Happy Birthday Momma! (and a few other events)

Breaking News...

Before we get the unimportant stuff, I need to give a shout out to my momma.  She is the one who brought me into this world and on more than one occasion said "she could take me out of this world."  Thank goodness that hasn't happened....yet.  I am not going to directly give away her age but if you are interested you can figure it out.  She turns 0x4C (hex) or Ob1001100 (binary) today.  If your better at roman numeral she was born in MCMXXXVII.  To be honest, either the hex or the binary sounds a lot better than her actual age (probably because you have not context on how much either of them really are).  I think we should all start referring to our age in hex or binary.  Remember, you heard it hear first.  You can find out all you want about her from my prior birthday post in 2011.  Happy Birthday, I hope this day is great and that you enjoy purchasing a new refrigerator.  That's some birthday excitement!  I kind of want to tag along...that's how you know you are old when you are excited about a refrigerator purchase (but to be honest, I don't think she's to excited).  Thank you for all you do for us.  YOUR THE GREATEST AND WE LOVE YOU!  The kids made her a video:

I wanted to update my last post - KC and LA's - Baby Best Of .  I left of a pretty important category.

Doctors

• There are plenty of them in the area and you can choose from general practice or pediatric doctors.  You will either go on recommendation of other parents and/or "meet the doctor visits" prior to babies arrival. We skipped the "meet the doctor" because it felt weird asking to interview the doctor prior to picking one.  We decided to go with recommendations and then our gut feelings/first impressions after our first visit with Aubrey which typically happens a couple of days after birth.  We choose Plantation Pediatrics in West Ashley.  Our primary doctor is  John Traynham.  However, I would suggest asking around about the other doctors also because unless you can pick when your child is going to get sick, you are going to be seeing the other doctors in the practice.  We haven't seen all the doctors in the practice but have been pleased with all of them we have seen.  Dr. Traynham has been great to work with and will answer all your questions (even the dumb ones that you might ask and the on call doctor will call you back and answer your questions/concerns after hours).  Now that there is Peds After Care in N. Chas (MUSC), we might have chosen differently but Roper/St. Francis also has Peds After Care and the doctors from Plantation fill in a few shifts when needed.  When needed the doctors at Plantation admit to MUSC - which goes unsaid as our choice for Pediatric Hospitals.  
• Plantation Pediatrics - It's a commitment because it's in West Ashley and takes 35 minutes to get there and another 35 to get back home but the care of the doctors has been outstanding.  I would use Dr. Traynham or Vasko as primary care doctor (McGaha or Kornegay would be our next choices).
• Sweetgrasss Pediatrics - We considered them but they didn't have an office in Summerville but one was coming and we figured if we had to go to N Charleston, we might as well go to West Ashley.  I will say that we hear nothing but great reports from the Summerville practice.  I would consider changing because of Dr. Kelly Rodgers.  She is one of Aubrey's Sunday School teachers at Bethany and Aubrey loves her.  

UNIMPORTANT NEWS

• I have received confirmation from our resident statistician, Jeremy from an earlier post  on what were the odds of two golf balls in a professional tournament hitting each other with one coming from another fairway while the other ball is about to be struck is....drum role please is infinity + 1 

• The other day an employee (Rex) and I were heading to Columbia for a meeting on I-26 traveling in the westbound lanes.  I was the pilot and he was riding in the seat assigned to the navigator/lookout.  As we approached the Orangeburg exits at the 145 mile marker, me being observant and constantly aware (while my navigator, was doing something on his phone instead of watching for threats and enemies approaching from the rear...he said he was watching the radar for enemy approaching...I think he was playing Angry Birds) of my surroundings noticed smoke in the far eastbound lane.  The next second, I saw the reason for the smoke.  A car was now speeding across the passing lane and heading for the median at a rapid rate of speed.  At that instant, it is amazing how your mind works.  It went into hyper mathematical/physics mode and instantly figured out that at my rate of speed, their rate of speed and direction of both vehicles that we were going to collide and become a tangled mess of steel without an intervention or some miraculous NASCAR type move (head to the last place you saw them).  (I think I have a math teacher waiting to release my final grade in their class because I still haven't figured out when two trains - one leaving Orangeburg at 9:30 and the other train leaves Summerville 8:31 and both are traveling 79 MPH when will they collide?  I can now tell her @ 9:31 at the 145 mile marker.  I can't show the math to prove my answer but I know it is correct.  I immediately did three things hit the brakes, made quick lane change to the open right lane and said "Holy Sh*t!" which finally got the attention of the navigator (thanks for finally joining the wreck...got any last minute words of wisdom before we crash...needed you 3 seconds ago).  The car hits the median grass and the strikes the wire barrier (the same one you always wondered if it would stop a car) and the car immediately turns 90 degrees to the right and comes to a complete stop in the median.  A potential disaster was avoided by 3 cables that you look at mile after mile while driving and always wonder it they could actually stop a car.  The good news is that I can tell you from a view of less than 10 yards that they can stop a sedan size car (Accord, Camry, Taurus...etc) or smaller (a mini might be able to go under the wires, we will have to measure).  The jury is still out on a large SUV or 18 wheeler.  I am must thankful they worked this time.  The other good thing is I am glad my mind didn't enter the super slow mo mode.  Where just before something major happens time almost stands still and happen frame by frame and then when the accident/event/thing happens it immediately reverts to real time.  (PS - We didn't stop to render aid, because by the time we could have stopped we were too far past (and had already stopped to empty our pants and say a few prayers) and other cars on the east bound side were already stopping.  We did call the HP and report the accident and near miss).

