Heck yes, we just did that!

FACT: Chris and I went skydiving on Saturday.

FACT: Fear is only in the preparation.

FACT: The plane ride is the scariest part, and it wasn't scary.

FACT: You're in the plane...and then you're not.

FACT: You really can't hear yourself scream, even if you scream for the entire 60 second freefall.

FACT: Chris had a better photographer than me.

FACT: There is no feeling of falling, even though the ground starts 14,000 feet away.

FACT: Hanging in mid-air for a few minutes was a completely different experience than anything I've ever done. It's amazing to see the world as God sees it.

FACT: Turning was not my favorite part.

FACT: Gravity works, and we did eventually make it back to the ground. Safely. Though shaky.

FACT: We are so stinkin' awesome.

A bit of time travel

This video was taken over a week ago--Ben's walking and standing skills are quickly improving. He does still favor crawling as it requires much less effort, but man, he's taking off quick.

When I was looking at different videos and pictures on my computer, I came across this little gem from a few years back.

Did you catch that it was Jane? They manage to change so much and yet stay the same...

That particular video prompted me to find some comparison photos, just for the fun of it.

Pregnancy

Hospital

Coming Home Outfit

Sleep Conducting

First Birthday

Second Birthday

I was right. That was fun.

BEST WEEKEND EVER

Start with a trip to the zoo on Thursday.

Make sure you include as many small children as possible, but be careful not to lose any...

Play with as many side show attractions as possible.

Attempt to position children for a photo.

Be excited that they are all at least looking in the general direction of the camera.

Friday--celebrate some happy birthday-ness in style with sno-cones and a bounce house. THEN ditch all the kids and go on a true girls' night out.

Ah, Tannie, it doesn't get much better than a night out child-free.

Unless, of course, you add a movie (Dark Knight Rises), dinner (Old Spaghetti Factory), talking into the wee hours of the morning (at a hotel), and hanging in a pool for an hour before parting ways in the morning.

Don't bother to take pictures because it's really just too good to take time to snap a picture.

Saturday--enter names in a drawing for tickets to Wicked.

And WIN.

Oh my goodness. So good. So good. I won't dwell on the awesomeness to spare a little of the feelings of the others who didn't win, but...it was really good.

And that all adds up to THE BEST WEEKEND EVER.

Let's do that again, shall we?

Photographic Evidence

Sometimes, my kitchen gets really, really dirty.

Like, gross, smells bad, feet stick to the floor, attracts flies dirty.

Fairly embarrassing if anyone happens to visit during such a state of uncleanliness.

And yet, that does not make me a bad person. I have seen too many Facebook statuses or blog posts and listened to too many conversations where women are apologizing over and over again for not being perfect at everything. It just makes me sad. It's hard to listen to!

In my journey in recent months, I have learned a lot about myself and my value. My value is 100% defined by God--not by the comments a visitor makes. My value was determined before I was ever born--not by the diploma or degree I may have earned. My value is infinite and unchanging--not relative to the seemingly perfect girl at church.

I wasn't intending to share this today, but as I sat down to blog, this is just what came out. I want others to know what I know and not spend their time demeaning and degrading themselves. No, we're not perfect. No, your house probably isn't completely spotless all the time either. And NO, that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with your worth.

I have cleaned my kitchen since I took those photos, but would you think less of me if I hadn't? Or would you give me the benefit of the doubt and assume that I had other things to be doing--like caring for my children--that were taking precedence over dirty dishes? I hope that you would see the person behind the crumbs.

And I hope you give yourself the same consideration.

Clevelandisms

You can't go through much of life without something getting broke.

Look, we're gonna make more fish.

That's a whole different connotation if you're not talking about picnic tables and dice.

The wind undid your fours.

My brain doesn't work in circles at night.

Why were we praying yesterday?

It's like you're together, but you're not.

I don't want to make it seem like I'm trying to get written down.

Laura, go to bed. Or...wake up.

Uno! Uno!

I'll kick you under the table.

I didn't bite your gace.

Cause that would be really funny while you're giving birth...UNO!

He's WAY asleep in his tent.

You're not dead, right?

Am I bouncing the whole bench?

Guru! Guru! Guru!

You have a ladybug on your hat.

I'm gonna choose not to write that down.

You still have a ladybug on your hat.

What if he gets eaten by a deer?

Go stand outside. Don't get hit by a car.

We forgot to premedicate him and he was NOT happy.

So how's life smoking again?

He likes to eat twice a day.

You know the implications of that, don't you Mother?

If he gets hit by a car, euthanize him.

