Knee-boarding munchkin

I now have those pictures I previously "typed" about... Little Christian knee-boarding it up!

I have been water skiing since I was 7 or 8 - maybe younger.  Water sports are a huge part of my family.  My mom spent every summer at her parents' lake house when she was growing up.  Each of her cousins and uncles have a lake house or two.  A lot of them (and there are A LOT!)  run ski schools or own boat shops.  My grandpa owned a boat shop, my uncle owned a boat shop, and both built custom boats.  There are many trophies throughout my family for water sports and snow sports.  We spent almost every weekend of my childhood and teenage years at the lake on my Mom's boat.  Tubing, wakeboarding, skiing, and knee-boarding were always part of the fun (my shoulders have the spots to prove it).  We recently added wake surfing to the repertoire.  I am really so glad that Christian is picking up on one of my favorite past-times. 

Look at all the little kiddos watching CK tear it up! 

 I had Ryan wear the Bjorn carrier so I could help CK. 

'The Hangover' flashbacks!  hahaha! 

Ryan had to, um, relieve himself.  Since Taylor was sleeping so soundly, we didn't want to take her out of the carrier.  Ryan tried to go off the end of the boat, but thought he would fall in.  So I held onto him as the rest of the crew watched...

Lake Murray Round 3

Ryan, Christian, Taylor, Shane and I all went up to Lake Murray last weekend.  The usual super fun group was out there, only times 10!  We had a huge turn-out this year!  I think Jess counted 35 people all together.  I am still waiting on a few more pictures to come through.  I thought I had my camera, but didn't, so I had to use my iphone.  iPhone pictures are not of great quality.  Luckily, I was the only one that didn't have a camera... so I need to gather up the ones of Christian doing his newest trick.  Still working on that part, though.

Little baby Christian has defeated the age limit on, yet, another sport! He has conquered knee boarding like a pro. He sat out there up on his knees on the board all by himself while being pulled behind the boat. He has such good balance! He tried to surf on it, but fell. He could've done it, I am sure, because he was standing on the board while it wasn't being pulled by the boat and balanced just fine. We just ran out of time for him to try again.  There were lots of kids that wanted a turn, of course!

Taylor would NOT take a nap out there.  I think she was enjoying the water and the people way too much to sleep.  So, I stripped her down to her birthday suit and took her for a dip.  I figured it would probably be too chilly for her, but nope... she loved it!  She is going to be a water baby just like her brother and momma.

Christian and Meagan taking a little row in the boat

 Shane is probably noticing something to make fun of me, Ryan or Christian about.

 The Melton's pups... Max and Daisy (Ryan was pretty giddy about cute lil' Daisy)

 Naked baby alert!

 Cute hiney alert!

 Buddha belly alert!

Christian played with this board for hours!

Christian practicing his surfing skills (he did wear a life jacket for the real thing) 

Shanda took this picture for baby Reagan.  She had a little crush on Shane.

Look at all these cute little booties!

Taylor took a nap in her sling.

And she's out...

The newest additions to the Lake Murray crew... Reagan, Taylor, and Mayson.

Evolution, Part 2

I ran across a website that backs up faith with hardcore evidence, eliminating the "blind" in "blind faith".
http://www.answersingenesis.org/


Here is my favorite part:

Without millions and billions of years, evolutionary history completely falls apart. Here are just a few of many credible evidences from various branches of science that tell of a world much younger than evolutionists claim.


Evidence 1  Geology: Radiocarbon in Diamonds
Far from proving evolution, carbon-14 dating actually provides some of the strongest evidence for creation and a young earth. Radiocarbon (carbon-14) cannot remain naturally in substances for millions of years because it decays relatively rapidly. For this reason, it can only be used to obtain “ages” in the range of tens of thousands of years.
Scientists from the RATE (Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth) project examined diamonds that evolutionists consider to be 1–2 billion years old and related to the earth’s early history. Diamonds are the hardest known substance and extremely resistant to contamination through chemical exchange.
Yet the RATE scientists discovered significant detectable levels of radiocarbon in these diamonds, dating them at around 55,000 years—a far cry from the evolutionary billions!
• For more information, see Radiocarbon in Diamonds Confirmed. To learn more about diamonds and their formation, read this article by Dr. Andrew Snelling.


Evidence 2  Astronomy: Recession of the Moon
The gravitational pull of the moon creates a “tidal bulge” on earth that causes the moon to spiral outwards very slowly. Because of this effect, the moon would have been closer to the earth in the past. Based on gravitational forces and the current rate of recession, we can calculate how much the moon has moved away over time.
If the earth is only 6,000 years old, there’s no problem, because in that time the moon would have only moved about 800 feet (250 m). But most astronomy books teach that the moon is over four billion years old, which poses a major dilemma—less than 1.5 billion years ago the moon would have been touching the earth!
• For more information, see Feedback: Lunar Recession and the Age of the Earth (based on this article) as well as The Age of the Universe, Part 2. We also recommend Video on Demand: Our Created Moon.


