Douthat State Park

 

Usually we go to the beach for vacation each summer.  But this year we decided to do a week long camping trip at Douthat State Park (located near Lexington VA).  We wanted to be near water so we reserved a spot by the lake.  This is the view from our campsite.

 

We were tucked back in the corner of the campground so that we had some privacy, but was still close to the water.  The majority of the day our site was shaded, making it very pleasant all week long.

 

It was pleasant enough that our children that never nap actually relaxed enough to take a little snoozer.

 

 

There were hiking trails all around the park.  This is a shot of our running path as we took a jog around the lake.  I could get used to views like that!!!

 



Little Catcher

Travis has learned this season of baseball, that he really enjoys catching.  And he's not too bad for a 7-year old!

 

Despite this ball getting by him, he caught most of them the inning that he was behind the plate.

 

I won't lie, I think it would be AWESOME if he became a catcher.  I told him that if he wanted to get better that I'd do drills with him and help him with posture and the plays that he's responsible for.  This could be a lot of fun!!!!!

Light Post on Fire

Here's a way to close out Memorial Day!

 

We'd been over at the neighbors talking until about 8:30pm.  We told the kids to go in and shower to get ready for school tomorrow.  Sydney & Travis said their goodbyes and then headed in.  I went upstairs to fold clothes and kept smelling something burning.  I thought the other neighbors had made a fire in the fire pit so I didn't think anything of it --- until Ashley came over beating on the door.  Jake ran out to see what was up and that's when we all saw it.  The lamp post was on fire!

 

Thankfully Christie and Bryan (some of the neighbors in the culdesac) have dogs that were going bonkers.  Sydney heard the barking and looked out the window to see flames and smoke.  Then the adults got in on it.

 

We called the fire department, and the electric company.  We were a little disappointed because the fire truck didn't have its lights and sirens blazing, but they did give us a little honk (that scared the heck out of us) on their way out.

 

See the sparks spilling onto the ground? 

And that's no light bulb shining out of the light - that's flames!

 

The firemen said that our little episode was the most action they'd seen all day - aside from the cornhole competition they were having earlier at the station!

Memorial Day Camping

We had a last-minute campout over the holiday weekend.  We kept the boys out of school on Friday and Jake and Frank took them up to Elizabeth Furnace in the National Forest to set up camp.  Good thing they got there before 8am because nearly every site was taken.

 

They spent the day fishing while Amber and I took care of things at home and headed up later in the evening.  The guys called around noon to tell us that they lock the gate to the campground at 9pm and that we needed to get there before then.  **Problem!**  I had a Girls Camp YCL meeting until 8:30 and it took at least 25 minutes to get to camp.  Eek!

 

So Amber and I threw the food and our other stuff in the back of the truck with the canoe and kayak and took off.  (We looked like the Clampitts going on vacation or something!)  All along we prayed that we'd get there on time.  Apparently Frank was praying too.  We got there at 9:10pm, but the campground host had to let the deputy sheriff out and allowed us in.  Thank goodness for answered prayers!

 

So after days of fishing, the guys only caught 1 fish to really shake a stick at.  But it was a good teaching tool for the boys.

 

 

Amber cooked the fish after we had dinner.  We all had a small piece, and it was delicious!  I'm glad to know that we could survive as long as we could catch our food!!! :)

 

 

Now when you burn a fire all day and into the night, you use a lot of firewood.  I took 2 bins full of wood with us when we went up, but we blew through that pretty quickly.  We even bought a couple of bundles from the 7-11 in town, but still ran out.  So the boys found a log and decided to cut it up for our last night.

Here's Frank splitting a piece with Travis beside him cutting his own kindling.

 

Jake took a few whacks at the log.

And Brad spent a bit of time hacking away.

 

 

 

I must say that when we camp, we eat pretty well. 

Jake cut up the watermelon that we ate with dinner the last night.

 

 

The biggest damper on the weekend was when Wyatt woke up on Sunday morning with poison ivy ALL OVER his face.  I took him to Urgent Care and got him on some meds.  Unfortunately he seems to have a reaction just from saying, "Poison Ivy."

 

Apple Blossom 10K

After seeing people post about running races, I decided I needed to get back into the game and start training.  I was a little late to start training for the 10K, but decided to do it anyway.  I didn't worry about training to be fast, I just wanted to finish in the time limit.  So I registered for the 10K - my first official race!!! 

