There's No Place Like Roam

We have had a raccoon family visiting for the past few days. We have only seen the male once, but the mom and two babies are coming so often that we named them...Coonie, Itsy and Bitz. They come because we feed a "neighborhood cat" on our deck and they help him clean his bowl. The cat was popping the little raccoons in the nose, so the mom came up with a better plan!

I hesitated to post this, but it's just so amazing to me! Hunter received what is possibly his last reading assessment in elementary school (5th grade). His scores are incredible, but what makes this so unbelievable to me - is where we were 4 years ago.  In first grade, this child struggled with sight words EVERY NIGHT. Seriously, there were tears 4-5 nights per week. Hour long tear filled, flash card sessions...daily. When I look at where Graham is now in 1st grade...reading/sounding out almost every word in front of him with ease...I truly realize how far Hunter has come! So what these results say (to the best of my understanding) is that Hunter is in the 5th grade, 4th month of school (GP 5.44) and tests at a grade equivalent of 12.9+ (compared to other students nationally). He's in the 98/99th percentile and can comprehend up to 80% of 11.4th grade material. So proud of his progress and so grateful for his 1st grade teacher, Ms. Shavon Diggs, who encouraged me to keep going...

At the last minute, Hunter and I decided to join some friends at the 1st Full Moon Hike of 2016 at Harrison Bay State Park. We got a late start and had to drive carefully because the roads were a bit icy. We ended up finding the trailhead about 5 minutes after the Ranger and other hikers had started the hike. Some other Rangers and a teacher-friend from Wallace told us to go ahead and they would follow behind in a few more minutes. "Just keep right" they said. About 150 yards in, the path Y'd off...we kept right. The path was a bit muddy and had some cool ice formations. We couldn't seem to catch up to the group, but we were enjoying ourselves. About 3/4 a mile in, there was a loop to the right...it looked like it just went over to the water and came right back to join the trail, so we just stayed straight and didn't waste time with the extra loop. We walked and walked and walked. It got dark...it got muddy. It got muddier - like shin deep icy mud, with briars bei...

We participated in the 1st Hike initiative sponsored by the National Park System. One of our nearby state parks had a midnight hike, so we counted down to 2016 while we were hiking. It was fun for us all and we learned about the TN State Park Adventure Challenge 2016, and I think we are going to give it a go!