guess who? by Mary

Camping at Cloudland Canyon by Susie

As you may know by now, Zeglen camping trips are most interesting and often rather humorous. This last one was no exception.

On Friday, April 17th, Dad and Susie went to the Cloudland Canyon campground to scout out campsites. They succeeded in securing 2 campsites convenietly located adjacent to one another and only about 20 ft. away from the bath house. Two very important qualities, to be sure. :)

Friday evening the Ruffs arrived. YAY!! We set up camp and explored the campground. We discovered a plastic playground that could fit in our garage. We had a very entertaining time climbing all over it.

On Saturday morning we had eggs, cinnamon rolls, muffins, and coffee for breakfast. Then, as the dads pored over the list of facilities and activities within the campground, they decided to check out the disc golf course. On the map, it appeared to be a short walk up to the course; however, as the scouting party set out, they discovered that it was, in fact, a rather long walk straight uphill. (We later measured it to be about a mile.). When we were almost there (we couldn't tell we were almost there, but we were) Uncle T observed that it may be a while before we actually got there, so he returned down the hill and retrieved the van to carry us the rest of the way. Now, of course, by the time he got back with the van and we had all clambered in, we were only a few yards away from the golf course. Go figure. We checked it out and then returned to our campsites to eat sandwiches and chips for lunch.

Upon second perusal of the brochure, it was discovered that there was a class thingy for disc golf at 6 p.m. We decided we would try that later. We also discovered that there was a (guided) waterfall hike that started in about five minutes. We hurried to the starting place and were only a few minutes late. We proceeded on the hike which involved a lot of rocks and about 500 stairs.

When we returned to the campsite, we decided that we didn't want to wait until 6 o'clock to do disc golf. We set out for the course again (this time in the van) and played the course by ourselves with discs we had borrowed from some friends who went to our church. We had a great time and got lots of sunburn and pollen ingestion.

Back at the campsite, we found out that it was a 100% chance of rain that night. We decided to move into the Zeglen house for the night to avoid the downpour. Aunt and Uncle Ruff stayed with their camper for the night, but everyone else packed up and adjourned to our lovely dwelling. Sunday morning we ate breakfast, packed up again, went to McKays, and felt guilty for missing church. Then we had lunch at Cracker Barrel (somewhat of a camping tradition) and then *sob* said good-bye to the Ruffs. We were crazy, (come on, this is us) and had tons of fun. Here are some pics to prove it.

Disc Golf:

More Disc Golf:

Hike:

Moving into the Zeglens:

Texas trip April 2009 by Mary

April 23-28 we had a very fun trip to Texas to watch Steve graduate from Security Forces training.





Day 1. Driving, driving, and more driving.

Day 2. Go to graduation, eat at Cracker Barrel, crash at the hotel.

Day 3. Driving to Port Aransas (which included taking a ferry to go to the island); looking for a place to spend the night since the hotel we were planning on was booked!

Day 4. Going to the beach and pool, getting sunburned, leaving the beach and staying the night at the Embassy Suites.

Day 5. Seeing the Alamo, watching it rain (which messed up our afternoon plans because we were going to go canoeing and play Peter Pan putt-putt!), going to see "The Race to Witch Mountain," driving to Dallas, and staying at the Hilton Anatole (we got to stay at this fancy hotel because we got a discount rate from Emily Tramuto who went to Peru with Steve and Dad).

Day 6. Driving home

by Mary

a little bit late, but...

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Susie,
Happy Birthday to you!

And many more...

Yes, someone turned 13 on April 1st. We celebrated with burgers and a Dairy Queen chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream cake. Yum! Susie got some fun presents, including birthday money from Mom and Dad that she used to buy a schnazzy camera! Happy Birthday, Susie!

The Silver Certificate by Sarah

Written in November

Last Saturday, after waiting for three painfully long weeks, I received the Silver Certificate for the Congressional Award. The Silver Certificate is the second of six awards given when you have set and completed goals in four different areas. The four different areas are: personal development, voluntary service, physical fitness, and exploration or expedition. For each level you set new goals and put in a certain amount of hours. For the physical fitness goal I trained to run a 10k in less than 60 minutes. On June 14th I successfully reached my goal with a time of 58:14. For the voluntary service I volunteered at the Ooltewah Collegedale library. For the personal development I attended a girls' Civil War camp where I sewed a Civil War era skirt, petticoat, hoopskirt, and slat bonnet. I learned several Civil War period dances. It was a lot of fun. For the Expedition I got to wear my Civil War clothes and assist in the dance exhibition for the 145th anniversary Battle of Chickamauga Reenactment in Chattanooga.

