Anna's birthday celebration

Wills, Anna, Allison, Claire, Emma, & Heather

The day has come, that Anna is a teenager! She celebrated with some of her friends and had a great time. She has been a fun kid and she is really doing so well. We are very proud of you Anna.

16th Anniversary getaway

Yeah, we did it! We got away for a few days and headed down to Asheville, NC. Why North Carolina? I was just browsing vacation deals and trying to find a new part of the country we hadn't explored that we could drive to in a day. This fit the bill. I also found this cool "Go Blue Ridge" card online that allowed us to do all the activities I talk about below for $100. We had so much fun! Here's what we did:

Day 1

We saw the girls off to school and then drove over to Hwy 81 via the Skyline Drive in Virginia. I heard the views can be spectacular, but unfortunately it was very overcast and we could only see a little distance. We did have a fun hike down to a waterfall, to get a break from the driving for a while. After a pit stop in Johnson City, TN for a yummy dinner at the Olive Garden, we turned onto Hwy 26 and saw absolutely gorgeous views of the Great Smoky and Appalacian Mountains. We checked in to the hotel and got a good night sleep before our next days adventure.

Day 2

We started the day driving over to the Smoky mountains and taking a jet boat ride. After a few spins on the lake we headed over to Cherokee to the museum and village there which described the Cherokee customs and culture. Very interesting.

The Jet Boat tour guide

After eating dinner, we headed to the movie theater across the street and saw Iron Man 2. The movie theater was different. Every other row the seats were taken out and a serving counter was put in. Since we had just eaten, we didn't order anything, but very different.

Day 3

We started out the morning going down to Chimney Rock State Park to do some hiking. The park was quite pretty. The "Chimney Rock" actually has an elevator shaft that will take you to the top to see some spectacular views. Down below you can see the Lake where they filmed Dirty Dancing. There is also a waterfall over to the side you can hike over to. The fun part was descending down. Some cavities were very narrow to get through.

View from the top

At the top of Chimney Rock

The narrow passage to get down

The view from the bottom

After Chimney Rock, we headed over to the Biltmore Estate - a mansion constructed by George Vanderbilt. The mansion came complete with innumerable bedrooms, a library Anna would die for, indoor swimming pool and bowling alley and an estate landscaped with more than a million plants. Quite impressive!

The Biltmore Estate

A beautiful rose in the gardens

This was supposed to be a ladybug. Looks more like an alien

After finishing touring Biltmore, we headed to downtown Asheville and quickly visited the art museum before going on a comedic bus tour of the city of Asheville. Our tour guide was quite hilarious

Day 4

The last day, was the day I most anticipated. It was my first time going white water rafting. It was a blast. We almost lost our tour guide on one pass. They didn't tell us what to do if that happened :). But we made it.

Following our great adventure on the French Broad River, we headed over to the Bon Ami mine. Austin loved looking at all the old machinery.

We got a kick out of seeing the bathroom carts with their color coordination...yuck!

Austin made me pose for this one

After touring the old mine, we tried our hand at panning and found a few pretty rocks for the girls. Our next stop was Grandfather Mountain off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Talk about spectacular views. My favorite by far.

Wow, he's so strong!

This picture does not do justice to the views

At the mile high swinging bridge

After sadly leaving the Blue Ridge mountains, we headed back north to reunite with our kids. On the way through Virginia, we stopped by Souther Virginia University to see where our church offers summer programs for teenagers.

When we got home, we found all was well. Julia and Anna had both gotten sick while we were gone. Both probably from food related causes. Sadly, Julia was on a field trip with the band so had to come home a day early and miss going to Hershey Park. They were spoiled thoroughly by Christie & Chris, though, while we were gone. We were very thankful they were well taken care of. We also got home in time to celebrate Anna's 13th birthday with a cupcake. Wow, we have two teenagers now...another good reason to have an escape :)

Eliza riding her bike

Eliza finally broke away from her training wheels. She took no time at all to get the hang of doing things! Enjoy the videos:

Grandparents visit

We were so happy to have 3 grandparents visit last month. Some how they always seem to come at the same time...unplanned. My parents were returning from their stay in FL and Austin's dad was flying over from Amsterdam to renew his visa. No matter when they show up, we love to have them :)

While my parents were in FL for the winter, they bought a home near Ocala. They wanted their own place for the few months they go down there. The house is nice and should really fill their needs. We don't mind the fact that they're not far from Disney either!

A good day for kite flying

Eliza went with a few of her friends to Longwood Gardens for a kite flying activity. They had so much fun...very cute girls.

Playing in the children's fountain

At the fountains overlook

Eliza showing off her new kite

Letting it fly

Eliza next to her favorite flowers in the yard

Best friends visit

Eliza, Alyssa, Julia, Katelyn, Mikayla, & Anna

Over spring break, my girls were so excited to have the Nance girls spend the night. They rarely get to see each other since we moved to our new house, so their reunions are always special! In this photo they were having an Uno tournament. Later that day we also visited the Herr's Chip Factory.

Braces & Projects

In the picture above you can see the new braces Anna is sporting. The week after she had her braces put on, she had oral surgery to put a chain on a tooth that is still up in her gums. She was suppose to have the oral surgery 6 months ago and things looked pretty bleak. She had one tooth going sideways and crossing over the roots of the other tooth possibly killing it. After talking to the oral surgeon, she suggested we don't do anything for a few months to see what would happen. Without us even noticing, the sideways tooth came in and the other tooth was still intact and easier to get to. I was so happy for that news to spare Anna a lot more pain and oral work! Hopefully by next year, all her teeth will be in!

Anna has been busy the past couple of months doing projects for her personal progress. She has become quite the knitter and made this wool hat. Another project she worked on was to paint a picture of the Savior. She did an excellent job on the clouds.