• Over at I'm Just Sayin', he has killed yet another cottonmouth snake.  When I first heard about it, I was thinking a small cottonmouth snake.  I am not sure what his definition is of small but this snake hasn't been small in a long time.  It is way bigger than I would ever attempt to kill using any hand tools - shovel, hatchet, ax..etc (the only hand tool for this job is gun and I would have to call a friend to borrow a gun and then LA would have to shoot it because I ain't getting that close).  My actual solution would be to immediately run in the house, call a real estate agent and start packing boxes.  Especially since this isn't his first confirmed snake kill in is backyard and neighborhood - he is up to at least 3 confirmed kills that count.  I have 2 confirmed kills at our house (and one scare the crap out of me, when it raced about 2 inches in front of my feet while weed eating...I quit for the day.  It was too close and I wanted to give him time to get where he was going) but neither of mine count - both non-poisonous and one was a baby snake but I still say "the best snake is a dead snake".  I am like (old school, funny) Eddie Murphy is about ghosts "too bad we can't stay baby"....

   
     I had friends that went out in the woods turning over old logs and pieces of tin looking        for snakes.  I found new friends.  Greg your my official snake wrangler but I have a real       estate friend that will be giving you a call.

Nannie Camp - Water Park Day

The water park day at Nannie Camp turned out to be a bust.  The kids got to ride a few slides before it was shut down because of the weather - there was a lot of potential fun washed away that day...at least so we thought.  Our ride home from Whirlin' Waters was quite an adventure with massive amounts of rain falling.  When we crossed the canal on Richardson just before going underneath the BGM Parkway, I had a feeling, we might have an issue at our house.  When I saw the water at Central Avenue and Pine St, I knew we had water in the yard.  When I took a right onto S. Laurel and twenty yards of the road was flooded, I knew we had more water than the first time.  I rode past the front of the house and turned onto E 2nd S St, I saw exactly how much water.  LA had also saw how much water was in the yard.  LA and I conferred with Nannie and decided that our water park was open for the Nannie Campers.  The water was twice as deep as the first time in flooded a few weeks ago.  I arrived at the house prior to the campers and when they arrived you would have thought it was Christmas.  They hit the water full stride and had a blast. As we played, people were stopping in the street watching us playing in all the water and I am sure thinking..."rednecks".  LA and I are turning this into a business venture and have created a listing on VBRO for a waterfront rental retreat in Summerville.  Here's a few pictures and videos from last Thursday's adventure:

LA came out and played in the water for a little bit with Ansleigh Grace but I am glad she went back inside.  If she would have been out there and have what happened to me, I would have had to call the coroner (didn't I mean 911?, nope wouldn't have been a need...she would have drown and it would only have been a recovery mission).  At around the 45 second mark of the video below, you will hear Wyatt screaming about a spider.  I will be honest I wasn't paying attention to him about the spider because I thought it was in the water.  I was wrong.  The spider was on me and it wasn't as big as a banana spider but it was large enough to make LA flip out/pass out and drown.  I calmly flicked him into the water and thanked God it was on me and not LA.  I love Wyatt, he is passionate and when something is really wrong you can tell my the tone of his voice. 

Soccer Camp

Aubrey and Wyatt participated in soccer camp at ARHS a couple of weeks ago.  This was both of their first involvement with team sports not in a backyard.  I don't think we have the next Cory Rogers, Mia Ham or Wayne Rooney on our hands but they looked good and had a blast.

KC and LA's - Baby Best Of

LA and I are not experts but I will go on the record and say we have 4.5 years of real life experience with 3 kids now ages (1, 3, and 4 and is still hold a Providence record in the race to 3...there are still a couple of contenders...Woods, Wrights and a few others - time will tell if they are up to the challenge).

