Dave was brave enough to try a steeper "slide" but did catch some air halfway down! Forrest was on rescue patrol at the bottom. What a handsome guy!!!

Sweet moments on the trail - Dakota & Daddy!

More sweet moments at the trails end - Daddy and Simon :)!

The hike was beautiful. Keith and Jacob didn't want to slide down but enjoyed the climb. Forrest was a nice brave example of slidin' :)! The little ones were so cute throwing rocks in the pool at the bottom of the "slide". I remember MANY days and buckets full of rock throwing at Mamaw and Dendaddy's lake. It is a priceless pastime :)!

We went to an amazing waterfall slide! We had a super time, although it was a bit cold :)!

We met up for dinner at ChicfilA with a friend of Jeff's from college days. I'd heard stories about Eric - the jack of all trades. Jeff said he had many hobbies he had mastered by spending lots of time until he'd figured it out well, whatever it was. Cool quality. One such mastery is magic. We were all wowed! He and his wife have 2 boys and are planning to go into ministry in France in the coming years. It was fun to get together with them.

Swingin' in Uncle Dave & Aunt Stacey's back yard! FUN!

Dave took us around to lots of cool spots in Roanoke. The boys found a fake rock wall mtn to climb and performed at the top :) . . . Kara loved racing the boys around the stones and Dakota made all the rocks a big drum set. Simon enjoyed a nap in th van. The big star sat on a great overlook of the city!

We love playing at new playgrounds. This one sat right next to a river/creek?? in Roanoke. Dakota found lots of sticks for Marley (their little basset hound which became Hazel's friend, we think. They did MANY laps around our tent in the backyard).

On to VA, the Orts' cruise :)! Em's brother, Dave, and his family live in Roanoke, and we had a super time hanging out and seeing all kinds of cool spots. We spent one morning at the farmers' market downtown and caught Dakota and Simon being "big boys" in the outdoor equipment store. I think the ladies working the store wanted to use them as models for these $100 backpacks - who wouldn't want to buy one!

After we left FL, we stopped in for a couple of days to visit the Oliver family in South Carolina (Jeff went to college with Esther). The kid had a ball entertaining one another, and we, grown ups enjoyed the company (and game night after the kids went to bed :). We took a trip to the zoo and had a rockin' tailgate lunch, too, but I forgot my camera that day. The Olivers' youngest son is named Simon, as well, so we had to call them Simon Jeffrey & Simon Peter (since the last initial was the same, too :). Thanks Naomi, Nathaniel, Simon Peter, and Mr. Robert and Mrs. Esther for a wonderful time!

Stopped for a quick cool off in an outdoor fountain. Sweet turtle near the fountain (Mema and Mommy love turtles) was a great place for a picture with Mema, too :)!

A world of bouncing & sliding fun. Jeff's mom took us inside where it was cool to an indoor inflatable playland. The kids definitely worked up a sweat, though, and Jeff was glad someone had to "help" Simon :)!!

By the end of our journey, I think we will be the conosuiers (sp?) of America's best playgrounds. Jeff's brother, Dennis, his fiance, Maricia, & son, Michael had a softball game, we were able to attend. At the sports park was a very cool, music themed playground with plastic drums and horns everywhere. We all enjoyed playing, as you can tell, but got chased away by the bugs. Dennis and Maricia get married this weekend (Oct 10th). Wish we could be there! Best wishes you two!!!

One VERY pleasant Florida evening we ventured to a local playground. Simon liked hiding in the mazes of the pirate ship, & Jeff and the boys and Kara (along with many other kids at the playground) played some sort of monster tag.

We were able to get some REAL swimming in at Art's sister, Carol's, pool. I think the confidence in swimming for Keith and Jacob really hit that day!!! They were swimming from shallow to deep, and Jacob was even jumping in and swimming to the side(said it was fun, but not AS fun as when PawPaw paid him $2 to jump in the pool for the first time :).

The big "clod" of dirt behind the screen past Jacob was actually a speaker. The groovy dudes played air guitar to entertain us all!!