Fall Festival at Hartland Farm and Orchard

We had some friends visit this weekend, and we decided to head out towards Shenandoah for a fall festival at a farm.  It turns out I've had my eye on this place, since it is right off the interstate not far from Shenandoah - beautiful rolling hills with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the near distance.

The farm had a nice corn maze, which we wandered about.  Catherine managed to get her hands on a map, so I got to put my rusty map skills to the test.

There was an apple cannon (yup - we definitely fired it) where we got to shoot at some 55 gallon drums and a beater truck.  After that we wandered over to this bouncy thing, where the kids thought they were having a good time until I got on there.  That's when the real fun began!

After that we enjoyed some caramel apples and a pig race, and then drove up the road a bit to pick a bunch of apples.

It was a warm, sunny day - great way to send off summer and bring in fall.  Have a great day!

Marc

Last day of summer

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Today was the last day of summer for the kids.  We went to the local community garden to volunteer a bit of time, came home and played some pickle ball, then relaxed the rest of the day.  Not a bad way to send summer packing.

It has been a crazy summer - Leah's surgery, Ian's broken arm, visits to see family, family coming to visit, camps, and campouts - all in all, I'd say we had a blessed summer.  Here's hoping yours was blessed, too.

Tomorrow starts a new school year for the kids.  Leah is excited to ride her bike to school and see her friends, Ian is nervous about starting middle school - but both are ready for a great year.

Cheers,

Marc

Summer fun

I feel like I've been slacking on the blog, lately.  As some of you may know, I've been busy with grad school, but as of August 13th, I graduated with my MHA and MBA degrees from Baylor University.  It feels great to not have home work or a giant graduate management portfolio hanging over my head!

So while I have an excuse for limited postings these past couple of years, we'll see how things improve in the future.  For now, let's bring us all up to speed.

I broke out the big lights outside with the window prop for Leah's photo.  I had Ian to help hold a diffuser up to keep the dappled/direct sunlight off of Leah.  I think it turned out fairly well.  Leah is recovering very well from her surgery.  Her spleen is functioning normally, so she won't need antibiotic therapy until she is 18 years old - yay!!!  Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers - she is our walking answered prayers.

Same day, different lighting set up.  Leah held the diffuser for this one, but I did away with the window (Ian is too tall and made framing the shot difficult (I wish I knew more words that began with "diff-" to pack into my sentences...).  Ian had his cast removed a week or so ago - he is quite thrilled about that.  He continues to work on his Scouting stuff, he should make his Star rank sometime this month.

In very delayed news, Dad and Pam came for a visit and we got to play tour guide.  Fortunately, we only charge ice cream for our services.  The kids chose the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in downtown DC - I think we all had a ball!  The photo below is them standing in front of some video footage of our sun.

We made a trip to see Annapolis to check out the boats (whoa - loads of money there!) and walk around the downtown area.  While we were there we checked out the State Capitol building, and we ate at a great little restaurant that Catherine found.

In between a big tour of all of the Monuments and Memorials (Korean War, Lincoln, Vietnam, WWII, Washington, Jefferson) we also got to walk around old town in Alexandria.  We found a bunch of great restaurants that I think Catherine and I will try to hit for some date nights (I hope).

I hope everyone is well.  Cheers,

Marc

Ian's cast

I thought I'd follow up to Ian's cast.

He loves his camo...

Marc

Solo hike up Old Rag Mountain

I have been wanting some wilderness for a while, I finally got off my butt and made the effort.  I woke up pretty early to get to the Old Rag parking lot by 7 am.  Too bad my cell phone with google maps didn't have coverage, so I missed my turn, but still got there by about 7:30.

It is about 2 miles up, pretty much uphill the whole way, but nothing terribly steep or challenging, until you hit the rock scramble.  The photo below was taken on the doorstep of the rock scramble - or at least the difficult part.  It starts with what I call a slot chimney - about 10-15 feet down for a 20 foot distance.  You have to use arms and legs to make it down, and that is just the start!

There are rock "caves" and keystone rocks (a rock that fell and got wedged between two other rocks, without blocking the trail) to crawl over/through/under.  All in all, it was a very enjoyable hike, but I'm glad I didn't try to bring Catherine or the kids.  No way, we would have had to turn around - it was pretty dicey in places.

The reward for making it to the top is the remarkable view, seen above.  This is actually shot directly at the place where I made the photo immediately preceding this one (the wee little rock outcropping in the lower left).

I continued the loop hike on the way out, which was pretty unremarkable, except for the hordes of people.  I did manage to find this peaceful series of little waterfalls off the fire road, which made a nice break.

It was a short trip, but the sun was out and the wind was blowing.  It was just what the doctor ordered!

Cheers,

Marc

Whoopsie!

Wow, it's been quite some time since I've posted.  Lots has happened since May, but most recently (last night), Ian broke both of the bones in his left forearm while running around and playing at his Boy Scout meeting.  That took a bunch of fun out of it...

To make matters worse, Ian had just started a fencing camp in the area, which he was really enjoying - though he had only taken one day of lessons.  He wanted to show off his stance with the wooden sword we bought when we lived in Germany.

Needless to say, Ian isn't taking fencing lessons the rest of this week.  

Have a great day - enjoy the update!

Marc

Fun at the local playground

These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago at the local playground.

The kids enjoyed hanging upside down.

But what they really liked was me spinning them on the merry-go-round.

By now you've probably heard that Leah is having a surgery next week - what we thought was appendicitis turned out to be a pancreatic cyst.  Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.  I can't wait to get my little girl back to "normal"!

Cheers,

Marc