Huntington Beach State Park Bike Ride

Last weekend Jim and I decided to go for a bike ride at Huntington Beach State Park. This first picture is from the other side of the pond/lake where we frequently see alligators. With all the bushes it was hard to see if there were any alligators lying along the side of the water.

This is another part of the pond/lake on the other side of the trail. This trail that we took went from the Atalaya castle to 17 business. I believe it used to be the driveway for the residents.

There were several turtles and a lot of ducks in the water that we saw and continued to scare into flying off as we rode by. I guess they had their guard up about alligators as well.

Isn't this beautiful?

When we got to the end of the trail we were able to see this statue at the entrance of Brookgreen Gardens.

We continued the lap around the park and saw a snake... which was brought to my attention by Jim saying "Look there's a dead snake... oh wait maybe it's not dead."  Being a not very good bike rider I had a little difficulty remaining on my bike at that point. Then we came along the side of the pond/lake where we always see the alligators. Jim was of course on the lookout while I was worrying about not falling into the rocks where they could be laying (I figured they wouldn't like me rolling into them and that would surely get me bit). Guess what! There were two laying right on the rocks, right next to the bike path... yeay! Luckily I was able to maintain my balance (this is a feat for me as I am quite the klutz, stopping however is a little more difficult for me).

After we finished the loop of the park we went onto the beach and rode our bikes. A very nice man took a picture of us together. I even rode my bike in the waves a little! I got us a little lost in our return to the truck but it gave us the opportunity to ride through the camp ground at the park, which looked very nice.

Do any of you ride bikes? Do you know of any other trails in the MB area? Or maybe your area we could try while on road trips.

Firefighter Combat Challenge Worlds Competition

Things are oddly calm in our house this week. Last week was the very end of this year's combat challenge season. This year the World competition was here in Myrtle Beach at Broadway at the Beach. Jim's mom also came to visit and support Jim as well. Team Horry ran relays and individuals throughout the week and their best times out of those races determined their placement in the overall competitions that took place Friday and Saturday.  Both Team Horry teams made it to the relay finals on Saturday and did amazing. Team Horry II which is composed entirely of Combat Challenge rookies ran a personal best time and Team Horry I placed 5th! I am so proud of all of them and hope that the challenge comes back to MB again next year!

These are a few of my favorite pics from the week.... I didn't get many of Jim in the relays as I was usually yelling too much!

Mike warming up for his individual run

David and Kris getting ready to cheer on another member of Team Horry

This little girl just wanted a better view!

Jim pulling the rope in his individual run

Some of the Team Horry wives at finals in our t-shirts. We sat together all week.

And the back 

Family Photo Shoot

You may remember me talking about us having family pictures taken during our last trip to Ohio. A dear family friend of ours Jody, of Fotos by Jojo, took the pictures. I just received the proofs and LOVE LOVE LOVE them! I plan on using one or a few for a picture Christmas card this year so I am not going to share those but I did want to share a couple. If you live in the area and need pictures taken you should consider her... she also took some pictures of Katy for homecoming and they are better than any of my Senior pictures!

Super cute couple picture....

Jim taking the baby from me.  I love that Jody caught this!

Seriously Jody THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOU ARE AMAZING! I am going to have to buy a lot more frames and figure out how to spread out the pictures from this!

Team Horry In The News

  Just thought I would share some things that are in the local news about Team Horry preparing for Worlds next week.
Video  and pictures

Bringing Work Home

   I talk a lot about Jim's career and how it impacts our lifestyle but I am not able to talk much about my career as much of what impacts us day to day is the stressful stuff and then there is the whole HIPPA rights thing. As with any "teaching" job there are gross moments (I hear it is not so hard when they are your own children), difficulties with parents, and stress about the amount of time it takes up. There are times when I forget why I was drawn to this field or wonder if it is worth it. Then there are the moments when you see a child's face light up in comprehension, they say a first word/an approximation of your name/"singing" or "reading" along with a song/story, or that first roll/crawl/step/climb....moments like those can make my whole week!
   Since I am only working with my children until age three or 5 if they have a diagnosis I have them longer than a classroom teacher but don't have the luxury of seeing them around the school for years to come. Most of my children I never hear from again unless I bump into them in a store. It is hard to not know the progress of someone you were so invested in and seeing at least once a month and up to once a week for many times more than a year. This weekend in cleaning out some storage containers from college I looked through many thank you, holiday, and birthday cards from the little girl and her family that made me change my course of study. I also found my cap from graduation with one of my favorite quotes "You are educated. Your certification is your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to a good life... think of it as your ticket to change the world" -Tom Brokaw. I don't expect to change the world but I remember distinctly believing I could change the world for individual children, and to give them the highest quality of life possible. My end goal has always been for children to leave me needing as few services as possible.
    I spend a lot of time preparing projects, trolling stores and websites for sales on toys and books, and reading blogs and articles about early education curriculum and projects.
    My favorite book (for my work): The Very Hungry Caterpillar
    My favorite craft: The most recent holiday/season gluing craft (currently feathers on a Turkey)
    My favorite game: "The Fishing Game" (Which is really Go Fish by Mattel... I use it with almost all ages for taking turns, following directions, identifiying colors or numbers, and counting!)
    My favorite book about my work: A Friend Like Henry by Nuala Gardener (I still have my Aunt Beth's copy)
    My favorite blog for inspiration: http://kidney-garden.blogspot.com/ (Seriously makes me wish I had a classroom to decorate!)

What are your favorite books, games, projects from when you were a child or to do with your own children or classroom?