 

After talking to a mom whose son plays baseball and runs track with Brad, we decided to enter the boys too.  And they had strict instruction from all parents to take it slow and go at a conversation pace.  But I think we all knew that was a shot in the dark and that their competitive drive would kick in.

 

 Here we are BEFORE the race. 

Brad's other track buddy brought them all headbands.  It's for a running team he's in.

 

 Here are Brad and Ethan "jogging" - NOT!  They did really well and got good times.

Brad finished 11th in his age group and 268th overall.  (There were 1471 total runners.)  His time was 49:06, which is a 7:54 pace.  His friend Ethan finished a few seconds before.

 

I started at the very back.  I knew I had a slower pace and figured I could always move up through the race.  I had 1 earbud in and just went to my own groove.  After we hit mile marker 2, I felt good and was enjoying my time.  That was when I realized why people love to run races.  There are tons of people around, both runners and spectators.  I was amazed at how many people come out just to cheer on the runners!  I didn't think much about myself because I was watching others.  It made it a little easier to run.

 

For the first 1/2 I just ran by myself.  I was ahead of my training pace too, by 30 seconds.  I kept doing a mental check of my body and breathing to be sure I wasn't going too fast.  At one point on the course you have runners still running out, and on the other side of the street were those that were bringing it in to the finish.  A gal next to me said, "Don't look over there!  We can do this!"  That was the beginning of our race friendship!  It was both of our first race.  Her pace was awesome (a minute faster than my training pace) and she helped to motivate me for the last leg.  She's in the picture with me below.  Funny that her name is Kim.  I made me think of my Kim and that if she still lived here that we might be able to still run together.

Us after the race!

 

So here's my stats:

I finished 74th in my age group and 1084th overall.  I finished in 1.06:09.  That's a 10:30 pace!!!!!  My goal going into it all was to finish before 90 minutes because that was the limit.  I exceeded that and hope to improve from here on out.

The Cole Brothers Circus

So let me preface this by saying the last time I went to a circus was when I was 5.  I don't remember anything about it either.  But in my mind when I thought of a circus I pictured poor elephants chained up, a mangy tiger that had no fierceness anymore, clowns that aren't so happy, etc, etc.  So when the Pearsons asked if we wanted to go to the circus with them I wasn't too excited and really wasn't sure what to expect.

 

After locating discount tickets and putting on warmer clothes, we headed to the fair grounds where they had the circus tent.  We bought our extremely expensive tickets and got in line for a funnel cake to tide us over until we could eat dinner afterward.  We didn't have to wait too long to enter the tent.

 

When we got inside we sat in the general admission seats (which weren't the best!)  After sitting for a little while Frank got up and came back telling us we got better seats.  He had paid for us to get an upgrade.  So we sat front and center!  It was much better.

 

There was a ring leader and cheesy clowns, but it really got good when they pulled out the tigers!!!

 

 

The tigers were gorgeous!  They had 6 white tigers and 1 bengal.  They were fierce and growled, but did everything the lady asked them to do.  It was awesome!  They looked like big kitties that would have been fun to cuddle up with - if they wouldn't rip you apart!!!

 

 

There were acrobats (which were my favorite), dog's performing, motorcycles in a cage (which was scary thinking they would crash) and elephants!!!

 The elephants were quite fantastic.  There were 4 of them.  The baby was the cutest!  There was one part where the 2 smallest started around the circle and then started to "skip" to the music.  It was so cute.  They were a lot of fun and had a lot of personality.

 

So overall, the circus performances lasted 90 minutes.  And it was worth the money that we paid to get in.  I don't know that we'll ever do it again, but I'm glad we went. 

Fire Trucks and Emergency Vehicles

Friday night is the Firemen's Parade.  But before they all line up to drive the streets of Winchester, they meet at Millbrook High School.  During the day people can check out the restored vehicles and get inside some of the newer ones.  They even have an "obstacle course" competition for drivers.

 

I took the boys and our neighbor Sydney to check things out.

 

 Brad and Wyatt really liked this ambulance.  There were uniforms and other equiment in the back that you could see through the windows.  It was pretty cool.

 

 The kids in front of one of the old but restored trucks.

 

 A man asked the kids if they wanted to get inside this ambulance.  Of course they jumped at the opportunity.  He shared that his buddy owns this ambulance and is working to restore it.  He also taught us that at that time a company would buy a van and then spend time customizing the inside to serve their needs.  Who knew?  Now you buy an ambulance and it has everything in it already.

 

Another classic truck.