One morning recently, Eric took the camera and got some shots of Bay and Leah with the dog. Elsa loves to go for rides in the car. Anytime she is outside and the car trunk is opened for some reason, she hops right up as if to say, "Okay, I'm ready, let's go!"
I think the little ones went out to get some toys they had left in the car and Elsa followed them out there. The silliness caught on camera is great, and even more fun for me to see because I wasn't out there at all to see this taking place.

I guess the lousy Redskins game was too boring for Eric to stay awake for!

County Fair

We just got back from our county fair. Our little Leah came home with the big prize...Junior Champion on her painting of an alligator! I think it is totally cool that she won this prize...she just told me today, "Mom, you know what I really love? Doing drawing and coloring the best." Well, I guess it shows because she gets plenty of practice. If she is not doing her schoolwork, she is ALWAYS drawing or coloring something.
Look at those happy faces! Actually they really were very happy, I just told them they didn't have to smile for my picture if they didn't want to, so Eric took full advantage of the opportunity to give me a too cool for the camera look.

Eric won 1st on some beaded jewelry he made me for Christmas this year.

Dennis won 2nd on a pool que rack he made for my parents.

Eric entered lots of items...a total of 9 I think. Here is his 2nd place on his lion cubs.

Leah drew a picture of Luke, our cat and won 1st on that also. I'll have to scan it and load a better picture of it...it is actually quite impressive. She has butterflies and bees buzzing all around that you can't see from this angle.

One of Eric's watercolor birds.

One of Leah's potholders made on her Klutz potholder loom

A pajama set I made for Leah

And Bay's bathrobe...he actually only entered one item (a lego model he built). I felt badly that he did not have more things to enter (Bay is not a very crafty little boy in the way of scissors and paper and crayons, but actually very crafty when it comes to being clever :)) So he will get the prize I won for his robe...poor guy will wake up cold the next few mornings and will be missing it anyways!

As usual, the county fair is always so much fun...especially when we get to see on display the things that we have crafted with our own hands. I didn't show you everything we entered, but there was much more: canned goods, sunflower heads, more artwork, Lego models, stuffed animal collections, etc.

But even more than seeing all of our items is to see how valuable the craft of making things by hand is still alive and well...there were so many familiar names on those hang tags...things sewn by young people we know, and older people still practicing their craft and proud to show it. We love to walk around and say hello to the folks from the county we know from so many different venues all together at the one place.

Ohiopyle Camping Trip

We've been back now from our annual trip to Ohiopyle PA for a while now, but I am just getting to posting about it. We came back and dove right into school and routine and laundry...needless to say our 10 day trip was fabulous!
We did lots of bike riding as usual on the Great Allegheny Passage. We completed two new sections this trip...our trip from Meyersdale to Frostburg took us over the Eastern Continental Divide (dividing line for whether streams/rivers on the east coast flow into the Atlantic or the Gulf), over the Mason Dixon Line, and through 2 tunnels, and a gorgeous panoramic view of the mountains.


Lots of old train bridges repurposed for us bicyclists.

A beautiful picnic spot along the river...

We had a different camping trip this year than in year's past. We had some friends camp with us, and here Leah is playing with their 2 year old, Sam. Also, for the first weekend, Heather's parents camped with us, as well as her brother and his girlfriend. We celebrated Dennis' birthday over the weekend and it was fun to have all of those people around to celebrate with him!

In the town of Ohiopyle they had a festival over Labor Day weekend. It is the only time of year that they allow kayakers to go over the big falls. We got to see lots of kayakers make it over, and to our knowledge they all made it safely! Along with the many booths and vendors set up, they had pony rides. Guess who wanted to go for a ride?

Patient anticipation...

Back on the trail...Dennis with Leah on the tag-a-long bike, and John with Sam in the bike seat. Though we bike many many miles (this time over 3 days a total of 54 miles) the kids have a great time. We bring lots of snacks...this time someone had the brilliant idea to put the trail mix and cracklin' oat bran (or dog food as my kids called it) in the nalgene bottles for easy dispensing!

To pass the time when the scenery was a little boring, Bay made up a game we affectionately dubbed "Name your poison". Essentially he would think up two different scenarios and we'd have to choose which one we would rather take. Here's an example:
Bay: Would you rather be eaten by bears or fall of this steep cliff into the rapids?

Heather: Definitely fall off the steep cliff

Bay: Would you rather roll around in poison ivy for 3 hours or get attacked by the bees in that hornet nest?

Heather: I think I'll choose the poison ivy

We played this game for hours...with Leah occasionally piping in her own "Would you Rather..."

Leah: Would you rather be a purple unicorn or a blue teddy bear?

We got some good laughs out of their wit :)

The first day we were up in PA, we drove down (the whole big crew) to Cumberland with our bikes and got on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. This steam train took us and our bikes up the mountain to Frostburg (it took about an hour). We got off and then rode our bikes back to Cumberland along the trail (which ran alongside the train tracks). It was an easy ride (all downhill) but a fun way to introduce Heather's parents to the riding that we do when we go up there every year. Of course the kids loved the train ride....

Here is Mountain Thunder (engine 734) pulling into the station in Cumberland. Bay (with Granni) loved it...until the smoke and steam engulfed us waiting on the platform!

Bikes all loaded on the back of the car. Poor Dennis loaded and unloaded these bikes so many times! I think he developed it into an artform!

Everyone at the train station