Take A Hike!!

James' brother Ken and our nephews, Alex & Brandon are visiting with us. They live in California so we don't get to see them often. We have been having so much fun showing the boys around our area. Yesterday, while James attended a conference for work, Ken & I took the kids on a hike. The trail wasn't a hard or long one - but from all the bellyaching they did, you would think they were scaling the Himalayans!

Once they started noting the interesting things along the trail, though, they had a great time. Here, Ken points out tree fungus to the kids:



And, hiking is also much more fun when there's climbing involved!



Ken & I were also subjected to the antics of our resident posers, Maddie and Alex!!







Here's Ken and Brandon making their way along the trail:



And, this was our final destination: We thought there was an actual cabin at the end of the trail, but there was only this marker:



The kids were a bit disappointed by there being no cabin, but being able to climb on the downed trees more than made up for it !! (You would think that after living here for 4 years I would have known this, but I guess that just proves that there's a whole lot left to explore in our own town!!)

Portraits

In mid-July, we had a portrait taken of all my parents grandkids. We had one done in 2001 when the kids were much younger. Since that time, Josie has been added to the gang. The kids hardly resemble that old photo... they've grown so much!

We hired a wonderful photographer, Kyle Hughes, who is based out of Ocean City, Maryland. My parents live just over the border in Delaware and Kyle met us at the State Park to take the portraits. Kyle was fantastic with the kids and he barred all parents from the shoot. A wise move... they obeyed his every command! Plus, once Josie saw all her cousins (whom she ADORES!) and her big sister playing in the sand, she gladly joined in. The resulting shots are nothing short of a miracle. We are so thankful that Kyle possessed the 'right stuff' to get such treasured shots of the kids.

(Knelling: Liam,10, Zack 15:
Seated: Jack, 8; Kate, 10; Maddie, 14; Josie, 3)



Each family had separate sibling shots taken, with Chaz & Kim getting an excellent family portrait done as well. I hope Kim will get them to me so I can share them here. So, here are the shots of the girls that I just HAD to have. (As an aside... there are no single shots of Maddie - we had her portraits taken when she was 7 and she will have separate ones done when she graduates high school.)
















And, my favorite one of Josie:

A Beach Visit

We had nothing planned for a few days, so given the hot weather, we hopped in the car and headed out to see Grandmom & PopPop! It was much cooler at the beach. We kept ourselves busy picking peaches, going to the beach, going to the pool and feeding the ducks:



After posing on the beach for a portrait in mid-July, we thought Josie had resolved her issues with sand... We were wrong. She will walk on the sand with her sandals on, but insists on being carried to the shoreline. She doesn't like the waves and she will NOT go anywhere near where they might push up to her toes. It's a bit hard to handle, given all the kids in our family are part fish. However, I hold out hope that Josie will get over her dislike of the beach like her cousin, Liam did. When Liam was Josie's age, he hated the sand and all things associated with the beach. Now, he's a real surfer dude. So, we'll just bide our time and hope for the best...







Maddie, on the other hand, loves the beach, and doesn't care too much for the pool. But, she humors me and joins us for our visits to the community pool. She knows how much Josie loves being there. Josie is fascinated by the other children and does her best to make friends. She's a bit shy, but more times than not, her desire to play with others wins out over the bashful routine!

We were lucky that James was able to join us for two days while we were gone. Things are busy for him at work and we also have the issue of who will look after the dogs. My Dad is a total pain in the --- when it comes to the dogs. Oh well, that's the price to paid for a "free" vacation spot.







One of Josie's favorite things about visiting the beach (besides being spoiled to bits by Grandmom & her friend, Miss Mary!) is feeding the ducks. If you stand on the back deck, the ducks see you and literally come right over to grab a free meal. Josie grabs her bread (and her Grandmom!) and heads out back calling, "Here ducks, here ducks!' And, darned if they don't come waddling! Last night a Mom duck and her two babies came for a visit:






We're hoping to squeeze in a bit more beach time before the girls go back to school. That's right, !! Miss Josie is starting Pre-K classes this fall!! She will attend Tues/Thurs morning sessions in the 3 year olds class. We are very excited!! Maddie also starts at her new school on August 25th. We will attend the blessing of her new high school this coming Sunday and I can't wait to see how much things have changed since our last tour in April... till then, Hope you're all having a great summer!!

Our Safari Park Adventure

Today we took a family road trip. The weather has been HOT, so we decided to head for the cooler air of the Blue Ridge mountains, a mere 3 hour drive from our home. I found out about the Safari Park on the blog of my friend, Kim, who has since taken her blog private. She and her family live MUCH closer to the park, but I would never had known it existed if not for Kim.

I'm not much for road trips... I'm a nervous passenger ("backseat driver", if you insist on being technical!). James usually grabs the kids and goes - leaving me behind in blissful silence. But, I had a stern talking with myself and decided to tough it out. I'm so glad I did!



We had a ball! The drive through the safari park is slow and very entertaining. We took Josie out of her car seat so she could easily feed the animals. She was very excited by the prospect of being up close and personal with the animals, but the reality was quite different! She would scream, "I want to feed the zebra!" So, we would stop and Maddie would help her put her feed bucket out the window to attract the animals. Once an animal approached the car, Josie would squeal with delight and get as far AWAY from the window as possible! "You do it, Maddie!" All the while, she was laughing and literally jumping for joy on the backseat!





Josie was really great at finding the animals we saw in the guide handed out by the park. I was amazed that she was able to find them so quickly and accurately!!





Here are a few of the animals we saw on the safari drive:









After we finished driving through the safari, we headed to the petting zoo and giraffe feeding station which was included in the $12.00 adult admission price. Here, we saw much more exotic animals...just not as close as the ones on the drive.



















When we finally decided to head home, the girls were just great at keeping themselves occupied and entertained. They had a few Hershey kisses and used the wrappers to give themselves some 'grillz'. The girls say, "Peace out, Dog!"