Nascar

Im planning a weekend with Bethel at the Atl Motor Speed Way. I'm hoping to put together a paper representing the Nascar family. Collecting pictures to show the culture and atmosphere of the group that love nascar.

Truth

Louisianna

Geoff (G)and I packed five kids in the car Sunday and drove down to Mobile, Alabama. A beautiful Bay city on the Mexican gulf. We wanted to take the long route to G'sbusiness meeting and use the time to experience new cities. We decided to rest when we arrived in Mobile instead of sightseeing. Bethel was sweet and walked the little ones to the tiny indoor pool for some cooling off.

Monday: we headed to the USS Alabama. What a treat! The ship has been opened to the public to explore. I wouldnt like to be stuck in those hot closed in quarters like the poor sailors were in 1920 through to 1945.
The weather was very hot and extremely bright so the pictures didnt come out like Id hoped, but we all enjoyed the sights.

We had planned to drive out to the islands off of the shore of Alabama after the ship tour but G wanted to head towards New Orleans. The sights along the highway were beautiful. Some of the drive is over the swamp. The engineers build the road over the river instead of through the wet lands, it was strange to travel above the river when it looked like there was dry land, forests,  each side of the road.

We drove to the heart of New Orleans where our hotel was close to the French quater. Geoff and I left the kids and walked through the city. The city seemed very dirty and broken even ten years after the hurricane.

We didnt walk all the way to the cathedral, we stopped at Bubba Gump Shrimp's restuarant. G had to taste the New Orleans cuisine. The food was very well prepared and the service was great.

G had to do some conference calls Tuesday so I took the kids for a walk in the city. It was a completely new experience for them to stroll down the sidewalk of an inner city. They did well holding hands and obeying but they tired quickly. After walking to the park we headed back towards the kids museum.
What a wonderful place! The kids pretended to be captains, shopkeepers, builders, architect s and so much more. The kids wore themselves ( and me) out.

We then headed towards Lafayette. We got a surprise when we arrived and found that the hotel had messed up our reservations and we didnt have a place to stay. We called fifteen different places looking for a room, not a pleasant experience. We finally found a room at the Drury Hotel and Im glad, it was a lovely experience staying there.

Wednesday morning G and Bethel went to the business meeting and the little ones and I explored.  lafayette has grown faster then city had time to make the appropriate changes. Everywhere was extremely busy. It was interesting to see all the small homes build in a time passed but The kids got tired of my driving around and begged me to return to the rooms.

When G and Bethel returned we set out to see a small village preserved from 1740. I love seeing historical sites and trying to capture the atmosphere with my camera.

Even though it was extremely hot we decided to take a swamp tour next. We had a little time to kill before our appointment so we visited a fine book store. We all enjoy the treasure hunt of a second hand bookstore. G found some really unique books from the 1800's for his collection.
The swamp tour was amazing. We saw a lot of birds, alligators and plant life, even a couple of turtles too. If you ever have the opportunity to take a tour, I highly recommend it.

A little privacy

Afternoon fun

I took out my props and asked the kids to model for me this afternoon. It is always fun watching them laugh and play as I take pictures. They love all the attention. but my lights weren't working so a lot of the shots are full of shadows which is really disappointing.

Simple beauty

On my morning walk I saw this tiny flower in the middle of the overgrowth.

Forgiveness

I read something about forgiveness that was very enlightening.
When we feel hurt by someone we have judged their actions as unjust, and so judge them and criticize them for their actions or words.
That makes so much sense to me. I am hurt because I judged the action or words as hurtful. People will react differently to the same circumstance because of their own moral laws and ideas of fairness.

When we hold un forgiveness we continue to judge that other person. The bible is clear about judging others.

Romans 2:11 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

 

Rather be two then crazy

Driving from the pet store Liz asks why Bethel would want a snake, I piped in quickly that Bethel was just crazy.
Everyone inthe car laughed. The next topic wasnt so funny though. The older boys started arguing about a silly thing and they were going back and forth just voicing the same statement over and over. I became quickly annoyed and told Nathaniel to stop acting like a two year old. Bethel enjoyed that statement and chuckled.
But Nathaniel quickly came back with he'd rather be two then crazy! The whole car errupted in laughter.

Toothless:Liz lost another tooth today :)

Quiet???

The best time is quiet time. In this house quiet is very rare. This morning I managed to wake before everyone, what joys!

I love the determination I see in my kids. I need to learn from them; to find joy in learning and trying again and again until I get that hoop.

some photographers would cringe at the thought of posting unedited photos......But here are some winter pics I took of the Georgia snow 

My Viking cake was designed from the movie "How to train your Dragon."
Baked an "island", build a candy hut with Kit Kats and then attached Toothless on spikes to appear like he is flying over the island. Kids loved it!!!

Viking party theme

Some Vikings raided my home!