Camping Trip, Day 2

About the time it stopped raining Monday morning, we had finished packing the van with the tent, wet clothes, etc... and were driving down the road in search of coffee.  So even though everything was soaked outside, the sun was coming out and we decided to find a place to hike around.  We were in the Mt. Rogers area- the highest peak in Virginia.

Looks like a good spot, and it was.  Beautiful.

The passing clouds and fog added to the beauty here.  We could see pretty far in every direction.

They made it!  Climbing around the rocks was a big hit.

 
There were a lot of cattle roaming.  And they left their mark....everywhere.  Lucy kept saying, "Watch out Mom!  Cow poo.  Gross!"

Sweet sisters.

Can you tell it was a little windy up there?  Chilly, too.

I love this picture.

*We ate lunch and headed home not long after this hike.  

*Learned on the very windy roads down the mountain that Lucy gets carsick.  Poor Lu.  

It did encourage me to get going on the laundry probably a little sooner than I would have!

*Next time we hope to hit the trails that lead us to the wild ponies.  

*I learned a little more about what it means to be prepared for these sorts of trips.  But, we also made do with what we had and it turned out just fine in the end.

First Family Camping Trip

Our first family camping trip was...wet.  Really wet!  But fun.  It rained most of the evening and all night up at Grayson Highlands in Virginia.  It's always good to hang out with a bunch of good friends, though, rain or no rain.  We're all ready to do it again sometime.

We thought we would wait it out in the trunk of the van.  

The kids didn't stay there, though.

The dads and some of the boys got a fire going, even in the rain.  Impressive.

We got to roast hotdogs and make smores...even in the rain.  Awesome.

Sammy really enjoyed just putting his stick in the fire.  A budding camper maybe?

The guys had a tent for the three of them, Kayla shared a tent with a friend, and Lucy and I took the trunk.  She said that was her favorite part.

"Becoming Babe Ruth"

Sammy is all about the Boston Red Sox now since that is the name of his t-ball team.  I don't know if he'd ever heard of them before May but he jumped at the chance to stay up a little late and watch the pros on tv.
I looked around for some baseball books for him and found this one, Becoming Babe Ruth.  We've read it several times- Sam loves it.  I didn't know much about Babe Ruth.  Seems that he was into everything as a child, including trouble, so his parents sent him to a school for boys where his talent for baseball showed itself.  Found out he played for the Red Sox before being bought by the Yankees- Sammy rolled his eyes and made some sort of strange sound when he heard that.  Haha.  Anyway, it's a good book- look for it if you have a ballplayer, or even if you don't.

I'd love to know what they were talking about.

Saturday

Today has been a pretty good day.  Got some chores done, had a nice visit with a friend, ran some errands, and had a good dinner.  I'm still watching for that first lightening bug of summer- the race is on!   I think Brian saw the first one last year.  Maybe we'll see some on this camping trip we're getting ready to go on- more on that later.  Just looked out and saw one!

So here's my prize from the library- a coffee mug I can write on with chalk.  Also a nice bag for carrying books.  Trying out Agatha Christie for the first time.

The potatoes are growing!  I didn't plan on working on them this evening but I'm glad I did.  The kids were playing on the swings, laughing when their dad gave them big pull-backs.  It was nice to hoe the dirt and hill the plants while listening, first to them then to the quiet once they went inside.

You better believe I was looking forward to having some of this when I came inside.  Can you see Kayla's "K" in the fudge sauce?  She made Amanda's most delicious fudge sauce this afternoon.  Yum.  It might be loaded with sugar but at least I know what's in it!

Friday Afternoon

*It's starting to rain again- just in time for quiet time at our house.  I thought I might pull my hair out if the kids couldn't get out for a while today without getting soaked- which some of them did yesterday.  That was fine by me but a dry day is a little less work!
*There's a summer virus in the house- fever/headache/sore throat. Between that and allergies, we'd all like a little break.
*I'm starting to wonder if I'm a library nerd.  Possible, but I don't mind.  I signed up for the adult summer reading program like a good mom does when her son is volunteering with the summer reading program.  For every book you read, you get entered into the week's drawing.  Guess who won this week?  Don't know the prize yet.  This is not the first prize I've won at our library, either.
*Kayla and I went to the Goodwill Bookstore yesterday.  Jackpot!  That store is really a great place to shop for books.
*Here's another good recipe for you.  Lucy especially likes oatmeal- plain old oatmeal with some raisins on top.  Which is great except that raisins are sticky and get stuck in teeth.  So we tried this and liked it, some of us more than others.  (which is usually the case)  I adapted this recipe from allrecipes.com.

Baked Oatmeal

1/2 cup veg. oil  (I used 1/4 c oil and 1/4 cup applesauce)

3/4 cup white sugar (I cut the sugar to about 1/4 cup)

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp salt

1T baking powder

3 cups rolled oats

Blueberries or other fruit

Beat the oil/applesauce/sugar.  Mix in the rest of the ingredients.  Pour into a lightly greased pie pan.  Refrigerate overnight.  The next morning preheat the oven to 350.  Bake for around 35 minutes or until the edges are brown.

Summer Book Study

A cozy house.
A group of ladies.
A good book.
That sums up Tuesday night, our first ladies book study of the summer for Providence PC
Really, it was our first ladies study, ever.
I was excited about it, maybe a little nervous, too.  But I was encouraged and so thankful for each one who could be there.
We are reading through Loving the Way Jesus Loves by Phil Ryken.  He looks at 1 Corinthians 13, the "love chapter."  It's so often read at weddings, and yet it's meaning goes much deeper than just romantic love.  He says,

"The Love Chapter is not for lovers, primarily, but for all the loveless people in the church who think that their way of talking about God, or worshipping God, or serving God, or giving to God is better than everyone else's."

And my favorite quote from chapter 1:

"No one cares how much we know unless they also know how much we care."

Just the first few verses of 1 Corinthians 13 are enough to make me squirm if I really think about them.

Looking forward to digging in more and more this summer.

Cousin Time

I am behind again when it comes to blogging.  I write posts in my mind everyday but they don't always make it to the computer.  Where to begin?
How about with some cousin time?

Last week was a lot of fun for the kids.  Their Ohio cousins (well, two of them) spent the week in Virginia.  Here they are after a t-ball game at Custard Corner- which in my opinion is the best place to get ice cream in town.

I love this picture.  We spent some time at Brian's granddad's over the weekend.  I took these guys strawberry picking.  They were great helpers.  I realized I have a really hard time passing by plants loaded with strawberries when Mary took hold of my bucket and gently pulled me along.  "Come on Aunt Danielle.  I think we have enough..."  

Mary found this strawberry.  Can you see it smiling?

Also on this trip Brian introduced the kids to the old song "Footloose."  Do you remember it?  They wanted it LOUD and with the windows down.  I thought that since we were driving through a small 

town we shouldn't have the music up quite so loud.  Kayla disagreed.  "Mom!  These people deserve to hear good music!"  Haha.  Makes me realize the pre-teen years are right around the corner...

We also went to a lovely, outdoor wedding.  Here's a shot of Lucy and I.  I actually like this picture of myself (shocker!) and of course I think she looks adorable.