Grillin'!

While Lon is away, the "man chores" fall to Kip. We all know outdoor cooking is man's work, ha ha! So here's Kip flippin' the chicken and veggies on the grill. He proclaimed it the best chicken he ever ate. It really WAS delicious, good job, buddy! :) We've been grilling all week, since I can't stand to heat up the kitchen. Last night it was shrimp. Again, the best Kip ever tasted! There's just something about cooking out...maybe it's the lines on the food, ha ha.

(Hey, what's Blizzard sniffing at in the background?!)

Memorial Day 2008

Here we are again at Charlie & Ruth's place in West By God Virginia! Ralph and his daughters Emylee & Devon, and Devon's friend Bethany came too. It was freezing cold the first night, but the weather warmed up as the weekend progressed, and was darned hot on Monday! On Sunday the kids went on a kayaking/tubing trip down the river by themselves. Lon was a bit leery about there being no adult along, but they had a great time. Ruth and I took a shorter trip on Monday, and although the water was freezing at first, it was refreshing as the sun got hotter. Because we've had so much rain this spring, the water was the highest I've ever seen it there, and going over the rapids was fun, rather than bumpy! Blizzard was absolutely ecstatic at being allowed to run around completely free for 3 whole days, but he never wandered far.

Field Trip to Philadelphia

Since I had never been to Philadelphia before, I called in sick to chaperone Kip's 7th grade class. I had the best time! An adult had to sit in the front seat of the bus and be in control of the TV screens, so I made the kids laugh by drawing and writing funny things over the videos they were watching. (I'm the cool mom now, yay! ha ha)

Here we have (l to r) Anthony, Austin, Hunter, Scott, Luis and Kip. They were a cooperative and well-behaved group of boys, and I wrote a note to the school the next day, complimenting them and saying I would do this again in a heartbeat! Anthony and Kip posed in the Hall of Statues, with a signer of the U.S. Constitution, then Kip decided he looked better on the $5 bill than Abraham Lincoln did. I have to agree he's way cuter! And he actually stood with his mom in front of the Liberty Bell. Man, he's taller here than in the photos from a couple months ago! He said he was glad I came; that really made my day... :)

Toe Surgery

Don't his big toes look like in a cartoon, when someone hits them with a hammer? ha ha. Kip had ingrown toenails repaired this past Monday. He was very brave, and got to rest then in front of the - new! - TV for the evening. He was able to go to school the next day, but I had to write him a note excusing him from PE. I was worried that they would hurt too much for him to enjoy his field trip coming up, but by the next day, he said they were fine. What a trooper!

It's Spring!

Ahhhhh, Spring...

My favorite season! All the flowers and trees are blooming after a cold, bare winter. My front garden is full of hyacinths, and the tulips are coming up now, too. I love driving down our street and seeing the row of white trees. The pond at my job is lined with pale pink trees, and the crabapple tree in our front yard is bright pink. It looks so cool when all the petals fall and the ground is carpeted in pink and white, like a dusting of pastel snow. And everything smells so sweet! I wish Spring lasted longer than winter...

Hershey, PA

The last day of our trip up north we visited Hershey, PA. The amusement park wasn't open for the season yet, but we took the Chocolate Factory tour, ate lunch, and browsed the shops. Lon loved the singing cows! Kip loved the HUGE chocolate bar ($30.00! No, you can't have one! What do you mean, why not?!) There were entire rooms dedicated to a particular type of candy. Here we have one whole area of Reeses, and then an entire display of Hershey Kisses. It's a chocolate lover's dream! I was surprised when we got home, to find that we did the whole 3 day trip on one tank of gas! Excellent...

Gettysburg

After Baltimore, we drove to Gettysburg, PA and took a self-guided tour of the battlefield. There was a terrific view from a very tall watchtower, we could see Liberty Mountain Ski Resort in the distance with snow still on the slopes! It was incredibly windy that day, but the sun was warm enough to make it bearable. We climbed among the rocks at Devil's Den, a depression between Big Round Top and Little Roundtop, where a whole bunch of soldiers were slaughtered. You can see part of it in this view from Little Round Top, where the 20th Maine division held off a huge attack by the Confederates. I'm so proud of my Mainers! There are hundreds of monuments and memorials here, some small and unassuming, some enormous and elaborate. Living in Manassas, so close to another famous Civil War battlefield, we still found it hard to imagine the carnage in such a pretty place.