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We Painted Mom’s Bedroom

August 27, 2022

Rachel and Mom decide to paint her room together:

It was hard work, but they did an awesome job!

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Youth Activities

August 20, 2022

We went to Bronson Blue Springs for a fun youth activity with the stake:

**We had fun jumping off the platform!**

**We also had fun playing volleyball** and they also had a Foursquare game set up.

We had a great time!

August 24th, 2022

We did a ward young women activity where we made a diaper tower for a family in the ward who just had a baby:

September 07, 2022

Rachel took the lead on a YW activity where we learned how to paint a whimsical mushroom:

September 14th, 2022

We also had an activity at our house making homemade pretzels:

We have had lots of other fun activities with the youth this year and Mom is now the Young Women President.

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Happy 15th Birthday Patricia!

Post author By myjoyfulspirit
Post date January 1, 2023
No Comments on Happy 15th Birthday Patricia!

8/13/2022

Since Patricia’s birthday fell on a school night this week we waited until Saturday and had her and her family over to celebrate her 15th birthday!

We had pizza and then…

Dad and Rachel made her a cake!

**“Happy Birthday To You, Happy Birthday To You…”**

We are so grateful to have you in our lives!

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First Day Back To School!

Post author By myjoyfulspirit
Post date January 1, 2023
No Comments on First Day Back To School!

8/10/2022

First Day of Eighth Grade and Tenth Grade:

**Mom made the signs the night before and the emojis matched our expressions almost exactly (Mom knows us pretty well). ~ Miss kitty was eating breakfast**

**This was AFTER early morning seminary (6:15am -7:15am) this morning!!!**

**Rachel declined an individual pic. Here’s mom’s backup pic (that’s pretty much the expression she would make anyway).**

“Happy” First Day of School!

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Family Fun Activities

7/30/22

Kayaking Adventure on Hampton Lake:

**We picked up Lizzy from Youth Conference (she has been gone since Wednesday) and went straight to the lake.**

**Sullivan and I paddled across the lake.**

**Rachel accidentally flipped her kayak and the water was great for swimming so Lizzy decided to hop in!**

**We made our way back for the girls to swim closer to shore.**

**Lizzy was using Rachel head to push off for her flip!**

8/06/22

Mom and Dad are actually not huge “Let’s go to the beach!”people. They like the beach and it’s fun but we Love the beach! School starts next week so we had to go to the beach. We even got up super early so we could get there before the crowds:

**Beautiful day and not a lot of people yet!**

**The waves were going pretty good today. We had a tiny board but we made good use of it.**

**Rachel asked mom to die her hair red!** Beautiful!!

**Lizzy spent almost no time out of the water. Lunch and sunscreen reapplication and that was it.**

**Sullivan and Lizzy were the last to get out. A very successful family beach day** .

Of course we HAD TO stop at our favorite ice cream shop in Palatka on the way home:

**Hoot Owl Farm House Homemade Ice Cream**

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Vacation Day Fourteen

7/23/22

Family Vacation Day Fourteen: Heading Home, and Sculpture Fields in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Grand Total Hiking Miles This Vacation = 105.7 miles!

**We packed up camp and started the 8 hour drive home.**

**We stopped here in Chattanooga, Tennessee.**

**The sculpture on the left was Patricia’s favorite.**

**It was sooo very hot outside and the sun was blazing in these open fields. This sculpture had a little shade.**

**Some of these sculptures are quite big! I liked this tree quite a bit.**

**This was an anatomically correct male sculpture. Lizzy provided the censorship for us. Thanks Lizzy.**

**This sculpture was made out of tires. Lizzy thought it looked like feathers.**

That was a super-awesome vacation. We hiked 105.7 miles. A new Beck family record!

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Vacation Day Thirteen

7/22/22

Vacation Day Thirteen: Hemlock Falls and Crusher Hole – 7.8 miles. *We talked with a ranger who was at the trailhead about reports we heard of wild boar on this trail. The ranger educated us on boar safety and indicated that he was there today to check on the trail and hunt any wild boar he locates. Warning: The seventh picture has a dead animal (wild boar) shot by a ranger.