We have tried products on our own and received recommendations about products from many people.  I realize that all kids are different shapes and sizes and every parent will develop a list products that they love but I wanted to share with our readers a list of products that are our Best of the Best.  We have used, loved and will continue to use these products until we exit out of that stage.  We are getting closer everyday to being out of the weeds and we are retiring items at what seems like a much quicker pace these days.  

The writer of the blog did not receive compensations in any form (cash or free products - not that I would not take either, it wasn't offered) for there inclusion in this list.  No animals or infants were hurt while using any of these products.

Formula 

• We were fortunate to be able to start our kids off on the good stuff from mommy.
• Our Number 1 favorite formula Generic - Target brand Up and UP formula or Walmart brand Parent's Choice
• We used Enfamil and Similac when we had coupons or free samples from the hospital or doctors office.  The brand names are so expensive and we found out quickly that the generic's compared exactly to the name brands and were much cheaper and the kids didn't know the difference.

Diapers

Let's be honest up front, if we got free diapers our kids wore them and they liked it.  However, our free diaper tree died and then you have to spend your own money on them.

New Born - Pampers Swaddlers 

• A favorite for the umbilical cord notch, wetness indicator
• To be honest, for infant diapers we didn't really care who made them, especially if they were free  

Infant - Huggies - Little Movers

• We have tried them all and we always came back quickly to the Huggies-Little Movers.  We like the way they fit our kids.  If you've changed as many diapers as we have, you will find a favorite.  It might not be Huggies for your kids but it was for ours.  At least give them a try.

Overnight - Huggies - Overnights

• They hold a bunch of liquid and have Winnie the Pooh on them.  You can't go wrong with Winnie the Pooh.

Swimming - Huggies - Little Swimmers

• I like to call them poo catchers, because that is about all they are effective in doing.

Wipes

• Huggies - Just pick one of the many different types, we eventually graduated to whatever Huggies type we could buy in bulk at whatever store we happened to be in when we needed them

Diaper Cream to battle diaper rash

• There's many on the market but there's only two to use
• Eucerin Aquaphor - buy it by the case and use it for the minor cases
• Flanders Buttocks Ointment - buy it by the case and use it for the major cases
• This one can be tricky to find, if you can't find it on the shelf you will have to ask for it in the pharmacy department.  CVS has it in the pharmacy department.
• Both of the these products have our five star testing rating...don't put anything else on your kids backside, you are wasting your time.

Bottles

• New born stage - Medela bottles that went with Medela pump (not in our best of list because I don't think there's any competition - Medela makes a work horse for pump - ours has supplied meals to 6 kids)
• Infant - Dr. Brown's 
• They worked for us.  They make a bunch of claims that I can not confirm occurred when we used them but I will say they worked and our kids weren't fussy after eating (maybe the claims are true).
• It took us awhile but we finally figured out the bottle thing.  If you have one child you need a minimum of 9 bottles, unless you get some thrill out of washing baby bottles constantly.  We found that nine gave use two days of bottles and worked best in our schedule and didn't break the bank account buying bottles.  Buy as many as you can afford, think of them like underwear.  Washing your clothes is directly related to amount of underwear you have (at least for a man).
• We washed our bottles in the top rack of our dishwasher and used the extra heat cycle.  We washed them by hand when needed but washing bottles all the time will eventually brake your soul.

Car Seats

• We have been a Graco family.  They typically have good rating and have worked good for us and the wife can find a color and/or pattern that will work.    

Strollers and High Chairs

• The only requirement with these two items - find one that you like
• Strollers - too many choices here, we ended up with a Graco stroller that was compatible with our car seat,  umbrella strollers and have now graduated to sit and stand stroller 
• High Chair - too many choices here (plastic, wood all shapes and sizes) find one you like 
• You will need/want a bumbo (although Ansleigh didn't use it much) or feeding chair -they can travel with you if needed.
• Personal Comment - if you have two that will be in a stroller at one time, you will need to make a decision - inline or side by side.  We didn't have this problem, ours graduated to an umbrella stroller when the next child arrived.  I can't make an official recommendation but I will suggest from my 4 years of observing moms and dads that you will need both.  The inline for ALL shopping and the side by side for all outdoor activities.  You can use the side by side for shopping but most of the isles are not made for the extra width and will cause you to get "looks" from fellow shoppers.

Diaper Bag

• Men stay out of it.  You get to carry and use it but this is you wife's territory.
• It doesn't matter at this point you are getting ready to have a kid that is going to spit up, throw up, pee or poop on you.  The diaper bag is the least of your concern.

Sippy Cups

• They all suck.  They each have their individual issues (leaking, bad for kids teeth...etc).  Save yourself a few trips to the store and buy one type of each and see which one your child likes the best and which one you can stand with its issues.  We ended up with the flexible straw type - don't like them but we tolerate them.   

OTL - 'Carry On' - Why I Stayed

I woke up last night on the sofa sometime after 11:30 after getting in my evening nap with the TV on ESPN's Sportscenter.  I quickly realized that I had awoke not during a highlight of a sporting event from earlier during the day but at the beginning of a segment titled "Carry On".

I will go on the record along with many others and say that this was without a doubt some of their finest work.  It was a follow up to a 2009 story about two high school athletes that became linked together through circumstances you and I could not imagine. The best part of the story was that it didn't end in 2009 and has continued and hopefully will continue.  I am not going to retell the story but provide the video and a link to an article written by Lisa M. Fenn. She's the female in the middle below.


In this article, Lisa shares in her own words "Why I Stayed".

I think the only thing that could have made the story better was if Paul Harvey told it and ended it in his iconic way "and now you know the rest of the story".

What an awesome story...someone who crossed the street and helped their neighbor out  and made a difference.  

Happy Birthday America

We have much to be thankful and to celebrate each day in this great country we live.  However, we must never lose sight of our past and who we were, if we are to remain "the land of the free and home of the brave".  Here's a couple of pieces of gold to help celebrate the 4th of July.

Nobody has ever or will ever sing "America The Beautiful" better than Ray Charles

One of the best ever performances of the Star Spangled Banner by Whitney Houston (live, not Milli Vanilli style)

The Pledge of Allegiance by Red Skeleton

From the Encyclopedia my kids will use (Wikipedia) (until I bring the 15 book, 200lb Encyclopedia set I used to the house) 

July 4, 1776 the day 13 colonies declared that they regarded themselves as independent states (including the great state of SC) and no longer part of British empire and formed the United States of America.  This declaration was contained in the "The Declaration of Independence" which outlined the issues we had with King George III and put forth many of the principles that would become the US Constitution.

The declaration is not divided into formal sections; but it is often discussed as consisting of five parts: Introduction, the Preamble, the Indictment of George III, the Denunciation of the British people, and the Conclusion.^[75]

Introduction Asserts as a matter of Natural Law the ability of a people to assume political independence; acknowledges that the grounds for such independence must be reasonable, and therefore explicable, and ought to be explained.	In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Preamble Outlines a general philosophy of government that justifies revolution when government harms natural rights.[75]	We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Indictment A bill of particulars documenting the king's "repeated injuries and usurpations" of the Americans' rights and liberties.[75]	Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness of his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Denunciation This section essentially finished the case for independence. The conditions that justified revolution have been shown.[75]	Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
Conclusion The signers assert that there exist conditions under which people must change their government, that the British have produced such conditions, and by necessity the colonies must throw off political ties with the British Crown and become independent states. The conclusion contains, at its core, the Lee Resolution that had been passed on July 2.	We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Signatures The first and most famous signature on the engrossed copy was that of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress. Two future presidents,Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, were among the signatories. Edward Rutledge (age 26), was the youngest signer, and Benjamin Franklin (age 70) was the oldest signer. The fifty-six signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows (from north to south):[76]	New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: George Read, Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

So We Were Thinking About Getting A Pool In The Backyard...

Yesterday (Sunday), the last day of June, we got a rainstorm that dumped somewhere between 3 and 6 inches of rain in about 2 hours.  I knew it was raining hard when I looked out the kitchen window and it looked as if someone was standing on my back porch with hose.  Upon closer inspection, it wasn't a hose but so much water was coming down the gutter that water was shooting out of one of the seams like a hose. I returned to doing what everyone does best on a Sunday - resting my eyes.  As the rain began to stop, I got up and looked outside towards the back of the property and this is what I saw:

The canal on our property line had overflowed its banks and our yard was taking on water.  Since the thunder had stopped, I got Aubrey and Wyatt ready and we went out on a mission to investigate what was happening and to survey any damage.  Okay, actually I got them ready so they could play in all the water.  Before, we played in all the water in our yard we walked around the block to investigate the canal and see the flooding.  Here's a couple of photos and a video from our adventure:

From Bridge on W 2nd S Street - Looking down back of property line  -Our house is to the right

Canal going beneath Central Avenue between Bethany and Presbyterian Church

White Water Rafting In Summerville

After we went around the block with Aubrey and Wyatt splashing water every chance they got, we went to the play set and they had some fun.

 

I am sure you are sitting there laughing and wondering where is Ansleigh?  This adventure was a little to much for her.  There was too much water and it was deeper than the bathtub.  There will be other adventures for her to participate in...

I was surprised at how short of a window, we had to play.  About 20 minutes after we were playing the water was pretty much gone.

The kids had a great time and we were glad they got to have some unexpected, unplanned fun.