Back to School and Back to Texas!

 Summer break ended and StoneBridge invited the students to back-to-school events. 

Emma loved reuniting with her best friends, Diana (left) and Remy (right) at the middle school kick off party.

Hallie met her teacher, Mrs. Damron at her back-to-school day. It looks like Hallie is adult-sized in this photo, but Mrs. Damron is less than 5 feet tall.

Emma started 7th grade this year.

Hallie started 4th grade

And Dan went back to middle school to teach Pre-Algebra and Algebra classes, as well as a Senior-level Personal Finance class.

About a week after school started, Dan developed an infected spot on his chin that increased to the size of a dime. He tried all kinds of over-the-counter treatments before he gave in and went to the doctor, who prescribed a double dose of oral and topical antibiotics. I'll spare you from seeing a picture, but he had to cover his chin with a Band-Aid every day until it healed, or his students wouldn't have heard a word he said in class! 

Speaking of antibiotics, the girls and I have a "Mommy and Me Day" at the end of every summer.  We planned it the Saturday before class started, but unfortunately both girls didn't feel great by that weekend. Hallie came down with a nasty cold and Emma had a painful UTI.  We started the morning with a scavenger hunt around the house for surprises, but ended up going to urgent care in the afternoon to get Emma started on antibiotics because she was so miserable.  

One of the day's treasures was a Magic Water Elf kit, which contains animal shaped molds that you pour magical goo into. When you place the molds into water, the goo solidifies so you can play with your animal squishy toys.

The girls each received dragon wall decals to decorate their bedroom with. It now looks like they're under attack while they're sleeping.

They also received a make-your-own chocolate frog kit, based on the Harry Potter candy.

The frogs looked perfect, and they came with little boxes and collectible cards, just like in the movies.

Who knew frogs could be so delicious!

The next day when Emma was feeling a little better, we had Part 2 of our "Mommy and Me" day. We shopped for toys at Barnes & Noble and had treats at Dunkin Donuts.

Emma and Hallie both love the Wings of Fire books (hence the dragon-themed bedroom).

They each chose Wings of Fire plush dragons.

We got to host our nephew, Nathan's, birthday celebration at our house. We normally congregate in Williamsburg where the rest of the family lives, but Nathan attends Regent University, which is just around the corner from us.

We took our long-awaited annual trip to Texas over Labor Day weekend for my mom's family reunion. My parents, Emma, Hallie, and I flew there on Friday. Dan isn't allowed to take the school day off before a holiday weekend, so he joined us in Texas the following day.

Hallie chose this shifty-eyed racoon cake pop for her airport treat.  Our 3-day weekend at my uncle and aunt's ranch house was packed with family, food, and fun, as always! 

Emma practiced her driving skills on the ranch house golf cart. She's a great driver ... except for that time she hit the side of the barn ... and the back of a parked car ... and bounced Hallie right out of the cart onto the driveway.  It's all a part of learning, right?

While the kids are out playing (and possibly injuring themselves), the adults are serious about keeping card games going all day.

This beautiful baby who is obsessing over Hallie's hair is our new baby cousin, Claire. She's the sweetest little thing at the ranch!

The sassiest little thing at the ranch is 5-year-old Shiloh, who was Hallie's biggest admirer all weekend.

They did lots of fishing for lake plants

Emma was a little more patient, but the fish just weren't biting for us. 

The kids grabbed flashlights and spent hours frog hunting one evening. Hallie would only touch the tiny, cute ones.

Emma had no qualms about holding onto this big guy, even after he peed all over the place when she caught him. 

More Baby Claire play time

More card games

More golf cart practice. Hallie's a more cautious driver than Emma, at least this year.

Long chats on the porch

Emma rebuilt the bone pile in the woods. 

And introduced us to Jeffrey (*shudder*)

More baby Claire time

The four girl cousins, Sadie, Emma, Hallie, and Shiloh, loved exploring together around the acres of ranch land. 

It was such a fun weekend, and we love spending time with our Texas family every year!

More Summer Fun

 Well, July didn't start out very fun since we had very heavy rains that revealed that our roof was still leaking above our master bedroom.

The roof repair guy who visited a couple of months ago came back and replaced a large section of plywood and shingles.

Since then, it's been good through multiple rainstorms! Several professionals have told us that we don't need a new roof yet, but there must've been some damage to that area in the past.  We used to have an enormous oak tree standing right next to that corner of our home, which we got rid of almost as soon as we bought the house.  Before we did that, it probably dropped branches on that part of the roof during every storm.

Dan and the girls have been having their best summer ever. Since Dan's a teacher now, he had the entire summer off, which means that Emma and Hallie didn't have to go to camp - for the first time in their lives!  They now understand how "the other half" lives, and I don't think they'll ever want to go back! The only thing that's tainted their break is that he's made them practice their math skills over the summertime. As an Algebra teacher, he's not going to allow them to forget everything like all those other kids! Haha!

Dan's spent almost every morning working on our deck. He can be outside for an hour or two before the heat is too intense. He's been running a window A/C unit in the garage so he can continue to cut and paint the boards.

He sends me photos of the section he finished each day so I can be proud of him. And I am!

The only acceptable places to be during this hot summer have been in a swimming pool or indoors. Dan's taken every opportunity to swim with the girls at my parents' nearby pool, or at his parents' pool in Williamsburg when their cousins are there.

