Let's Go Fly A Kite

Good morning and Happy Friday!  This has turned out to be a multi-purpose post.  First, if you can believe it (I cannot), this is Post # 600 for me!  Two and a half years ago when I started I was a skeptic of this whole blogging thing.  I'd kept a journal for years and didn't understand why I'd want to make it public for all the world to see and open myself up to judgement and criticism from others reading.

In reality what I've found is that I've made some wonderful supportive friends, online and in person, I've kept my family and irl friends in the loop of the little news stories that, for the most part, would not make it into any conversations and I've found that people are not as judgmental as I thought they'd be (or as much as I am) or at least those of you who are have been gracious enough to not say anything when I blog that my one-year old has a bottle at night, for instance.  And most importantly, I have this precious time in our lives documented!  Life is fleeting, I know that well.

Secondly, I'd like to follow up on my last post for those of you who were asking about it.  When you use Blogger, your photos are stored in Picasa Albums and they provide 1 GB of free storage.  They offer lots of different options, and I was able to purchase 20 GB for $5/year.  The purchase was easy to do but then I still was not able to access that extra storage.  What I found out is that you have to sign out of your Picasa album in order for the changes to be in effect.  Easy.  And now I'm back in the business of uploading pictures...20 GB worth!  I know you are all so happy. :)

Several weeks ago Shaun declared a family fun day and we took his kite out on its maiden voyage.  It was a gift from my dad a year ago and though we'd talked about it often, the conditions were never just right when we were available.  However, this day was plenty windy!

 Amanda always makes sure I have flowers. :)

 It took a while for Shaun and the girls (Avery) to work out a system.

 But they got it!

 Avery had been really diligent about helping get the kite off the ground so finally Shaun let her have a turn at the controls like she'd been begging for....and, she wanted to do it alone.  After about 20 seconds, a big gust of wind came and took her right off her feet and over a ways before face-planting into the ground.  Here's where the judgmental part might come in...Shaun and I laughed behind her back while he tried to make sure she was ok.  It was SO funny.

 Aiden was quite content to watch from the sidelines, snuggled with his momma.

O my soul, bless God! God, my God, how great you are! beautifully, gloriously robed, Dressed up in sunshine, and all heaven stretched out for your tent. 

You built your palace on the ocean deeps, made a chariot out of clouds 

and took off on wind-wings. You commandeered winds as messengers, appointed fire and flame as ambassadors. You set earth on a firm foundation so that nothing can shake it, ever. You blanketed earth with ocean, covered the mountains with deep waters; Then you roared and the water ran away— your thunder crash put it to flight. Mountains pushed up, valleys spread out in the places you assigned them.

Psalm 104:1