Saddle Caterpillars

I have never heard of saddle caterpillars before.   These tiny little caterpillars are a stinging variety that, unfortunately, Cari discovered on our front porch.   All she did was brush up against this leaf with the critters hiding on the underside. 

As she brushed up against it, she received instant pain.  She said for a minute her whole arm got tingly.  Her upper arm, where she got hit, stayed sore for the rest of the day.   

Finally. . . Football

This past Friday started up high school football season.  One of our favorite family times hanging out in the stadium cheering on the team is back!

For the first game, it started out VERY hot sitting out there, but once the sun went down, and the lights came on, it was great being out there.

After allowing a touchdown on the very first kick off, we were a bit worried what our season was going to look like.   After recovering from a broke down bus, the band arrived.  You can't have a football game without the band.

I noticed a photographer for the local paper was using Twitter to post photos of the game throughout the night.  I finally spotted him and tweeted him a photo of him tweeting.

Thankfully Liberty High School played all the way to the end of the game and ended up winning 21-14.

Story Cubes - Digital

One of my favorite quick games with my kids is also a quick digital game.

Story Cubes is a quick helper for telling a story and using some imagination.  The digital version works great and gives some great animation as you shake the phone (carefully) to shake and throw the die.

After you shake your virtual die you can push and pull them and sort them as you tell your story.  It all works very well and is very well made.

It's now even easier to take a minute to play some story telling.  This game is great for those times when Cari runs into the store for "one thing" and comes back twenty minutes later with three grocery bags.

Although it's a great app, it's still hard to beat shaking the die in your hands and spilling out to see what you got.  

Kayaking on the river. . .lake

I was invited to spend a day kayaking on a mountain lake where the Chattooga river flows into.  It took me about one second to accept the invitation.

The spot that was we started this adventure on is beautiful.  A man made lake among the mountains where the Chattooga river flows into.

We moved upstream toward a small set of falls, checking out some small waterfalls on our way.

During a break along a narrow piece of shore, I attempted to get out of my boat.  I saw the sandy bottom and lifted my right leg out of the boat and. . . I half fell in.  With one foot sinking into the mud and the other still in the boat I made four attempts to either get to shore or climb into the boat.   Meanwhile, my partner sat in his boat laughing.

Once we reached the falls we sat and admired them for a minute and just before we were heading back we saw a rafting group coming down the river.

We hustled back to the dock in a slight breeze and scared every sunning turtle that we saw.

I was a bit tired after our five mile paddling adventure but I was glad I had quickly accepted the invitation.

Teenage GIRL

As of today I have a teenage daughter.

Pray for me.

The End of Summer

We decided to end summer with some fun so we headed over to Helen, Ga for some tubing.

While we were in northern Georgia we decided we should eat a good meal and drove over to the Dillard House in Dillard, Ga.

 While there, one of our daughters decided to talk to a cow that offered her a tongue.

While that was a really fun way to end the summer we decided to hold one more event and we set up our "redneck waterslide" one more time.  This time we used more plastic, more soap, and rigged up the hose for maximum benefit.

I know everyone else is posting photos of the first day of school, but I'm still thinking about summer.

Date Night in Greenville

Last night I went on a date with a beautiful woman, my wife.  We had an awesome night out.   We had a great dinner and then walked around downtown Greenville for a few hours.

During our walk we saw a few people growing babies, many dogs, Dora the Explorer, and uncomfortable shoes.

It's been too long since our previous date and we agreed that we need to do it more often.

Tall Shadows

She was impressed with how tall her shadow was last night.

Go Look it Up

A conversation I had last night:

family member:  That kid is kind of swoozie.
me: Swoozie?  [pause]  What does that mean?
family member:  I don't know.  I heard someone on TV use it and it seemed appropriate.
me: So you just throw around words you don't know and thought you would try one out on me?
family member: go look it up if you want.

Mysterious Destruction

I looked out the back window yesterday and saw that my grill cover had been ripped to shreds and someone pulled the bag of charcoal stored under the grill into the grass (to be soaked by rain).

After church, Cari and I went to investigate a little closer.  There were certainly teeth or claw marks on some areas which ruled out some weird homless guy checking out our charcoal supply in the night.

As we continued to investigate I thought back to a time when our outside cat had hidden under the grill for cover from rain.  But why would the cat, how would the cat pull the charcoal out?  Then Cari reminded me that the cat is de-clawed and couldn't make the marks we were seeing.

Perhaps a raccoon?

As we were discussing it the dog went running across the yard chasing after the outside cat and it all came together.   The cat was hiding under the grill and the dog wanted to play.

I called the dog over and she came with her tail between her legs and cowering.  She knew and she gave it away.  All the time I spent watching episodes of CSI have really paid off!

Now I have to take a photo of the dog with a sign around her neck for Instagram.  

The Third Saturday

This is the third Saturday in a row that I have attempted to either plan camping or hiking.   This is also the third Saturday in a row that I've had a view that looks like this:

It must be a good day to break out some board games.

A Letter From a Fan

When you were younger did you ever write a letter to a celebrity?  Maybe it was someone on the radio or on one of your favorite television shows.

With social media and the internet it is much easier to interact with the people that entertain us.  You can write a comment on YouTube, Tweet to them, write on Facebook, etc. . .  That's why I was so impressed when my youngest drew a picture for one of the celebrities that entertains her.  Now, she doesn't have access to writing comments on YouTube or Twitter, but she wanted to draw a picture and mail it to one of the people she likes watching on YouTube.

Her artwork is for the guys at The Diamond Minecart.  They make videos about the game Minecraft and they advertise a PO Box (in London) for fans to contact them.

Cari and I were so impressed with her initiative to want to do this that, of course, we helped her get an envelope properly addressed and took her to the post office to get it sent off the right way.

I'm not sure how much mail these guys get, they have over 3 million subscribers, but it sure would make our daughter's day to get a reply.   Fingers crossed for her.

A Hike in the Clouds

We almost canceled a planned hike this past weekend due to the threat of rain.  We changed our plans a bit and headed for Caesar's Head State Park.   When we arrived, we found ourselves in a cloud with no visibility from the overlook.

The rain was holding off and we decided to try one of the shorter trails near the visitor center.  We crossed the street and started down the Frank Coggins Trail.

It turned out to be a beautiful day for a hike and we had a great time.

Near the beginning of the trail we found a marking probably left by Amy.

Five minutes later we found another marking.  This one probably left by Alex.

I'm guessing they were hiking together.
Here are a few more photos from our hike, including one of a brother doing something nice for his little sister.

On the way out, I took one more look at the view from the overlook.  It was better, but still in a cloud.

Here's a map of where we hiked.  It was just under two miles round trip.

You didn't think I would end this post without a photo of my love and I together, did you?

YouTube of the Week

Just listen.

Where to Sleep

I was out of town for work this week and was put in this very nice hotel room.
When I walked in I found I had a choice of beds.  

I selected one and slept pretty well.  The second evening I came back into the room and had to make another decision.  Do I sleep in the same bed or do I sleep in the other?

What would you do?