Bionicles?

Happy Birthday!

Our first field trip of the year was to the Latta Plantation in Huntersville, NC.

Latta Plantation was built in 1800.  On the plantation is the original house, barn, slave cabins, kitchen, and other out buildings. 

On this particular day, the Latta Plantation was having its HomeSchool Day.  Several families from our co-op met up there to see what life was like in the 1800s.  This is very nice for us as our focal point for this year is the 1800s. 

We started off this year learning about the French Revolution and Napoleon.  We then looked at the presidency of John Adams, the Industrial Revolution, Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase.  For literature, Brian just finished the Diary of an Early American Boy, Noah Blake.  It is great to take what we have learned about in books and see it with our own eyes.

On our tour of the house, a young woman was sitting in the front room spinning yarn (thread).  The people who "work" on site are dressed in period costume and talk as if they live there.  Most of these people are fellow homeschoolers. In fact my good friend Lori and her children were all there that day dressed in costume. 

Bonnie has asked if she can work at the plantation as well.  We are in process of seeing if she and I can work on site.  I hope so.

Here are some pictures of that day.

Here are just some of our homeschool friends ready to enter the gates of the Latta Plantation.

The Latta House has only four rooms.  Nothing like you would think of when you hear the word plantation.  Downstairs there are two medium size rooms.  Upstairs are two and a half bedrooms (Parent's room and children's room).  In the half room is the loom used to make their fabric.  I was not able to get any pictures because photography was not allowed.  Sorry

Behind the Latta House is the Kitchen House.

For obvious reasons the kitchen was separated from the main house - heat, risk of fire, etc. 

The woman doing the demonstration is my friend Lori.  Here six year son is quietly sitting there while she explains how food was cooked during the 1800s.  Lori is also our Shakespeare director that I have told you about.

It was very hot in the kitchen.

The boys were quite curious about all the things in the kitchen.

There are all sorts of animals on the plantation - chickens, cows, horses, donkey, and sheep. 

Besides history, we also had a science lesson.  How do you start a fire without matches? We saw this gentleman farmer start a fire using 19th century tools.

Bonnie hopes to volunteer at the Latta House like her friend here.

One of the activities on site was to make games that children played in the 1800s.  Here the children and I are making an Alphabet Dice game similar to the game Boggle that we play today.

Brian couldn't resist taking a picture of all the tools hanging up in the barn.

More friends to enjoy the day with.

Cotton is still grown on the plantation to show us what the crop looked like.  The children noted that it was green seed cotton; the type that Eli Whitney worked with when he created his cotton gin.

Two other demonstrations on site were an old school house and a gunsmith. 

We had so much fun.  We have several more field trips planned in the next month.  All of them focus on life from 1760 to the 1800s.  I can't wait to share them all with you.

This year, Todd decided to join the football coaching staff.  This is a first for him.  Even in officiating, Todd never officiated football.  He is learning just like the players, but he is having a good time. 

We are getting to know the coaches and their wives as well as Todd is getting to know his students in a different light.

One of the exciting things that has come of Todd coaching is that he has found a job for Brian on the football team.

Brian has been given the job of "Retriever of the Football Tee" after kick off. 

This is great!!!  With Brian's new job, he is allowed at all the practices to be available to "Retrieve the Football Tee" and then he gets to stand with the team during games to "Retrieve the Footballl Tee."  He is pretty proud of his new job.  This is also been a great motivator to finish his school work on time so that he can make it to practice every day. 

I was able to get  a few pictures from his last game. 

Todd is getting Brian and Brennan (another coach's son) ready to do their job.  On this occasion, Brian was given the task to hand the football over to the official while Brennan retrieved the football tee.

Needless to say, Brian is having a blast.

We were fortunate to spend this past Labor Day with our good friends, Elwin and Myrna.

We drove a couple of hours north, almost to the Virginia border, to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

By the time we reached the parkway the children were famished so we stopped at Jeffries State Park to picnic and take a short hike to see the cascades.

Don't believe the look on Elwin's face!!  He has more energy than the children put together.

The Blue Ridge Mountains are quite beautiful.  In a couple of weeks, traffic on the parkway will be heavy as people from all over come to drive through the mountains and see all the trees in their fall colors.

