Conowingo Dam

Savannah and I are always up for a field trip and going on one with friends is even better. Savannah's best friend Kaia is also homeschooled and her mom invited Savannah and I to join their family as well as a few others on a trip to the Conowingo Dam. We've driven over the dam many a time so I figured it would be interesting to get inside and see how it all works!
Ready to start our learning adventure!

In one of the front rooms was a collection of pictures of the beautiful bald eagles that can be seen at the dam throughout the year. Every year amateur as well as professional photographers come out to the dam to try and capture the birds' beauty on film. The winning photos receive prize money as well as a place on this display. I told Savannah we'll have to come back to spend an afternoon just watching those gorgeous birds. (We actually spotted one on our way out but I couldn't get a good picture of it because it was behind too many branches.)

A hard hat and goggles were must-haves for the tour. Too cute!

And the tour begins. We went all over that place, receiving great info from our top notch guide. Unfortunately most of the information we received was way over our heads and out the door. Both Savannah and I agreed that the tour was too long and way boring. So we're not engineers...no surprise there!!

The homeschoolers!

The coolest thing about the tour was all the turkey vultures that hang around. I loved watching them! We found plenty of small bird carcasses and bird parts around outside to keep us entertained.

There's the dam!

I wish I had a close up of Savannah's face in this picture - pure boredom written all over that cute face!

SNOW!!!

After two years of mild winters we have finally had a winter to be proud of. We had so many snow days in January and February that the kids did not attend a full week of school until March!  Unfortunately all the snow days also erased most of Spring Break as well as pushed the kids school year well into the middle of June. Of course the largest snow storm to hit us this winter came when David was out of town, leaving little 'ole me to try and shovel us out of it.

The funniest sight to meet my eyes the morning after the storm...poor little Googie couldn't even get all the way out of his house!

This storm dropped 14 inches!

Yikes! I have never had to shovel snow so this sight was extremely daunting!

Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors as well as very helpful boys.

Between all of us we were able to get it all cleared away.

And then, of course, it was time to play!

Brotherly love.

Building some snow tunnels.

The kids have loved having such a snowy winter, but now, at the end of March, with our most recent snow just this week, I think it's safe to say that we are all done with the snow and cold and are ready for warmer weather. As Xander put it, "I don't want to see any more snow!!!"

My Activity Days Girls

A year and a half ago I was called to serve as one of the Activity Days leaders for the 11 year old girls in our primary at church. To say I was not pleased would be putting it mildly. I had only been in my calling as a Relief Society teacher for 4 months and I was really enjoying it. To be yanked from that and put in a Primary calling was definitely not my cup of tea. But I accepted, despite my negative feelings, and learned yet another great lesson in life. If a person is willing to put her trust in the Lord and open herself up to what He wants her to do and learn, a change of heart can take place and it most definitely did with me. I grew to love this calling. I have never enjoyed working with younger kids (which is why they placed me with the oldest group of Activity Days girls) but I couldn't help but love these girls and laugh at the silly things they said and did. Plus I got to serve with an incredible woman who has become a dear friend.
 In the time that I was in this calling we had some great activities and lots of fun. Some of these included: a PJ night, with scripture reading, relay games, and a yogurt bar for dessert;

a decorating night for the upcoming Mother's Day activity;

and stuffing dolls for the children at a local hospital.

By last September we had lost most of our girls to YW so we received the next group of girls who had just turned 11. Lucky for me this included Savannah and all her friends. Unfortunately for me Savannah had soccer on Tuesdays so I didn't get to see her very often at our activities. Oh, well, the fun continued! We made ice cream one night, which the girls LOVED!

Made Halloween candy jars;

joined up with the YM and YW in our ward to go caroling to several older couples in the ward;

had a fun Christmas party with silly games;

and made Christmas ornaments.

Right at the end of January I received a new calling - to serve as the 2nd counselor in the Young Women. This put me right back in charge of the girls I had had earlier in Activity Days and will soon be seeing the batch of girls I had just left at various times this year as they become Beehives. I love YW and was extremely thrilled to have this calling! The first night I was at a YW Activity, I quickly stopped by the room where my Activity Days girls were meeting to say hello. I didn't realize how much I would miss hanging out with them and my partner in crime, Melissa. Later that evening, as I was heading down the church hall, I realized that several of the Activity Days girls were following me. When I got outside to my car I found out why. Those sweet girls had heart attacked my car, leaving me the sweetest notes plus a jar full of m&m's. My heart was so touched! I love those girls and can't wait until they all become Beehives!!

Dinner Group Olympics

Our Dinner Group met up at the beginning of February to enjoy some yummy food and have our very own Olympic games. It was so much fun!
Savannah and Sydney with Libby and cute little Darbs!

Each family brought an entree from a different country so we had a true smorgasbord of delicious food to eat - Chinese stir fry, Indian chicken curry, Mexican salsa and chips, and good 'ole American hot dogs for those less adventurous souls. It was all so tasty!

My oh-so-hot husband sporting the USA gear.

After dinner it was time for the Olympic events. First up was the "Getting the cookie into your mouth without using your hands" event.

Although he tried super hard, Xander just couldn't get that cookie past his nose without it falling off. Unfortunately the Pierces did not earn a medal in that one.

Next up was the "garbage bag race". Without using one's hands, each participant had to pick up a garbage bad in his mouth, run it to the other side of the room, drop it, and come back...4 times! Noah did a great job and received the fastest time which earned him...

the GOLD MEDAL!!! Okay, so it was a Twix gold medal but it gave the Pierces a point!

David was next to represent our family in the "Blow off the cups" event. He had to blow up the balloon and then knock the cups off the table with the balloon air.

His time wasn't too shabby but it wasn't enough for a medal.

But guess who did medal? That's right! Who knew I had a talent for quickly grabbing pencils? Me and my gold!  Two points for the Pierce family.

Savannah participated in the "Get both tea bags on your hat" event.

This was definitely the hardest individual event of the night and Savannah was clearly frustrated. She got so close several times just to have one slide off at the last second.

The last event of the night was the "Orange Neck Pass" and we truly sucked at it! David couldn't even get the orange passed to Xander and they were the first two in our family line.  After several minutes of extreme failure, we gave up.  It sure was funny to try, though. The Wines won this one, accomplishing it in 14 seconds or some ridiculous time like that.  We found out later that they had been practicing!

It's always fun to hang out together!

We got goofy toward the end of the evening and ended up in the middle of a impromptu photo shoot.

We definitely crack ourselves up! Good times!