Thompson Family Camping Extravaganza!

My mother-and-father-in-love celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year.  We celebrated by going on a family camping trip together.  Five days at Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama.  It was great.  This wasn't our typical camping trip.  It had to be special.  We schemed for months.  Whispering.  Watching for opportunities to gather info in stealth.  We wanted to have lots of surprises along the way.  I designed a t-shirt and Christy got a great deal on printing them.  Katrina gathered photos from each family and put together a really cool slide show.  Travis borrowed a projector so we could watch the slide show (and movies) on the big screen.  This was so much fun.  We set up a concession stand with popcorn one night.  One night we had coins to use to buy movie candy.  One night we used the projector light to put on a shadow puppet show.  It was hilarious.  I know my kids will talk about that for years to come.  We rode bikes and scooters, played ball, hiked, went to the beach... We even got in a little craft time for missions.  The Thompson's never had to prepare a meal.  Travis did lots of research for our gift... an Add-a-Room for their new camper.  We had special guests that came up for a surprise visit!  (Joe, Marian, Jerry, Nancy, Bonnie and Billy)  The only thing we really wished for was the Hawaii Thompsons.  We really missed them. 

Dreaming

Cooling off

Hacky Sacks for Africa

Our Family Christmas Card

Luke 2:9-12
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

Luke 2:13-14
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,  “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Sending Kids Jr.

This past Saturday we had an opportunity to serve our community as a family alongside others from our church.  I was so excited to have this hands-on way to teach our kids about serving God by helping others.  We didn't know what our assignment would be but was excited to learn that we would be working on a project at Cate and Reed's school.  There was a garden that was WAY overgrown with some evil bush that didn't want to give it up.  The kids and adults all worked their socks off (and it's catching up with me today).  I was so proud of the kids.  We cleared the bushes out, tilled the garden and planted a mums.  Other teams worked all over our community on different projects that day. The best thing was that we all did it as a family.

Kimberly's first community service project.

Hiking on Hallowed Grounds

What a beautiful day we had with awesome weather. Perfect for a hike through our national battlefield. This was Kimberly's first hiking experience and she was a trooper. She hiked most of the way then got a lift from daddy. We explored the woods, tracked animals, looked for little treasures along the way, climbed on cannons, and imagined a time where this area was not so peaceful.

Love my hikers.

Big sister is a great helper.

Pausing for a rest.

Tracking rodents of unusual size.

My trailblazer making sure we're on the right track.

Cannons are always good for an adventure.

Very cool rock formations.

That's my silly girl...one of them anyway.

Count Your Blessings

As we lay in bed the words to an old hymn kept playing in my head.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

I mentally counted. Started with the bed, then the house, then Smyrna, Tennessee, United States and the world. Many blessings. It is so wonderful.

Airshow and Fireworks

Mary Louise Fountain Grantham "May" Cochran

Mary Louise "May" Fountain Grantham Cochran, 96, of Ocean Springs died Tuesday, February 16, 2010, in Ocean Springs.

Mrs. Cochran was born in Biloxi where she grew up. She was an active member of St. Alphonsus Catholic Church and was a past president of Keesler Officers Wives' Club. She loved to garden, play cards, bird watch and enjoyed numerous trips to Europe. For many years she enjoyed cruising in the gulf with her family on their boat, The Duchess.

She was preceded in death by:

her first husband, Holen Hunter Grantham, her parents, Walter and Winnie Fountain, her brothers, Elwood Fountain and Walter Fountain and her sisters, Claire Mozarra and Margie Fountain.

She is survived by her loving and devoted husband of 67 years, Ed Cochran, Sr., her children, Betty Bonifer (Joe), Hunter Grantham (Sandra), Ed Cochran, Jr. (Dell), Bob Cochran (Nancy), Susan Toche (Wesley) and Patricia King (Timmy), 23 grandchildren, Joe, Jim, Jeff, Diane, Barbara, Jeannie, Susan, Tina, Gaye, Shari, Karen, Susie, Chelle, Craig, Clay, Tammy, Ethan, Jeremy, Sarah, Katie, Aimee, Bryan and Michelle, 36 great-grandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchildren, one sister, Beetsy Randazzo, 3 brothers, Gerald Fountain (Janis), Ronnie Fountain, and Bobby Fountain, and numerous nieces and nephews.


We will miss you grandmother.

Fun in the snow

Having some sledding fun. We have 4-5 inches of snow. Unfortunately it iced over last night. Sledding today was kind of scary. We made the kids go to a smaller hill because everyone kept zinging across the road. It was like a sheet of ice. There was just no way to stop yourself. We had grownups lining the road to catch the kids. The smaller hill wasn't so bad.

Reed and mommy sledding before the ice hit.



Back home now. Warming up. Safe and sound.

The Greatest Show On Earth!

Wow! We had so much fun at the circus today. It was the first time for the kids. This is what we gave Cate for her birthday instead of a party this year. They were so excited by it all. Their favorite things were the tiger act, horses, dogs...okay anything with animals. The girls getting shot out of the cannon were so cool. Reed said, "I really love the circus. It was so "magic." He thought the "fireworks" caused the magic. Cate was so excited that she saw real white tigers. She has a stuffed animal that we got from the Creation Museum that is her favorite thing right now.


I really enjoyed the elephants. Wes said his favorite part was the cannons. The performers are so talented and creative. The set was amazing. If you've never been, I highly recommend it.

ZING ZANG ZOOOOOOM!!!!

Creation Museum

We had a great time at the Creation Musuem.

Wes and Reed pose for a pic with Abraham, Moses and David.

Reed with Paul.

Then we dropped by to see how Noah and his family were doing. Looks like the Ark is just about ready. From the amount of rain outside I was glad to see the boat. The Noah part of the museum is really well done. The pictures don't do it justice.

The dinosaurs were really cool. We went to a workshop with Buddy Davis, the guy that built most of the dinos in the museum. He showed us how he does it.

T-Rex may be looking for a couple of kids to snack on.

There was a break in the rain so we thought we would check out the gardens.

The Koi pond was neat. The kids really liked watching the fish come up to the surface.

I don't know if you can tell but it's raining. We had to rush through the petting zoo. Wish the weather could have been nicer so we could have enjoyed the gardens and zoo. We got soaked.

It was a very interesting place to visit. Would definitely do it again. I wish there were more museums like this that show you the Biblical view.

The kids are really interested in dinosaurs now. We found a Walmart the next day and bought a bunch of plastic ones. Reed loves playing with them.

If you ever visit the Creation Museum, give yourself the full day to see everything. We need to go back just to do the things we didn't have time for.