After leaving the state park, we continued down the parkway to the summit of Mt. Jefferson.  We then hiked to the very top.  What a view!!  On one trail we learned of a group of people who lived on this mountain in the early 1800s.  These people were completely isolated from the rest of America.  In fact, they created their own state with their own laws until civilization finally made its way to them with the railroad and turnpikes.  Now all that is left is the trail that they used to carry on their daily lives.

To a mountain boy, such as Todd, I know that the Blue Ridge Mountains are not as majestic as the Cascades but you cannot deny their beauty. 

It is Shakespeare time again!!!

Lori, our home school mom and Shakespear director, has decided to once again direct a Shakespeare play for our home school group.  Yeah!!

This year she is doing two plays again.  The first one is Romeo and Juliet and the second is MacBeth.

Everyone is eager to see what part they will get.  Of course, all the girls are hoping to get the part of Juliet. Bryce was quoting his lines from last year on our way to the first meeting.  He then informed me that he hopes to get someone who dies because he has been working on his falling over dead.  Lori told us moms that she chooses tragedies over comedies because the students would rather die than have to pretend to fall in love with someone.  How true!!

Brian has decided not to do Shakespeare this year, which disappoints me but he is involved in something else which I will share with you later. 

Next week, the students will audition for parts so I am very excited to how it turns out.

We have been have some computer problems here lately. 

I have gone from a computer hater to someone who is discovering how wonderful they are.  Don't get me wrong... I still don't know squat about them.  But I do love all that I am able to do.  I have learned to google everything and am constantly amazed at all the great resources I am finding for school, gardening, canning, cooking, you name it. 

One sight that I visit often has been informing me that my computer is out dated and that I need to upgrade.  All I had to do was click a simple button and I would have a more current running system.  So after seeing this day after day,  I pushed the button.

Well...it seems that my computer was not equipped for any upgrades.  It wasn't long that everything went caplooey.  As Todd said the "blue screen of death has reared its ugly face."   A friend heard of our plight and offered me a computer that she was going to donate to a local charity.  So I am back on line but this is only a temporary fix.  It seems this "new" computer doesn't like my printer and won't talk to it so I can e-mail and compose but I can't print.  Oh well.   

Right now I am still installing programs and trying to bring this computer up to where the other one was.  It will be a slow process so bear with me.

I don't know about your boys but mine our into Bionicles. 

In fact, the other day, Brian was convicted that he was spending too much time thinking about them and not enough about God.  (Praise the Lord, for children who are sensitive to the Holy Spirit's voice.)

After Bonnie had her friends over the boys were feeling in need of having some boy time, so we invited their best buds over who also happen to be Bionicle enthusiasts.

The end result was they all created their own Bionicles and asked to have them photographed and placed on the Bionicle website, but I thought I would share their creations with you as well.

Happy Birthday Bonnie

11 years old

This year Bonnie celebrated her birthday by having some friends come over for a slumber party.  They had so much fun playing and giggling. 

Every year since I was a little girl we celebrated birthdays with a Wilton cake.  Now that I have children I have carried on the tradition of making Wilton cakes for my children.  This year Bonnie chose the castle form for her birthday.  Bonnie made the cake all by herself and helped me decorate the cake.  The boys helped clean up by licking all the icing bowls clean

After cake and ice cream the girls spent the night in our pop-up camper that we had set up in the back yard.  We even put a TV and DVD player in it so they could stay up late and watch movies without disturbing the rest of the family.  The girls enjoyed watching John Wayne (Bonnie's favorite actor) and the High School Musical movies.

It seems that most of the time the girls were playing they were up in a tree having fun.

Happy Birthday Bonnie.

We Love you.

The summer was fun while it lasted but I can't wait for school to get back into swing.  There was a time when I couldn't say that.  I dreaded another year of pushing the children to do their school work and hoping I wasn't "ruining" their lives.  Now, I find myself filled with excitement and anticipation for all the awesome things we are going to learn together.

  What made the difference you ask?  Two things...I would say. 

