Back to School

The end of August means back to school. After such a fun, hectic summer, it will be nice to have some routine back in our life. I guess it was unofficial stripe day. The girls were cute, as always:

Eliza

Julia & Anna

New glasses and new doo's

Kris comes to visit

A former college roommate of mine, Kris Dziendziel, and her daughters came to visit us this past weekend. It has been a few years since we've gotten together, so it was very fun to have them visit. Her girls are about the same ages as mine, so they had fun socializing. Games, movies, ice cream, and a visit to Longwood Gardens were part of the activities. Got some cute pics while we are Longwood:

At the waterfall (not sure if they should be doing this :))

Very cute of their shadows

Anna, the Parisian

Kris & I in the secret garden

All lined up!

We hope they come to visit again soon. This was a lot of fun.

ME & NY escape

It was that time again for our annual pilgrimage north. Although I so wanted to escape so badly from our hectic life, the thought of having to pack again, after only being home a couple of days from Trek made me tired thinking about it. So I did minimal packing and threw in a few pillows and we were off.

Friday night we stayed with Austin's mom and had a nice visit and a yummy French Toast breakfast the next morning before we headed up the coast to Maine. We already have return tickets to her house the next weekend. :)

We arrived to a rainy Maine that afternoon. My sister, Bev, was also visiting my parents that weekend so we were able to see her as well. It was nice to catch up since we see each other so little. We took little day trips to the lake in Camden and Uncle Al's pond. Austin also did a couple of repairs to help out while Bev painted the kitchen cabinets. The girls had fun watching Monk and running around the yard.

Hanging out on the couch

Anna in the back yard

Eliza pushing Grampy on the swing

Grammy taking a turn

Bev and I

Julia at Camden Lake

Eliza having fun in the lake

Cute as always!

Walking the stone wall

Down at Pemaquid Point

Fresh crab legs

Beach beauties

Hanging with the shades

One last dip before we head south

We stopped back in NY as we headed south. Saturday morning we had a nice visit with Mother and got in some blueberry picking with the cousins. In the afternoon, the girls had fun taking a dip in the pool and then we had a yummy steak dinner prepared by Meme. A fun day!

Mother with her great-grandchildren

Our family with Mother

TREK

The Rogers Family (Julia is on far left)

Back in January, Austin and I were asked to be the directors of a pioneer trek for a 100 teenagers from our church. The only information we were given were the dates it would be held, the location, and who we could rent handcarts from. The rest was left up to us to figure out. I must say that besides teaching Seminary, this is the most demanding assignment I've ever been given at Church. After many phone calls, doing research on the internet, more than a 1,000 emails, and some great committee members helping along the way, the trek finally came to fruition this July.

The Trek was held in Michaux State Forest just west of Gettysburg, PA. The youth who attended were divided up into "families" (groups of 12 - 14) and had a "ma&pa" over them. They dressed in pioneer garb and brought minimal stuff which they hauled in a handcart. The first day they hiked about 11 miles, up and down huge hills.

This summer has been one of the hottest summers in PA for as long as they have kept records and this first day was definitely hot!! The first days hike was definitely the most strenuous. Many youth suffered fatigue, heat exhaustion, and muscle pains. We even started the trip with yucky water (unplanned), a wrong turn on the trail and ended with a couple of trips to the emergency room. But, at the end of the day, even those who went to the emergency room were able to return, and they were all able to finish the trail.

As director, I definitely felt the strain of making sure everybody was okay and everything would run smoothly. I had a hard time sleeping the first night...worried about those who weren't feeling so well, the weather since they were sleeping under the stars, etc. But, in the morning, everyone awoke ready to go again and smiles abounded.

Day 2 started with a much shorter 2 1/2 mile hike. The youth pulled their carts along the pipeline. Some of the inclines were steep, but everyone made it okay. Austin and I went ahead to set up supplies and be the pony express to deliver letters from home to the families. A lot of the youth were shocked (and delighted) how much shorter the trail was. We knew storms were going to hit later in the day, so we instructed the families to cover all their belongings with the tarps and then gave the youth some "solo time" to read their letters and to write a letter back to their families. After solo time and a light lunch of bread and cheese, the youth had fun participating in various pioneer activities. Here's pictures of some:

Scone & Butter making...yummy!!

