Pinch me please!

Lincoln came home on Sunday! I keep pinching him (not me) to make sure he is really here! We are all very happy to have him home.

We have such wonderful neighbors. They made signs, put up yellow ribbons, crepe paper and American flags to welcome him home. At the airport . . .
Airport . . . .

Home at last!

McKay's last Meet

McKay has been swimming for the last four years in a swim team. This year he is in the bottom portion of his age bracket. He is just barely 13 and swam in the 13-14 bracket. Every year that you swim in the bottom of your bracket is pretty challenging. For McKay it was extra hard because he still has the body of a 9 or 10 year old. Hopefully he will grow for next year!!! He still did well though. His last meet was the "divisionals" and you have to qualify to even swim in the meet. He swam 3 strokes, the free, the backstroke, and the IM, which is all four strokes.

McKay turned over a few new leaves the last two meets. He said he would "NEVER" wear a swim cap. . . . . I told him he either needed to wear a cap or cut his hair to swim faster. Guess which one he chose, and really he chose on his own, because I was just teasing him when I mentioned the hair cut or cap! I didn't even recognize him, the first time he swam with a cap!

Another new thing for McKay was to use "legs" during his swim. There was no way he was holding on to someone elses hairy legs! He must have decided that if he could wear a cap to shave off time, he could hold on to someones hairy legs. I was SHOCKED! to say the least.

GOOD JOB MCKAY . . . . . and I'm glad the season is over :)

McKay's IM

Here is McKay swimming his IM. McKay got 4th in backstroke, 5th in his IM, 6th in Free (he hadn't swam free since the beginning of the season). Swimming in divisionals is something you have to earn. He swims better than I ever dreamed of swimming.

An interesting sight and sound . . . .

In Luray Caverns they have hooked up an organ to different stalactites or stalagmites (whatever they are!). Some guy went around with a rubber mallet and a tuning fork and found all of the notes they needed to make it work. I bought an hour long CD of the music . . . . it is very soothing! I wish I would have thought of making a recording myself. People were talking so loudly that I wanted to SHHHH them though . . . . Wish I would have brought some music along with me . . . . yeah right, like they'd let me play the organ;)

Luray Caverns

Today we took a trip to Luray Virginia to see the Caverns. McKay hadn't been there since he was 3 or 4 years old and I knew he couldn't remember it. We have to redo things for him because he was so young when we did stuff with the older kids. McKay mumbled and grumbled the whole 2 1/2 hour drive over there, but was happy in the end that we went. Luray Caverns is pretty fabulous!


Here are more pictures than you want to see of the Caverns!!

There is a garden maze on the Cavern property . . . .

There were 4 stations that we needed to find to complete the maze.

In the middle of the maze or labyrinth as Paul called it.

We made it! And didn't even get frustrated.

And what was waiting for us in the parking lot? Yes, a flat tire. I could have changed that darned thing all by myself, except the lug-nuts were so tight I needed to play the helpless female and go get a member from the larger, more stronger sex . . . . . a good Samaritan helped us out!McKay hefted the tire out of the trunk for me. Thank goodness it was a full-sized tire and not a donut. After we got home I took the flat into the shop, and it is unfixable. Thank goodness I bought the hazard insurance and will get a new tire for free. . . . . . (although I have to get two more besides that one. . . . I had a sneaky suspicion that my front two were getting near the end of their use.)
These day trips are really a fun way to spend the summer.

May I have a few minutes of your time?

My friend LeeAnn posted this link on her blog. After listening to President Obama's speech last night on TV I feel this video clip is very timely. Ronald Reagan gave this speech back in 1961. The video is long . . . . 10 minutes, but I think you'll agree that it is amazing how much the issues are the same. It is a scary time in the United States at this moment. We have "spin" wizards in office, and make evil seem good and good seem evil. Is evil too strong a word???? Hmmmmmmm

Why haven't I ever seen this commercial?

I didn't have a single thing with me with the Coleman logo . . . . I guess I didn't really go camping . . . . but did do some social networking!!!

A camping we will go . . . .

We have some good friends from Utah that are traveling through the area with their RV. They contacted us so that we would know where and when they were coming through the DC area. I thought it would be fun to just pack up, rent a cabin and spend the night in the campground with them. At first I was just going to "tent" it, but a cabin seemed a much better way to go. This one had air-conditioning and electricity and beds. . . . definitely the way to go!

Here is Paul and McKay trying to figure out how to play "Lord of the Rings, Risk." It was a little too involved to figure out, but a good exercise in communicating for the two of them. If you haven't been in one of these cabins before, they are pretty nice as far as camping goes. A double bed and a set of twin bunk beds . . . .

Larry and Linda weren't going to arrive for a few hours and so we took advantage of the activities in the campground. Here we are playing Ping Pong. I even got in the action and we played "round robin" Ping Pong where you hit the ball once and run around to the other side to hit it, whooooo, I'm out of shape!

There was a large lawn chess set that we played.

Paul made short work of McKay . . . . .

And then a took a little longer for him to beat me! I thought I had him for a little while. McKay was not happy with how long the game lasted . . . . but it made waiting easier . . . . and much faster for me.

