Happy Birthday Raymond!!

Today is Raymonds 12th Birthday!!


Its amazing how the time has passed! You are growing up so fast!! You have so many wonderful qualities that God has given you. I can't wait to see what all you do with them. I see a young man who has a wonderful gift for the elderly, you are never shy or unwilling to help anyone, you can whip up a delicious cake or pie on short notice and you never miss out on any details of any project you are working on. God made you so very special!!

12 favorites of Raymond.

1.Movie: Third Man On The Mountain

2.Color: Green

3. Book: Redwall Series

4. Bible Verse: Jeramiah 28:9

5. Time of Day: Dinner

6. Place: Outside

7. Food: Seafood

8. Dessert: Tiramisu

9. Candy: Whoppers

10. Song: A Boy Named Sue

11. Past Time: Baking

12. Vacation Place: Kentucky

(thanks to my friend Heidi for this great idea)

Some people have all the fun....

Andrew caught this big bass today. Woo Hoo - guess what he is eating tonight?? I forgot to take a pic but they also killed a 23 inch coral snake today - yuck yuck yuck!!

Flashback Friday

(ok - cheesy title but i just saw it somewhere else and thought it would work here.)

I stumbled across this pic today - had to share - this was from 2003. I just want to squeeze them!!

Dinosaurs and Creatures Oh My!!!

This pic is too cute - I love Joshua and the girls at the left of the picture!!

Creation Museum 4-8-09

(sorry in advance for the format of the blog - it has a mind of its own to put pics and words in places i dont want them)
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This was the last stop of our trip in KY. We were so lucky to have friends from Ohio drive 4 hours to meet us. Joshua and the girls are so fun together. Alyssa and him are bound to be married one day : ) The museum was really nice and fun.

This is when they first saw each other.

This is the giggle group - only 2 things would have made it perfect (1) The unknown girl disappears and (2) the girls had on their UT shirts.

This is an example of the statues at the Museum - the details were incredible.

Here is Paul:

And then we have Adam. I have to say I included several pics here so you can understand why we were getting a little nervous at each display. We werent sure how much Adam and Eve the kids would learn about : )

Here is Adam and all his animals..

Here is Adam & Eve (gee they really didnt wear clothes)

And then HERE is A LOT MORE of Adam and Eve.

Luckily for all of us, this was the last display. It really was beautiful though!!

The grounds were great for picnics and playing.

Here is Joshua with all his girls : )

This is a crazy camel that was at the petting zoo - Raymond was the only one brave enough to feed him.

It was a really special day that we all enjoyed. Mrs L made a great homemade lunch - so nice after a week of traveling - the kids had a grand time and the day was just gorgeous. The bookstore was terrible though - i left way too much money there - ha ha.

Always clarify what this question means....

"Mom - are these clothes ok to get dirty?"

Big Mike's Mystery House

How can you pass up a place like this??

It was a side tour for a souvier shop - more of a wacky house. Silly pictures, crooked floors, just plain goofy stuff that the kids loved. (If you ever wondered, standing on an angled floor at about 20 degrees - will make you very dizzy - ughh)

This is where Daddy grew really big and Alyssa shrank really small!

Outside the shop was Big Mo - a dinosaur of some kind - the shop actually had a skull of one of the inside.

Mammoth Cave, KY

Sunday morning started out with church services at Grace Community Church in Bowling Green, KY. After that we headed to the Train Depot - it wasnt open for several hours but the old train cars were really neat to see. They used to run between Nashville and Louisville stopping midway at Bowling Green.

From there we heading up to Cave City to get our cabin and check out the area. We are a little nervous though as the temp is supposed to drop down to 25 today with a chance of snow - YIKES!! We tried to do a bunch of outdoor stuff Sunday in case we were stuck in the cabin for a few days. Here are some random pics of our day.

This is where our cabin is.

More from Dad....

As we head out of Tennessee and into Kentucky the sun is rising to my right and the Suburban is quiet and peaceful. Travel was quick, apparently Kentucky does not wake-up as early as the Fryes.

As we travel down the Purchase Parkway we see the remnants of the huge ice storm this part of the country had a couple of weeks back. Later that day I spoke with Mr. Yoder, an Amish man who runs a nursery and bakery outside of Marion, he tells me he has never seen such a storm in his 67 years in Kentucky. It was a freak storm that paralyzed this area for several weeks. Miles and miles of roadway pass and to our left and right trees lay busted up in a manner much different than what hurricane Ike did to the Oaks and Pines in Texas. The weight of the ice building up snapped the tops off the trees. Furthermore, as the ice piled up on the limbs they appeared to break off leaving piles and piles of branches on the side of the roadway. Somewhere between South Fulton and Mayfield I ponder the Black Locust trees stripped bare of their tops and branches. As I watch the crews pick up the damaged limbs and run them through huge chippers being pulled behind dump trucks, I am amazed at the resiliency of our country.

Somewhere on that same stretch of road my youngest daughter discovers that if she sucks in several small gulps of air and collects them low in the back of her throat, she can regurgitate it all at once and make a pretty noisy burp, much to the dismay of her siblings. Its not even 0900hrs yet.

The Adventure Continues....

This is us on the River Ferry at Cave In Rock, Illinios. We left KY crossed the Ohio River and then came right back to Kentucky.

We spent a good bit of time in Marion, KY. Met a sweet lady named Mrs Wynn who told us all the cool places to go see and where to eat. Good country food - including pickeled green tomatoes! This place below was also tops on here list.

What happens when you visit this place and give your kids homemade fruit pies? Guess who thinks the cherry was the best!!

The sad part of traveling thru KY is that there is SO much damage from the recent ice storms. Hundreds of miles of highways are lined with trees that have the tops snapped off. All the clean-up crews were just like the ones in Texas after Ike. This pic doesnt do it justice.

Arkansas Adventures

Nothing like flirting with death in Razorback territory....




A quick side trip to Lake Catherine on this gorgeous day was perfect!!

The highlight of the hike... the waterfalls!

Side note from Dad: This vacation (the first with all 7 of us in the same car)

makes me feel like Clark Griswald. We haven't found the worlds largest frying pan but I did find the largest wad of chewing gum - on the headliner right above where Adam sits. I am not sure what the world record is on number of consecutive days of fried food consumption but we have a good start on it so far. Ugh. Have to look that up when I get home.

We are currently in Tennessee Volunteer country and I have given Raymond some valuable advice - if he is going to wear that UT hoodie he better act like he is packing a 9mm. Otherwise we might get attacked.

Quote of the Day

from Dyersburg, TN - Ordering potato skins - asked if sour cream was on the side. waitress said - "No, its in the middle, with the potatoes around it in a circle." Gotta love small town Tennessee!! hee hee!!

Hard Day

After a hard day of playing, I found the girls asleep like this early last night. They generally never sleep this close.