A Very Rainy Vacation Day.....day 3

Activities--

Breakfast at IHOP
We then planned to go on a hike to a waterfall at Camp Alta Mons, but it was too rainy.
So, instead everyone pick out two fat quarters at Joanne's for a family quilt
next stop: Barnes and Noble, the kids have some books they've got their eye on.
We hope to get a tether ball set, but the stores don't seem to carry them....but, we'll keep looking!!

Hello. I, Connor, will be doing the rest of this blog post. This is us at Barnes & Noble, the local bookstore. I'm not certain why the above picture was included, but the picture below is pretty good, especially since I'm not in it!

The fabric here is for a family quilt.

Above is my court of honor, where I received my life award. Below is Ryan, after completing his eagle board of review.

Here we are at IHop. Originally, we were going to go to Denny's, but they only had one waitress, who was very distressed by eight people walking in. Rather than give her a heart attack ( not to mention be forced to wait until lunchtime to eat breakfast), we went to Ihop. 

Brianne enjoying her breakfast, which she didn't get until after nine thirty.

Dad, Ryan and I all ordered endless pancakes and had an eating contest. The tally is: In third place is Dad, with only six pancakes (the first plate was five with pancakes coming in twos after that). After that came Ryan with an impressive nine pancakes. The winner was myself with eleven pancakes. I feel it important to note, however, that I did not eat for several hours after lunchtime that day.

Here is the winning stack of plates. The two half-finished pancakes on top were counted as one, and one plate was from Cailin, who only had one pancake. 

Camp Timber Ridge-- Horseback riding & Cowboys and Indians

Delaney has been looking forward to going to Camp Timber Ridge since we signed her up in March.  She had a tough decision to make this year as we couldn't afford to send her to camp and give her a fabulous birthday party--like she wanted, which was going to the bowling alley for a themed party.  She chose to sign up for camp and do the party another year.  The big week arrived and she had a good time, although she was dealing with a yucky cold and nasty cough.

She came home on Tuesday running a high fever, 103.2, so I made her stay home, which she wasn't thrilled with, but the camp was dealing with a mild case of lice, so I was glad to have escaped that fun adventure.

Anyhow, she was better the following day, although she was still coughing and not feeling 100%, but she so wanted to get up on the horses this year.  She didn't want to let her fear of getting up overcome her.  Many friends thought what she was dealing with was allergies, so I pumped her full of Benedryl or Allaegra & Tylenol and sent her on to conquer her Goliath.  She never seemed to get any better--her cough sounded horrible but she kept going....and going and going.  She also complained of her throat hurting and tummy hurting.  After discussing with my brother Robert, I finally took her in to the doctor and it turned out she really had Pneumonia--a mild case, but nevertheless, she was sick and it wasn't a cold or allergies.  She never got up on Tahoe or Buddy, but maybe we'll try it again next year.

Delaney here--I was really scared to get on the horses.  My Spanish teacher was nice.  I didn't get up on the horse this year, maybe next year I'll get on one.  Mom says that maybe Ms Button will let me come in the fall and ride Buddy.  Mrs. Hall thinks that I didn't get up because I was sick and nobody knew it. 

An amazing tender mercy happened thought, Button called me up on Thursday evening to offer a full scholarship to both Cailin and Delaney for another week of camp.  So although Delaney didn't have a super time because of being sick, she would get another week of camp fun.  Yeah!!!

Camp Timber Ridge-- Electricity, Magnetism,& Inventions plus Spanish.

Hello, Cailin here.

Camp Timber Ridge (or CTR) was fun, though it would have been more fun to me personally to have horseback riding in it, too. But there wasn't, so we had more time to do electricity and magnetism stuff. We also tried to make inventions, whether just the ideas or actually making it. Most of the people in my group just came up with ideas because our inventions were too costly or we didn't know how to make them.

I was the oldest camper at CTR this year. It was my last year that I could be a camper, but that's okay. Maybe in two years or so I'll go back and be a councilor instead, but I don't know yet. 

The Spanish class stuff was fun, and so was the crafts making. Spanish isn't really too terribly different from English, honestly. 

We made a lot of crafts, including a Sharpie tie dyed shirt you'll see below. We also made spider web things. 

Delaney here:  I learned a lot. I liked it because it had a lot of crafts, and we got to see how inventions actually work. and the director is very nice.

Button called me one evening to tell me that she has two full scholarships available for the following week of her Camp Timber Ridge, and was wondering if my girls would be interested.  I was sure Delaney would, if she was feeling better due to her illness.  I wasn't sure if Cailin would because she didn't like it last year but the subject of electricity and magnetism was alluring--it's one that she's been learning about on her own, so she was eager to join in the weekly projects, songs and fun.

This was on celebration day. We were talking about what we learned that week.

All of us were singing a Spanish song.

These were all of my crafts that I made.

this is the spider web I made

This was my spider web, with spider included.

I made this shirt.  It didn't turn out so well, but I tried to make it with an American flag so I can wear it on the 4th!

This is my shirt. It was too big, but that's okay.

Liam had some fun here at home, with his friend Landon.  He was sad that he couldn't go to camp but having time with Landon clearly made him happy!

