September 15, 2024 Back Home On The Farm

 Every year we make an effort to go to Back Home on the Farm in the fall.  We have tried (and I believe that we have been successful) to go to a farm/pumpkin patch every year with the kids.  We have found that this one is our current favorite

I always try to get a picture of the two kids together.  

And I also always try to get a picture of them by the love sign.

Then the fun comes.  The underground hill slide is always a favorite.

They go on the slide over and over and over.  I am glad that there are picnic tables near by where Matt and I can sit and wait for them to do this activity as many times as they wish.

They also love the obstacle course.  There are always a few races between the two.  We stay there till they have fallen off the obstacles too many times and are just done with it.

Next comes the animals.  There are always animals to pet.  There are usually calves, bunnies, chickens, goats, ponies, and many others.

The other must dos are the pig races and the sling shots.  But I did not get pictures of those.

However, I did get some wonderful pictures of my kids individually.  They are getting so grown up!

September 4, 2024 Cross Country

Glen at his first cross country meet of this year.  He has improved so much from last year!  But just look at this guy, he is smiling while running...yet he says that he does not enjoy running.  I think he secretly loves it :) 

 

August 20, 2024 First days of school

 This was the first day of school!

Grace is in 9th grade at Rocktown.  She loves high school already!  She has been at band camp for the high school for three weeks now so she feels very confident going into this new adventure.

Glen is in 7th grade at Skyline.  He is excited for another year at this school (where I work).  He is looking forward to D&D club, chess club, and gym.  He is not looking forward to cross country which he has already spent two weeks training with.  He does not love running, but he keeps doing it and he is getting so much better.

August 7, 2024 Braces

 

Glen got braces!

July 28, 2024 Sandbridge

Had a great time at the beach.

We wanted to celebrate paying off the mortgage to our house.  So we decided to host a vacation.  We rented a beach house in Sandbridge, VA.  We invited all of my family and all of Matt's family.  At any one time we had about 15-18 people in the house.  It was a lot of fun chaos!

  From the house we could go kayaking in the bay or we could spend time at the beach. 

We also spent one day at the Virginia Living Museum.

June 18, 2024 Up North: Day 7

 Up north day 7 - we woke up in Portland, Maine, ate breakfast, and headed out. We took a detour to Vermont to eat lunch there. Then we drove, and drove, and drove… we got home at 9:30 at night. It was a lovely trip, but it is so good to be home!

June 16, 2024 Up North: Day 6

 Up north day 6 - The blue skys welcomed us, which is very different than the previous rainy day. The kids even finished breakfast early so they could go into the yard of the hotel to look at the water.

We returned to the hopewell rocks park to see the formations at high tide. We hiked down and saw the water up much higher than the pervious day. Grace walked all the way down to the beach to walk on the very edge that was still dry, and to skip some stones into the water.

We got some gas and food from a gas station. I was able to introduce my family to ketchup flavored potato chips. Matt, Glen, and I love them. Grace does not care for them at all. Then we headed back on the road. Now back in Maine we have started our long trip home.