Caber tossing

Julia & Kaleb doing the 3 legged race

Hair washing station (loved by most)

Square dancing

Unfortunately, the activities were cut short by a few heavy downpours, but the youth didn't mind and loved the reprieve from the heat. Fortunately, dinner was able to be made in between storms, belongings were kept dry by the tarps, and the night cleared for a fun hoedown and family time. Julia had the assignment to play Taps at the end of the night, but not so many fell fast asleep as they did the night before :)

The final day, we packed up camp and had a group meeting to share pioneer stories and testimonies. I was very touched by what the youth had to say. I'm glad we could all experience a little of what the original pioneers had to go through.

Williamsburg with the Crook cousins!

This was such a fun trip...I wish we could do it again!

Hanging at the hotel

We drove down Tuesday morning to Williamsburg, VA to meet up with my sister Michelle and her family. We arrived a little before check-in time, so we made a pit stop at the Yankee Candle Factory outlet and sampled some fudge, popcorn, and candle fragrances :). Cute place to spend 45 minutes. At 3 pm we checked into the Colonial Williamsburg "Governer's Inn"- definitely a budget hotel, but not bad for the price - and met up with the Crooks. The cousins were so happy to see each other. It had been a year since we had seen them last.

The weather was super hot the whole week we were there. We decided for Tuesday night we would go to Busch Gardens. Being Tuesday, there were hardly any lines and we were able to get on almost every ride in the park. We made sure we rode a few water rides to keep cool. Of course, Eliza loved the roller coasters and wanted to go again and again. Unfortunately, she was a little short to go on the two best roller coasters, Griffon and Apollo's Chariot - I even loved those.

Big thumbs up for Griffon

The big plunge of Griffon

Michelle and I hanging out in the Italian gardens

Wednesday morning, we went to Water Country USA. Because the weather was so hot, it was the perfect place to be. The lines weren't too bad for the tube rides, so we had a ball going around and hitting them all. The girl cousins liked hanging out in the wave pool and the moms liked

lounging next to the wave pool :). The dads liked napping next to the wave pool.

The girls posing with the dive team

That night, we decided to head back over to Busch gardens and hit a couple of the shows we hadn't seen plus the fun roller coasters again. The "Celtic Fyre" show was very good.

Thursday morning, the Crooks went off to Yorktown while we hit the shops of Colonial Williamsburg. I actually saw a wooden top game I hadn't seen since I was a little girls. Such nostalgia. Thursday was, by far, the hottest day of the week. I think the outside temperature was 105 with a heat index much hotter. We walked around the historic homes for a bit and the girls played some old fashioned games, but by noon, we were ready to go back to the water park!

When the Crooks got back to the hotel, that is exactly what we did. Later that night, we went to the Olive Garden for dinner. I think that was the highlight of the day for my children :). They

still talk about the breadsticks.

Friday was Colonial Williamsburg day. We saw a reenactment of the reading of the Declaration of Independence as well as the invasion of the "Red Coats". All the actors really got into their roles, so it was fun to watch. We saw a few more shops and historic homes as well.

Posing with the redcoats

In the afternoon we took a break and the kids swam in the hotel pool before we headed back to colonial Williamsburg to do a "Ghost Tour". The narrators were quite convincing with their ghost stories. Eliza had fun carrying the lantern as we would walk from house to house.

Tickle, tickle

Walking on the ghost tour

Saturday morning, after breakfast, we said our goodbyes to the Crooks. We headed back to Busch Gardens for a couple of more rides (and ice cream) while they headed down the highway to Virginia Beach. It was sad to know we wouldn't see our cousins for a while again :(. We were so glad we got this time to spend with them.

Eliza is picking a winner Anna is flying high

Julia is loving her ice cream!!