Hiking by Sarah

The Zeglens have posted!!!!!!!!! Gasps are heard around the world.

This past month Susie, Mary, and Mom accompanied Sarah in doing three separate six to eight hour hikes at the Chickamauga Battlefield. Yes, by the time we got to the last hike we were ready for them to be done. For the first hike we started out at 1:30 on a lovely Friday afternoon. In order to do six hours we had to hike until 7:30. It got dark around 6:00, so we were going to have to hike an hour and a half in the dark. We had counted on it getting dark so we were well prepared with flashlights, pepper spray, whistles, and a very excited Susie. (She was looking forward to hiking in the dark.) Unfortunately we were not totally prepared for the creepiness of walking on a deserted battlefield in the dark. It was not a very pleasant feeling, and I am never planning on hiking in the dark again. On the second hike we got to use a compass which was very exciting until we got lost within the first 15 minutes. Eventually we got our bearings and successfully finished the hike without any more incidents. On the last hike Mom came with us for the last two hours. She was fully equipped with her hot coffee and her very important toilet paper. Unfortunately, she forgot that she was carrying the roll of toilet paper when she waved to some (amused) people walking by. After that she decided to put the toilet paper somewhere less obvious. The hikes were very fun and exciting and the Zeglen girls now know every rock, trail, and monument at the Chickamauga Battlefield.

Here is a sampling of the many pictures taken by Mary

The great map debates

Our Valentine's Day by Mary

We had a great Valentine's Day with Kevin. He came down from Knoxville and went with us to basketball games and Dairy Queen for lunch and blizzards. After lunch he took a nap while some of the kiddos shot hoops outside in our driveway. He got up and played Blokus and then we had a delicious crepe dinner. Our crepe dinner consisted of chicken crepes and dessert crepes (crepes with ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate chips, etc,.). We had fun all day, but unfortunately Kevin had to leave early that night.

Here are some pictures from our Valentine's Day -

The Hike To End All Hikes: by Susie

On Friday, January 23rd, Sarah, Mary, and myself (Susie) went hiking yet again at the Chickamauga Battlefield. It was most interesting. It didn’t get too exciting until near the end when it got dark. But I’m getting ahead of myself. We had had a friend over that morning and once she left we had lunch, packed our bags, and headed out. We got there at approx. 1:30 p.m. At first, it was very windy/blustery and overcast. Once we got in the woods, however, the wind died down. It was kind of creepy because you could hear the wind whistling through the treetops above you and, since it was winter, there weren’t any birds singing and all the trees and grass were dead. Creepy. We went along uneventfully for about 4 hours. The only slightly interesting thing we discovered was that whoever measured the battlefield must have believed in approximation, because there is no way that was only a 10-mile hike. We gauged it to be somewhere between 13.5 and 16.5 miles. Not 10. Anyway, at sunset we emerged from the woods momentarily into a big field. In the middle of the field was a big group of deer having dinner. Mary took some pretty cool pictures. All in all, the 6 hour hike went well. The worst part (for some people, anyway) was having to hike 1 ½ hours in the dark. As I said, I thought it was GREAT!!!!! Here are some pics:

Aren't we cute?

Really confusing directions.

A cornfield inside a battlefield. Hmm....

A post!!! by Mary

We haven't posted in awhile because we have been super busy with life. I am writing now to give you a brief update on things that have happened since we last posted...with pictures, of course:-)

While Stephen was in town Dad, Steve,

Susie, Peter and Kathy went shooting.

Kevin carrying all of the kids except for the photographer ;-).
The Christmas lights at Rock City with friends.

Kidnapping Dad to the Ruffs for the weekend.

Those are a couple of things we did recently. We loved having Stephen for 10 days over the holidays and Kevin for 2! We don't get to see them enough :-(. We will try not to let 2 MONTHS pass before posting again!

Woe to the Zeglens by Sarah

As Thanksgiving approaches, I have suddenly realized what a dismal prospect it is going to be this year. It has taken my slow brain a couple of months to realize that this year one vital member of the Zeglen family will not be joining the rest of us for Thanksgiving. For the first time in 22 years (almost 23) Stephen Zeglen will not be here for Thanksgiving. I don’t know how we will manage without him this year. It will not be nearly as exciting and enjoyable with Stephens’s absence. We will miss him greatly.