He took them to our local Cat Cafe one day, where they had a good time trying to get the mostly adult cats to play with them. 

They visited their favorite farm another day, where they got to hold and pet some tiny baby goats!

They also got to cuddle baby bunnies.

AND the farm had a kitten room! They were so sweet and cuddly!

They named this one "Mustachio"

Our local park in Chesapeake, VA always has fireworks on July 3rd. Dan's found the perfect nearby parking lot to view the fireworks that allows us to make a quick getaway after they're over.  The girls love to sit on top of our van to get the best view.

On the 4th of July, we normally go to Dan's parents' house to swim and hang out with the family.

Our brother-in-law, Rob's, birthday was the week before, so we celebrated him on Independence Day.

The kids played with pop it firecrackers on the street.

The following weekend, we got back together to celebrate the other May, June, and July birthdays!

Dan had to go back to school for training, and the school year was fast approaching. We wanted to take one last quick family vacation before the summer ended, and we decided last-minute to visit Charlottesville and Massanutten, VA.

We drove to Monticello, the home of President Thomas Jefferson. He gets no respect.

We had pretty weather when we arrived, but we could see that a storm was on its way.

The girls enjoyed the view, even as it began to sprinkle.

Once the storm began, the tour guides ushered us into the cellars of the house, since the weather can be unpredictable and dangerous on top of the hill. We had a guided tour through the house, which had a lot of interesting features, due to Jefferson's fascination with scientific gadgets.

We admired the pretty architecture on the back side of Monticello.

There was a small museum, and a separate building with kid-friendly hands-on exhibits. This device allowed kids to stamp their own copy of the Declaration of Independence.

They had bins of sand that contained artifacts for kids to find and identify.

And there was a building block table where you could build your own elaborate house.

Instead of a hotel, we rented a townhouse for 3 nights at Massanutten Resort, which was amazing for several reasons.  It had 2 bedrooms and a loft upstairs, so the girls got to have their own rooms and not share space. The living room and kitchen were large and comfortable, so we opted to bring food "home" for dinner each night since it was a relaxing environment. It also had one of the largest jacuzzi tubs I've seen. Hallie made sure she got her jacuzzi bath every single night!

The other amazing feature of the townhouse area was the multiple herds of deer that lived there! They were so used to people being near them that they'd allow you to feed them and even pet them sometimes. 

This was Dan's and my view from our balcony of the girls interacting with a deer. She came super close to them to see if they had any good food!

The herds would walk right across the street, whether there were cars coming or not.

We had apple slices to feed them, and some were VERY bold!

On our second day, we drove an hour to visit Luray Caverns.

This was near the entrance. It looks like Emma and Hallie are surrounded by terrifying monsters!

We were impressed by Luray! It was enormous, and had so many different formations everywhere you looked. The walking path was paved and well-maintained, and we had a brochure that gave information about some of the most famous formations.

Our favorite spot was this mirror lake area in the caverns. 

The water was so still, you could see the reflection of the entire ceiling above the lake.

We weren't supposed to touch the formations, but sometimes they were right in the middle of the walking path and were hard to resist!

These formations were called "veils".

It didn't happen very often, but every now and then, Dan would have to duck so he didn't bang his head on overhanging stalactites.

We kept telling the girls that the world's biggest organ was inside the caverns. The entire time, Hallie thought we were saying that there was a giant human body organ (a huge kidney or lung or something), and she was so creeped out. She was relieved when we finally arrived and she saw it. 

Those round shapes looked just like fried eggs!  

We had heard that Luray can be very crowded, and there were a lot of people there that day. But we happened to be in between tour groups when we entered, so we hardly had anyone near us on our self-guided tour.

There was a small toy museum beside the caverns that had this funny mirror that gave Emma very long arms. 

And it gave Hallie enormous hands!

On our drive to/from Luray, we passed this restaurant and museum dedicated to the Dukes of Hazzard.  

On our third day, we visited Massanutten water park which was half indoors and half outdoors.  We did all the outdoor slides first since it looked like it might rain, and then we checked out all the indoor activities.  

Before we checked out of our hotel, the girls bid a sweet farewell to their new best friends. This mother had a brand-new baby fawn. 

She had no problem with the nice, small humans petting her baby, since they were also feeding her sweet, juicy apples!

We checked out of the townhouse, and headed to Massanutten Family Adventure Park for a little more fun before we headed home. 

The girls chose three activities they wanted to do. The first was mining for gems. 

They got a bag filled with dirt, which they poured into sifters and swished in the water. 

They each ended up with a bag of pretty stones and gems!

The second activity of the day was the zipline. 

We rode up the hill on a conveyor belt

I wasn't able to take a video of the zipline, but it was super fast and fun!  After our ride, we had to step off the landing platform and rappel down about 30 feet to the ground. 

Dan coming down

Both Emma and Hallie said that this was their favorite part!  I was so scared to walk off the side of that ledge!

Our last activity was riding down the tubing hill.  We rode once individually, but the second time, Hallie wanted Dan and I to form a chain with her, which I thought was more fun. The view was gorgeous, too!

It was a great place to celebrate the end of the summer, and we're thankful for the laid-back months that Dan and the girls have had!