It's a parasite that gives you the runs. The squirts. Brown rain.

It's in the tote. Everything's in the tote.

Nobody appreciates you.

This is not an exclusive blogging relationship.

You guys are putting dirty thoughts in my mind.

Stop touching my stuff.

This is the cleanest we've kept ours. I'm impressed.

What are your views on chewing tobacco?

You have a ladybug on your shoulder now.

Michael, are you peeing over there?

They can't all be female.

What!? Bug's Life is inaccurate??

Legerdemain. Trickery or Sean Connery.

I spewed contagion all over you.

Don't look over my shoulder and laugh.

How could he protect anything? He can't even bark. I'm pretty sure he'd just pee and run away.

You don't have any friends.

Tonsil tag. It's like kissing tag but high stakes.

I don't know what I'm doing but I'm wandering around doing it.

Foam happens. Like poop happens.

You missed. It ran away.

I'm not wearing any pants.

Ivan is all-terrain. Just like his stroller.

Give me my ring back. I don't want to lose all my powers.

Do you like to drink it or hold it?

I woke up surrounded by blue light.

You were being abducted by aliens.

He's sunbathing in terror.

It was a carbonated mountain spring. I came up bubbling right from the ground.

That's littering.

Not if Heather picks it up.

We can't go in the tent. Hey, we can go play in the dirt.

I just compared your baby to Hitler. How does that make you feel?

Turn around and say cool.

Some racism goin' on over here.

What are you doing?

Making you nervous.

Would you not breathe on me?!

Did you just drool on me?

I didn't try to.

That was wrong.

I know.

Ow.

I feel the same way about my head.

Sorting works the brain.

She's just jealous because it's more than she grows.

That doesn't make sense.

If you look at it in this light it does.

My goal for tomorrow is to capture a squirrel or chipmunk and fish roast it. How are you at throwing rocks?

What do I look like? A goat?

So I was in this hurricane.

I'm trying to win so this game will end and we can go to bed.

Don't say anything else. I'm out of paper.

Is "First Annual" an oxymoron?

First Annual 

Craig & Janet Wampler 

Family Reunion!

A trend has been noted--at any large family gathering, Chris and his siblings tend to visit some with others in attendance, then they basically just hang out with each other. The question, then, was why not have a reunion with just those people?

Done and done.

We all ventured varying distances to the great Lake Cleveland (great as in fun, cool, awesome...not great as in "large").

First off, our annual "traveling in the car" pictures.

We set up camp. Ben wasn't particularly helpful, but Brenda's boyfriend Ryan was.

Then we proceeded to entertain ourselves however we wanted for the next two days.

Everyone sitting in the chair has the middle name of Leigh (or Lee).

There was fishing to be done, though the catch was rather inconsistent. Evening seemed to be the magical time of day. Chris caught three, I don't remember how many any one else caught.

Note that his fish is still alive. Gross.

The highlight of this particular trip for Chris and I was a hike we were able to take together. Thank you, Janet and Amanda, for watching our kids!

I thought we were going to walk around the lake.

Our path was...a little more steep, let's say.

Chris decided to climb a mountain instead. I've roughly marked the direction we went.

Ha. The trick to climbing up a mountain is climbing back down, right? We opted instead to take the long way around and follow the road.

Past this picture, we went another mile or two before we actually made it back to camp. We did cut through some of the foliage to shorten the distance just a bit. We also happened to meet up with Brenda and Ryan near the top of the mountain and they walked back down with us. Having company was fun.

Other adventures included making smores with mini marshmallows--everyone had forgotten to bring big ones, though we did have graham crackers and chocolate. Luckily David had a stash of minis for fishing. We made it work. Oddly enough, it tasted the same...but I don't have any pictures. Those are all on Michael and Amanda's camera. Several games were also played.

With the assistance of rocks, I might add. Idaho wind is killer.

When prevented from participating in the card games, Megan opted for a one-man (or one-girl) dice game instead.

"Look Mom, I built a tower!"

"Take a picture!"

"Take another picture!"

"Ummm, I guess you can take another picture, but I think I might be done with dice..."

Funny moment. We wanted to take the tent down to pack up and go home, but Ben was asleep. Rather than wake him up, we found another way.

On our way out, we stopped by the lake for one last our-family-only game of Throw Rocks in the Lake.

Good times, good times.

And to conclude today's viewing pleasure, all the other random pictures that I haven't said anything about but would still like to include because they're cute.

Stay tuned for Part II: The Wamplers' Introduction to "Write That Down"