Centennial Wildlife Field Trip

We had a beautiful and warm day for our field trip to NC State's Centennial Campus.  We split into 2 groups and for a change, I went with the older group!  The younger group stayed on the site and did some nature programming on insects.  

There are also things to see inside the building that looked neat.  Love the door!

I only got a quick peek at them though. I was chosen to go with the older students because of my big van!  :-)  

We were meeting at an off-site location to learn more about telemetry.  We first listened and learned about what they were doing to track turtles.  It was neat to learn more about how turtles respond when their habitat is changed.  They track the turtles over time to see what their movement patterns are in the area.

 If you look at the map, you will see a cluster of blue dots in one corner of the land.  This is a turtle in his native habitat.  The yellow dots represent a rescued turtle that was found hurt near a road.  He was brought here, but this was not his native habitat.  We wandered over much of almost 90 acres looking for his home!

 This is the tracking device that emits a signal when you are getting close to the turtle.

 We walked up a path and then headed into the woods.  There were 3 students with the tracking devices looking for a turtle.  Each turtle had a different frequency.

 When they got a signal, the students with the tracking devices would spread out around the area to then try to pinpoint the turtles location.

 As you got closer, you could hold the transmitter closer to the ground for a more accurate reading.

 It isn't as easy as it may sound!   The turtles were all buried beneath leaves and dirt!

After the first turtle was located, a new set of students took a turn at finding the next turtle.  

Rebecca and Hanna decided to work together as a pair which took a lot of good communicating!  Helps that they are great friends!

We kept walking and looking.

Until we were close.

And it still wasn't easy.

Do you  see him yet?

Now?  Buried in the leaves?

This turtle is right where she is pointing and touching the shell.  I had no idea that they could hide so well.

And little did we know that the 3rd turtle was going to be the best yet at hiding!

Some sister play time.  This helped a lot because Eliana was kind of cranky.  We later figured out that she had been glutened (mildly???) with chapstick!

Friends.

Looking, but no success.

Its just sweet seeing my girls playing together.  Rebecca waited a long time for this sister.

Finally the last turtle was located.  After much looking.  Under the log!

What a fun group to spend the morning with!

When we finished, we headed over to nearby Pullen Park.  We hadn't been there since it has been renovated and it looks great!  We had a picnic in one of the new shelter areas.

Then rode some of the rides.  Merry Go Round.

Eliana was actually a little scared on the ride which is quite unlike her.  It made me wonder if being glutened leaves you feeling a little off balance in any way???  Anyone know?

And of course the train around the park!

We ended the day by visiting Moonberries for frozen yogurt.  It was a wonderful treat after a warm day. A delightful day of learning, laughing and just having fun!  Looking forward to our next field trip day ... tomorrow!

Blessings

Leslie

Last Florida post

I'm closing with just a few random pictures of our time in Florida.  It was such a sweet time of fellowship.  Only God could have orchestrated our families meeting like we did.  To think that we have known each other for such a short time and yet felt comfortable spending a week together.  And it was such a fun week!  The McDonalds are very gracious hosts and made us all feel so comfortable and relaxed in their home.  Just today one of my boys said that he thought this was probably going to be the best week of the year!

We spent time just hanging out and playing games together.  (Some played games late into the night too!)

Time for electronics ... together.

Or being together while doing your own thing too.

Grandma was such fun to be around.  You can see that Eliana made a friend!

Thank you Grandma for the wonderful dinners you treated us all to as well!

We had fun playing inside.

And out.

Working puzzles.  (This is everyone who contributed to either or both of the puzzles.)

And the backyard.  What a delightful place to play!!!  Eliana loved the trampoline!

Joshua on the zipline.

Which is attached to this really cool fort.

We set up our slack line there.

A fun swing (and I love this angle).

And just boys ... chasing and fighting and running and having a blast!

Joe and Christopher battling it out.

The week went by too quickly and we were sad to have it end!  We are definitely hoping that we can all get together again soon and  spend time together.

Thank you McDonalds for an amazingly fun week!  We thank God for your family often and for the sweet ways that He has connected our families.  We are looking forward to y'all coming up for a visit this summer!

With love

Leslie for the Nelsens

Easter Week-end

Things this year were just going to be different.  We have spent the last several Easters with our good friends in VA.  We had planned to go again this year too.  Then the date of Rebecca's missions trip was moved forward a day and we knew it just wasn't going to work out.  We missed hanging out with our friends, but knew that we would also have fun in our own ways at home.

