A Busy Weekend

Sorry for the delay in posting. It has been a very busy weekend! S was off work Friday, so we decided to drive a bit to some sand dunes we had heard about. There is literally this sand basin, right in the middle of a valley surrounded by mountains. While it is an explainable natural phenomenon, it really looks out of place. The highest dunes are over 600 feet tall.

Looking down at the dunes in the valley.

Will (the dog), me with N in the wrap, and JR after hiking up a small dune.

Hey, S, I dare you to flip off this steep hill! --Wait, I was kidding!!!

Never fear, the kids will come down and rescue you!

Just one problem with that idea....what goes down, must come back up! And that dune was as steep as it looks!

JR, me, M, and Will in a dune valley.

Even A tried to get in on the action, and after eating his fill of dirt, proceeded to try to slide feet first down the hill.

Our ever-faithful guardian supervising us.

On Valentine's morning, I awoke to find a dozen roses and a very touching card.

Aren't they beautiful?!

Then we proceeded to use S's Valentine's gift--a hand-held GPS--to go geocaching. We first heard about this sport a year ago, and it has since rapidly gained in popularity. This game is designed for outdoor enthusiasts, and is used for many reasons. Basically, it is a treasure hunt, where someone hides a "cache" (the treasure). It could be any size, and contain anything from a finder's log (the minimum) to a huge stash of collector's geo-coins, trackable items, dog treats, fast-food toys, etc. Someone (anyone) hides the cache, records its GPS location, logs it onto the geocache website, and waits to see who can find it. It is a way to draw people to an out-of-the-way trail, provide a fun challenge for city-dwellers, or just turn an otherwise average family hike into a cache-hunting race. When you find a cache, you sign the log, take anything you want out of it (as long as you replace it with something else), and move on to the next. There are literally hundreds of thousands of these caches stashed all over the world! There is a good chance you live within a mile of several!

S holding one of his cache finds, while A (in the back carrier sitting on the ground) looks on.

Then we returned home to take a quick rest.

OK, so for some, it was a more lengthy rest!

We then had our first post-placement adoption visit with our social worker. After he left, we loaded up the family, and drove to see some dear friends several hours away. We spent the night, attended their church the next day, enjoyed some good homemade southern food for lunch, visited more friends down the road, and returned home Sunday night.

JR, "Pa-paw", N, M, "Ma-maw", and A.

Our first photo as a family of 6!

We are now home, recuperating as best we can, and still recovering from colds. I am putting the finishing touches on a new family schedule and chore system, and am looking forward to testing it out this week. I'll let you know how it works out!