Evidence 3  Geology: Earth’s Decaying Magnetic Field
Like other planets, the earth has a magnetic field that is decaying quite rapidly. We are now able to measure the rate at which the magnetic energy is being depleted and develop models to explain the data.
Secular scientists invented a “dynamo model” of the earth’s core to explain how the field could have lasted over such a long period of time, but this model fails to adequately explain the data for the rapid decay and the rapid reversals that it has undergone in the past. (It also cannot account for the magnetic fields of other planets, such as Neptune and Mercury.)
However, the creationist model (based on the Genesis Flood) effectively and simply explains the data in regard to the earth’s magnetic field, providing striking evidence that the earth is only thousands of years old—and not billions.
• For more information, see Earth’s Magnetic Field and the Age of the Earth and section two of The Age of the Universe, Part 2.


Evidence 4  Biology: Dinosaur Soft Tissue
In recent years, there have been many findings of “wondrously preserved” biological materials in supposedly ancient rock layers and fossils. One such discovery that has left evolutionists scrambling is a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex femur with flexible connective tissue, branching blood vessels, and even intact cells!
According to evolutionists, these dinosaur tissues are more than 65 million years old, but laboratory studies have shown that there is no known way—and likely none possible—for biological material to last more than thousands of years.
Could it be that evolutionists are completely wrong about how recently these dinosaurs lived?
• To learn more, see “Ostrich-osaurus” discovery? and The Scrambling Continues. We also recommend the article Fossilized Biomaterials Must Be Young by Brian Thomas of ICR.

Evidence 5 Anthropology: Human Population Growth
It’s amazing what basic mathematics can show us about the age of the earth. We can calculate the years of human existence with the population doubling every 150 years (a very conservative figure) to get an estimate of what the world’s population should be after any given period of time.
A biblical age of the earth (about 6,000 years) is consistent with the numbers yielded by such a calculation. In contrast, even a conservative evolutionary age of 50,000 years comes out to a staggering, impossibly high figure of 10 to the 99th power—greater than the number of atoms in the universe!
Clearly, the claim that humans have inhabited the earth for tens of thousands of years is absurd!
• For a better look at these calculations, see Billions of People in Thousands of Years?

Evidence 6 Geology: Tightly Folded Rock Strata
When solid rock is bent, it normally cracks and breaks. Rock can only bend without fracturing when it is softened by extreme heating (which causes re-crystalization) or when the sediments have not yet fully hardened.
There are numerous locations around the world (including the famous Grand Canyon) where we observe massive sections of strata that have been tightly folded, without evidence of the sediments being heated.
This is a major problem for evolutionists who believe these rock layers were laid down gradually over vast eons of time, forming the geologic record. However, it makes perfect sense to creationists who believe these layers were formed rapidly in the global, catastrophic Flood described in Genesis.
• To find out more, see Rock Layers Folded, Not Fractured.


Does the age of the earth really matter?
While each of these evidences reveals reasons why the earth cannot be billions of years old, the real issue is not the age of the earth. Instead, the real issue is authority. God’s infallible Word must be our ultimate authority, not the unstable foundation of human reasoning. Are we trying to fit our interpretations of the world (e.g., evolution) into Scripture, or will we simply let God speak for Himself through His Word?
If we can’t trust the first chapters of Genesis, why should we believe when Scripture says that faith in Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation? (Romans 10:9; Acts 4:12; John 14:6)
But when we take Scripture as written, it’s clear that the earth can’t be more than a few thousand years old—and from a biblical worldview, the scientific evidence agrees!

Playa del Carmen

We returned yesterday from paradise, though, we were super antsy to return to our baby Taylor.  Christian asked about 38 times the day we left "Can I see my baby?".  I think maybe she choked a little when I finally got my hands on her.  I couldn't seem to squeeze her hard enough! 

Aside from that, we had a blast.  We doubled up on this year's big vacation... It was also Ricky and Candice's wedding weekend.  And what an awesome wedding it was!
Ricky's neice, Jaiden, was in Mexico.  As you will remember from a previous post, this is who Christian says is his girlfriend.  Jaiden says they will be "official" when they are big.  (Don't know where she learned this word!)  On the first night, Christian was changing into his swimsuit.  Jaiden said "Oh, you are cute!".  Then as Christian took off his shirt she said "And you have big muscles, of course!".  Well, of course. 

He held both of our arms the whole way to the resort.  He said we are his "best uncle friends".  I have no idea what that means, but it sure is sweet!

Our room at the resort - Gran Porto Real

The shower was huge!

This was included, actually EVERYTHING was included.
(Thus, the term all-inclusive.)

View of the beach from our balcony

What the beach saw of our balcony

This is a whole roasted pig.  Probably the best ham I have ever had.

Christian learned how to cut his own food.  A look of determination...

After-dark poolside entertainment

Christian and Jaiden were best buds the whole time.

Of course I get to stand next to the pilates girl, Candice!  Ugh.

My camera focused on my hand instead of what I intended.  This is a picture of a tiny man-of-war.  The wind blew in a whole bunch of these guys.

Christian opened her candy for her.

 Jaiden sat there forever with her hand out waiting for Christian to dance with her like "boyfriend and girlfriend".

She was stood up for a glow stick and got so mad.  She didn't talk to him for almost 10 minutes.  (I don't think he even noticed)

The first dance.  (Well, after Christian and Jaiden broke it in.)

Father/Daughter dance

Mother/Son dance

Christian and Jaiden were such little love birds.  These poses were not directed.

Good bye!