Twins Christmas

"The holiday season is a perfect time to reflect on our blessings and seek out ways to make life better for those around us." -Terri Marshall

What?  Christmas already! Wait!  Didn't we just do Halloween?  Who had Thanksgiving?  Are you sure?  Christmas?  It seems to be just around the corner.  Sigh!  So, I dug out the old camera to take some Christmas photos of my grandkids. It was quite fun...and challenging...

 Master Sawyer

Master Tate...

Twins at the Arboretum

"Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets." -Ludwig van Beethoven 

We have one of the best Arboretum's here.

It has hiking and bike trails, gardens, including a most spectacular Bonsai garden, programs year round, and some very interesting displays.  When we learned there was a display of various items made of Legos, we knew we had to take the boys.  They were pretty excited that they were given maps to help them find all the Lego displays.  They love maps.  Probably because they equate maps with buried treasure.  They kept referring to the maps to discover where the next Lego display might be...sort of funny since they can't read yet.  Anyway, here is the first Lego display they discovered...a Monarch butterfly and a flower.  Hendersonville is one of the stop off places for the monarch butterfly. This time of year we see lots of them as they migrate.

Map reading?

Each boy had their favorite Lego displays.  Sawyer happened to like this one, and wanted me to take his picture in front of it...

It is a pretty huge lady...

Tate liked this one of the snake.  I have learned a little rhyme to help know if a snake is poisonous or not.  It goes like this: red on black venom lack, red touches yellow, kill a fellow.  So far all the snakes I have seen here are black ones which they tell me are harmless.

He wanted his picture taken in front of it.  If you look closely you can see the snake on the left of Tate, and a mouse on the right.

Pretty clever.

Some of the Legos were very hard to find.  They were put in areas that went with the habitat.  For example, there was a woodpecker on the side of a tree, a sundial was in the middle of a fountain.   Here's a fence made of Legos, along with 4 squirrels (two on the top of the fence, one on the left, 2nd rail over at the bottom coming through the fence posts, and one on the right looking through the fence post).  The bird feeder is full of Legos "bird seed", and the bluebirds are Legos as well. Totally amazing!

This one of the rototiller was interesting.  We thought there was nothing unusual about it other than being made of Legos, but Sawyer kept wanting us to come over to look at the inside of it...

There was a man eating a pizza in there.  Pretty clever.

There were some fun Legos too...

We all enjoyed the Legos displays, and looking around at other things at the Arboretum... like exploring the gardens...

Checking to see if money was thrown into the fountain...there was not...

So Sawyer wanted to remedy that so he is asking for pennies to throw in there.  We did not give him any.

More fun exploring...

Pawpaw and the boys...I love this photo...

Look at the newly added display...huge bugs...

These bugs are animated.  We plan to take the boys this week to show them this display.  They are going to love it.  

Grandkids...

Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing old." -Mary H. Waldrip

 I am so glad these boys love books.  We spend a lot of time reading...

"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which god has implanted in the human soul." -Goethe

During the New Year, we had very warm weather.  The boys found a bucket of water on the back porch, and the rest is history.  Water + boys = cheap entertainment, and fun! And wet clothes.

"I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it." -Matisse

Brotherly love...

Just Tate...

A Few of the Boys Favorite things...

Be Blessed...

Twins...

" A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." -Proverbs 17: 22

Warren brought a very special gift for the twins when he came to visit.  It was a few cars from Luke's car collection from when he was a little boy.  The difference in the Matchbox cars then, and now amazed me.  The quality of the old vs. the new is undeniable.  The old cars are metal as opposed to plastic, the wheels turn much better, hence the old are so much faster, and a lot of the doors, and hoods open on the old.  In this case, old = better!

The boys took turns in selecting their cars, and I wrote a "T" for Tate on his cars...

These cars are any where from 10- 27 years old...Tate's cars

and a  "S" for Sawyer on his cars...

Sawyer's cars

The writing of their initial on their cars has proved to be invaluable...no more fighting over cars.  They just look to see to whom the car belongs, and they are happy.

We spend a lot of time reading, and as you can see...it does all their hearts are indeed merry!

 
This Read Aloud Bible Stories has become one of their favorites.  The illustrations are big, and the stories are ones they can easily identify with.

More serious, and into the story 

We had a brief afternoon shower, and the boys had a great time playing in the rain...

This photo is not exactly in focus, but it captures such a glorious , and joyful face...

After they played in the rain, we set up a tent in the garage for snack time...

More merry hearts...

A beautiful time with these beautiful boys...

Hugs and blessings...xoxo!

There he goes...half-marathon...twins

"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win." -Sir Roger Bannister

The afternoon of Warren's retirement found us on an airplane heading for Raleigh, NC.  

We met Luke, and the twins there where we would help keep the boys while Luke did his first half-marathon: Swim 1.2 miles, Bike 57 miles, and  run 13.2 miles.

The day was started off with the typical breakfast of champions: donuts.

Sawyer and PawPaw

Tate

After breakfast,  Luke and Warren headed off to the race site to get the participant package, his bike inspected, and racked in the transition area.

There were about 2500 participants from 30 different countries.  It was a very impressive event...and we had to walk quite a bit because all the roads were blocked off.

While Warren and Luke were getting all the pre-race stuff done, the boys and I hung around the hotel.  There were a lot of motorcycles parked just outside the front door of the motel, and this provided major entertainment for the boys.  We had to go around to every motorcycle to make faces in the chrome, look at the helmets, and "ooh", and "aah" over the bright colors.  The good thing was that this kept them occupied for quite sometime.

Tate

Sawyer

After we had our fill of motorcycles, we checked out the swimming pool.  Warren and I bought them some car characters from the movie "Cars", which also kept them occupied as well.

On the day of the race, I graciously let Warren drive Luke to the race site since they had to be there between 4 and 5 a.m.  The boys and I stayed in our nice warm beds quite a bit later.  Thank goodness.   We headed for the race late morning.  Luke wanted me to get some awesome pictures of him in the race, so we found a wonderful shade tree along the route, and settled down there to wait for him to come by on his bike.

The boys had cow bells to ring and cheer their Daddy on as he went by...so we waited...

and waited...still no Daddy...

and waited...

no Daddy yet...

and waited...as we ate snacks...

And Sawyer decorated his hat with a screw he'd found lying on the curb...

It fit perfectly in a hole on his hat...and we still...waited...

Where was Luke?...he should have come by...by now.  We thought, "man, Luke is slow!"  (Note: he had to have surgery to remove 3 kidney stones about 3 weeks before the race, and had not been able to train, so we thought that might have had some impact on his race shape.) Finally, Warren got online to check where Luke was in the race, since they posted individual results on the ironman webpage.  Luke wasn't slow...Warren found that Luke had finished the bike (how did we miss him?), and was 3 miles into his run.  I couldn't believe we missed him.  Rats, no pictures.  We gathered up our stuff, and walked to the finish line hoping to see him come across.  I watched closely, waiting to get the best picture as he ran by...and run by he did...only I didn't recognize him until he ran past.  Rats...no picture again.  I did not do a very good job of getting amazing action shots.  I only got these pictures after he finished the race.  I am a failure as a sports photographer.

Luke finished middle of the pack in a little over 6 hours.  I was impressed, and proud that he finished.  Everyone was very tired, especially Luke.  Truly, amazing athletes, and amazing Luke.    The boys had a good time cheering for their Daddy even though they did not see him until he finished.  Hopefully, they will be participating in some sports of their own one day.  I hope to have sharpened my skills at sports photographer by then.  It was a good day, and good times.  We were glad we got to be there for the event, and cheer the participants and the unseen Luke.