First is the curriculum.  This will be our second year using the Tapestry of Grace curriculum.  It is a four year study of working your way from Creation to Present day.  As you study history, you learn your geography, read fantastic pieces of literature, and learn to express what you have learned through writing.  It is filled with an extensive vocabulary and it is designed to teach to all age groups. Last year,  I learned so much as we studied ancient history.  I was actually quite intimidated when we first began because I was really fuzzy on our ancient history, but the more we read and then paralleled it with the Bible the more I learned and things all of a sudden made sense to me.  The curriculum is also filled with arts and craft activities which we love.  We made mummy masks and salt maps, models of Greek temples, Egyptian games, food from the middle east, everything we could.  This year we will be skipping the Year 2 curriculum and jumping into Year 3 (this was a co-op decision to benefit our juniors and senior)  which focuses on the 1800s.  Already the children and I have been reading about the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte to prepare ourselves to enter 1800 and all that it holds around the world.  That is the other thing I like about this material.  It doesn't just focus on the US but on what is going on all over the world at the same time and its impact on us.   I can't say enough about Tapestry of Grace.  It does look intimidating at first glance because it has material for all the age groups.  But if you focus on your child's age group you will see that it is very doable.

My second reason why I look forward to school is our Co-op.  Our Co-op is made of at least 12 families who are all using the Tapestry of Grace curriculum. Moms are assigned roles as either host (class is held in her house), teacher, or assistant teacher.  (The host is usually the head teacher.)  We set a schedule that we all adhere to and every Friday we meet together to allow our children to share with one another what they have learned.  What we do is on Friday morning we all meet at a central location which we call the Hub.  (Walmart's Park and Ride)  We then exchange our children with one another.  All the Lower Grammar children (K-2) will get into their groups van, all the Upper Grammar  (3-5) will get into their groups van,  Dialectice (6-8) have a separate van they go to, and Rhetoric (9-12) get in their van.  Then all the mom's take their class to a house where the host mom is waiting for them.  For two and a half hours the children will be with all the children in their age group and will do age appropriate activities based on what they learned that week.  The Grammar students will have a time of history and geography review.  Then they will do some arts and crafts, maybe put together a scrapbook (lapbook) of key people and events that they learned about that week.  They might even practice putting on a skit, acting out what they learned.  The Dialectic group will also spend a time of review, do some arts and crafts, and learn about logic and reasoning.  The Rhetoric group spend a full two hours reviewing and discussing their material.  At the end of our time we load every one back into their vehicles and head back to the Hub where we retrieve our children.  At the end of each nine weeks, we have a pot luck or celebration as Tapestry of Grace calls it, and the children put on display the things they have made, perform plays or skits, recite poems, etc to showcase what they have learned those nine weeks.  This is a time that we encourage dads, grandparents, and friends to attend.  This year we are adding  writing teachers into the mix.  Two moms are using the Institute for Excellence in Writing material and will be working with each group, teaching them how to write and assigning them their writing for the week.  Then our children will come home and they have to complete their writing assignment for co-op.  Co-op gives the children the peer pressure they need to do their work, knowing that they are going to be held accountable for having their work completed on time.  It also put the pressure on us moms to stay on task and make sure we are doing all that we can do to teach our children. 

Tapestry of Grace covers history, geography, writing, reading, and vocabulary.  For spelling we are using Spell to Read and Write which is for all three children.  For math and language we are still using ABEKA. 

Our Science this year will be Apologia's Land Animals.  I love Apologia.  We used it for the first time last year and fell in love with their science series.  I never read a textbook that was so enjoyable to read.  We are also starting a science co-op.  There are another 12 families (some are Tapestry Co-op members and some are not) who are all using Apologia's Land Animals so we will be gathering together every other week to do our experiments and science activities together.

I think that covers it all.  Bonnie is middle school (Dialectic) this year, so I am trying to push her to do more on her own.  I will be assigning her separate reading from the rest of us and she will be required to answer questions and be prepared to recount what she has learned to her co-op class. 

Brian is still plugging a way.  He likes to be challenged but wants it to come easily.  He is starting to feel the pressure of doing harder math and more work.

Bryce is still my slow and easy going fellow.  We are still working on reading.  It is not as fluid as I would like it to be for him.  He is a mix of 1st and 2nd grade.  My main focus for him this year is reading and writing. 

All in all, it is going to be an exciting year.

After I married, my parents celebrated by purchasing a camper, a sailboat, and a new house.  I tried not to get offended.  They became regular outdoor people, camping on a regular basis with all of their friends.  They started off with an eight foot pop up camper but decided that they could use a little more room so they passed off the camper to us kids and purchased a bigger camper for themselves.  Todd and I inherited the 8 ft pop up last summer and decided that it was time to take the family camping.