I tried to leave some margin in our days so that we could just have fun family time.  Christopher came home on Wed night.  (Love that State gives them 2 days off for Easter!).  On Thursday, I was at co-op with the 3 younger boys (my turn to teach) and then home for the afternoon.  Roger was off on Friday so we had that as just a fun family day.

We decided to go for a bike ride to a nearby park.  Eliana rode in a "carrier thing" attached to a bike (riding on the ground).  She usually likes this, but wasn't all that keen on it this time around.  Everyone else had a great time riding.  

 It was a gorgeous day!  We spent time at the park on a nearby empty field playing.  Eliana and her  Daddy did spend some time at the playground too.

 Daniel has become a great bike rider!  Its fun seeing him enjoy this activity.  I like that its one more thing that we can all have fun doing together.

 We also spent time playing football (Joshua and Daniel).

 Hackeysack.  (Christopher and Rebecca)

 Racing (Roger and REbecca).

Reading a book.  This just cracked me up.  Eliana loves to walk around with chapter books.  I'm not sure if it is the smaller size or what it is about them that intrigues her.  She does this quite often at home too.

Isaiah liked reading history quiz questions to see who can get the correct answer the fastest!

 The Eno.  One of Christopher's most favorite places to hang out!

 Quite funny when he tackles Daniel and takes him captive too.

 We spent most of Saturday celebrating Easter as a family.  WE had an egg hunt.  Christopher, Rebecca and I hid a ridiculous number of eggs.  I hunted for gluten free candy this year and thankfully there are lots of options.  I didn't get lots of great pictures.

Joshua debated being one that hid the eggs this year.  I encouraged him to hunt.  I told him that he would have the rest of his life to hide eggs and that he should enjoy the hunt this year while he still can.  :-)

 Even after they finished hunting, we went around and found many more eggs.  Later in the day, Christopher and Rebecca walked around and still found 9 more eggs.  Wondering if there are still eggs out there to be found!

 Just loved this picture of our happy girl.

 She spent a while hunting and then told me that she was done. I asked if she wanted to find more.  She told me no.  I encouraged her again telling her that there was candy inside the eggs.  Nope.  She was done and wanted to go watch "Ferb".  LOL  I guess its good that candy doesn't have a huge pull on her.

 We attended church at 4pm.  I am thankful that it was an option to go on Saturday so that we could attend as a family.  It was a wonderful service!  Christopher and Roger went back again on Sunday to volunteer at church.  AFter the service we came home and took photos.  Some of Rebecca were on a previous post.

First I worked on getting a good shot of our children.  It was amazingly easy this year.  We had a few shots that I liked!

 We even got a good family shot too!

 Time for our Easter meal.  It wasn't fancy, but it was good.  The favorite of the younger crowd was jello eggs!

 We also had ham, spinach salad (with a variety of toppings to make everyone happy), parmesan tomatoes (really yummy recipe that Rebecca found), chicken salad (with and without grapes), potato salad (which I forgot to pull out of the fridge), roasted cauliflower and pickled cucumbers.  Yum!

The rest of our week-end was full.  Up late.  A trip to the airport to send Rebecca off and then home at 6am.  Its been a long time since I've pulled an all-nighter like that.  Working at church.  Friends over for lunch.  Christopher heading back to school.

In the midst of the relaxed time and the busier times, I'm reminded of why we celebrate.  Its all Jesus.  He died in MY place.  He paid for my sins.  He conquered death and rose again.  He is RISEN!

With a grateful heart,
Leslie

More on Rebecca's Trip

My computer got a little whacked out last night so I wasn't able to post these pictures.  Just wanted to share a few of them.  More on Easter soon.

We left early in the morning to take Rebecca to the airport.  We arrived at 4:30am on Easter Sunday.  Rebecca found a jello egg to take as a snack.  LOL

 Isaiah and Christopher and I went with her to the airport.

 We met her team that is going to the Dominican Republic.  There are 7 high school students and two leaders from our church that are going.  They will be working with a church there.

 On their way.  Heading into the unknown.  Following God's call for each of them to go and serve.

We received brief messages last night that they had arrived safely and been able to go to church with the team they'll be working with this week.  Rebecca said that the beaches were beautiful!

We are hoping to talk/skype with her sometime this week.  In the meantime, we'll pray.  Praying that God will work in unmistakable ways to show His love, grace and mercy both in and through them and those with whom they are working.

In grace,
Leslie