Family trip!

Last Thursday, a little after 5 a.m. we all began our long journey to Ohio to spend time with family and to celebrate two birthdays! :) 

It was really nice to get to see some leaves changing to colors other than brown! :P
On the way home, the leaves were changing even more. There were so many different shades of color on the trees--solid gold, a variety of reds and orange, even pink!!

Towards the top of AL and also in TN, we always enjoy getting to see the rocks! Just..something about rocks, I guess. xD 

About an hour or so before we reached Aunt Lisa's house, Esther and Gabriel started slow dancing in the back seat... o.O

Yes, it proved to be a rather entertaining part of the trip..especially when Esther purposely swung Gabriel's hand into my eye. *sigh* The way siblings' express love. ;)

After we arrived and hauled our luggage and instruments inside, I chatted a couple minutes with Jared in his room and then my siblings, he, and I all headed down to...the Man Cave. ;) 

WHOA!

Alright..Girl cousin..verses ...guy cousin. Let's see what they can do. ;) 

Come on, Jared! Don't give up yet! You've almost got that eight-pound weight in one hand! 

He had a little bit better luck the next time..Looks like with some effort, he was able to lift the 3-pound weight. (;

'Prepare to fight!!'

'Surrender or suffer the consequences!'

It got pretty intense! ;)

Well don't smile any bigger, y'all. =P

Hey, I always knew my brother was a monkey! 

Foosball challenge!

Gabriel was having a hay-day playing with the legos! :)

Friday morning, not too long after Aunt Lisa and Uncle Sam got home from work, we all drove to High Banks Park to hike a few miles! 

Cousin picture! =) 

My wonderful parents <3
They really enjoyed getting to be out in the sunshine!

Family picture :)

Me and Jared

The "dude" pic ;)

Okay, this picture does not do this ravine justice. It. was. huge. And wayyyyyy down. It looked soo cool from the path that Jared and I were talking about how neat it would be down there! A short while later, Dad decided to make his way below! =D Only three brave souls (Dad, Jared, and I) dared to pick our way down and into the ravine. I tried encouraging the rest to follow, but they were afraid there wouldn't be a way for them to get back up. You had to be really careful when making your way down.

First off, if you went down pretty much any other area, you would slip before you had gone two yards annnd..let's just say someone tumbling down that great distance would be pret-ty messy. So we were making our way into the ravine by going down a bit of a trench..It was still a bit unsafe because you could easily slip still if you weren't careful, and also you couldn't always be sure of your footing because the leaves were piled so thickly in the trench it took a bit of feeling before your foot would hit solid ground. After hanging onto what trees there were along the trench, crawling under or over a small fallen tree or so, a bit of sliding, and whatever else it took to get down, we made it! The view..was amazing! So you can't see who's who all that well in the picture because we're so small..but I'm the tiny orange 'thing' next to Jared (wearing the white), and then Dad in the black.

That's Gabriel returning from the bit of progress he had made. (Mom didn't want him going down.)

I think the camera was zoomed all the way in (it has really good zoom) and look how tiny Jared and I still are. Like I said..far way down. ;)

The rocks down there were ALL amazingly smooth. Even next to the stream, it looked like cracked mud for the bank--but it was pure rock! So awesome down there! =)

Cousins!

Jared being like his older cousin. ;D

After we got back from the hike, NERF GUN WAR!!!!

Later, back we went to the man cave to play some Mario kart!

Saturday morning, Lisa had Esther and I make these treats for Jared's surprise party that night!

Laurisa in the banquet room in which we celebrated both Aunt Brenda and Jared's birthdays about noon Friday!

The birthday people--Brenda and Jared :)

Playing games
(I believe this game was "Who Knows Jared Best?")

Mom and her dad

Brenda wearing her first birthday gift--her high-fashion bifocals! ;)

                            Lisa, Jared, and Sam                          So glad we were there to celebrate with you!

I hope your birthday was everything you wanted and more, Brenda!  We're so glad we got to celebrate it with you! :) 

After the desserts, the gifts were opened!

Right after the gifts were opened, we all packed up and headed to Lisa's house! The rest of the day was spent hanging out, eating, and volleyball!! Sorry we didn't get any pictures. Hard to break away from all the fun to get the camera! My sisters and I played our instruments together for the family that evening and then for a special at church the following morning. I think somebody was taking pictures of us playing at Lisa's house, but it wasn't with our camera, so although we didn't leave til Monday morning, the party is where our picture taking stopped.

Thanks so much again for having us Lisa and Sam! We really appreciated your hospitality and thoroughly enjoyed our stay! It was a blast! :)