2011 Summer time fun! Just wanted to catch everyone up on how we've spent our days.



I am super excited about our new form of communication!! We hope that you have fun checking in on us from time to time. I wish that I could start from the beginning of our relationship but, four years of pictures would take me 5 years to blog. Instead you get a clip of our first family pic ever taken.
Pumpkin Patch~ October 2007

 Notice the excitement on mine and Philly's faces.
We were there for our enjoyment and thought the kids may have some fun too! hehe!


Just look at this sweet little girl wearing Mommies huge shades. We had been tubing on the lake.
(Amaya=7 years young)



Kenray Lake beach...Philly and Ely
 (Ely=5 years young)

On with our lives currently....                                    

Otis Park~ Just hang out down at the creek for the evening.

Brown County State Park



June 24th and 25th 2011

Philly and I left it all behind for a couple days and ventured up to Brown County State Park. Beautiful place to be! We went hiking, horse back riding, and down the slide at the indoor water park. All I could think was, "Without the kids?" Thanks for the quick get a way Philly!!



Yes, I am wearing some weird green shorts. For those of you that have been privileged enough to have seen me in these before....Ha! For those of you who have not, they are my outdoor work shorts. Kenray Lake needed some maintenance. Now move past the outfit and notice the swing!!!
Yippee! I talked Philly into constructing a swing after falling in love with the one at Story Inn Restaurant in Story IN. I had to have one.

Can all moments be like this?

Sea Doo = See and shoot

This totally awesome, battery operated, water squirting, machine reaches speeds of two feet per second... wide open!

See and shoot? Yes. What you see you shoot. Dragon flies, turtles, the water, and when you have the opportunity... your little brother!

     

The canoe.... an inflatable, $25 score from our in town Aldi grocery. It brought much joy to all of us!                                                  

                                              

Ely is not always high energy. Don't worry Maya, this picture is proof for you!!! Ely, oh Ely. Hands behind your head and all. Amaya is doing all the work.

                                                                                              

Well, this is how we should look while hanging out at the lake. Just enjoy yourself Philip...take a deep breath, watch the boats cruise by, and move whenever you are ready!!!

The next photo is so contrary to the one above taken just minutes before. Philly left the smoke, took off his shirt, and took a seat to cool down.

Look closely. Your eyes are not tricking you. The four of us built a fire on the water!!! FIRE ON THE WATER!!!

Why all of those sticks? You guessed it. BEAVER!! MUSKRAT?? Probably both. All we know is that we saw the beaver. Not to mention the 2 water snacks that we all witnessed.

We changed the lyrics of  the song "Fire on the Mountain" that day to "Fire on the Water." As night approached we began to sing, "Sittin' on the dock at Kenray, wastin' time...." Go ahead and give it a try! It's a pretty catchy tune.

Needless to say, "that is a lot of sticks." We still have half of the damn to get rid of. I promise when the new dock is built we will have a sign hanging on it somewhere that says, "Damned Ol' Beaver Dock!"

We rented a family cabin and spent four nights at McCormicks Creek State Park. Check in was on July 4th. We ventured back to Monroe County Fair Grounds to see the fireworks show. Let me tell you, I am so glad that we did! Not only were the fireworks great but, they had a band playing! Fabulous!!!
After the fireworks were over,  we got ice cream and a funnel cake then hung around to checkout the band while the parking lot cleared out some. What a geat set up! It was a fantastic 4th for us.

Nothing like team work.

Happy Birthday America!! This cake is for you!!

Amaya's side~ Ely's side.

We stopped in front of the Canyon Inn to take a couple of pictures. This one is my fav. Amaya has decided that she is going back to that exact spot to have her senior pictures taken. Only seven years away... we are true planners I tell you!

We scheduled some time to go horse back riding.

We were so happy to have my parents pop up to be with us for two evenings. My step-dad, Andy, went on the horse trail with us.

Ready to saddle up and ride. Our horses names seemed to fit us well. Philly rode the biggest horse they had, Thunder. Ely was next in line. He rode Jessie which is his step-moms name. Papaw Andy rode Moe which was great because it's always good to have a Mo on your side. (We love you MoLuv and hope to see you soon.) I rode Molly, she was sweet and gentle in the begin but something spooked her near the end and WOW!!! She frightened Amaya and I. Amaya was pretty freaked out when Molly galloped. I sure wasn't expecting it. Amaya rode Pal. After Molly's little spook Amaya was happy that he was such a pal and followed Molly gently to keep in line with the others. Amaya kept saying, "You're my pal aren't you Pal? Easy...easy boy."

Wednesday we hiked. The trails are beautiful. There is nothing better than having water right beside you when you are hiking and it is hot. We stopped several times to wade in the creek.

This is the falls. We had a lot of fun swimming around in this cool water. Isn't this a great picture?

 Ok, I promise I will get a phone call when my mom sees this picture. She tries so hard to avoid pictures at all cost. Well, they are to sweet to leave out so here you are... Andy and Diane Batchelor, my parents. Aren't they cute?

We saw a couple trees that were like this. If I could have fit, I would have been inside one also.
Just some extra pictures of how we spent our time.

Amaya enjoyed a good book at waters edge.

McCormicks Creek Pool- Thursday, July7th.

 Check out the diving boards. That's our boy in mid flip! Love it! He has always been a water bug.

 The famous colors game. Philly tells Amaya a color and Ely has to guess it. If he guesses the wrong color, he gets dunked. Amaya doesn't like to get dunked. Ely on the other hand could do it all day long.

Thanks for a fun filled summer so far Philly, Amaya, and Ely!! Just think...there is still more to come.