**This is the last big hike of our vacation. We are heading back to Florida tomorrow. We are planning to make a few fun stops along the way home, but no major hikes.**

**We are going to Hemlock Falls with a few detours along the way.**

**We can’t go fully into the caves without permit due to white nose syndrome (a disease killing off bats).**

**We heard a shotgun blast and the girls wanted to go see what the ranger got so we rushed out a little faster.**

**The ranger caught up with us on the trail and told us about the boar he shot. The girls wanted to try and find it so the ranger actually escorted us to the boar.**

**He then educated us on how destructive and invasive wild boar are and how much impact the problem has on other aspects of our environment and economy.**

Back on the trail:

**We found another small cave entrance.**

**Patricia took the lead on the trail with sticks waving to catch all the spider webs along the trail.**

**She kept getting bigger sticks because the spider webs were quite prolific.**

**Even with the wider sections of trail we were eating webs.**

**We finally made it to the last stretch to the falls.**

**Rachel was the first to really get in the pool.**

**Patricia decided to get into the water too.**

**Despite how very cold this water is Lizzy went all in the waterfall.**

**Great hike! Off to Crusher’s Swimming Hole.**

**Dad went for a very cold and brief swim.**

**Rachel spent the most time in the water.**

**Lizzy waded but that’s enough for her because that water was really cold!**

**No way Luna or Patricia are getting in that cold water!**

**Not sure how Rachel can stay in this cold water!**

**Pickerel frog, the only poisonous frog native to the United States!**

**One last look. Time to head back to camp.**

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Vacation Day Twelve

7/21/22

Family Vacation Day Twelve: Virgin Falls Trail- 10 miles.

**We had a pretty strong thunderstorm in the wee hours of the morning and all but Sullivan was awake. The girls started doing shadow puppets in the tent.**

**We get a little later start because of the rain but the skies cleared so we are back in the trails! Notice the “Strenuous”?**

**Lizzy climbed up this basically dry waterfall despite the rain. This is supposed to be Big Branch Falls.**

**Not far down stream the water was flowing.**

**There were a few cool cable crossings.**

**Luna is awesome on a hike. She makes sure everyone is okay especially if we are split up.**

**Lizzy, Sullivan and I climbed down first.**

**Later Sullivan went up to encourage the girls to come down.**

**Butterflies were flying around Rachel.**

**Luna loves Patricia and Patricia loves Luna!**

**Even with the trees in the way this is a pretty waterfall.**

**Mom and Dad enjoying the experience to the fullest.**

**Rachel was exploring behind the waterfall!**

**There was a huge room behind the waterfall!!**

**Viewpoint from behind the waterfall.**

**Time to head up to the last waterfall.**

**Sullivan and Lizzy exploring down below.**

**This was a somewhat challenging 10 mile hike but WOW!**

**We stopped to help a turtle cross the road.**

**Later we had to stop for yet another turtle crossing the road!**

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Vacation Day Eleven

7/20/22

Family Vacation Day Eleven: Cumberland Trail Piney River and Piney Falls- 9 miles. We also set up camp at Fall Creek Falls Campgrounds.

**We planned to hike to Stinging Fork Falls which we thought was a 9 mile hike. We didn’t make it. . . more on that later.**

**The Piney River was pretty along the first half of the hike.**

**We found some sections of the river with this blue-green tint.**

**Catching something in the water… any guesses what she caught?**

**A blue butterfly landed on Rachel’s finger!!!**

**The official rock skipping champion. Rachel bet him a dollar he couldn’t skip it all the way across. He won $1.**

We made our way up some serious elevation and realized that this trail was 8 miles point to point so it would have been a 16+ mile hike. Not today! We headed back down and decided to go to Piney Falls.

**Halfway end pic. Now off to our next adventure.**

**We met a nice couple at the trailhead who offered to take our pic.**

Lizzy and Mom beat everyone down to the loop.

We got a little lost, well, not lost exactly, but we were having trouble finding the trail.

Rachel and Patricia waited *patiently while we searched for the trail. *Not really.

**Mom discovered this cool spot while I was looking for the trail.**

**We found it and ended up at the middle section of the waterfall.**

Lizzy, Sullivan and Mom went down to the bottom pool of water.

Back on the trail:

American abrupt-bulbed Lepidella Mushroom – poisonous!

**We had quite a day! Time to go set up camp at Fall Creek Falls Campgrounds.**

That was a very action packed day!

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Family Vacation Day Ten

7/19/22

Family Vacation Day Ten: Devil’s Racetrack, Cove Lake State Park – 8.4 miles. Multiple beautiful waterfalls and overlooks! *Devil’s Racetrack Trail likely got it’s name because the first half of the hike the trail was lined with poison ivy. Then we hit boulder climbs. The blueberries and blackberries were tempting and delicious but the thorny vines literally attacked us! There were cliffs and steep drop offs. Ultimately we had to turn back because the thorny vines were too thick.