We chose to go camping at Lake Norman State Park in Troutman, NC which is about 45 minutes from our house.  LNSP has a rustic campground with no electricity and shared water but a real nice bath house.  It was so quiet and peaceful there.  Of the 30 sites only 5 of them were filled with campers.  The state park has a lot of trails that skirt around Lake Norman and there were several beaches on which you could play.  Of course, they have a roped off swimming area with a concession stand and nice facilities but our dog was not allowed over there so we chose to swim at one of the beach areas.  We found a nice little cove and would spend our afternoons swimming as a family.  The only negative part was massive storms came through each day.  Our campsite never fully dried out. Plus we did not have a lantern so it was very crowded and dark inside our pop up.  Each child was confined to their sleeping area and told to stay put during the duration of the storm.  We tried to play games or read by the little bit of light that came through one of the plastic covered windows but all the other windows were screens and they had to be covered up to keep the rain out.

All in all, the kids had a blast which made the whole trip worth it.  Of all of our summers, this one has ranked to be about the best.  God has blessed us with good family time, a good summer job for Todd, a  plentiful garden to fill our pantry, and good friends to be with.  We feel very blessed indeed.

A little over a week ago we had an intense storm come through our area.  It was a Tuesday night when it hit.  Now we like storms.  Usually you will find us on the front porch watching the storm and enjoying the excitement it brings.  On this particular stormy night, Todd and I decided to take advantage of the rain to fill up our 75 gallon fish tank.  (We have an old, shallow well that has a tendency to run dry if we do not regulate our water so we use rain water as much as we can.)  So while it was raining buckets and buckets outside we were filling buckets and buckets to fill up our tank.  At one point during this process the rain went from falling vertically to horizontally.  Not only that but the sound and pressure outside changed.  Todd immediately tried to get inside and had a difficult time opening up the front door.  A few minutes later everything was back to normal rain fall.  We didn't think anything of it.  Some time later I went to the kitchen to get something and realized something was different.  You see, in  our back yard is a street lamp that illuminates our back yard.  However, when I looked out the back, kitchen window instead of being lit up it was dark.  Not only that, but there appeared to be leaves in the window.  Sure enough, our large catalpa tree had blown over in the storm.  It landed between our house and our vehicles damaging neither.  We also realized that it had snapped the light post in half, blown our garbage can into the front, side yard and severed off our water spigot giving us no water pressure in the house.  We were amazed that we never heard the tree fall or the light post split.  Todd was up til 3 am waiting for the power company to come out and remove the live wire that was laying outside our back yard.  The next morning all the neighbors showed  up to see the great tree that had fallen.  George loaned  us his chain saw to cut it up and Allen and Curtis helped us remove the debris.  The kids had a blast playing all over the downed tree and were sad to see how quickly Todd was able to remove it.  It turns out that carpenter ants had eaten away at the tree and it was hollow inside.

Here are a few pictures:

Today we just finished a week of camping with Mamaw and Papaw at Wildlife Woods Campground in Sherrills Ford, NC.  We had a lot of fun and there was enough to do to keep the children busy.  They had a lot of firsts on this camping. 

Fishing.....was a first for the boys.  (Bonnie went fishing with Todd when she was about 3 but except for the picture that is hanging on our wall, I don't believe she has any memory of it.)  The children had so much fun standing on the docks fishing for yellow bellies and perch.  They caught more fish then I can keep track of but none were quite big enough to eat, much to their disappointment.  The fish in that part of Lake Norman have full bellies of earthworms and are a little sore from the tosses back in the lake. 

Paddle Boats... were another first for the children.  I wanted so much for us to go on the paddle boats and see the lake from a different and leisurely perspective.  Unfortunately the children mistook the paddle boats for racing, bumper boats and Todd and I had quite the lower body workout as the children insisted that we race around the lake.  Of course, it wasn't long and they were tired out and ready to head back in to go swimming at the campground pool.   Mom and Dad, also had a first, as they took a canoe out on the water and paddled around are little inlet of Lake Norman for an hour.

Besides, fishing and paddle boats, we spent a lot of time swimming either in the pool or the lake.  One day we went up to Lake Norman State Park where Todd and Dad tried their hand at fishing there while the children and our dog swam some more.

All in all we had a fun time.  At times the heat and persistent bees got on our nerves but it was a good family bonding time.

Here are some pictures of our trip.  Enjoy

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