June 25, 2013

• June

  

  Tim took the three boys camping the first week of June at Cape Henlopen State Park June 4-6.  This was the first they have been camping.  I had originally planned that all of us would go, but after the flurry of end-of-school activities combined with my exhaustion level, I voted that Layla and I would stay home to sleep, and it ended up being the best choice.  We visited them on their second day.  They all had a GREAT time, and LOVED it, Tim included.  

  Cape Henlopen housed a military base during WWII, and this was one of the observation towers used to spot enemy ships.  

  

  I started up the stairs hopping happily along, and scoffing within that the tower wasn’t very tall and I would be fine…

  

  and was wheezing pained breaths by the time I got to the top and lifting pained muscles to juuuusssttt…make…the…last…few…stepssss putter wheeze crash.  Such a paradigm of in-shape-ness I am.  

  

  

  Layla and her daddy looking out the window.  That second floor felt waaaay less precarious and much more solid than the top did, despite its being very safely-enclosed.  

  

  

  Eating s’mores.  After Gabe at three of these AND drank a can of caffeine-free Coke, he turned into crazy child, and we had to drive to the beach and let him loose.  He motored waaaaayyy down the beach at a very high rate of speed, and hopped and skipped and jumped and turned cartwheels and wasn’t cold in shorts and a t-shirt while the rest of us were freezing in our sweatshirts.  Lesson learned.  No more s’mores plus cola at bedtime.  

  On Wednesday, June 12 we left for VA, where we spent one night before Tim and I left the next day for Pennsylvania, where we attended a conference in Mechanicsburg, PA.  This was the first time we have left all of the kids behind.  This was also kind of an anniversary trip, since our 12th anniversary was Sunday, June 16th, and so when we were not attending our conference, which we enjoyed greatly, we gleefully visited a number of ethnic restaurants around the area.  Tim and I are world travelers at heart, except we lack both the finances and the life stage to do so, so we live vicariously through culinary travel when we get the chance. We went to a Korean restaurant, a Thai buffet, a Tex-Mex place, a Japanese restaurant, Panera, and an Indian restaurant on our little get-away.  Yuuuuuuummmyy!! I had two favorites.  One was the Korean restaurant, where I had a beef hotpot, which was basically a big bowl of vegetables with a little smattering of ground up beef, served with miso soup and an appetizer set of 6 little dishes all with different things to taste.

  

  

  Me being happy and quite proficient with my lil’ ol’ chopsticks, even if I do say so myself…strut strut strut.  

  I also loved the Indian restaurant, where I had something called a dosa, which I had never had before, and which was like a MASSIVE crispy crepe about 18 inches around, served with potatoes and onions in the middle.  I was sort of at a loss of how to eat it, so I folded it up sort of awkwardly and chomped away.  It was very tasty!!  I also had lentil soup, another soup that came with the dosa, and Indian coffee.  The Korean meal was our first, and the Indian meal was our last.  We stayed with some very hospitable friends, Mike and Lori.  It was a lot of fun to get away, but I was also very eager to get home to see my chillun’s, all of whom did marvelously with their grandparents.  

  We got back Sunday morning, and spent the rest of the week using my parent’s house as a home base for a week of adventures.  

  

  Examing a MASSIVE beetle they found in the flower bed.  Nasty ol’ pinchy thing.  

  On Monday, we went to visit the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton.  This is an AWESOME museum that I loved visiting on a field trip in school, and that we had lasted visited around 11 or 12 years ago, and it is still growing.  It is made up of different homes, most disassembled from their native countries and reassembled exactly as they were on the museum lands to show what sort of living situations New World immigrants would have come from.  

  

  First we went to the West African village, one of the newest additions.   Here the boys were feeding the goats.  

  

  

  Then on to the English farm.

  

  This was one of my very favorite houses.  I think it is so beautiful.  They said that whoever lived in this house had a pretty good life, and would not have necessarily wanted to immigrate to the America’s, but the second or third-born of the family, who would not inherit the land/house would have been the ones to come to have the chance for land ownership of their own.  

  This house had a cat upstairs that was comatose with lazy sleep, and barely budged with all the attention the kids showered on it.  I never even saw it open it’s eyes.  It looked well-fed and happy.

  

  Zion on the steps.

  

  English farm animals.

  

  Next was a working Irish blacksmith forge.

  

  Zion and I went outside to rest after standing a while watching the blacksmith, and he happily went to one of his favorite occupations: overturning rocks in search of bugs.  

  

  He does this to the rocks around my flowerbed in the back of our house all the time, and has no qualms whatsoever about grabbing and examining the bugs he finds.  

  Then on to the Irish farm,

  

  

  Everyone that worked there were INCREDIBLY knowledgeable about the time periods they were talking about, and seemed to really love what they did.  

  

  After this, the kids were turning into whiny tired messes, so we took a break and went out for pizza, and then returned, refreshed and full of caffeine to see the German farm.

  

  

  

  They shuttled us in a blessed glorious golf cart to the 1740′s American home,

  

  and then we walked to the 1820′s home.

  

  

  The kitchen.

  

  Laundry looked like an EVEN BIGGER deal back then.    Glad for my washer and dryer and clothesline.

  

  Zion and Layla in search of the cat of this house.  I thought it was cute how he had his hand carefully on her back.  I loved seeing the cats around.  

  The schoolhouse was next,

  

  and then the 1840′s American home.  

  

  

  The springhouse.  The kids really liked this.  

