We have a new writer!

Not reader- writer. Haha, we know that the little ones are ready to read when they are constantly asking how to spell this and that.
Andrew was told by Daddy when he turned five that Daddy would take him fishing when he learned to read. The next day, Andrew did this:




Mommy is now working on teaching him to read :).

Saturday: Day three of the trip

The next morning we headed out of the hotel at about 8:30 a.m., for the next session. That was a bit early for us (we're more night owls), but we made it :).
It was wonderful, the Maxwell family is so sweet, and the sessions were a wonderful blessing :)! Tori, Bethi and I went to the girls and youth sessions, Andrew, Daddy and Abbi stayed together, and then Mommy took Emmi. Mommy and Daddy had to keep moving from room to room, but we girls got to stay in the same two rooms, two sessions per room :). We almost didn't go to Sarah's "Experiencing the Joy of Young Womanhood" session, because we do have that session on CD, but I was so glad that we decided to go anyway, because although the same principles for the session were kept, the illustrations and insights she used to share were totally different :)!
We had a break at about eleven o'clock for lunch after two sessions, then the other two were held after lunch. While there, I talked to one girl who said her family had been down at river street the day before at the same time we were. I had seen their fifteen passenger, but hadn't thought about it being anyone at the conference. There were also three other families staying at the hotel we were at that were there for the conference. Also, would you believe that one of Daddy's costumers, who comes into his store (Family Christian Stores) on her way by to see family, was there? It was really funny, he can't go ANYWHERE without meeting someone who shops at his store!
Mommy had asked me to make some bookmark of couple weeks before our trip, but wouldn't tell me who they were for. It was so neat to have something to give the Maxwell ladies, who had never even heard of tatting, I love telling people how I made a tatted item and then getting to tell them what tatting is :).
Miss Sarah signed our Moody books, which was really neat. As she was signing them she mentioned the fact that they looked "well read" haha...
After the conference was wrapped up, we headed back to the beach for a few more pictures, more shells, and some more water fun :).

Miss Sarah Maxwell and us five older children :).

When we got back to the hotel, we found Abbi's puppy dogs
tucked in bed, where she had left them, but you could tell
that the beds had been made and the room had been cleaned.
We had to wonder what the maids thought about those dogs,
but it appears they thought it was cute :).
That pink and orange thing isn't a dog, it is a Dr. Seuss book
character, which Abbi calls a monkey!

Emmi first feels the sand on her toes.
It was too cold the first night.

Not so sure about the water... :)


Heehee :)!

I'm not sure what Emmi was doing, but it's cute!

Baby footprints in the sand... LOVE IT!!!

Tori has started a blog :)!!!

Go here to check it out!
Tori has wanted a blog for a long time, even set one up when she was five- but never wrote anything on it!!! Now she has got it up and running, and I am just s excited as you to know what stories she will tell us!!!
For background on how Tori's blog at five (that she actually never used!) was started, go here... :)...

Letters in architecture!

Can you tell what it says? :)...

The day of the surprise :)!

On the second day of our trip, we woke up and got everybody ready to go walk the squares in Savannah! We love doing this, we've done it each time we have been there (three times now)...

I'll admit, I take pictures in the car just about every time 
we go somewhere with my camera. I'm not even sure why,
it's just something I do almost every time... I don't
even really care if their "posed"- I like seeing what I get!

I thought it was funny that Abbi and Tori sit
beside each other in the car,
and they both had that tilted head, goofy look...

And then Andrew and Bethi share a row...

and they both had this look on their face!

Emmi sits beside me.

For the past several weeks, she has wanted to hold me hand almost constantly in the car. I thought it was cute, but didn't think too much about it until on the trip. Then, as I picked up my tatting on the trip, she started fussing for my hand. It is kind of hard to tat one handed, so I had to put it down to make her happy. I thought she was just jealous of the tatting for taking up all my attention. But later, I was doing nothing at all, and Daddy held out his hand for Mommy to hold, which she took right away (that is a sight that is quite usual in our car, one that I really enjoy seeing :) ). As soon as their hands touched- Emmi was grabbing my hand! It was so cute, she had been watching Mommy and Daddy and trying to imitate them :). It wasn't a fluke, either, because she did the exact same thing at least five more times on our trip :).

I love the sidewalks there... who knew sidewalks
could be pretty? The shells mixed in make
it so much prettier than what we are used to!

While we were walking the squares, Daddy (head photographer!) told us about finding letters in architecture. He encouraged us to help him find the letters we would need for the favorite Bible term/phrase of each of us who could spell. We had sooo much fun with that :)! I'll have to put up some of the letters that we got soon :).
We stopped for lunch at a gazebo at Whitefield square. We took a quick photo shoot, then we went to river street to stop at the Candy shop, another favorite stop in Savannah. It was kind of disappointing that they were cleaning instead of kneading the taffy, that is really neat to watch! But, we had fun looking around, and we got some taffy to take back with us :).

After that we went back to the hotel, and freshened everybody up. Daddy asked me again if I had any idea what we were doing next. I hated to admit- I had no clue what we would be doing un- usual!
We pulled into a church parking lot, and I still had no idea what we were doing. But then we saw the signs and the bus... the Maxwell family was doing a conference there!

It was so fun, and such a neat surprise :)! Mommy couldn't believe that I hadn't guessed, as I usually get to their blog before she does! It just never crossed my mind that we would go :)!
That night they did two sessions, a concert and a talk by Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell :).

Autumn is officially here :)...

We've had gingersnaps, a couple of cool days in a row, the leaves are finally starting to change color...

And we've bought pumpkins, and cleaned them out...

And separated all the seeds to make roasted pumpkin seeds...

And then made pumpkin muffins with our own pumpkin puree :)!
When Mommy was putting the pumpkins in the cart, Abbi got all excited- "Yay! Compost!" she yelled. I'll admit, it had a compost-able rind, and she does enjoy helping Tori take out all the compost... but it was funny :). Emmi then gets excited when Mommy is carrying them to the house- "Ball!" she squeals :)!...

Our trip: Day one in pictures

Are you ready :)?...

First sight of interest seen on the trip :)... Mommy and Daddy 
were REALLY excited about this one ;)... Notice the word
"Coffee"...

Goofy Tori!

Twizzlers are a trip tradition (I'm not sure
how this one got started, sorry :). I
should really ask, I guess. I'm
sure that it is interesting...)

Update: Tori went to ask Mommy...
and came back with the answer "She said, 'You
know, I'm really not sure...'" Haha :).

Abbi called them twisters, heehee!

Emmi's first "Twister", she loved it!

Tori in an exciting discussion about just
how to cross the ocean without a boat, held with Daddy.
Her solution? Own a ostrich with elastic bones. ?!!!!!

Our first true "planned stop". The ocean!

Sweet Tori :)...

Abbi girl, mischief and all :)!

Andrew loves the ocean- hates bathes!

Picture taken by request. Andrew wanted everybody to
know that he climbed that high!

Heehee :)!!! Love her!

The shells were beautiful!

Love!!!

I love sunsets, especially over water...

We climbed this lighthouse last year...
175 stairs is a lot more than it sounds like!!!!

Poor Emmi was so cold.

Betsy-boo :).

Happy...

And not so happy, heehee!

Back at the hotel... she was so funny!
She thought that everything was so hilarious,
which she was herself!

Should I put the pictures with the text next post, or keep doing them split ;)?....