June in the garden.

June has been a very busy time for us. Lots of time spent outside (in between rain showers) and lots of time spent in the garden. Sage has been a great garden helper!

Picking strawberries.

Helping pick salad and radishes.





Checking on the broccoli.

She insisted on carrying all these veggies in the house herself, even though she could barely lift it.

Weekend in Knoxville.

In celebration of our Anniversary, we decided to take a weekend trip to Knoxville, TN. We used to do glass/bead shows here, so were familiar with some of the fun things Knoxville has to offer. The glass shows were held in the Jacob building of Chilhowee Park, and the Knoxville Zoo is right across the parking lot.



Here we are in front of Black bear falls. Some of the exhibits here are really nice.

The kids were able to get right up to black bears, and see them up close. The bears used the tunnels to get out of the sun, they couldn't see us.

The Elephants had a really nice outside area, although they were very far away. Inside we were able to see just how big an elephant really is! They are Huge! It was neat to see them so upclose!

This zoo had so much for the kids to do! There was traveling indoor exhibit called Wee PlayZoo.
It was really neat! The kids had so much fun working in the pizza shop, dressing up, working in the vet clinic and becoming zoo workers for the day! It was really fun for them and the air conditioning was a nice break from the outside!

The zoo also had a huge children's area called Kids cove. There was a petting zoo, giant sandbox, indoor climbing structures, a carousel and this frog pond.

After the zoo we headed to the hotel. It had a pool and hot tub that we all enjoyed!



On Monday we went back to Chilowee park to check out the Discovery Center (it's on our museum passport). It really wasn't all that exciting, it was very small...so we didn't stay long. Afterwards we took a walk around the duck pond. The Discovery center is the white building in the background.

The we headed downtown to the World's Fair Park. We started off at the Kid's fort oplayground. It was way too warm to play for long though, so we headed to the Splash pad.

The kids love this! We spent most of the day here playing in the water.

Before leaving we checked out the Sunsphere. You can take an elevator up to observation deck. These are some pictures of the park from the Sunsphere.

We had a great weekend, it was lots of fun for everyone. i took way too many pictures as usual and you can see more here if you'd like.

kid's Garden

This spring when we were busy getting the garden ready to plant, Sequoia asked if he could plant his own garden. So Kenan tilled up a small spot and border it with some fallen pine logs. We added a bit a seasoned manure and compost and then i took Sequoia to town to pick out some seeds and plants for his garden.

Both the kids were very excited to start planting. They helped to work the manure into the soil and create some rows.

Planting the seeds

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and vegetables and flowers.

Adding water and waiting for it to grow. The kids planted their garden mid-may. Sequoia has done a great job keeping it watered and weeded and Sage loves to help too!




It is growing fabulously! They planted a broccoli, tomato, pepper, potato, green beans, peas, cucumber, melon, spinach, chard, lettuce, carrots and flowers...all in a 5x5 space. :) . It looks better than my garden! Sequoia is very proud of it. :)

9th Anniversary.

On June 3rd of 2000, we were married in a simple ceremony down by the creek.

Nine years and two children later, our love is as strong as ever. i can not imagine sharing my life with anyone else, and look forward to seeing where else our journey leads us. Happy Anniversary Kenan!

Dixie Caverns

At the end of the school year Sequoia's class took a field trip to the Dixie Caverns.



We have been here before, it is not the most impressive cavern display...but it was a fun and interesting trip with a bunch of first graders. It's about a 45 min guided tour that goes up inside the mountain, unlike most caves that go underground. The caves were first discovered by a couple of boys and their dog in 1920.

It was extremely difficult to get any good pictures, so i'm only going to post a few. The caves are quite pretty, well lite and the hike is good for all ages. They also have a rather nice gift shop that sells all kinds of gorgeous crystals and stones. i come here a couple times a year just to buy stone cabochons and marbles for beading. :)

This was our group trying to get arranged for a photo. Wow! Look at all that pink. hee hee.
After the cave tour we wandered the gift shop and then enjoyed a picnic at the Dixie Caverns campground.

Mother's Day Hike to Devil's Den.

i am so behind on posting! These last few weeks have been extremely busy with school letting out, crafting, playing outside and planting the garden. i'll try to start posting again, but the more we are outside..the less time i spend on the computer. By the time i sit down to compile a post, i have to sort through hundreds of pictures...yikes.

This was a saved/incomplete post from Mother's Day. Kenan took the Kids to the Lowes Build and Grow workshop and they made these lovely planters. Each came with a flower pot, and house plant and were decorated with hearts, butterflies and flowers.



They were extremely proud of themselves as you can see.

For Mother's Day we took a drive along the BlueRidge Parkway, and ended up at Devil's Den. It was a gorgeous hike, and i spotted a few wildflowers i have not seen before.

This is a showy orchid, and we saw a bunch of these all along the trails.

We also saw Dwarf Crested Irises. i've seen these for sale in stores before, but never in the wild. So that was pretty exciting. Every year we still managed to be surprised by spotting a new plant, insect or critter.

Family picture on the trail leading to Devil's Den. The cave it's self was not all that impressive. It was very difficult to get to, and you are not allowed to enter the cave without a guide. i couldn't really get a good picture of the mouth of the cave, it was very deep into the mountain. Although the cave wasn't all that exciting, the nature trail was really nice and we really enjoyed the hike. The Rhododendrons and Azaleas were in full bloom, and we saw lots of wildflowers and butterflies. It was a perfect Mother's day.

Greensboro Science center and zoo.

This weekend we took a day trip to the Natural Science center in Greensboro, North Carolina. It's one of the museums on our passport, so free admission (wohoo!!). We have never been here before and were all very excited to check it out.



The museum had some really nice exhibits. They had a Paleontology gallery, a Marine Gallery, a Herpetarium and a rocks and Mineral Science gallery. It was not as interactive and 'hands on' as some of the other Museums we have visited, but the kids didn't seem to mind.

They got plenty of 'hands on' fun in the Kid's Alley play room. There was an interactive water table, where you could change the water currents, a playhouse with a full kitchen, a farmers market and grocery store, a Veterinarians center, a pretend garden, building blocks, books and so much more. The kids had a great time playing with everything.



Once we made our way through all the inside exhibits, we headed outside to Animal Discovery. It was really the perfect day to be there, low 70's and not at all crowded.



There were several of these beautiful peacocks roaming around.

This one startled us when he decided to display his feathers. He was probably feeling a bit threatened by all the people following him around. :)

They really are gorgeous. All the feathers are shimmery and iridescent.

There was a small petting farm, with goats, sheep Alpaca, pigs, miniature horses and a donkey.



There were two wallabies, and you could get really close to them. They had a nice fenced area, and came right up to the fences to see us. We also spotted a little skink hanging out in those rocks. i got a picture of him sticking his read head out from a hole. i believe he was probably a Five-lined Skink, because his head was bright orange/red.

The zoo was small, but had a nice variety of animals. The animals were all pretty active too, except for the wolves. These Lemurs came right up to the glass to check out the visitors. The Gibbons and Howler monkeys were swinging on their ropes, and wrestling with each other. They were really fun to watch. The kids favorites were the Meerkats. They also had two tigers, a giant ant eater, giant tortoises, alligators and more. Inside the discovery house, were poisonous snakes and spiders, and many other animals.





The highlight for the kids were these musical water fountains. The water pulsed with the beat of the music, and jumped from fountain to fountain. The kids danced and jumped, and tried to get as wet as they possible could.

It was definitely a good day for everyone, lots of smiles all around and we can't wait to come back!