Storytime

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Silver Dollar Birthday

Although we just went a month ago, Blake wanted to revisit Silver Dollar City for his birthday and the kids didn't mind at all. Some good friends joined us for the day & made it a real party.

We went prepared to get soaked the first day, and we did indeed get drenched. Micah fired water cannons in Geyser Gulch while Gabi danced through the sprinklers.

Geyser Gulch is also where all the fun balls are that you can suck up, shoot, put on pulleys, etc.

They posed for silly pictures:

We rode lots of rides with dad and our friends who came. Gabi tried riding Wildfire once the second day with Blake, but Blake luckily got to sneak off with the other dad and the two of them rode Wildfire 5 times while moms and kids rode the train- we got robbed! But I'm not sure a 37 year old could be more delighted than to ride roller coasters with his friend like her was 17 again. (We were there for Southern Gospel festival again so there were lots of people there, but not many riding rides.)

Micah tried two rides he'd never done before- Grand Exposition Coaster & Thunderation. Thunderation is Gabi's favorite ride. She easily got on it a dozen times. This is the GE coaster- a kiddie coaster:


If you can see his face here, you can tell he only thought this one was half fun:

But he rode it twice- once with Gabi & once with his friend. Thunderation he rode 3 times and liked it better. Micah's favorite ride is the rafts- but I don't take pictures there b/c iPhones aren't waterproof. :) He also likes the frogs still:

Blake got birthday funnel cake!

This attraction at SDC is a blast--- the River Blast to be exact. You get to spray people you don't know with water, then they spray you back. You can spray from a raft or from shore as the boys are doing in the picture below. We rode this repeatedly with both families and got soaked and laughed hysterically.

The kids enjoyed watching the craftsmen-- potters and especially this guy working on a log cabin:

We also visited the animals before we left:

Kickin' It

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Dads Day

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Nunchucks warmups

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Regional Karate Tournament: Blake

Don't worry- there will be video in the coming days from the tournament, but in the mean time, here are some still shots from Blake's round of competition in forms.

There had to be a tie-breaker, but Blake won 3rd place! Woo hoo!

Wii

Side note: Micah got a haircut. He doesn't appreciate how I like to rub my hand across the fresh buzz cut.


Gabi got a last minute invite to sleepover w/ her cousin, and Micah could only be consoled at being left behind by a Wii date with Dad.


I expect them to be in these positions for a couple of hours. :) they look very serious, but are having a blast helping Lego Indiana jones through the temple of doom. Or something.


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They're teaching him WHAT?!

Micah's karate class learns self-defense type stuff sometimes, and tonight they worked on how to get away if a stranger grabs you... although in this case it was how to get loose from your dad's grip. Note a few of those famous round kicks, which he kindly didn't actually plant on his dad.

Macho Board Breakers

Sparring with Dad

They have a new class at the karate studio for families to train together, so Micah and daddy got to work out together.

Dad helped Micah get his gear on.

They both had to get stretched and warmed up.

Now they're ready to spar.

Wait, Micah gets some tips from the Master on how to hit his dad really hard.
The Master found this funny.

Watch out, dad, I'm coming.

BOOM! And he nails a perfect round kick to the hip.

Better luck next time, dad.

Ingathering

You may have seen Blake and Gabi in the newspaper this weekend. About once a month, they volunteer at the local food bank and this visit happened to also be the big gathering of supplies and donations from UMCs all over Arkansas, called the Ingathering. Gabi felt famous from having her picture in the statewide paper and wondered if she'd get a limo. A lavender limo.

Here are a few of the pictures from the newspaper's album. You can see more of the paper's coverage from Ingathering here.

And they even got t-shirts: