The Growing Caldwell Family

Charlie was excited to learn the 6th grade would be going on retreat and Dollywood would be one of the places they go! He had fun riding rides and enjoyed that the lines were really short. He also got to know some of his classmates better and learned he really likes some and some get on his nerves!  All in all it was a good experience and one of the first times he has been on a trip on his own with money to manage and freedom in public places. Lots of growing up and showing how mature he is!  

The girls used their cookie money on a trip and planned a fun weekend getaway to Callaway Gardens! We rented a two bedroom cottage that turned out to be great for our group! The moms had a bedroom and bath and so did the girls!  The weather was atrociously hot and humid all weekend! We thought for sure we might melt. Sunday afternoon we had rain and the humid went higher.  Their first activity was playing around in the gardens and doing some ziplining! Sarah Graves and Gianna enjoyed it and SG remembered how fun it was to zipline over the water. Having injured my arm the last time we did this course, I opted out and Stephanie and Tricia were not interested.  My favorite part of the weekend was the balloon glow! It reminded me of being a kid and the hot air balloon festival was in Baton Rouge. The cool part was that the hot air balloonists would make the balloons glow in beat with music they played! Lots of fun to see! The girls were eager to try the lake and beach at Call...

Sarah Graves was excited to learn that they take a class retreat and her grade went to a conference center in North Georgia.  Early start to meet the bus! Her choir tour and mission trip experiences came in handy when packing.  They are off! The highlight was the wave pool on the property. The waves could get really big! She came home tired but felt she knew her classmates better.   

We had fun celebrating Charlie turning 12! There was a small friend party and a family party. For his friend party, Charlie most wanted friends to sleepover and spend a day at White Water.  He chose a Braves theme! Ziggy and Landon were able to spend the night.  Eli joined us the next morning for White Water.  They had a great time riding lots of slides together. Charlie planned out four friends since some of the slides seat 4 and some seat 2.  As luck would have it, SG ran into Marcela enjoying some fun before heading off to school.  Keeping up with these four took some effort! A big thunderstorm came through in the afternoon and shut everything down, but they rode all the big rides and some twice, so it was fine.  Beignets for breakfast and the elves came back! It is hard to believe this guy. is twelve years old! He is kind, smart, capable, and has my heart! So lucky he is ours.  The after school look showing off his new crocs! He had a great time wi...