  

  At this point a massive raincloud blew in and we fled quickly to our open-windowed minivan, passing the Indian settlement by.  Once we got to the van, we were all too beat to go back.  Another time.  

  The whole museum was SO COOL!!!  I loved it.  That night the boys started Bible school at my parent’s church, and Little Girl and I swung on the swing while she ate some berries.  :)

  

  It was very sunny and Girlfriend needed some glasses.

  On Tuesday, we went to Grand Caverns, in Grottoes, VA.  It was a perfect day for this, since it was raining outside.  

  

  

  The caverns were beautiful,and Gabe was at the perfect age for enjoying something like this, and was very fascinated and attentive, and asked lots of questions, but Little Girl was very hyper and squeal-ly and there was much shushing so as not to disturb the group dynamics, and then she also wanted to be carried most of the way.  Pant pant stagger.  Zion also declared that he needed to use the bathroom less than halfway through, and there was much consternation on his part about the lack of facilities available within the cave, and Israel was somewhat paranoid about someone being left behind.  This adventure was slightly stressful, with all those dynamics thrown in, and we decided that we prefer less structured, more free-roam activities at this stage of family life.  All with bathrooms readily accessible!!   

  On Wednesday, we took the kids up to one of my very favorite places growing up – Highland Retreat campgrounds in Bergton, VA.  

  

  This is where I attended camp in the summer from grades 4 until the end of high school (the last few years were sports camp for long-distance running) and then I was a counselor there for the summer after I graduated high school in 1996.  It was also the place our church camp was held, so I have a LOT of familiarity and good associations with this place!!  I LOVED to see my kids thoroughly enjoying themselves.  

  We explored the creek for a long while.  Gabe was hot on his daddy’s heels and learned how to skip rocks.  

  

  Israel was busy finding rocks with which to write on other rocks.  

  

  Zion LOVED finding rocks to throw into the water over and over and over.

  

  That is some boy glee right there for you.  

  

  Layla played and played and played very happily.

  

  We ate lunch at the campgrounds, went on a hike through the woods, and ended up spending a bit of time at the pool and then on the basketball courts.  

  

  We ended our day with a second trip of the week to Cici’s pizza (we’re now big fans), and skipped out on Bible school.  

  On Thursday, we went to Natural Chimneys in Mt. Solon, VA.  

  

  For some reason (?!?!), we were all tired, especially me.  The chimneys were nifty-cool, and we explored the area nearby that had little cave places to climb back into.

  

  

  I did have to include this picture of Gabe’s outfit for posterity. (The knife was one that we brought the boys each back from PA.)  He had discovered a belt somewhere along the way.

  

  After a while Tim tacitly suggested that he take the belt off.  His mommy grinned widely to herself, she did.  

  The kids and Tim spent a long while playing in the extremely clear!! creek there while I just sat.  

  

  One thing there that I really like was the remnants of an old house formerly constructed on the grounds, where all was left were the front steps and walk area and the chimney containing two fireplaces.  

  

  It just sparked my imagination, I think.

  The boys and Tim also took a hike up to the top of the overlook, while I…sat.    Layla and I did make several trips to check out the “facilities”, as it were.  

  

  Such is the exciting life of a pregnant woman.  

  On the way back from taking the kids to VBS that night, I stopped and took a picture of the tiger lilies that line the road that my parents live on.  

  

  Virginia is SO beautiful in the summer!!

  Friday was spent in preparation for Saturday, and included still more creek-exploring by Tim and the boys, holding of stuffed bunny,

  

  watering of the front walk ,

  

  Zion-holding,

  

  the arrival of Uncle Quentin from Blacksburg, and exhausted napping by Layla and Maddie-dog during supper on the porch.  

  

  

  We ate all our meals on the porch, by the way.  Perfect weather and much less crumb-sweeping, what with helpful Labrador Retriever’s roaming the premises.  

   

  Saturday was my Grandma’s 90th Birthday party!!  Every year, my parents hold a family BBQ for her birthday, and this year it was extra-special and extra-big with extra people from Grandma’s life invited, including all of her brothers and sisters, her gym-buddies (she swims every week), and other people involved in her life.  Grandma is still very independent and healthy over-all for 90 years of age.  Over 90 people were in attendance, and my dad BBQ’ed 92 pounds of D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S. chicken.  

  

  Kitchen prep before hand.

  

  Layla had some eager helpers ready to hold her hand after she woke up.  

   

  Almost everyone arrived before Grandma got there.  SURPRISE, Grandma!!!!  

  

  

  She was very happily surprised.  

  Grandma with my mom and my aunt Betty.

  

  Singing happy birthday.

  

  There was PLENTY of DELICIOUS food

  

  and six different cakes 

  

  and four different kinds of homemade icecream.

   

  This, my friends, was a right proper feast.  The food was all prepared by Grandma Lou’s children and grandchildren. 

  

  

  Grandma is sitting in a chair that her brother Lewis made and gave to her for her birthday.

  

  Grandma with her remaining brothers and sisters.  Two of her siblings have died so far.

  

  Four generations.

  

  Is this kid cute or what??!!

  

  It was a great day.  We all crashed tiredly at the end, though, and we ended the day with a grandkid golf cart ride (one tradition)

  

  and a popcorn party on the porch.  Another tradition.

  

  We left Sunday morning to drive back home to DE.  Thanks, Mom and Dad, for making this such a great, relaxing week!!!  We love you!!

  • 9:45 am
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