Happy New Year! New year new us? I don’t think so, we are still the crazy homeschooling family you have come to know and love. We did start out this year with a big refresh in Lyndie’s room, she decided that she really didn’t like the loft bed afterall, so we cleaned and purged and organized and made space for her old bed to be put back up and then we decided to leave the loft bed up too and will get another mattress for that so we have an extra place for people to sleep during sleepovers and for ALL the stuffies to sleep. 

 

Trinity started taking a 4h cake decorating class, her first class was a snowflake cake. 

I had several adult social outings including one to the Art Museum and lunch, breakfast with a dear friend and lunch with a bunch of awesome ladies. Trying to teach the children how to nurture friendships. Its always good for the soul to touch base with friends. 

We had date nights with the girls- I got to take Lyndie out this time. She wanted to go to Cap City Diner where she can get gluten free breaded chicken strips and fries. Yes she wore her princess dress and yes she loved all the compliments on it. She loves to be “Fancy”.

 

We took a field trip to the National Museum of the United States Air Force the children learn something new every time we go- I just love watching the little lights come on as they make connections. This trip we had the pleasure of talking with one of the volunteers, Chuck Jones, Col (Ret) and learning some interesting stories about the actual planes in the museum, not ones like but the actual ones in the museum. To date Mr.Jones is the fastest person I’ve ever met having achieved M2 in a B58. 

How many of you know why the flag is “backward”?

 

 

The “backwards” flag is actually part of the US Flag Code, which applies to spacecraft, aircraft, and even service members’ uniform insignia.According to United States Army regulations, “The full-color US flag cloth replica is worn so that the star field faces forward, or to the flag’s own right.” The flag must always be positioned to look like it is flying forward, so it’s really all about perspective.

Another way to look at it…

 

This blue star field must always face towards the front, in the highest position of honor, followed by the flag’s red and white stripes.The American flag patch is almost always worn on the right shoulder of military uniforms as a symbol of respect and dedication.Therefore, on the uniform of military personnel, the blue field of stars on the U.S. flag patch must be “reversed” so that its position is in front as troops move forward.If the flag was not worn “backwards” on the right sleeve of a military uniform, according to protocol, then it would appear as if it were retreating.When the U.S. flag is displayed on any object that is moving, including a person in uniform, the field of blue must be displayed towards the front of the object.In this way, the flag represents an image of blowing in the wind with the red and white stripes trailing behind the blue star field.

Trinity kept saying “i wish there was more space stuff here”. Don’t worry kiddo we are going to go see some “more space stuff” at the end of the month when we had to the US Space and Rocket Center. 

 

We celebrated Baba’s Birthday a little early since we were going out of town at the end of the month. We went to Texas Roadhouse- Birthday boy’s choice. Lyndie loves to have them come sing to anyone on their birthday and Baba is always such a good sport about it. 

 

 

The girls have been asking to go back to the Anthony- Thomas candy factory tour. We finally did it. No photos during the tour, but we did grab some before and after. 

 

We also love to visit libraries other then “ours” so we stopped for a visit at the Hilliard branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. The girls really enjoyed building with the big blocks and checking out some new books. 

 

Our Girl Scout troop went on an Archery Adventure, each of the girls got to shoot several times (even the grown ups got to do it!). Trinity is now even more excited to get out her new bow she just got for Christmas. (No pics out of respect of privacy for all the girls) 

 

Our big kick off the year trip! We left right after the archery program and drove straight to Nashville, while in Nashville we did some of the tourist stuff, murals, the Gulch, Lower Broadway and of course no trip to Nashville is complete without a stop at The Grand Ole’ Opry House- we didn’t take a tour this time but i’m Sure we will next time. 

 

We also visited The Parthenon in Nashville. 

 

 

Once we were done in Nashville we headed south to Huntsville, Alabama. Check out this view from our hotel.

 

We spent our first night in Huntsville, just hanging out in the hotel, swimming and snuggling and spent the next day at U.S. Space and Rocket Center. T and Lyndie both earned their girl scout Space badges. We really enjoyed it though I do wish it had more comprehensive history,  there was not hardly anything about the scientist that made going to the moon possible, lots of information on U.S. race to the moon and the multiple Apollo missions, a small area about the ISS ( the display is much bigger but most of it is closed off to the general public and made for the Space Camp kiddos).  There is also quite a bit about Artemis and our return to the moon.  

 

We stayed a second night in Hunstville and on our way home we detoured to Chattanooga, TN and went to the Tennessee Aquarium. Its definitely the most unique aquarium we’ve ever been to having lemurs and a butterfly garden. 

We took a brief break in Knoxville so Matt could stop and say “Hi” to a friend and work colleague, someday we’ll get back down that way again. We were supposed to stay in Corbin Kentucky, and finish the drive the next day, but I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach after we got to the DQ for a snack and then i just couldn’t shake the bad feeling, it was a very ominous feeling and because I have the BEST husband in the whole world who trusts my gut/mom instincts deeply, we loaded the car back up and pushed on thru and drove all the way home. The kids were amazing considering we spent about 13.5 hours in the care in one day. We had planned to drop the girls off on our way home the next day but once we called Ninny and Baba to tell them our change of plans we decided to drop them off on our way home anyway- did i mention we didn’t make it to their house until MIDNIGHT!!!! They were missing the kiddos and the kiddos missing them. 

 

I can’t wait to see what other adventures we get into this year.