Our Vacation....Day 2

Activities:

Free movie in Wytheville Cinemas

Picnic lunch somewhere (ended up being in the car)

Visit Nancy's Candy Shop in Meadows of Dan, VA

Visit Mabry Mill along the Blue Ridge Parkway

Drive the Blue Ridge Parkway 

This morning Brianne found out about the joy of ear buds. She had a great time listening to music with her big sister Delaney. I enjoy seeing Brianne's siblings take the time and do things with you.

 We started out today by going to a free movie at one of the local theaters. The movie, " Parental Guidance" It is a great movie staring Billy Crystal and Bet Meddler.

 We went to Meadows of Dan to Nancy's Candy Store. We braved many distressing events, like a close call with Brianne getting car sick, and then having Brianne attempting to help me drive by grabbing the steering wheel, but hey, we got there.

 The have a very wide selection of fudge. Just about any favor you can imagine is represented there. It is very good, but very rich.

 Liam was in heaven and hell. All the candy you want but you have to choose just a few things. This is very tough on a five year old.

 This is Miss Blue Tongue! Cailin and Delaney bought all day Jaw Breakers. One of the many hazards is having your tongue turn blue.

 Brianne loved her sucker. It lasted until we got to Mabry's Mill and she found a rain puddle to wash it in.

 Here is a good picture of Mabry's Mill. This mill was up and running until about 1930. The park service has done a great job in keeping the mill in a near perfect condition. This has been a very wet past two weeks, rather uncommonly wet for this time of year. You can see how muddy looking the pond is.

 Bri loves puddles, it does not matter what size. She stomped, splashed, and then set down in about every one she came to.

 In this picture you can't really see, but there is a rather good size leak in this water way. There certainly seems to be a great deal of maintenance in keeping this place up and running.

 This is the 1890 style of the GMC Suburban. I like how it is powered.

 Liam looks ready to go with his sucker in his mouth and hands on the plow. I wonder if this could be good omens for the mowing business.

 Water! Water! Water! Brianne was happy where ever she found it. Here she is playing in a old cast iron kettle she found. The kettle was used to make soap in.

 The bigger the puddle, the bigger the smile.

 Cailin is playing with a checker set made out of corn cobs. Play station and Xbox have come a long way since then, or have they? There are times that I think the world would be so much better off without much of the "STUFF" we think we have to have.

 This water will powered several of the businesses that Mabry attempted to run. I say attempted because all of it depended upon the level of water in the near by creeks. If it was a normal day, then only the mill was in operation. The mill would grind your corn into mill for you. If it was a good rainy day, then the saw mill could be used.

 Here is Delaney, one of our most beautiful flowers, smelling beautiful flowers.

 This is a shot of the back or front, depending upon how you saw it, of the mill itself. It stayed in operation until about 1930.

 These two couldn't stop jumping!!!  Over streams and rocks, Liam hopped and ran around so much that he fell three times.  All the paths, especially the wooden bridges were quite slippery due to the rain.  ( It rained and rained all day long.  There were few snatched of time when it wasn't raining, luckily we happened upon one while we were at Mabry Mill.)  Liam tried hard to keep up with Cailin....anything she did, Liam was right behind her like a shadow.

 I got it!!  A photo with her in the air!  Tried to get one of Liam too, this is the best I could do.

While on the drive we passed an old country store that had a kitchen which sold "fried Bologna Cailin squealed in disgust, so for dinner we had fried bologna, fresh fried eggs (from the Morgan's chickens which we've been tending to while they are gone.), and corn spoon bread (recipe from a WWII cookbook) in honor of Mr. Edwin Mabry and his mill, tomatoes and cantalope.

We are on Vacation!! Day 1

We are having a Sta-cation this year....that mean we are on vacation while we stay home.    We began our vacation Friday night.

Activity:  (forgot the camera, and the kids were especially saddened by this fact)

Dinner at Macados, it's 29 cent wings and 1/2 price Hindenburg!   We all ate for $33.26....that included 2 Hindenburgs (eight sub sandwiches on french bread), 10 wings with ranch dressing, and two plates of french fries!! Mmmmm love them with ranch dressing!

Walk in the Park and watch Breebree run like a crazy kid down the path and Cailin jump from the top the outdoor bleachers claiming she's jumping from the top of the Eiffel Tower.....and who can forget Mom, Cailin, Delaney and Liam skip around the car singing "We're Off to See the Wizard" from the Wizard of Oz.

Cailin's thoughts: We went to Macados for dinner. It was nice. Then we went to Bisset Park and I jumped off the Eiffel Tower. I almost died.

Connor's thoughts: Ok, just a note on Cailin's "jumping off the Eiffel tower", it was really just some bleachers at Bisset Park.

Delaney's thoughts

Liam's thoughts-- I tried a wing and it was spicy hot and Daddy ate a big, big marshmallow  *hehehe*, (okay that really didn't happen!)
I ate two bags of potatoes chips and I love that I got to eat a big sandwich (although he didn't eat it all).

After being gone all day....and considering the fact that Ryan HATES Macados, we allowed him to stay home and eat McDonalds.  He wanted 3 double cheese burgers and a large fry. Whew, what a lot of food!
Ryan's thoughts--  I ate the food the way I usually do. It was good and delicious especially the fries which were salty.