Today we decided to get out of the house and go somewhere other than a shopping mall. We decided to go on a hike in the Shenandoah park. Not quite fall color season yet so traffic wasn't too bad. I selected a trail that I thought was doable for everyone - 2.1 miles roundtrip to the Hawksbill Summit (just over 4,000 ft). It was a rise of 520 ft over the course of the trail. I wish we would have had some cheese for the hike because there was certainly enough wine (whine). Was definitely worth it when we reached the summit though. The kids really enjoyed it! Even saw a couple of deer on the hike that allowed us to get within about 10 ft of them. I'm sure if we had corn they would have ate from our hand! Lots of great hikes up there both uphill and down with waterfalls and such. Will have to return soon!

Back from Vacation!

Okay, it's been a while since I updated this. We returned from vacation last weekend and had an AWESOME time! Who can't love Vegas, Disneyland, and the Grand Canyon. This was definitely a Walters-type trip - cover as much land and attractions as possible in the smallest amount of time!! Thanks sooooo much to Grandmother Walters for the trip - we loved it! Vegas is exciting - lots of lights, slots and strange people. After that we travelled to Anaheim to Disneyland. Much more compact then Disney World but many of the same rides. All the kids and the big kid loved it! There's something to be said for taking your children on Space Mountain for the first time! After that it was off to the Grand Canyon. Thought this might be a little anti-climatic for the kids but it was amazing! Took the train from Williams, AZ up to the Canyon. Hard to believe the ground just opens up into this huge canyon. Gorgeous and breathtaking at the same time.

So now it's back to reality - work and summer for the kids. Sammy is in day camp for 4 weeks and the boys are on the sleep late, watch TV schedule which doesn't appear to be boring them at all!!

Riding Lessons

Yesterday was riding lessons. You know the mastercard commercial, $45 riding boots, $300 saddle, seeing your daughter jump her pony without falling off - priceless. It's true. Little Miss Bravery has been jumping for the past month and loves it. Scares me a little but her pony is not a high jumper so I'm not too concerned. He apparently is fast in the field but you'd never know it in the ring! I got a few pics yesterday but it's hard to see the actual jump. Anyways, her is Sammy and one of her fav ponies - RockStar Stewie.

It's Saturday!

After a very long week, it is finally the weekend!!!!!! We cleaned house this morning. Brings back memories of being a kid when Saturday morning was cleaning time. The kids complained somewhat but at least our house looked liveable within a couple of hours. Sammy and I drove to Madison this afternoon to the Plow and Hearth outlet store. Lots of cool stuff - just not enough hands to carry it all! After that we went to the Amish store - Yoder's. They have the ultimate chocolate cookies. You'd think after all these years cookies would taste about the same. This was outstanding - soft, chocolately and divine. Definitely worthy of a trip back. Lots of great baking things as well. Tomorrow we plan on going to see Shrek the Third.

Sammy completed the Great Train Race a couple of weeks ago. If you want to see her pics you can go to www.triduo.com and click on the Great Train race. If you put in her number - 109, you'll see a few pics of her. The girl beside her is Mallory - her best friend!

Okay, time to hit the craft room. Lots of projects to finish!

Mother's Day

I just found this whole blog thing and decided to give it a try. Just one more thing to spend time doing on the computer! Since Greg had duty today, we spent the day hanging out mostly. Got a bunch of the flowers planted including the forsythia bushes. They about killed my back trying to plant them since our ground is like cement. They had better grow and produce lots of yellow flowers next spring. My helpers decided they'd rather spend the afternoon watching the Cars movie so it actually gave me some peace and quiet outside.

Got a few more of the swaps I've signed up for competed. Did 28 tags for a red, white and blue swap, 8 scrapbook pages and planned a few other projects. What was I thinking about a month or so ago when I signed up for 25 + swaps. Of course, I have 3-4 boxes of beautiful handmade cards and a few albums of scrapbooked recipes and yet I still had to send computer greetings for Mother's Day. The picture is a card I made for a swap last week. The stamps are Bellas from a company in Canada. Very poular these days!

Alright, need to get the kids organized. The Survivor finale is on in 45 min and I refuse to miss it. Think I'll do the 2 weeks worth of paperwork I still have floating around the back seat of my car!