My National Parks Scrapbook

I made the first page in my newest project today. I have been searching my albums for weeks, finding my favorite photos of national parks and having them printed. Some of them are even Polaroids if you can believe my husband ever stooped to use a Polaroid camera. The idea for this album started when I met a lady on the boat to the Channel Island National Park in January. She told me there were 50 National Parks and her goal was to go to all of them and so far she had been to 25. I was surprised to hear there were only 50 national parks so when I got home, I looked it up and it turns out there are 58. I printed a list and my husband and I went over it and discovered we had been to 27 of them. There are many more areas under the National Parks Service but only 58 of them are national parks. There are also national rivers, national seashores, national lakes, national historic sites and many other designations, 388 in all. You can look at them here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Park_Service

This page is Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. It is a really beautiful one and the only national park in Oregon. We have been to some of the other national sites, too, and I am going to include a few of the most interesting of them like Buffalo National River, Natchez Trace Parkway and Padre Island National Seashore. I am going to try to include a photo of us at each park. I also found photos of the signs for each of the parks which will be my title. The first national park we both visited was Carlsbad Caverns. We both went when we were teenagers and didn't take any photos. I went with friends and he went with his family. All the others we went together, some with kids but most just the two of us.

A very busy Mom and Dad

Warning: these photos may cause some mothers with young children heart palpatations.

Big sister will be 2 in July. She loves her new brother and sister.Donna is on top of everything. I'm sure sometimes she feels it is all on top of her. I know those of you who know John will not be surprised to hear he is a wonderful dad.

The children around your table are as fresh and promising as young olive shoots.

Stand in awe of God's Yes.

Oh, how he blesses the one who fears God! Psalms 128:3

Congratulations to Us

On our 42nd anniversary and a prayer of thanksgiving for the best husband on the planet! He got me the "as seen on TV" upside down tomato planter. I have never been able to grow them before, maybe this will make me some tomatoes!

More Granny Adventures

Where are you guys going?

B is enjoying a bedtime story with his brothers.We had an egg hunt today while Mom and Dad went to the grocery store.Then we tried coloring some real eggs. It's a good thing I had plastic ones for hiding. Turns out, they'd rather eat them than decorate!

Dad got in on the fun when he came to pick them up.

More of Granny activities

Took E home yesterday after he spent a few days helping with the new baby. I finally got to meet the newest member of his family: Boomer. He is a very sweet dog. We brought the biggest brother of the new baby with us to spend a few hours with his cousin. They really enjoy playing together now. We are grateful for a safe trip and seeing our family again. (And DVD players for cars and lots of McDonald's between here and there!)

It was blowing lots of dust up there in the panhandle and we are awaiting reports from the 2 boy scouts and their dad about their camping trip to Caprock Canyons.

Fancy Cooking

We are eating a lot better since E has been here, too. He is making Shrimp Scampi. And Lemonaide Pie (4 cups vanilla ice cream and 4 oz lemonaide concentrate)

Yummy!

He made one for the Lindsey's too!

What your sons did with Granny today

This was right before C threw a shovelful of sand on Z. I didn't know C could do this. He has a strong desire to do every thing his brother does.

This was Z's idea. It was a tight squeeze for E.

I didn't know E could do this, either.

We saw some fountains and ducks.

We looked for critters in the river, but only found ducks.