Washington Township T-Ball

Oliver played his first year of t-ball this year at Washington Township Little League. His team was the Raptors and Daddy helped coach. He learned so much throughout the season and had a blast with his teammates!

First game!

Swing!

And a miss...

He loved wearing this helmet!

His teammates played what I call "tackle t-ball!"

Good sportsmanship!

The Raptors

The Raptors' cheerleader

Opening Day!

Coach Daddy and Coach Kristin

Tennessee - Summer 2014

Last month, my family met in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee for our 2nd annual Flournoy Family Vacation. After spending 5 days in a beautiful house in the mountains, Don, the kids and I headed down to Georgia for the rest of the week. We had a great time catching up with everyone! I think Oliver especially loved being around his bigger cousins. He's still talking about them :-)

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Beautiful!

Finley, Noah and Aidan

Don and me

We survived a 3 mile hike with both of our kids! :)

The beautiful view from our back deck

The resort neighborhood we stayed in.

Amy, Finley and Nini hanging out on the swing...this was my happy place :)

Dad, Don and Brett enjoying the view

Noah and Brock

The living room

Dining room and kitchen

Upstairs loft

Beautiful log cabins

Daddy and Oliver checking out the antique fire truck.

Oliver pretty much thought this was the coolest thing ever.

This was at a mini golf place that Don and I played the night before.

My future firefighter

Had a hard time getting him to leave

At the pool at PawPaw and Nini's

Riding in his police boat that PawPaw bought him.

My little fish!

Silly boy

Time to head home :(

A Snowy Hike

On Saturday, we packed Hoosier in the car and headed up north to Anderson to Mounds State Park. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures. It really was not the most picturesque park, however, so you're not really missing out. We only spent an hour or two hiking the trails then we headed back home. Not one of my favorites, but it was still nice to get out and walk for awhile.

Coming up: The debut of the Dinnertime Divas...

Kayaking...Or Not

Since I am on Fall Break and leaving for California on Friday, Don decided to take a few days off for us to spend time together (that may not be the reason he gives when asked why he took time off work, but it's the one I'm sticking with). Since we have taken up kayaking as our new hobby, we decided to go on an 8 mile kayaking trip down the Whitewater River in Brookville, Indiana today. Don made all the arrangements with the kayak rental company and off we went this morning. It's about a 2 hour drive so we had to get up quite early to make our 9:30 reservation. We got there about 10 minutes late and what did we find? Nothing but a dark building and locked doors. Apparently they forgot to show up for work this morning. Big bummer!

We had to move onto Plan B which ended up being a lot of fun. We wound up at Whitewater Memorial State Park where we spent a couple of hours hiking the trails around Brookville Lake.

Very scenic, especially this time of year!

We took several shots, but we always ended up on the right so we gave up.

As we were leaving the park, we came across two deer standing just yards from our car. One escaped before we could get a picture, but this doe stayed very still...until my cell phone rang and she made a run for it too!

After we left Brookville, we headed over to Metamora for a little lunch...and fudge. I realize this looks like steak (sort of), but it is actually the most delicious chocolate peanut butter and chocolate caramel pecan fudge I have ever eaten!

And if the fudge wasn't enough (because of course for me, a true chocoholic, it wasn't), as we were driving home, we came across one of those drive-up hot dog, root beer, ice cream places (which I absolutely ADORE!) so my wonderful husband stopped and we got ice cream. Is that bad?? I don't think so. I think it was a terrific day spent with my hubby!

Morse Reservoir

Earlier in the week, Hoosier and I tagged along with Don to one of his many softball games. We like going along when he plays at Morse Park because there are a lot of walking trails along the water that keep us busy. And, of course most importantly, it's absolutely beautiful at sunset. Here are a few pictures we took as we walked. Unfortunately, I missed the prettiest part of the evening...these pics were taken a bit later, after Don's games.

Sunset on the lake...








A nice all-American night...baseball, a peaceful walk with the dog and a beautiful sunset. You can't beat that!

Turkey Run State Park

We spent a peaceful Sunday afternoon at Turkey Run State Park, which is about 2 hours west of Indy. It was beautiful! We had a picnic and then hiked the trails for close to 3 hours. Hoosier went along and loved hiking (especially when it involved water)! I'm not sure how many miles we walked, but it was a lot! We spent most of our time on the very rugged trails which meant hiking over rocks, through water and up and down a lot of stairs. At one point, the only way to get ourselves off a cliff was to climb down 2 gigantic ladders...not happening with a dog. So...we had to get creative and shimmy down the side of the cliff. Did I mention that it rained (a lot) yesterday? It was very muddy and very slippery. And, of course, our shoes, clothing, legs, and dog were covered in mud, but oh well, we had a great time!

The bridge we had to cross to get over Sugar Creek and to the trails...

H loving the creek!

We walked through a LOT of water!

What did I tell you?

Don climbing a tree...hope Hoosier doesn't start chasing something...

And down some rocks...

Surrounded by beautiful scenery...

More scenery...

What a lovely day! We already have plans to visit some of the other state parks soon (might as well visit them since that's who pays the bills around our house!), but first, we need to get some gear to make hiking with a dog a bit easier! Hope you all had as terrific a weekend as we did!