We almost set fire to this turtle that was in our fire pit! Turtle soup anyone?

Larry and McKay starting a fire for our dessert . . . . S'mores!

Is this my soon to be Eagle Scout? LOL!

The score for S'mores - - - Americans (4) - - - - the French (0). Paul did not like them, but did enjoy the roasted marshmallows.

This morning I dusted off our old dutch oven and made breakfast over hot coals. We had sausage and egg burritos. It made me feel good to know that I can still cook over a campfire. You know, when you see pictures of scout camp they are eating off of yucky looking tables, and when you look at pictures of girl's camp, there is a lovely tablecloth on the table? We were definitely a "scout camp" today!!! I forgot to bring so many things. Lincoln usually does the packing, leaving me to think about tablecloths! and salt, and pepper and ketchup and paper towels and so on and so on. . . . . . .

Supplementaire amusements

Excuse my poor excuse for French. I don't have the proper keyboard for it, or the proper education either!!! Here is what we've been up to the last few days:

Paul can mark this off his list now . . . . Hard Rock Cafe, Washington DC!

We hopped on the Metro for this . . . . .

then hopped on it again for the Air and Space Museum. Paul was quick to point out the French Flag on the back of this airplane. There were some planes manufactured by Airbus in the museum also. The place where Paul lives . . . Toulouse. . . . has a manufacturing plant for Airbus.

This museum is a favorite of my boys!

And then we were off to see a baseball game. Paul's first! I can't believe that I have never been to a game with the minor league stadium so near us. Note: McKay says he's been before but it must have been with his dad . . . . .because I DON'T remember!

We were handed bags and a set of "clappers" as we went into the stadium. They sure know how to entertain a crowd at these games. Baseball isn't exciting enough to hold your attention without it! (expressly my opinion, however)

What is this excuse for a mascot? Is this supposed to be a blue crab?

The game was very exciting, (did I just say it was boring and then exciting, in the next sentence? I think I did!!!) we were two runs behind in the bottom of the 9th inning, and there were two outs. We got two runs and went into a 10th inning to win the game!!

One of the guys broke a bat when he got a hit . . . . I thought that was fun to see!

Some baseball action:

And fireworks at the end. Paul said "this must be an important match." Ahhh noooo . . . . . we Americans just really like to make a bunch of Hooplah out of nothing. Really when you think about it . . . . . fireworks at all the weekend games? It is pretty ridiculous. They'd probably have them at all the games if it weren't so dang noisy. We can hear them at our house, with all the windows and doors shut! Usually at 10:00 p.m. or later. How annoying . . . .unless you are there to see them!

We all had a great time, and it is REALLY inexpensive to go to a game.

I had no idea . . . . . .

Excusez-moi (excuse me) but I forgot to mention, the main reason we went to DC again was to see my son Justin in concert at the Washington Monument . . . . . it was cancelled for rain . . . . AGAIN! I really was looking forward to this one. On Lincoln and my first trip to DC, we were at the Washington Monument and heard a band tuning up behind us. We sat down and had the treat of listening to them and then turned around after the concert to see all the monuments lit up! I was hoping for a repeat of that experience, never dreaming that I would have a child playing in the band. It was a nice dream! Rain, Rain GO AWAY! (though we really could use rain!)

King's Dominion

Since Paul has been here I've kept a calendar on the wall with our activities and the times we are doing them. I explained to him what King's Dominion was at our initial calendaring session but I didn't realize he had forgotten what King's Dominion was until we turned the corner into the parking lot! He got really excited and said "I thought we were going to a monument." Oh Boy! My communication skills need some improving, in which a lot of you will agree heartily. We had a few bumps in the day, it started off rough for me, but things smoothed out as the day progressed. We left one child at home . . . . had to buy swim trunks at the park . . . . I didn't get to swim . . . but all in all, the best part of days like this is seeing smiles on the kids faces.

It was kind of funny at the bumper cars. You see the yellow arrow on the wall? Paul took off going in the wrong direction and the announcer, over and over kept saying "follow the yellow arrows on the wall." Paul didn't understand and happily kept going against the yellow arrows. . . . how are you suppossed to "bump" into other cars when you are all going in the same direction?

Summertime . . . . . and the living is easy . . . .

I feel like I'm on vacation. Today McKay asked when we were leaving on vacation, and I almost said . . . . we are on vacation. You don't need to go away from home to have a vacation, just live like you are already on one! Here are our activities for the last couple of days.

McKay is really enjoying having a companion to do things with.

Paul and he have played several games of Stratego.

We got together with some of the other French Students to play miniature golf.

McKay
Paul
Lily Pads . . . . I just like the picture!
At Mount Vernon . . . Paul shaking George Washington's hand.

In front of George Washington's Mansion . . . Mount Vernon.

There are not very many pictures of me . . . . so here you go!

McKay in front of a HUGE tree!

The back side of the house.

Why are back sides of houses prettier than the front sides?

The White House is like this also . . . .

although when you ask about the White House they say there is no back and no front.

For Mount Vernon, a lot of their guests arrived by river transportation,

and so it may have been their first view of the house from the river.
The tomb of George and Martha Washington.

There lies George Washington . . . .

Tomorrow . . . . . King's Dominion!